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Readers Gallery
From Fine Woodworking's Tools & Shops Issue #167
Jimmy Carter
“I like to work with green wood,” said Carter, “and on occasion use only tools that were available during Colonial times.” Since leaving the White House, the statesman turned avid woodworker has built about 150 pieces of furniture using many of his own shop-built tools, such as this hand-screw clamp. Made of wood harvested from his family’s land, the 1 1/2-in.-square hard-maple jaws measure 7 1/2 in. long, while the 12-in.-long alternating dogwood and black-walnut handles and dogwood threaded rods give the clamp a 6-in. throat capacity. “For threading, I used a tap and die given to me in 1984 as a full fee for making a speech to a university.” The clamp is finished with oil.
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Michael A. Mason
Mason built this cabinetmaker’s chest (29 in. deep by 43 in. wide by 28 in. high) because he wanted a historically accurate way to store a part of his collection of antique woodworking tools. “The basic design of this chest is similar to the Duncan Phyfe chest,” said Mason, “but I added some features, such as a second sliding till.” The chest’s case is made of pine, while the drawer tills are made of ribbon-striped mahogany and walnut. There are five drawers in the front till and 16 in the back; under each till and in the center are wells that can stow up to 100 molding planes. The inside of the lid is veneered with a star pattern of elm burl, maple, and mahogany. The chest has a shellac finish.
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Brian Buckner
Buckner built this drop-nose shoulder plane (3/4 in. wide by 6 in. long by 2 1/2 in. high) based on a photo he saw in Sandor Nagyszalanczy’s The Art of Fine Tools (The Taunton Press, 2000). The plane is constructed out of phosphor bronze and tool steel with a rosewood infill. “Unlike the original, which had a cast gunmetal shell,” said Buckner, “I used dovetails to join the sides to the sole.” The infill has a French-polish finish.
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Dale Malayko
“I decided to learn how to make furniture with hand tools,” said Malayko, “but first I had to build the primary tool for a furniture maker: a workbench.” Under the tutelage of Tage Frid and Frank Klausz in Fine Woodworking Techniques #1 and #9 and Scott Landis’ The Workbench Book (The Taunton Press, 1987), Malayko built this bench (29 in. deep by 78 in. wide by 38 in. high) out of Canadian spruce, eastern hard maple, and African padauk. The tail and shoulder vises are made entirely of wood, with the exception of the vise screws; the vise faces are covered with burgundy leather. The bench is finished with seven coats of Danish oil.
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