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Joe Samalin
info@nihonsantools.com

Not sure about you all, but in addition to Halloween there seems to be a relative plethora of stuff to be anxious or scared about these days. In my other life doing non-profit work we talk about self-care a lot, and regardless how you feel about the phrase there is something to be said for taking care of ourselves, especially when our hobbies or professions involve sharp-ass tools. So that said, what are some ways to proactively to help us and those around us in this community and others to do the same?!

Not sure which is scarier. the look on the face of the cat of one Nancy Hiller, brilliant human being and woodworker taken from us way too soon, or the fearlessness of her tail and where it lies. I learned a ton from Nancy and her cat, and she is sorely missed. 

If it helps, here are some of my go-to's for slowing down and taking stock and care of myself:

• Ice Cream - I am partial to Hagan Daaz or Ben & Jerry's myself
• Baths/water time - In spite my position as starting goalie (humble brag) on my high school water polo team, I enjoy just soaking - at a spa when I can afford it, in the tub, in a lake or the ocean. It calms all of me, including my ADHD somehow.
• Reaching out - to friends and family. I actually have my 'emergency contact list' when I need some entertainment, validation, or support.

Let us know what makes you feel better, stronger, safer, etc.!

And if it helps, Nihonsan got in some 3mm paring chisels, 48mm chisels, dai naoshi scrapers, and our new tee shirts are still going strong. And check out all the new classes on the website, and look out for some new teachers and classes coming up at Nihonsan too :)

Hope to see you all Thursday!

–Joe S.

This issue we're featuring a contribution written by another of our Brooklyn community members, Joe Williams. Joe's woodworking journey began in the spring, getting his start in the May "Build Your Toolbox" class. 

If you'd like to take the class that got Joe started, we have openings in the December session. It's scheduled to run on two consecutive Sundays, the 8th and the 15th. Learn more and register here: makegoodwood.com/classes

And, if you have a story you'd like to share in the newsletter, please don't hesitate to reach out to me at will@makegoodwood.com. Enjoy!  

—Will O'Connor

Joe WIlliams
joseph.c.williams@gmail.com

Like a lot of us, after finishing my tool box I had some leftover wood (I was fortunate to not have to remake any pieces along the way) and absolutely no idea what to do next. My toolbox was starting to feel disorganized, and I kept seeing interesting toolbox systems on various Lost Art Press articles and videos. The form factor is different - our boxes are much smaller and portable than most of what I was seeing - but the idea of my chisels not banging around loose in the box really resonated.

The size of the box and the limited wood on hand made for some interesting design challenges that I was happy to have to work through. I determined I had enough wood to make a tray long enough to fit some number of chisels, but there was a catch: I would have to re-saw it. 

For the uninitiated, re-sawing is the act of cutting a board along its thickness into two or more thinner pieces. In this case, re-sawing felt like a great option because in a sense it doubles the amount of wood I would have to work with, and using thinner boards would let the tray fit more chisels relative to the size of the box. The downside is it feels like an operation that requires a lot of precision to do accurately and gets intimidating fast. I scribed each piece (the length and width were already separate boards at this point) down the middle on all edges  to the best of my ability and started trying to figure out the best way to hold and cut them. What I eventually landed on was using my Stanley portable workbench to clamp it in between the work surface and saw from there. It was still very finicky, and I would have to adjust the pressure of the clamps as I went to avoid the pieces pinching, but it was a vast improvement over trying to hold a board in my off hand and saw!

A perfect fit. To create the thin stock Joe needed to create this little tray, he re-sawed a piece of scrap, i.e. cut a board in two along its thickness.

The next big decision was how to join the box together. The mortise and tenon joinery style we use in the toolbox project would have been a cool reference, but would eat in to the space available for the chisels. A butt joint would probably be up to the specs of the project, but I am still trying to build the metaphorical tool box between my ears (winks conspicuously at Will) and a butt joint would miss that mark. So I landed on dovetails, which seemed like a great thing to figure out on a fairly low stakes project. I found a marking template on the evil online shopping site that didn’t seem like a total waste of money, and started laying everything out.

The template did not come with any instructions, so I do want to pause to highlight a mistake learning opportunity I had. I very carefully and fastidiously laid out all of my pins and tails on the face grain of each board, rather than marking the tails on the face and the pins on the end. (I also used the template for marking everything, when I should have known from the mortise and tenon in the tool box to mark out the pins based on the actual tails I cut, but I digress). The good news is that because I was conservative with sawing to my lines, each joint still has solid contact, and fits snugly even with the joints being cut incorrectly. I will take that as a solid first effort. Plus, it’s an interior tray for a toolbox, so no one would ever see it if I weren’t writing about it online.

Although Joe's dovetails might not have been perfectly laid out or cut, they still functionally work to hold the tray together, and and that makes them perfect for the task—and to learn from. 

The other big decision was how to connect the bottom. I had leftover birch ply from the toolbox, so that much was obvious, but what to do with it. I did consider hand cutting a groove and sliding it in, but that would have eaten up too much height. Ultimately, I glued it on. A part of building my toolbox is learning which battles to fight and when something is good enough.

I decided not to make a lid for three main reasons. The first was functional; it is a tray to keep things organized within the toolbox, and I didn’t want to make it too hard to get out my chisels. The second was size; with several of the options I considered I was worried the sides weren’t tall enough to accommodate a lid and still fit the chisels. And the third was material. I simply didn’t have enough ply to also make a lid. So it was an easy choice in that regard! 

Overall I’m happy with what I learned, happy enough with how it turned out, and ready for the next project.

–Joe W.