Mystery Rosewood update

Here is what is left. I feel quite proud of the fact that there was this little waste from that great piece of timber. The box has quite a few small pieces that would be suitable for wedges and other small plane parts. I think there is one piece that will make a killer wedge for a mitre.

(The killer wedge piece)

I am also reminded of an incredible A2 jointer I made several years ago - infilled with mystery Rosewood. Here are a few detail shots.

I have two panel planes left to make - one 16-1/2" and the other is 14-3/4". The rear infill on thees planes will look just like this. I can’t wait to get started on them.

825 herring bones later

The herringbone flooring is now prepared. The QS white oak was supplied in three different lengths - 17-1/2", 35" and 52"... give or take a quarter inch. These dimensions were then cross cut on a dedicated sled to produce pieces that are 16-1/2" long.

After that - I needed to cut a dado in the ends to house the tongue. This was also done using a cross cut sled. The flooring is 3/4" thick with a 1/4" x 1/4" tongue and corresponding groove. The dado in the end is not really functional - it just needs to provide enough clearance for the pieces to fit together properly. I chose to cut a slightly over sized dado - just under 5/16" x 5/16". I used a stacked dado head in the table saw. Here is the setup.



I have several different cross cut sleds - some for cutting dados, others for various types of cross cuts. I used a small cross cut sled as a base and then built a simple but accurate jig to fit within the sled. Above is a photo of what it looks like.



And a top view.


And a shot of how the flooring piece was oriented for the cut. I chose to reference the bottom of the flooring instead of the top. Slight variations to the top will be sanded down once the floor is installed... the bottom is a fixed surface. In hindsight, the flooring was so consistent in thickness, that it likely didn’t matter.

I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly everything went. I broke the slot cutting into smaller bits - batches of 100 pieces. I would do 100, take a break and work on some Lego with the kids, do another 100... stop for some lunch. It worked out very well, and all the pieces were done over the weekend.



Here is a screen shot of the scale drawing. There is a pesky offset to the room - you can see it along the bottom edge of the drawing. This posed a bit of a problem with regards to the patterning of the herringbone. The solution was to remove a single strip of the border along the left bottom edge. If you look closely, the border changes from 3 strips to 4 strips in a few places, but I don’t think this will be noticeable once the room is done and the furniture is in. Well... now you all know.


Confession time. I wrote this post last week and have been sitting on it. Jill and I decided to bring all the herringbone flooring into the livingroom to let it sit (but really - I needed my workbench and shop space back). We made about 4 trips and had about 250 pieces in when for some strange reason, I decided to sit on the floor and see how everything fit together. I made a jig to help start each new row and used this to put a few bones together.

“left side, right side, left side, right side... this is looking wicked!”

Next row.

“wait a minute... where did that tongue come from - this doesn’t fit?”

“ what the... I need a slot in the other end too?”

“maybe there is a left hand piece and a right hand piece?”

So I went to the computer and did a search. Found a Bob Vila video showing how a herringbone floor is installed. Within the first minute I hear “...there is a groove on all 3 sides.”

I walked downstairs with my tail between my legs, dragged out the 250 pieces we already had in the livingroom, and cut another 825 slots in the other ends. Better now than after the first row is installed I suppose.

The last of the Mystery Rosewood

This is a very sad “first” for me - using up the last bit of a particular species of wood. I have been slowly eating away at this large piece of unidentified Rosewood... aka Mystery Rosewood. There is a precious little bit remaining - the photo above shows what is left. I do have a set roughed out for an A5 and an XSNo.4 that are not spoken for. And I still have to rough out an A1 panel from the above piece. Whatever is left over is all there is.

Below is a photo of the original piece - the one on the far right (along side three amazing pieces of almost quartered Honduran Rosewood).






Here is a detail shot of the rear infill of an XSNo.4 infilled with Mystery rosewood.



And another shot of the entire plane along with another interesting example. The XSNo.4 in the foreground is infilled with some very old East Indian Rosewood. It has been quite some time since I have worked with East Indian and it was a real treat. I am surprised East Indian Rosewood does not show up more often in old tools - it is a wonderful material.

French polish

A few people have asked if I could give a tutorial on how I apply french polish. But before I do that - I think a little explanation of why I use french polish is in order.

Wood clarity.
Of all the finishes available to me - french polish does the least damage to the overall color and clarity of the wood. Oil is a sure fire way to darken Rosewood to oblivion and all the color and vibrance that makes rosewood so stunning is killed. Oil also kills East Indian Rosewood, turning the vibrant purple and red tones into mud. Oil does not affect Honduran Rosewood as much, but it does darken it. I do use warmed double boiled linseed oil on boxwood and then a coat of paste wax. For some reason - that finish seems a perfect “fit” for boxwood - and the darkening is not a bad thing.

French polish will wear with use - and I don’t mind that because as your hand rubs the finish, it will burnish the remaining french polish and wood to a similar luster. It is also a welcome part of the planes patina - its story if you will.

French polish is also a very pleasing tactile finish, it has a bit of a sheen to it, but not a plasticized look.

Not to mention it is a fairly safe finish.

Ok. On with the show.



I sand all the infill pieces to 600 grit. I start at 220, then 320, 400 and finish with 600 grit. A fellow planemaker once suggested the reason I use french polish was to avoid having to be particular about sanding. I just said “hmmm”. The above photo shows the inside surface of the front bun without finish applied.



Here is the kit. The white(ish) piece on the bench is foamcore which I use to test the mixture of the french polish and the mineral oil. I used foamcore because the surface is very smooth and not absorbent... and it was lying around from my design days. The shellac in the mason jar is a 2lb cut - roughly. I mix my own shellac using super blond flakes. I write the date of mixture on the top of the jar and a few months in, will add a splash of shellac thinner to compensate for evaporation. The film canister holds the rubber and the clear bottle with the white lid is drugstore mineral oil.



The rubber is made up of two pieces of cloth. The piece on the left is a 2-1/2" square of 100% cotton bedsheet (no really - it is an old bedsheet). The other piece is some other cheesecloth like fabric... but it is not cheese cloth.


I fold the cotton into thirds and then thirds again, place it along a center line of the “cheese cloth”, fold the cheese cloth down, then each side over. This is the rubber. It is flat for a reason - it lets you get into corners and is quite flexible and agile.



This is the grip I use. The section of the rubber at the tip of my thumb is held to the edge of the mason jar of shellac. I tip the jar until the shellac touches and charges the rubber. There is a small pool of mineral oil to the right of this brown spot. I touch my finger to the mineral oil and then transfer this drop to the rubber.



I place the rubber on this brown area (created over the last 8 years) and start circling it around. What I am looking for is a vapor trail. I want to see the alcohol flashing off just behind the rubber. It is kinda like the tail of a comet. When the trail is continuous as I go round and round - it is properly charged (at least for what I am using it for).



This is what a charged rubber looks like.



Very quickly, and with a fairly light touch, wipe the surface of the wood. There should be enough shellac and oil mixture to change the color of the entire surface of this front bun. You have to be quick and keep things moving - if you pause, the rubber will stick and will make a mess of things. As a point of reference - the inside of this bun should take about 10 seconds to apply a single coat.


Here is the surface after the first coat.

A few other points. I apply two coats a day - no more. This gives the shellac enough time to harden a bit and the next coat will not soften and remove too much of the previous coat. This process of softening the previous coat is what makes french polish so repairable. A little bit of the first coat is softened during the second coat and this is what allows french polish to build and fill the pores of the grain.

The flat profile of the rubber is what allows me to get into the corners on the front bun of a panel plane for example. The bun of a panel will take about 4 charges of the rubber - one for each side. After about the 6th or 7th coat, there is usually a little bit of oil on the surface of the infill so I don’t always need to put a drop of mineral oil on the rubber for the remaining coats.

Some woods like Ebony, African Blackwood and Honduran Rosewood build quite quickly because their pores are so small. East Indian rosewood take a bit more time. On average - I apply about a dozen coats to each plane.