Popular Woodworking 2006-02 № 153, страница 38

Arts & Mysteries

Creating shadows on your bench is important. Shadows allow you to see a profile develop on your work. Create light sources by having lamps you can switch off individually.

A raking light, as shown above, will quickly point out imperfections in your work, from tear-out to plane tracks.

hand tool users I know purchase wood that meets their preferences regardless of whether they have an immediate use for it or not. So I think it is wise, if at all possible, to prepare for the long-term storage of a great quantity of lumber for future projects.

However, your lumber rack needn't necessarily share your workspace. You may find your garage, woodshed, or even a shady portion of your lawn or garden a convenient location for your lumber rack.

When designing your lumber rack, consider such things as providing sufficient airflow through the racks, accessibility and shading the lumber from sunlight. If children are a part of your life, please take every precaution to make your lumber rack safe for someone who may mistake it for a jungle gym.

If space is short, consider some sort of mat to protect your bench from oil or water that will fly off the end of your stones. This rubber mat serves double duty. It protects the bench and keeps the stone from slipping around.

For light honing, your bench may indeed suffice, but when more serious work is needed, it's nice to have a dedicated sharpening area. A grinder and a small shop-built table of a convenient height will fit the bill. Now the sharpening station needn't necessarily be in the workshop. This could be in an unheated or otherwise undesirable location. But an inconvenient sharpening area may discourage you from sharpening. Nothing will discourage a woodworker faster or more completely than working with dull tools. In the "ultimate" workshop, there would be some well-equipped

sharpening area. The rest of us just need to find a space we can make a mess in.

Lighting your Workspace

In my article about the Anthony Hay cabinet-shop in Colonial Williamsburg (November 2005), Mack Headley described some of the benefits of working in "raking" light. The natural light from a nearby window casts shadows, allowing him to read a surface when planing or carving. I have found knife lines to be all but invisible under the shadow-less flood of light from 4'-fluorescent shop lights. Soon after that visit to Colonial Williamsburg, I removed the 4' shop lights over my bench and began experimenting with different sorts of lights. Lighting is a complicated subject that I hope to read about in some future issue of

Sharpening Space

It has been said that the key to working with hand tools is first learning how to sharpen them. No ultimate hand tool shop is complete without some provisions for sharpening. Although Jacques-Andre Roubo's 18th-century text clearly shows a dedicated sharpening area, this isn't an absolute necessity. The workbench can be a convenient place to sharpen because it is sturdy and just the right height for such an activity. But there are several reasons why many prefer a dedicated area as Roubo illustrated. Most sharpening equipment requires some sort of lubrication, which can make a me ss of your bench and any future projects. Grinders used by many woodworkers spew nasty abrasive particle dust. Let's face it. Sharpening is messy business.

While a dedicated sharpening station is preferred, if tight space requires that you sharpen on your bench, consider some sort of mat to protect it from oil or water - and to keep the stone from slipping around.

Multiple low-wattage lights such as these offer great flexibility. The dif-fusers are a great help in reducing glare.

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Popular Woodworking February 2006