Children's Dresser in curly maple

• This is a dresser I made for my daughter. I scaled down the proportions so it is a nice fit for toddler clothes. She can also open and close the drawers herself.

I built it with traditional frame and panel joinery. The panel was cut on the tablesaw and then cleaned up with a smoothing plane. I routed the bottom moulding and top cove on the router table.

Maple is pretty bad with wood movement so I gave the panel a lot of room to move. However, I noticed that in the summers it is really stretching the limit so if I was to do it again I would leave more room. My Lie-Nielson 4 1/2 with a York pitch had no trouble smoothing the highly figured maple. The batch of maple that I got is probably the best figured maple I have seen. I was able to use one wide piece for the panels which I think improves the look overall.

Getting the drawers to slide smoothly was definitely the most challenging aspect of the project. They required quite a bit of planing to get right. I dowelled the drawer sides to the faces. I wanted to do dovetails but I was running out of time and Zoe's clothes needed a home.

Children's Furniture: Toddler chairs

I've recently been focused on building children's furniture because, well, I have children and they need stuff. I decided to build a couple toddler chairs to go with a chalkboard table that I built. Once it was completed, it was obvious that the first chair was a bit off in dimension and proportion. The back was too low, the seat was too high, and the depth was too long. This was pretty evident after it was completed but chairs are hard to figure out from scratch. When building for toddlers there isn't a standard rubric for dimension. Short of building a full scale mockup it is pretty trial and error.

The first and second chairs

The second chair I think turned out better dimension-wise. The proportions are better and my daughter sits in it more naturally. As far as construction goes, I used 5/4 cherry for the legs and rails with 1/2 inch for the seat and  3/8 inch for the backrest. Not having all the time in the world, I did not use mortise and tenon joinery. Rather I used high quality hardwood screws with flush dowel plugs. I would never make an adult chair this way but for kids I am confident it is sufficient. There just isn't that much weight put on them and with the beefy 5/4 stock there really isn't any flex even when I sit on it and lean back.

The proportions of the chair on the right seem much better

They are fun to build and go together fairly quickly. Since the parts are so small I mostly use a flat-bottomed spokeshave and block plane to clean everything up. To hollow out the seat, I hog it out with an aggressive spokeshave going cross grain and then smooth it with a random orbit sander. The last word in children's furniture is that you must remain calm when they inevitably chew and marker all over it. At least you know the finish is safe.

Hollowing the seat

T. H. Witherby Chisels

Witherby Chisels (I doubt the skew chisels are factory made)

I recently developed the habit of purchasing T. H. Witherby chisels when I stumble upon them for cheap. I bought a couple off ebay but mostly am buying them at flea markets and antique places here in CT.  Witherby chisels were made in Winsted CT which is only about twenty minutes from here. The Toolemera blog has a very informative piece on Witherby here:  http://toolemerablog.typepad.com/toolemera/2008/01/wither-witherby.html

I think my nearness to Winsted must be the reason why they are not difficult to find in this area. I've gotten several unused ones for a dollar apiece by sifting through junk boxes at antique malls. 

All the ones I have are socket chisels and very high quality. They are easy to sharpen and hold an edge extremely well. Interestingly, almost all the ones I have are paring chisels with lots of length still on them. How they managed to survive this long without being sharpened to a stump is beyond me. The reason I like Witherby chisels is firstly that they are very functional and second, I just think it's cool they were made so close to me. I certainly do not collect them in the sense that they are in a display cabinet. I use them in my shop on a regular basis. I have a 1/8" mortise chisel and would love to find some more Witherby mortise chisels but those seem far less common.

Paring chisels are kind of a strange beast. They are not meant to be hit with a mallet but rather the long blade allows for an extremely low angle to be held when paring. In woodworking this is especially beneficial when paring end grain. I use them to pare through-tenons, dowels, or anything that requires a light touch.  Using a paring chisel well is certainly something that requires a lot of practice. I don't think I am really using them to their full potential.

Bailey style planes vs. Bedrock planes

A Stanley no. 603 Bedrock

There seems to be a constant debate about whether or not Bedrock hand planes are worth the hype and higher price. Curiously, many people focus on the feature that I least care about. The ability to adjust the frog without removing the blade is often pointed out as the key feature that Bedrocks have. In my experience, I adjust the frog when I tune it and then leave it alone. This would especially be the case when a user has a smoother, a jack, and a jointer.

What I find beneficial with the Bedrocks is the positive and large frog mating surface. There is a definite difference between a Bailey style plane and a Bedrock when they are both outfitted with a thin factory blade. The Bedrocks chatter much less when encountering difficult grain or knots. This I think accounts for their sale when they were originally offered. They do really work better. However, if you outfit a Stanley-Bailey with an aftermarket blade and chipbreaker like the ones offered by Veritas, they work just as well as a similarly outfitted Bedrock.

For a modern hand plane user, the Baileys and Bedrocks will perform equally well with an aftermarket blade. The collector driven price increase in the Bedrocks seems to make them hardly worth the money. If you are interested in the Bedrocks or just think they are cool, I recommend buying a round side early model. These do not have the frog-moving pins but do have the solid frog mating surface. This style of plane usually goes for about 30% less than a similar square-sided later Bedrock model. Round side Bedrock jack planes are quite common and can bought for under 50 dollars if you look around. The no. 4 Bedrocks are substantially more but the round sides are still much cheaper.

A Bedrock plane

An early Bailey style

The one thing to remember when it comes to both Bailey and Bedrock smoothing planes is that neither were intended for really difficult and wavy grain. I've had some success with these style planes but tearout will always be an issue. The reason for this is that the frog is bedded at 45 degrees. The frog angle is not steep enough to avoid tearout. For really difficult grain I recommend the Lie-Nielson no. 4 1/2 with a 50 degree high angle frog. Yes, it's harder to push but that 5 degrees of higher angle really makes a big difference as does the added weight and massive blade. There will also always be difficult grain that just won't plane well. Then it's time to cut your losses and use a scraper.

A Stanley no. 4 with a 45 degree frog in front of a Lie Nielson no. 4 1/2 with a 50 degree frog