Chair Rail Carving

The chair rail for our living room/ dining room first section was done and installed a while ago.  Today I spent a couple of hours working on the big section.

  This section of the rail is 7 ft. 4 inches long. Initially I was sanding and putting finishing touches to the relief carving.  After a while I needed to stretch my back and so turned the rail on edge.  I have put a chamfered profile on the top of the rail to make dusting easier.  You can see that I improvised the clamping with hand screw clamps  there are then clamped to the work table and table saw table.  I have four pairs of hand screws in four sizes.  This clamp is a must in a shop in my opinion.

  You can see some of the detail of the relief carving

  and the clamps up close.  I spent about two hours on this today so expect that this will take another 5 or 6 hours to get ready for painting.  It is a bit of a back breaker unfortunately.  I have a detail sander that helps me sand the larger areas but in the end it is job for needle tiles and small sanding blocks. 

 It will look good when it is done.

cheers, ianw

Clamps-Wooden Hand Screws

   We all live by the motto, "you can never have too many clamps".  
   It is true, clamps are a vital part of woodworking and since they come in dozens of styles, sizes and shapes you can never have all the clamps.  When I used to watch "the New Yankee Workshop" I said that his clamp rack was worth more than my entire set of shop tools and machines.  I've added to my shop since then, I've added a bunch of clamps too, I think we might be even now.


   Wooden Hand Screws are an old style of clamp, I've seen them made entirely from wood in shops like the cabinet makers shop at Colonial Williamsburg. Also there are kits available to make your own hand screws, you supply the wood.

I have aleast  two of each size, coffee cup for scale

   Over the the course of the years I have acquired at least two of these five sizes of hand screw: 4,6,8,10, 12 inch long with mouths from 2 1/2 to 8 inches.  The amount of pressure that these clamps can exert is more than sufficient for anything I do. 

   One regular use for these is holding boards for planning, since they are made mostly of wood

I needn't  worry that I will nick my blade on something metal if I side off the top. Also I can plane boards of any length, by adding a clamp in the middle.  If the board is very wide, then it is hung off the side of the bench. If the wood is very thin the jaws of the clamp support the wood while I work on it.

   Another use is holding small or rounded pieces for sanding, drilling or working with my wood rasps.  The clamps become extra strong fingers, they hold the piece, I hold the clamp and that way if something slips around the sander or grinder there is no blood.

smallest clamp holding a toy truck wheel

middle size clamp holding an oak puzzle piece
 for smoothing with a rasp