HB Tansu Progress-7

Posted on August 22, 2014 by Greg Merritt

As of today I’ve built a grand total of (7) drawers in my woodworking “career”.  Feel free to take a moment and let the magnitude of that number fully sink in.  OK, I know that is pretty damn pitiful, but it speaks volumes as to my experience with case and cabinet work. To be honest, drawers use to intimidate me.  So I avoided building projects that called for them.   Continue reading →

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HB Tansu Progress-6

Posted on August 17, 2014 by Greg Merritt

The HB Tansu carcass is complete and finished.  Today I fitted and installed the drawer guides.  A simple matter of cutting and planing to fit then just glue them into place.  I then cut off the protruding tenon stubs left from yesterdays glue-up.  A little cleanup with a plane followed by, dare I say it, sandpaper.  I was then ready to move on to finishing. Continue reading →

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HB Tansu Progress-5

Posted on August 16, 2014 by Greg Merritt

I bolted awake in the wee hours of the morning with an idea.  OK, let me back up a little.  When I start a project I usually have the finish worked out before the lumber is even purchased.  I know what products I’m going to use, the colors and the materials.  In my mind’s eye I know pretty much exactly what the completed project will look like.  With the Hibilly Tansu, not so much.  I dove into this project with no clue as to what finish I was going to apply.   Continue reading →

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HB Tansu Progress-4

Posted on August 15, 2014 by Greg Merritt

My order of birch plywood arrived from Woodcraft this week.  Between work and school functions for my my son, I managed to get a few hours in the shop over the last few days.  I cut and fitted the outside panels.  All that is left is to cut and fit are the dust panels.  There will be quite a bit of final cleanup and then it will be time for the marathon glue-up session.   Continue reading →

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HB Tansu Progress-3

Posted on August 10, 2014 by Greg Merritt

Another productive weekend of working in the shop is in the books.  Admittedly I did steal a few minutes in the shop after work just about everyday of the past week.  That little bit set me up for quite a lot of progress this weekend.  I fitted the front bearers.  These went pretty well and the only fussy bit was the bird beak detail.  All of the joints fit straight off the saw, save one.  That one joint only required a quick shaving with the chisel and then it drove home. Continue reading →

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HB Tansu Progress-2

Posted on August 7, 2014 by Greg Merritt

The weather today was unseasonably mild for August.  So I took advantage and worked in the shop for about an hour and a half.  I was able to get, I think, quite a bit done.

I cut the six pieces that are to be the front and rear bearers to length.  Then I surfaced planed all of them to remove any machining marks.  Notice I said nothing about cutting them to width. Continue reading →

Posted in Design, Hillbilly Tansu-000 | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

My Groovy Secret Weapon

Posted on August 6, 2014 by Greg Merritt

There are 35 grooves in the HB Tansu case construction.  That’s a lot of grooves to plow for one project.  If you’ve used a plow plane then you know that one momentary laps of concentration can have disastrous results.  If your lucky, the damage is on the inside and won’t be visible.  I’m rarely lucky in these situations.  Once the wall of the groove is chewed up, the options for recovery are limited.  Sometimes you can dress up the damage, but more often the piece will need to be remade.  The latter option is no big deal for simple pieces.  However, this can be a lot of work if there is a lot of other joinery in the piece.  It’s best to install the grooves in a piece as soon as possible so that, in the event of tragedy, there is far less wailing and gnashing of teeth.

I have an old Record 043 thats in really good shape.  I’ve accumulated several cutters for it and fitted it with an auxiliary fence.  It works well and is generally my “go-to” plow plane.  This little gem will come into play when I plow the grooves for the sliding doors.  For the other 31 grooves I’ll be pulling out my secret weapon.  A Japanese plow plane.  I bought this plane off of Ebay a few years ago and use it when it makes sense to do so.  It only cuts one width, 6mm, and one depth, 9-10mm.  It has an adjustable fence for positioning the blade from the edge of the work piece.  The real difference is that it has 2 blades that slice the width of the groove before the main blade plows out the waste.  So it will plow a groove with the grain or across the grain if need be.  Of course it’s designed to be used on the pull stroke and that is easy to get used to.  This thing tracks with almost no effort, every time.  The resulting groove has pristine walls that drop straight down to the bottom of the groove.  I can rip out a pretty hefty shaving with each stroke so the work goes quickly.  I love this plane its an absolute joy to use.  It does only one thing, but does it exceedingly well.

Greg Merritt

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Why is it called the Hillbilly Tansu?

Posted on August 4, 2014 by Greg Merritt

Someone asked me today why I’m calling my current project the Hillbilly Tansu.  In short, it’s a Japanese inspired cabinet/chest being built by a hillbilly.

According to Merriam Webster a hillbilly is defined as:

a person who lives in the country far away from cities and who is often regarded as someone who lacks education, who is stupid, etc.

Not exactly a flattering definition.  I was born, raised and currently reside in West Virginia.  I hold three college degrees, I do live in the country, and I’m a little rough around the edges.  I’ve also been known to wear bib overalls on a regular basis.  To me a hillbilly is a self reliant individual who makes the best of what he has available to him.  Creative ingenuity, fueled by 1 or 3 beers, is often employed in problem solving.  Guinness works best for me.

Therefore, I chose to apply a label to this project so that if anyone stumbled on my blog in search of true tansu construction, they would realize what I’m doing has nothing to do with historically accurate construction.  I view what I’m doing more along the lines of Chris Schwarz much rumored upcoming book on vernacular furniture, “Furniture of Necessity“.  I’m trying to replicate a furniture form within the limits of my knowledge and access to materials.

So that should cover the whole name thing.  Now if you want to have a look at a real deal tansu built by someone who knows how to do it, have a look here.

Greg Merritt

Posted in Thoughts-Views | Tagged | 11 Comments

HB Tansu Progress-1

Posted on August 3, 2014 by Greg Merritt

I was able to make a good start on the HB Tansu this weekend.  The weather was tolerable, still a bit on the humid side, and there was no other pressing chores that needed to be done.  I started off by cutting all of the frame pieces to rough lengths.  Then ran all of them through the thicknessing jig.  It worked great and went fairly fast.  Then it was time to mark  out all of the joinery.  There’s a lot of it, so it was a little intimidating.   Continue reading →

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Hillbilly Tansu-000 and it Begins

Posted on July 31, 2014 by Greg Merritt

Now that I have all of the pertinent joinery worked out and detailed, its time to tackle my first design.  This first iteration of the Hillbilly Tansu will be like most of my other projects, functional, clean lines and simple construction.  There are several factors that lead me to develop this style of cabinet/chest.  First is that I like the look of the Japanese tansu. Continue reading →

Posted in Design, Hillbilly Tansu-000, Illustrating | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments