Supporting Tip: Mark which side of the line will be the waste side. The waste side is the part you don’t intend to keep.

This isn’t about measuring as much as it is about marking. Marking exactly that which we want to keep is the best way to assure things fit when we assemble our project’s parts. If we don’t observe this however, it can render our careful measurements powerless. The fitment of our work is what we honor the most.

The lines we mark give clear meaning to our layout. We should always put the lines on as clearly and accurately as we can, and have them represent to us the part we wish to keep. This way if we are called away and return to look at our project later, we don’t ever have to remember what the lines mean.

It’s been argued that you can take the line, split the line and so forth, but those techniques are fraught with problems when you really think about them.

If you saw to the line and take the line, how much over the line did you take? Is there room here for a mistake? Will we always remember to compensate for the saw’s kerf? Will we always be sure? Will it make things too short? Mistakes happen with this method more often than not.

Some have said split the line. If we draw a line with a pencil, the pencil will blunt as it draws, so what then is the standard width for this line? Does it really, truly stand for the part of our project, which we intend to keep? Again, what if the saw can take a kerf wider than the line? How do you split that? I’ve seen people advocate for this but too much is left to chance. Why risk it? Woodworking doesn’t have to require that we be lucky.

Remember that many things we saw are not finished off the saw, the saw is a rough tool, and usually leaves behind rough marks. Often, these marks are so rough that we can’t do further accurate layout on that surface, until after we smooth it up. It is rarely a finish surface in woodworking with few exceptions. It is a better practice to saw a short distance from the line on the waste side, particularly when the saw is coarse.

We must leave room on our work to smooth this rough surface, and we can’t do it if we split or take the line. We can sand, plane, chisel, even use a shooting board or a spokeshave to the line to obtain a smooth and accurate finish. It just depends on how we need to shape that line. More often than not, taking the line will leave you little room to smooth, let alone solve a problem if one occurs.

Good work practices are very important to consistency, so it is always good to be an early adopter of such practices. When showy woods can run from $20.00 to over $100.00 a board foot, we can’t afford to condemn wood to chance. We need to know where we are cutting for the best fit possible.

Depending on the level of accuracy the line needs to represent, we can use chalk, chalk line, carpenter pencils, sharp or fine pencils, even a marking knife with possibly the line darkened or lightened after we strike it, but the line should stay and represent the working limit.

With pencils, a harder lead can help. HB hardness is common; 2H hardness if you can find it works better. Sharpness is everything in a pencil, so be sure to maintain it while working. Red pencil leads show up well on dark woods and are more durable than white. Ballpoint pens will endure layout work, but depending on the project or position, can leave a mark in some woods that could be hard to remove later. Gel pens are good for marking light colors as well, but can be both expensive and fragile. Marking knives actually scribe lines that are more usable when they are slightly dull.

Remember that with dovetail layout, one joinery-sawn board lays out the other. On the board being laid out second, the lines can only be placed on the part which you intend to keep. This is true in many cases when working in joinery, and in joinery, fitment is everything.

Working to the line always allows room to trim if we still need. And all the lines can easily be removed once we have fitment and move towards the finish.

When accuracy in lay out matters, surface quality matters. It encompasses both the initial dimensions as well as the finish dimensions, and one is often used to lead to the other. Being squared up or at a specific angle can matter to the layout line placement. A shooting board can help us arrive at the right fit and finish when working to the line, both in the layout and the finish of joinery, as well as miters and butted boards that will require precise fitment.

Finally, remember as we lay out our work that we orient the placement of our lines so as to keep them where they will remain on the part of the work we intend to keep. This may mean we will need to orient the work so we layout from one or two reference surfaces only, (another good practice) and that the lines will work with the tool or machine that does the cutting, or which hand we use to work. If you like to saw to the right or left of a line for your waste, keep that in mind as you lay out. Think of what the tool will need for accommodations and the boards will arrive at the size needed consistently.

Practice consistency. Work to the line and rest assured that our best work has been done. These tips will help anyone create anything faster and with higher accuracy. The lines? They can be straight or curved. Anything you can imagine. This is a major part of building anything we can design. The bridge from what we imagine, to what we make become real. Now we can create!

Happy Woodworking!

Working with picture frames and moldings in general presents a special set of circumstances when mitering. Often, the bottom and back of the molding are the only surfaces that can be registered flat and square, and so they have to be the ones used when registering them against fences for cutting and shooting.

So it goes that if you can only orient a molding one way, which is on it’s back, a single chute shooting board will only be able to shoot half of the miter. The right hand board will only shoot the left side of the miter, and the left chute will only shoot the right side. A problem if you only have one chute. There are workarounds, but ehhh… They are often rife with as many problems as they hope to solve.

Enter our newest shooting board, the ‘Picture Frame Shooter’. A shooting board with twin chutes, independent, calibratable left and right hand 45-degree miter fences, with tall, removable fence faces to prevent breakout to the top of most plane blades.

Not all moldings are tall, so both the fence base and fence face are flattened to 0.001 when we make them. If the high fence face is in the way for a low molding or workpiece, simply remove it, as it is just held in place by two 1/4-20 flat head cap screws, and use the base for low moldings. The base is the same basic fence we use for the Standard Fence on our other shooting boards. You can remove and replace the fence face as you need.

Baltic Birch Construction. Solid, Hefty, Stable. The best material we can obtain for shooting boards, and hearty in any environment. We figure if old woodies are still alive and kicking after 100 plus years, our shooting boards should enjoy a good run as well. We build them to last. Like any fine tool, this one is precision and will appreciate being kept safe and dry when not in use.

Twin chutes, 2-3/4 inches wide by 14-3/4 inches long. Complete with dust grooves and will accommodate any plane, same as our other shooting boards.

A roomy board lift to place your moldings for shooting.

Individual, and fully calibratable 45-degree left and right fences, offering 5-1/4 inches of molding registration and breakout protection nearly 1-3/4 inches high.

A 90-degree fence, 11-3/4 inches long for right angle work like our Deluxe Shooters, and this fence can be made right or left handed depending on your preference for no additional cost.

Fence faces and bases flattened on a granite surface plate to 0.001.

Stainless Steel and Brass custom made thumbscrews to add durability and corrosion resistance. These mount into steel threads.

The same fence angle calibration system employed on all our shooting boards, which will transfer the accuracy of your finest layout tools to this board as well. We recommend plastic drafting squares. An 8-inch drafting square can be had for less than $5.00 in any office supply, however, if you like Starrett accuracy, these boards can work with that as well.

We recommend that you calibrate before each use for total shooting accuracy. No test shots, no shimming and taping or bumping and fudging. Just calibrate and shoot your miters with confidence.

The rest of the details on the new ‘Shooter’ borrow heavily from it’s older brothers, and you are welcome to have a look at the Features and Specifications page for more details.

As always, the boards are finished to 150 grit smoothness, and offer plenty of traction for the work. The chutes are made square to the work and polished to 400 grit.

Then the boards and fences are given a saturation of Watco Teak Oil, which we have found to offer stove bolt protection in tough conditions, and is easily field repairable should the need ever arise.

Finally the chutes are waxed with paste wax and buffed. The wax is as easy to renew as it is to wax your planes. We find that this is as slick as UHMW and far squarer to the work, because there are no screws to deflect a slick plastic material. We feel it is the accuracy that is wanted most, and the final result in your project is what really matters.

Make no mistake about this board. It is a pure shooting board, every bit as capable as our ‘Basic Shooter’ and then some. It is not sole and only for moldings, You can shoot any rectangular dimensional board.

The ‘Picture Frame Shooter’ is also equipped to address most any board that has a distinct front and back like moldings do. The 90 degree fence is similar, flattened to .001 on both the base and face, both 45 degree fences are treated the same. The big difference is only that when a board has a non flat front, the miters must be addressed from either side.

It’s a fully tricked out workhorse and ready for service whether you build picture frames commercially, or enjoy doing them for yourself, friends and family. If you are looking for high accuracy and durability for fine framing or 45-degree miters of any kind, this is the ultimate shooting board.

If you are interested in a ‘Picture Frame Shooter’, we are taking orders for this and all our products. Please visit the ‘Picture Frame Shooter’ product page, and have a look at the rest of our tooling in the Evenfall Studios Woodworks Store.

As always, your questions and comments are always welcome. Contact Us.

Happy Woodworking!

Dick wrote that what he had accomplished was good enough for “rural work” but in reality, he was a very talented user of hand operated tooling, and knew what he could accomplish with the woods he had access to and the kind of durability he needed from them. Rural work did not mean he quit refining the quality of his workmanship, it meant he built the way he did so as to provide utility, endure hard use and inclement seasonal conditions.

Colonial Williamsburg Photo

Hand tools are also very highly regarded as the go to tools for fine work. Work on pieces where tolerances are exacting, or the sizes of the pieces are so small or thin where powered tooling would make it difficult to work safely or accurately.

The biggest misgivings that people who don’t use hand tools have when I have spoken with them about them have been based in what they are unsure about. Not knowing what a tool will do, how to maintain sharpness, and how difficult the application of the tool to the task will be. In other words, to some, hand tools are either Greek to them, or they seem too hard. The philosophy of “seem” is different than the philosophy of “is”.

Colonial Williamsburg Photo

Other times it’s a production issue, but unless we have commercial obligations, most woodworkers are not having production issues. Most woodworkers have the shop machines they need to handle all the heavy lifting, and for the most part are usually not in a production environment. Never the less, some hand tools are quite productive, and are in some cases the only way to do certain things. Those who eschew machinery, are not concerned with any production issue. I know a few furniture makers who are asked on occasion to build commissioned pieces with hand tools only.

Colonial Williamsburg Photo

Sometimes we are afraid to try something we are unfamiliar with, or dismiss something because we don’t know much about it. On the other hand, nothing ventured, nothing gained, and it never hurts to try. I am saying, try them, you will be pleasantly surprised what they can do! They are much easier to work with than you might have imagined.

Colonial Williamsburg Photo

Epiphanies often happen for woodworkers who are new to using hand planes when surface qualities that compare to 600-grit sandpaper smoothness happen in one swipe of a plane blade. Better still, the wood is not burnished and will take stains and dyes really well. Other times the ease of using a hand tool shines when a task is accomplished without noise, projectile sawdust, or without complex jigging and fixturing. It is even more impressive when it happens with great ease and in less time than you thought it would. Hand tools offer a lot of premium advantages to woodworkers if they try to learn their ways.

Colonial Williamsburg Photo

Woodworking is an evolved tradecraft that can trace it’s linage to the use of hand tools. While machines have taken the place of hand tools for many mundane and laborious tasks today, there are still many places where hand tools can shine, and even do the best work possible. We are making a bunch of parts and sub assemblies, then putting them together; we can create them any way we like. Layout for what you want to make, and remove all the material that doesn’t belong to what you are making. Depending on the task, often the hand tool makes an outcome as easy as drawing or pointing. When you look deeply into certain tasks, hand tools offer the most direct way.

Colonial Williamsburg Photo

In 1976, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation produced a documentary about how musical instrument making was done in colonial times. It featured the use of hand tools in a cabinetmaker’s shop of the era. It is about the making of a spinet harpsichord and a violin. There are a large number of hand tools, even some very specialized tools used, different timbers and materials used, and woodworking techniques described in the movie.

This video is just a taste, Video 1 of 6. If you navigate to the following six links, you can watch The Musical Instrument Maker of Williamsburg in it’s entirety on YouTube.

Video 1 of 6

Video 2 of 6

Video 3 of 6

Video 4 of 6

Video 5 of 6

Video 6 of 6

Many woodworkers may not be interested in making musical instruments and that is fine, but the film will show many different techniques which can be employed to do very fine woodwork with hand tools. Nearly any of these techniques are transferrable to any project where hand tools are used to accomplish the work. Are there skills you wish you had? Are there techniques you would like to employ on the work you do? This documentary may offer the right inspiration.

Colonial Williamsburg Photo

Some of the tools and techniques shown and described in the documentary are:

• Wood bending, using both boiling and steaming methods.

• Properties of various wood species and how reading these variable properties for specific purposes is important.

• Many applications for gluing using hot hide glue.

• Special fixtures for work holding during sawing with fret and coping saws.

• Fixturing for chiseling and carving processes.

• Special techniques for clamping odd shaped items with various forms of joinery.

Colonial Williamsburg Photo

• Techniques for clamping curved work.

• Techniques for clamping and molding woods to the contour of shaped forms.

• Techniques for clamping with various shaped cauls.

• Techniques for clamping with go bars. (A wooden bar that fits between the work and the ceiling to provide clamping pressure.)

• Techniques for clamping with string.

• Special fixturing for gluing curved work.

• Layout techniques for various styles of joinery as well as for use with curved work.

Colonial Williamsburg Photo

• Sawing veneers by hand.

• Planing with toothing planes to avoid tear out to the wood fibers.

• Planing with violinmaker’s planes for thicknessing and finishing tight areas and creating special contours and radiuses.

• Paring and carving operations with chisels and gouges utilizing many different approaches and techniques.

• Methods for sawing, filing and gluing with ivory.

• Many different views of various scraping scenarios throughout.

• Curved purfling inlay work with ebony and holly.

Colonial Williamsburg Photo

• Router plane usage for fixed depth work.

• Shaving curved and straight work with drawknives and spokeshaves.

• Sawing and chamfering the finished edges of holes.

• Layout and planing for fitment to contoured surfaces.

• Marquetry, the lay out, sawing of multiple colors at once, scorching for color toning, and fitment as an inlay.

• Finishing with shellacs, varnishes and polishing out with rottenstone.

• Layout for drilling with awls and various styles of bits, the reaming of holes for proper sizing, and finished edges with chamfers.

Some other things that the film exposes us to, are how different materials are chosen for the specific qualities they have. Strength, appearance and sonic resonance are a few qualities that make the wood adequate for use when none of the other qualities are required.

Colonial Williamsburg Photo

Of note in the film were the many ways the craftsmen fixtured the various forms of work, so as to be able to work with tools safely, ergonomically and accurately. The sharpness of their tooling made the work look as though it was effortless. In reality, it is as easy as it looks if tooling is sharp. Sharp tooling does make the work happen with a lot less effort than one might imagine, and achieving high levels of sharpness on hand tooling is not hard to learn to accomplish.

Colonial Williamsburg Photo

Many of us learn by seeing things done, and it helps to have an explanation as we watch. My hopes are that seeing this documentary sparks interest and imagination. Perhaps it will show a path to finer woodworking to those looking for a way. This documentary helps outline many ways we can utilize hand tools, jigs and fixtures to aid in accomplishing fine workmanship that would be otherwise very difficult to do with power tools and shop machines. Have a look at each of the six videos and see if it doesn’t reveal a trick or two of the versatility hand tools can offer!

Happy Woodworking!

Richard L. Proenneke Photo

For most of us, this was our introduction to Dick, and his life. It is one of the only films ever made that shows the process of making a cabin in the wilderness, using only hand tools. It is a real gift.

Dick was a man whose life took him to a lot of places and exposed him to a lot of things, and those things may have been instrumental in helping shape his abilities for life in the wilderness. Born and raised in Iowa, he joined the US Navy and was a Navy carpenter, a rancher, diesel mechanic and heavy equipment operator.

He originally went to Alaska to start a cattle ranch, and wound up commercial salmon fishing and working as a mechanic. He spent the final years of his working career in and around Kodiak Alaska at the naval base there, until a work accident nearly cost him his eyesight. His life in the ranching business probably helped him understand nature and wildlife on an intuitive level, and his life as a carpenter and mechanic probably prepared him with the self-sufficiency needed for the next phase of his life. He retired at age 51 to Twin Lakes, living as a naturalist, nature cinematographer, and scientific observer in the remote Alaska wilderness.

In 1962, Dick made his first trip to Twin Lakes Alaska, part of what is now Lake Clark National Park, and lies 40 miles North of Lake Clark, 100 miles West of Kenai and about 350 miles West of Anchorage. This area is full on bush country, and only accessible by floatplane in summer, ski plane in winter.

He was originally introduced to the Twin Lakes area, by friends he made while working at the Navy Base at Kodiak. A retired Navy Captain and his wife, Spike and Hope Caruthers, who had a cabin there, invited Dick to the area, and loaned him the use of their cabin. Dick in turn loaned the use of a camper he had to the Caruthers in the Kodiak Area.

Dick set out to live in a way similar to Henry David Thoreau, as he had written about in “Walden” as a test of his personal life and values. During July 1967, Dick spent time harvesting logs At Twin Lakes, from a small stand of spruce near Spike’s cabin, and on May 21, 1968, he returned to Twin Lakes to build his own cabin, where he remained for the next 16 months. He may not have known at the time, but that first stay would evolve into where he would live for the next 31 years. It began as a test to see what he was made of, and became his home.

He lived in Twin Lakes, off savings from his retirement, from payments received for meteorological and wildlife research, photography he did for the National Park Service, and from showings of the film footage he shot in and around the area.

In 1999, Dick returned to the States to live with his brother in Southern California, Returning only once for a short visit during the summer of 2000, to dedicate his Cabin to the National Parks Service. The cabin is now maintained in the state Dick left it, as a historical site and museum.

Among the many things Dick was, he was a very talented woodsman and woodworker. The first forty minutes of the largely autobiographical video “Alone in the Wilderness” depict him building his cabin from the spruce logs he felled the year before. The video is also interspersed with shots of him doing the other things that make up his life at Twin Lakes.

Let’s have a look at Dick and the tools he brought with him to Twin Lakes, as he builds his cabin, furnishings and living accessories. For many, this is an excellent opportunity to see a trained carpenter from the old school, go about his work with hand tools, and without drawings. Knowing what he wants to do, seeing it in his minds eye, using his skills and developing the materials available right there at his cabin site.

This video is just a taste of the first movie in a series of three, Alone in the Wilderness. If you navigate to the following links, you can watch excerpts of Alone in the Wilderness, Alaska Silence and Solitude and The Frozen North on YouTube.

Alone in the Wilderness

Alaska Silence and Solitude

The Frozen North

Only the first video, “Alone in the Wilderness” depicts Dick doing any woodworking, but I highly recommend watching all three, or even purchasing the videos from DickProenneke.com. If you are like me, you’ll watch them many times.

One of the first things you’ll notice is that Dick has to prepare the cabin site. He clears the brush and lays down a gravel base that he hauls from the lake. Next, he hauls the logs one by one from where he has them stacked to the cabin site. How does he do it? Look closely, he isn’t just dragging them on the ground. He has logs laying crossways in the trail. Dick fashioned an old school skid road.

Among the tools he brought in to build the cabin as well as for survival was a 36 to 40 inch one man tree saw, with teeth filed for softwoods which were predominant in the area, a metal frame style tree saw, a double bladed axe and a hatchet. He has a splitting maul for firewood as well. There is also a shot of him filing an adze, an adze that he was also shown to use like a light sledgehammer when building sawhorses. He uses a drawknife for debarking, flattening and shaping his logs, poles and rough lumber.

Something worth noting about Dick’s axe. He chokes up on the handle often to shave shape and carve. He relies on it for a lot of tasks. He even uses it while hunting. It is hard to see his axe in any shot when it is not in motion, but if you are used to seeing what a good axe looks like, the area near the blade has been filed down to a thinner profile.

Richard L. Proenneke Photo

I am originally from logging country in the Pacific Northwest. We know that many new axes will chop nearly as well as a sledgehammer. The cutting edge is simply too blunt, and when swung, the axe bounces off the tree better than it cuts. You would think it dull, but no. Its cutting edge is just too blunt, and the axe can’t penetrate into the wood fibers to cut cross grain.

What was often done to a new axe by their new owners, was to file or grind that area just behind the edge down some and use a shallower bevel angle on the edge. If you relieve this shoulder a bit, the axe will cut into the wood and not bounce off the wood as you chop. It also makes the blade a lot more versatile as we can see from Dick’s skill with it. This is physical work. Dick knew he needed his tools to work for and with him.

It appears he has at least four handsaws. One is a ripsaw, which he used to resaw logs into planks. He claimed he could rip a log 5 inches in diameter by 42 inches long in 15 minutes. That is not a bad pace when you have a lot of ripping to do, so it was likely in the 4-6 ppi range. There is a shot of it leaning against the planks he had cut. It looked like a 26” Disston D-8.

Dick commonly used both hands on his saw when it was stable to do so, but I couldn’t see a thumbhole on this saw. In the places we see dick cross cut, the saw looks like a D-8 also, but it doesn’t look discernibly different than the crosscut while viewing on the fly. If I am wrong about two D8’s then Dick is using his Rip Saw for some of his crosscuts, and this is doable. He likely dressed most all his sawn edges with his planes anyway.

There was a short cross cut saw, a short panel saw, with no back that looked to be approximately12 inches long, and with what looks like an aluminum handle, as a well as a keyhole saw, used to saw the elaborate latch and lock he made for his Dutch door. It was also likely used to saw out the crescent on the outhouse door as well as make the wooden spoons he carved.

His edge tools appear to include at least a framing slick and gouge, a, block plane and a number 4 Stanley smoother He made many of the handles for tools that needed them from spruce on site, such as the handles for his framing chisels. He likely had more chisels and gouges than just one of each in his kit; likely some of the bench chisel style variety.

There was also what was called a “thin bladed wide chisel” he was shown using to split logs to make boards from for framing windows and doors. It did not appear to have a wooden handle. He struck it with his claw hammer. Something similar to this chisel was seen fitted later with a long wooden handle for chiseling holes in the lake ice for fresh water during the freeze. He had what looked like a wide-bladed, small cold chisel like chisel, likely a brick set, which he used to tack Oakum Moss between the logs while insulating the cabin

His sharpening tools appear to include files, which while not shown would have to include saw files, perhaps a Lansky puck of Carborundum, which he used on his axe, hatchet and drawknife, and likely some other Carborundum stones, which were popular for sharpening in that era.

His drilling tools appear to include a brace, but all we ever see is the collet of that brace while he is drilling handles he made on site for his large augers. It is likely he has a number of bits for his brace, and the large augers we see him use in the timber framing, He likely made the handles for his large augers for a couple reasons. In addition to the leverage he gains, they negate the need for additional braces with different sweeps.

Richard L. Proenneke Photo

His striking tools appear to include a large framing claw hammer, a smaller claw hammer in the 16 ounce range that he used to tack the tarpaper and visqueen on his roof. He made a large wooden mallet carved from spruce. There is also a Crowbar available to him up there, often used for un-boarding boarded up windows for weatherization in winter.

Layout tools include a one-foot combination square, a folding ruler, a tape measure, a chalk line, what was likely a 24 inch level, a pair of dividers and carpenter pencils.

Dick made wooden hinges sawn from seasoned spruce stumps, and made dowel like pins for various joinery needs. He applied glue with a brush in some of these joinery applications. It is hard to say which glues, but they were used outdoors as well as in. In other cases he fashioned round mortises, where a tapered pin went into a hole, much like what was used traditionally in Windsor chairs, but I never saw any tooling that would taper a hole. My guess is that Dick shaved the pins with a drawknife and or whittled them so there would be a friction fit.

Richard L. Proenneke Photo

He made many accessories for living from tin gas cans, so there was likely a pair of tin snips or two but we never see them. There was at least one pair of vise grips and perhaps a pair of pliers. He made baking pans for his beloved sourdough, the starter that he got from Mary Alsworth, Babe Alsworth, his friend and bush pilot’s wife. He made wash basins, other tools for the kitchen. Carrying pans, tin totes and trays, for packing sand, gravel, cement mortar and stones. He made a pail with bail for carrying water from the lake, and covered storage for dry goods.

Dick even made hinges for various doors from these tin cans and nails. From the looks of other metal work for the stove and pipes, as well as flashing and 55 gallon drum usage, he likely had a hacksaw as well. For those without a cutting torch, a cold chisel will take the top off a 55-gallon drum too.

There was also a round point shovel, which he used for gardening and cutting moss for his roof. A hoe he used for mixing mortar for his fireplace and a pointing trowel for cementing the rockwork on the fireplace.

Amongst the tools Dick made were saw horses, a planing horse, which like a Japanese planing beam, had a stop on one end he could plane against. He made a number of different ladders. The spruce mallet, the handles for his augers and framing chisel and gouge. There was also the pack frame for carrying his moss for the roof, which I suspect may have later became the lid to his underground root cellar.

He also made jigs to help make things. The frame he built around the tin box he used to carry mortar and rocks. He made support forms for his rock fireplace chimney and a support form for building its arch. The snow shovel was cut from a 55-gallon barrel, and the bottom of a 55-gallon barrel was used for his cement mixer. He had a shop storage area adjacent to the outhouse where he kept dry wood and his tooling as well.

He made his furnishings. A bunk bed, dining/writing table, chair(s) and benches. He had seating inside and out. He made a couple tables and a carved a bowl from a burl he sawed off a tree. A wall mounted paper towel holder, cabinet next to his bed, various shelves for his dishes, utensils and cooking spices. A kitchen counter appears to have been made from 3-4 planks. He hung his cast iron frying pans on the wall or stored them in an animal proof cache he built outdoors. Even had the use of a cutting board, but did he bring that in? He likely made his snowshoes.

Unfortunately the videos never show all the tools he was seen to use all at once. The logistics of doing this, even as minimally as it was, was something that required a lot of thought and planning. Dick clearly had done his thinking and knew what was needed to use with what was at hand in the Alaska bush country. He had a good friend in Babe Alsworth, helping to fly in the things he needed. Dick was a resourceful man who knew his way around tools and how to use them productively to get what he needed made under a very tight schedule. The Alaskan spring, summer and fall passes by in a very short five months.

What is a self-sufficient craftsman? Fine craftsmanship does not have to be French polish. Is what Dick made rustic? Sure, but it is as durable as the land and stood the test of daily use over 30 years in unforgiving country. If you were wondering what tooling you really must have in your kit, if there is to be nothing other than human power, now you have a good idea.

Richard L. Proenneke Photo

Know that even though there is power from gas and electricity, these tools and skills can still be of great help to us. If you were wondering what skills you need to develop to use them, this too is a good overview. If you need help learning to use tools, and gaining knowledge for building with them, there are many, many titles in the Woodworks Library, which will help address this. Please feel free to go in and have a look around. If you have further questions about these tools and skills, you can also contact me.

If you are interested in some of this tooling, there are some links to many great new and used tool vendors on my Woodworks Tool Source Links page. For some of the specialized timber framing tools, two vendors come to mind. Caribou Blades is a maker of many fine tools for building and surviving in Bush country, and they are truely bush tools, made off grid in the remote bush country of British Columbia, Canada. Scott and Aki have been living this way since 1997. They have been doing “green” since before it became cool. Their tooling is primarily made in the same way Dick made things, from recovered steel, and local woods. Probably the greenest way to go if that appeals to you, and you support people who like Dick did, are living a simplified life, off the grid in a green way. Alternatively, Barr Quarton of Barr Tools also forges up a fine line of timber framing and woodworking tools in Northern Idaho. Both are highly recommended.

The three documentaries about Dick Proenneke and his life are available for purchase from Bob Swerer, the producer of the videos at www.dickproenneke.com They are all wonderfully produced, well narrated and well worth a watch. There are two books, “One Man’s Wilderness”, which is available from Amazon, and “More readings from One Man’s Wilderness”, that is either available from Amazon, or as a pdf download from the National Park Service, Here.

I understand there may be a third book in production from Dick’s journals that will fill the gap between the One Man’s Wilderness of 1968-69 and 1974-1980 where “More Readings” takes over.

Finally for video to go out on, there is a 15-minute clip that depicts Dick in his twilight, in 2000 when he returned to Twin Lakes to dedicate his homestead to the National Park Service.

I hope you enjoy these videos and woodworking insights from Dick, to the world.

“Too many men work on parts of things. Doing a job to completion satisfies me”.
Dick Proenneke

Happy Woodworking!

While a lot can be done with these, a common application is for use in workbench base construction. Real life happens. People move, circumstances change. Sometimes the dream shop in the basement relocates to a garage or an outbuilding. Many of us cannot build a bench with the certainty of knowing it will never need to be easily transported to elsewhere at some future point. This makes the use of steel or brass cross dowels a wonderful option.

While this article is about what it takes to install cross dowels, due to popular demand I have researched and included links to what I feel are the best sources for this hardware in it’s various sizes out there. The links are included at the end of this article.

It is notable that bench building is enjoying a renaissance right now. some great new designs, vises and hardware packages have recently become available.

Amongst these offerings, a top of the line All Steel Cross Dowel Package has been made available by Benchcrafted. They are marketed as Benchcrafted Barrel Nuts, and they are the best product available to the bench builder. Unlike any other cross dowel meant for use with benches, these are all steel for heavy duty applications and the design allows the installer to align them with fingers during assembly. These are top quality, a great value and installation doesn’t get simpler.

Ok, if you already have your hardware in hand, then layout for cross dowels in knock down bench legs works like this. If you have not obtained the parts you need, please consider waiting until you have it in hand.

Lay your two legs and cross piece on the bench, Inside face facing up, already milled, mortised and tenoned, and dry fit them. Clamp them top and bottom to hold the unit together with enough force so that things will not move while you perform the layout, and check them for square. Make sure you have them square.

If you have a Veritas saddle square, or equivalent, that would be handy, but if you don’t, no matter, here is a work around:

Position the leg assembly by allowing it to hang over the edge of your bench and support it with a something like a telescopic roller stand. Take a six-foot length of string line and tie a nut or a heavy washer on each end for weight, and drape it over the leg assembly, along the centerline of the crosspiece. This string line forms somewhat of a double-ended plumb bob, which will indicate the centerline of your layout work and will project these lines around corners. You can eyeball centerline of your work piece or measure. Once the string is located, go ahead and put a piece of blue painters tape on each end near the corners where it drapes over the edge.

The best position for the cross dowel on the bolt is at the end of the bolt with all the threads in the nut fully engaged. The formula for figuring cross dowel hole location from any combination of length and diameter hardware is to take the working length of the bolt (which differs if the cap screw is hex head, allen head, button head or flat head) and subtract half the diameter of the cross dowel from that length to find hole centerline for the cross dowel. The length of the bolt, when you are choosing the length optionally, is best determined by the thickness of what it has to pass through on the bolt head side, plus 1-1/4 inches minimum into the adjoining board for cross dowel centerline.