(upbeat music) - Hey, are you ready for a garden party?

We are at, "The American Woodshop", and this is just the chair for it, a keyed chair with attitude.

Stay around, we're going to make one together today on "The American Woodshop".

(scrapping) - [Narrator] "The American Woodshop", with Scott Phillips, is brought to you by- (classical music) - Woodcraft, since 1928, providing traditional and modern woodworking tools and supplies to generations of craftsmen.

Woodcraft, helping you make wood work.

(classical music) (loud banging) (intense music) - [Narrator 2] Pro tools, (intense music) for tool pros.

(intense music) Rikon tools.

- [Narrator] Woodcraft Magazine, projects, plans and web links, designed to help you make wood work.

PS Wood, home of Timber Wolf Swedish silicon steel bandsaw blades and super sharp scroll saw blades.

A bed to sleep on, a table to share meals, a house that feels like a home.

The furniture Bank of Central Ohio providing furniture to neighbors in need.

- Look at this chair, it's unbelievably comfortable.

It's called a keyed chair because the key goes all the way through this back brace.

Very solid.

Just a little bit short for my style.

Bigger people need a little bit taller seat and that's what we'll make today for the garden, with an elephant accent as well.

So, let's pull this apart, head into the wood shop and have some fun.

I found this piece hanging on Tippecanoe antique malls wall, in Tipp City, Ohio and they have no idea where it came from, It might have African roots, but, the wood is teak and it's just a masterpiece.

So I'm going to duplicate the elephant on a piece of hard maple that we'll put outdoor oil on, and so I'm using this as my template.

The most important thing to keep in mind, this hole right here is two and a half by inch and three eighths, square or rectangular for the key to slide through.

And then with the elephant, I've drawn out pattern marks here on the best of this piece of hard maple, working with the live edge and the defects.

And so, a little bit of it is pure artistry, where I'm going to sculpt this in for the trunk of the elephant, there and the front leg, middle leg and hind leg, with the tail right here and that's the top of the elephant.

And trust me when I tell you this, you want a really good jigsaw for this with dust collection.

And whatever you do, work safely.

Be sure to read, understand and follow all the instructions that come with the tools and products you use.

And boy, that would've been something.

That curve needs to come down this way a bit, so make sure you clamp your big work pieces like this.

This thing weighs about 85 pounds, so you want to make sure it stays where you want it.

Now you can't take this to a bandsaw yet because it's too big, it wouldn't clear the throat, but, a good jigsaw will cut this out and also these pierce cuts, we need to drill (drill whirring) holes using a forstner bit (drill whirring) and you want to cut out, you don't want to break out.

Give that bit of chance to carry away the saw dust.

And this maple is just an inch and three eighths thick.

So, let's get through there.

Danggone it.

There we go.

Woo.

Boy, that's tough stuff.

Exactly what I want for the backboard.

This is top, that's going to be the bottom.

So let's cut this out, taking our time.

I want to get it supported, turn it on.

Op.

Auto, right here, it's on dust collection.

Don't touch with the blade until (drill whirring) it's up and running.

(drill whirring) Now, turn that off and let's take a look at what we have here.

That's looking good.

That's going to be the backboard.

Working around these end checks here.

That's going to be beautiful.

Want to work with the live edge and I'll cut these areas open and then sweep this curve.

And from there, we can go over to the bandsaw.

Let me get set up to work with this a little bit better.

(clanging) From a design standpoint, the bottom feet right here are going to be solid wood, left and right and this is a graceful arch, just drawn in.

But from the bottom of those feet to the bottom edge of this keyed hole, it should be 14 inches.

It just works best for a person six feet tall.

So I'm going to sculpt in the bottom and then after that, I'll show you how to cut the square or rectangular key hole.

(drill whirring) I keep call that square, it's a rectangle.

But I'll tell you, this piece of hard maple came from a tornado, right here on, "The American Woodshop" and I have gotten more use out of fun unusual projects, with this.

But I'm going to cut the bottom off, arch it, than square that hole open.

Loving (saw whirring) the way this is all shaping up.

The key is, give this blade on the jigsaw a chance to do it's work.

(saw whirring) And itll treat you right.

Just hold it flat to the material, make sure its clamped (saw whirring) and watch that blade.

You can see the end check, that's all in the way.

(saw whirring) So this is a lot of sculpting right here.

But now to do this curve cut, as you make that sweeping curve, just take your time, let the blade do its job.

(saw whirring) This blade is just at five 16ths up against its width.

(saw whirring) Once you get the cut going, keep going, make it a sweeping cut.

(saw whirring) Be the artist, let the inner artist in you shine.

(saw whirring) This biggest thing is you hold it flat to the table as you make the cut.

(saw whirring) And I do like the dust collection on there.

But it just let's you realize, hey, gotta watch that hose.

(saw whirring) All the way down and through.

That would've hurt.

Shut it off.

Yeah, I'm happy with that.

Thats the feet.

I can sculpt this on the bandsaw and work with that live edge.

Now, cutting into the sharp points, this is important, as you make one cut, never try to back out of the cut, (saw whirring) I'll do this in a way where you can see.

In other words, when you come down to that line, come all the way up to that corner.

When I see the corner, I stop, turn it off.

If you don't do that, if you try to pull that up, you're going to bend the blade.

And these are pricey things.

(saw whirring) Here's a quick recap.

See this keyhole?

That's what we just cut out, right there.

And that looks good.

And this is called a microplane (scraping) and it melts through hardwood like you wouldn't believe.

You can use it to refine the hole if you need to, but that's a perfect hole, in anybody's book.

Now the next thing is, as you're looking at the top, this is where the elephant's going to be and I need to cut to those lines.

I know it doesn't look like much, but, I have it laid out artistically the way I want it.

And I've got clearance here, so I'll clamp this down and I'll notch that out for the elephant parts, the legs, the tail, it's going to look great.

Love it.

Just so much fun to express yourself with wood.

You just can't beat it.

I'll get this cut out, then it's over to the bandsaw.

(saw whirring) This is the backboard and there's a rough-in for the elephant.

So, we can set that safely out of the way.

And now, with the key, I'm just using a two by, which is an inch and a half, by 11 and a quarter southern yellow pine for the seat, for the key.

And this is called a quick corner, and I'm going to the biggest corner, which is two inch right there.

And you could use a compass, lay out a graceful corner, or you could just use this.

And the reason we haven't used the bandsaw up until now is because the throat capacity is 14 inches.

Okay?

So now, I can make all these cuts on the key, including the long tongue.

This workpiece should be five feet long.

Okay, dust collector on, I'll make all my cuts with a half inch wide blade, (saw whirring) silicon steel 4 teeth per inch.

Bring it up to speed.

Everything's running good.

Make these two side cuts first and I'm going to leave the line.

(saw whirring) So I'm cutting on the bottom edge the line, leaving the line.

Now watch what happens when I come all the way into that line.

Turn it off.

Do not try to back out of that cut.

You'll put pressure on that blade and when you do, it'll come off the wheels, hit the metal guard, ruin the blade.

Now I'm going to flip it over, I have the pattern laid out on the other side.

Going do the same exact thing on this side.

Then I can do this long running cuts.

(saw whirring) leaving the line.

Being consistent.

Giving that blade a chance to carry away that saw dust.

If you can't get your bandsaw to do things like this, it's because you don't have enough tension on a blade or you don't have the right blade.

Let's turn that off.

I have a break on this one, which makes it nice.

Okay.

And when you have drift on a blade, that's a function of having damaged set.

You hit something and damaged the side, it's going to drift off where that set has been compromised.

Watch how this cuts nice and straight.

(saw whirring) And my out feed table is the same height as my bandsaw.

So my out feed tables my workbench Keeping the board flat.

(saw whirring) to the cast-iron table.

And this southern yellow pine has resinous summer wood, which, is more dense than the faster-growing springwood.

So sometimes its a little bit slow to cut, slow down.

Give that blade a chance to do its work with the out feed side supported by my workbench.

So I can pull this board down to the table and that is one half of the key.

So now, that's out of the way, going to make the other part of the key and then I'll just round over the end and then I'll bring the back up and sculpt away a little bit.

(saw whirring) I love my bandsaw.

(saw whirring) You want to make sure the pine for this key is knot free.

There's a knot right there, but it's on the side, it'll be okay.

Now, sculpt the end.

And then we can sculpt the key.

Pull a bit more on the back of our key.

And then it's outside and use some power sculpting tools.

Do not reach in and get that scrap.

Let the wood clear itself.

You do not want to be reaching behind that moving blad (saw whirring) See this cutter, those are tungsten carbide.

Now watch, I'll turn that on.

(cutter whirring) And you can see that hole pattern let's you see through the cutter.

This is red, which is coarse, always wear an N95 dust mask.

And I'll use a die grinder to do stop cuts.

This is a cool sander, to get into the details.

And then, five inch random orbital and then it's into Suzy, to carve away.

But this is called the rough out.

(cutter whirring) And you can see, if you use a light touch, you can really remove a lot of material, like sculpt in around the ear, like so.

(cutter whirring) And that helps to get it to a form where the chisel work goes a whole lot faster.

Now this is a delicate area for chisel work here, but I'll sculpt this up and around with this grinder first, then I'll go to the die grinder, cut in some details like the eye and the toes, work on the tail, then a bit of sanding, then inside to carve.

(cutter whirring) This is called a die grinder and that's a carbide point, a fine point.

Now watch what I can do with this.

(grinder whirring) with the rotation, I'm bracing it with both hands and I can establish a cut and then, I can press the point in and I can do things like the foot detail right here.

And it burns it at the same time and I like that look.

So whenever I need extra fine detail in this hard maple, I really like this die grinder.

'Cause it gives the elephant character and that's what it needs.

'Cause after all, this is a garden party chair, they're supposed to be fun.

I'll burn in that tail detail right there.

That's got to hurt, but it looks so good.

Oh that's awesome.

And then you can go in with a point and round over details here.

Real handy tool.

And then, once I'm through with this, 'cause it really can go to town and get in there nice and deep, then what I can do, to save time, turn that off and I'm going to show you, this is called a Sand-O-Flex, I only use 80 grit.

And whenever you need more grit, you just release that and you pull more out, like that.

It's coiled up on the inside.

Tighten that back up, because it will keep coming out.

And now what you can do, (Sand-O-Flex whirring) bracing your arms to your body, you can really go to town with this to feather in the detail.

(Sand-O-Flex whirring) And then, beyond that, I can go to the five inch random orbital sander.

I like that over the six inch, because it gets into the tight curves better.

And I'll give this a once over and get rid of the marks here and it's inside to see Suzy carve in detail.

I'd say, this is coming to life.

This is awesome.

(sander whirring) All right, you have your work piece clamped down, give us some pointers on carving here.

- I do.

Well the biggest thing is just take your time and do little taps.

I'm using a V-shaped tool here.

I've got a couple other simple chisels, just using these three.

And just take your time and just (tapping) use the mallet (tapping) and just tap light taps, do the best, work the best.

(tapping) Then after I do that, I can go and use the edge of that V-shaped tool and just kind of sculpt that around and just take your time.

And basically what you want to do is make it look 3D, so it's really popping out, so there's no doubt what it is, it's a really cool elephant, I love what you're doing here.

- Okay, well you're doing the work, I want to show you one thing.

Get a hard Arkansas stone and with the bevel flat against the stone, hold your arm to your body and you can just bring up an edge slick as can be, just like that.

Don't round over the bevel, keep the bevel flat.

And if you just do that now and then, it's so much easier.

Why don't you give a little bit of carving right there on that detail of his front leg?

And let's see - Got it good and sharp for me.

- I do.

I do, of course.

- Ah, testing me.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

I've got this edge pretty well done.

But yeah, you can see some shavings coming off there and that just help profiles it and makes the legs stand out and his stomach here and and his big trunk here.

It's looking cool.

- It is looking cool.

- I love it.

It's fun.

- Well, keep working on that.

- I will.

- And we're going to go plane down the key so it will fit in that notch.

(whooshing) This is one of my saving tools of the wood shop, it just saves me so much sanding time because the helical head gives me a super smooth cut.

Now, with the key, we have to plane it down so it's just slightly under an inch and three eighths.

And this is a loud tool and A to Z, here's some tips for you.

(machine whirring) When you turn it on and you bring the work piece up, reading the grain, now there's a knot here that's going to want to tear out, so I want to feed it the right way and that way it's not going to lift that knot out.

And the whole idea here is to take super light cuts that eliminates nice by doing light cuts, as long as you lift up on the out feed to keep that work piece flat to the table.

And don't take more than a half turn off at a time.

That will do two things, it will keep the knives, the cutters, actually these are carbide, sharper longer and it will give you a super smooth cut.

Take it away, Suzy.

- All right, the moment of truth, we're using a gel stain and it's a nice golden pine.

And I love using this gel stain, 'cause it really just, it's easy to make a good color match and it just goes on so easy, as you can see.

And I'm going to get in all these cool crevices and really make this elephant come alive.

And - Isn't- - Got some darker colors, if I want to get in there and you know, really make it pop.

- Okay.

And then, so she's letting it soak into that hard maple.

First she's using the colonial maple, or the golden pine, which is the lighter of the three colors.

- Yes.

- And then she can go in for accents around the elephants bottom side, in order to give it depth.

But wiping it off now, with that rag, let's see the grain come through, 'cause- - Oh yeah, there you go.

- [Scott] Yeah, awesome.

- Yeah.

- That's- Yeah, that's- - Yeah.

- [Scott] And if you want a lighter tone somewhere, just buff it out a bit.

- Right.

- Okay.

- [Suzy] You just let it sit a little bit.

And soak in there.

- That's awesome babe.

That looks so good.

- [Suzy] And then you start wiping it.

Yeah, I love it.

- Alright.

- Yeah.

(scrapping) - You know it's hard to find good help, but I believe I've done it.

(laughing) Beautiful job babe.

- Thank you.

- And she really gets carried away with her work.

What do you think of your keyed chair?

- I love it.

I love it.

Team work.

- And the elephant?

- I love it.

It's great.

It really is.

It's very cool.

- Perfect for any garden - Anywhere.

- Okay.

- Anytime.

- There you have it from, "The American Woodshop".

Now go make your own version of your keyed chair and thank you so much for adding your beautiful details.

- Well thank you.

- Okay.

See you next time in, "The American Woodshop".

- See ya.

(classical music) - Woodcraft, since 1928, providing traditional and modern woodworking tools and supplies to generations of craftsmen.

Woodcraft, helping you make wood work.

(classical music) (banging) (intense music) - Pro tools (intense music) for tool pros.

(intense music) Rikon Tools.

- [Narrator] Woodcraft Magazine, projects, plans and web links, designed to help you make wood work.

- [Narrator 2] PS Wood, home of Timber Wolf Swedish silicon steel bandsaw blades and super sharp scroll saw blades.

A bed to sleep on, a table to share meals, a house that feels like a home.

The Furniture Bank of central Ohio, providing furniture to neighbors in need.

- For more information on tips behind, "The American Woodshop", and watch free episodes 24/7, check us out online and like us on Facebook.

(upbeat music)