boards and biscuits

[For this and subsequent posts, the little girl in the aforementioned fairy tale will switch to a first person narrator.]

When I arrived at 8:10 a.m., Uncle Kenny was waiting. My future rojo [red] bookcase was leaning at the end of the shop. Can you spot it? [It’s to the left of the door.] By the way, click on any of the pictures to see a larger version.

The original plan was to paint the bookcase “rojo,” but Uncle Kenny had chosen maple for the project, and it just seemed like such a shame to cover it with paint. We looked the planks over, keeping in mind the dimensions that had been so conveniently printed in the Crate and Barrel catalog.

Since the finished shelves were 17 inches deep, and the planks were around 12 inches, we had to do some gluing. Uncle Kenny said that furniture makers have been gluing boards together for centuries, so we began by getting some biscuits from the fridge . . oh, are you feeling as if the woodworking project has suddenly shifted to a baking project? I don’t believe that I have mentioned that Uncle Kenny is a recycler extraordinaire.

Biscuits are oval-shaped pieces of wood that are put into recessed areas on the edge of the plank. Their purpose is to hold two planks together end to end. In my uncle’s shop, the biscuits are stored in an old refrigerator because, well, because old refrigerators deserve respect–and so does the earth. They still have doors and shelves that serve a purpose, so . . . why not treat them with dignity and allow them to continue making contributions to society?

It is a little known fact from my personal history that I was a biscuit maker for Hardees; it is also a part of my life rarely acknowledged, since I lasted all of three days. However, we are talking about a different kind of biscuit-making. DeWalt makes a handy-dandy tool that seems like the least dangerous of all of the power tools I’ve had the opportunity to use in my short, but intense woodworking experience.

Here is what the finished product looks like. Anyway, biscuits help to join two pieces of wood together, with a little help from some glue. The boards are then glued together and clamped overnight. So, after eight hours of work, we had four shelves, the top and the bottom, and the side panels cut, glued, and clamped–more or less.