(cheerful music) - Hi, welcome to "The American Woodshop."

I'm Scott Phillips, and today, we're going to make a live edge corkscrew willow bench, say that fast three times, and also a beautiful elm assembly on live edge, so join us!

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- Today it's all about live edge furniture.

We're going to make a bench, we're going to make a table, and we're using found material from nature, corkscrew branches like this.

And this is corkscrew willow.

Kind of looks like an antler, really.

And that will be a back part of the brace to the bench.

And this is the very back of the bench, and this is a slab of corkscrew willow, air dried, with Arm-R-Seal on it.

Now, we're going to cut this out, and you'll see how all these pieces start to come together.

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

Work safely.

(jigsaw sawing) There we go, all the way through.

And that looks really good right now.

And this is going to be the back to the bench, so we can set that aside.

And I just love that live edge look.

That's what it looks like unfinished.

That is the finished side, so that'll get another coat once we have everything coming together.

Now, the other thing I want to do, I'll clamp this, and this will be for a shelf that I'll be making later.

So I always try to recycle materials.

No sense in letting wood go to waste.

Now, the next thing I want to show you, over here I have this corkscrew willow clamped up, and I'm going to use a Japanese-style razor saw to cut this off.

And that's going to be the spot right there that I need it to go.

This cuts on the pull stroke.

And just do not get in a hurry with this.

Give that blade a chance to carry away the sawdust.

And never ever put your fingers or hand in the plane of the blade, because, boy, it just really melts through the wood.

Now, the beautiful thing about corkscrew willow is it has salicylic acid in it.

Being an acid, that makes this wood very resistant to decay.

So that can be a leg workpiece later on, kind of like this piece right here.

But anyways, what we're going to do next is have some fun.

We're going to use this inch and a half tenon cutter on this material right here, and watch what happens.

You brace this drill to your body and you just fire it up, sighting straight down that limb in the way that you want that tenon to come out, and you just make your tenon.

This is so much fun.

That's just perfect right there.

It could go a bit longer, just a bit longer.

This is the artistic process, it's all done by eye.

Now let's release that.

And this is going to go into the back of the bench like that, and that will be joined with the backrest of the bench.

Now, let me get set up, we'll make the bench seat next.

Let's go to the bandsaw for that.

(bandsaw sawing) 'Kay, now turn everything off.

Maybe, there we go.

Sometimes that remote is a little bit awkward.

And this has a brake, so I'll bring that blade to a stop.

And this is two pieces of hard maple glued together, and that's got tiger in it.

And this is figured, so it's going to be beautiful when we get the finish on it.

Looks good, this is the bottom.

I have some layout lines on that.

And so to lay in the curves of this 7/8-inch-thick seat board, I cut mating curves to build this out so that it's going to make it look like a thick slab.

So you don't have to have a huge, thick piece in order to create the illusion of thickness by building that seat board out.

Now, the one other thing I'm going to need is a bottom piece out of oak that's nice and strong.

It's two and a quarter inches wide and an inch and three quarters thick.

And I'm going to cut this to length right now on the band saw.

And if you have a half-inch, three-tooth-per-inch blade, silicon steel, you can do this very effectively.

Just like this, and I'll cut that to length, and then we'll assemble all the parts.

I want to take the line in this case, so dust collector on.

And then that's lined up, let's make these cuts.

(bandsaw whirring) (air whooshes) (drilling) All right, now let me show you what's going on here.

Now that we have the pieces band sawn, we need this one other piece of oak that has a 14-degree hole, that's what this table's tilted at.

So relative to the bit, that's 14 degrees right there.

And this is a good jig with a fence, so now, to drill this other one all the way through, I can slide that forward, making sure that it's tight against the fence, no sawdust.

Keeping that away, line that up like that and clamp it.

And it blows my mind when people drill on the drill press without clamping things.

And you need that because of safety, a lot of people get hurt around a drill press because the work piece moves, they try to catch it.

Be careful with that.

So now I can finish that hole.

And by the way, see this little brace right here?

I use the same table, I just took this fence off that screws on and made sure this piece is lined up to the edge of this jig that's lined up to the table, and that bit's right on center, and I can drill two holes at 14 degrees, and you'll see why that's important in just a second.

So drill press is a great tool to have, my hands braced to the fence, now finish this hole.

(drilling) Okay, now.

There we go.

Two perfect holes.

And it has to be in white oak, that's the only thing that's going to be strong enough for this.

Now let's go back to the workbench and put it together.

(air whooshes) Now, I'm using an acid brush to brush out the wood glue that I put on there about three minutes ago.

I like for it to air dry just a bit before I put the two mating glued surfaces together.

And the reason I'm doing this, that is the front of the bench, and I flip this up and on.

And I just used a router to round over the edge right here.

I left the top edge crisp for effect.

Close that glue bottle down.

And now what I can do, you can see, is line this up to these two pieces, trimmed pieces that are screwed in place and glued.

Complementary grain, the grain's running that way on the top pieces, same on the seat board, grain's running long on this front piece.

And now I walk the screws, square drive, all the way down, and that gives me the illusion of a very nice thick slab of wood without the expense.

And no clamps needed, because the screws do the job of keeping all this nice and tight, so.

I'll glue these in place as well.

And whenever you glue using wood glue, you want glue on both surfaces.

It just makes it a much, much stronger joint.

And again, I'll brush this out liberally.

Get that sized, working that glue into the pores of the wood microscopically into the open cellulose cuts.

Wood's only three things, really, learned that in forestry school in technology.

It's cellulose, which is a carbon compound, and it's lignin, which is a glue, and it is extractives.

And you go, "Well, what are extractives?"

Like terpenes and turpentine, things like that, those are extractives that come from pines.

But anyways, long story short, extractives are the things that are created by the leaves once they bring up minerals from the ground, and that's what give different species of wood different colors, the extractives.

And that's an oversimplification, but it works in this case, there's a drop of glue.

Now, in this area, when these pieces come up and go on, these are cross grain, the grain's running this way on these pieces for the legs.

So they have to go, the screws go in oversized holes that allow the seat board with the grain running 90 degrees to that piece.

This will allow the seat board to expand and contract.

And you want a heavy duty screw for that.

So, let me screw this all together, and then you'll see how the legs go up and in.

(drilling) This low-angle block plane, you can't beat it.

When it comes time to break an edge, don't sand it, plane it!

You don't eat the saw dust and it gives you a surface ready for a finish.

Just that little touch means a big deal when you are putting something like this together.

Now, this front edge of this leg assembly block does not quite, it's back 3/16 of an inch, it doesn't go all the way forward, you need to give that board a chance to move.

And then what I have done, I've located all the holes and I've countersunk the top so the screws are just the proper length to go into but not through the top board, that's important.

And these are heavy duty screws, so remember, these do not get glued.

So now I can fasten these in place into the pilot holes like that, all the way around.

And these are oversized holes to let things move.

Here we go.

Very good.

And don't want to over-torque it.

Just back that one off just a hair.

That's good, do the same thing down here.

And I've used this style of construction a bunch, and it always works beautifully.

So, you can't beat it.

It's a simple way to build a bench.

Okay, that looks good.

Now, the final thing, along the back edge here, this is the back, that's the front, is I've pre-drilled some holes for this piece that you saw me drill those 14-degree holes in, and it has to be canted back.

So when this is secured, this will be drilled through the seat board to accept the top tenon-cut pieces.

Now, the grain's running this way, complementary grain on the seat board.

So I'm going to glue this.

And again, what I'm doing is using the screws instead of clamps.

I'll brush that out nicely.

True or false, use a wet rag to get the squeeze-out off.

Absolutely false!

This is a water-based glue, and so if you use a wet rag and put it in solution, it's going to soak into the wood, and when you put a finish on it, it's going to be blotchy.

Okay, the angle is going the correct way.

Oops.

No, it's not.

Now it's going the correct way.

Going that way, which the seat has to rake back.

So now, I press that in, I line it up, and I use the screws to draw it all tight.

I'll get that done, and off to the races we go, need a different driver.

(air whooshes) Now, I flipped the work piece around.

This is the back support, this is the top right here, this is the bottom.

Hole is angled back.

(drilling) And I'm using what's called a multi-spur Forstner-style bit, inch and a half diameter, and this is going into hard maple so I am matching the angle that's already in there and I'm drilling this all the way through to the other side.

(drilling) Okay, now watch, this is kind of cool.

You see this bit is all the way through into this piece, and you can tell because of the different color.

And if this worked out the right way, there's absolutely no tear out around that hole.

Now, this can take that tenon that you saw cut earlier at the show to take the back brace.

Do the other hole, and then we'll start putting pieces together!

This is cool!

Doing good, I got to tape this hole up as well.

These holes are drilled all the way through now.

And I used the dowel tenon cutter to size these inch and a half.

And the angle here matches the angle of rake and splay, if it's 14 degrees here in the hole, it's 14 degrees there.

10 degrees, 10 degrees, so on.

Now, ease this down and eventually these will be glued in place, but it's time to do the assembly, which is pretty cool because it's unlike anything you've probably ever seen before.

Everybody's doing live edge tables, it's all the rage.

What about a live edge bench?

Which is exactly what we have going on right here.

So, it's kind of the blend of the natural and the traditional plank seat.

(air whooshes) So this live edge corkscrew willow slab is dry now, and this will end up being mounted like that.

And it just gets screwed to the willow branches in the back.

So this is for the bench outside on our porch, which will get an outdoor oil.

Now, speaking of outdoors, let's head outside to finish this project.

Let's go get set up.

That looks just about right, and what I'm doing by eye is lining up everything for this to work with these heavy-duty fasteners.

Okay, and I need to raise this just the perfect amount.

And I've got that marked.

And now I draw that tight on that side, check this side.

Ooh, that's looking good!

Okay, so I need to bring that up just a hair.

And this is the fun part where you get to express yourself.

I love it!

And be sure to use the heavy-duty fasteners, no whippy screws need apply here.

So that goes up just a hair.

Point of contact right there.

And I want two screws in each side to hold the back in place.

Okay, now.

That's perfect.

And if you look at these legs, those are traditional southern yellow pine.

It looks good.

Back here I have some more legs that are going into a live edge walnut slab.

Same diameter, so I've got these mocked up over here.

So let me cut the tenons on this.

And it really is good when you have a cord to have the side handle on here.

Start out and brace it to your body.

Sight down the average length of the leg and to the very end.

Start slow.

And then you can speed it up a bit.

But don't go too fast.

A cordless drill stops itself, a corded drill won't.

So take your time.

And we'll cut all the tenons that we need for this project.

For the table, and we'll put a couple cool legs on the bench too.

Perfect.

(drilling) Now, that's solid, that means that all four of the tenons of the legs of this table are home.

And now this is level right there.

I can bring this up.

And at the lowest leg, I mark it level, right here.

Like so, that's level.

And I lay in my cut mark all the way around with a permanent marker so I can see it all the way around like that.

And I'm going to cut these two first.

(air whooshes) Now, some fine tuning might be required with a razor saw in order to get it to seat flat.

And I replaced a front leg with a piece of elm.

And this is Siberian or Chinese elm.

And I'll put this leg in the back, and that's cut at a 14-degree angle.

And we're going to toggle this up.

And the ground is fairly level right here.

And I can swing that leg around like so.

And that's rock solid.

Now, the other cool thing is when I lean this forward, you can see the beauty of that Arm-R-Seal finish on the maple seat, see that figure?

And then the back just pops.

And the other thing is the back has to be canted back at a 15-degree angle relative to the seat for it to be comfortable, for this to hit your back the right way.

So now.

Got to love it!

So this is an outdoor bench, and it's a wonderful project.

Something different from "The American Woodshop."

I hope you enjoyed the show this week.

And next week, we're full of more surprises, so don't miss it.

Stay well, and get busy in that wood shop!

Yeah, that's looking good.

And of course, that's not bad either.

Man, I'm loving that.

The table height should be 30 inches.

- [Announcer] Since 1928, Woodcraft has been providing traditional and modern woodworking tools and supplies to generations of craftsmen.

Woodcraft, helping you make wood work.

(intense music) - [Announcer] Pro tools for tool pros.

(intense music) RIKON Tools.

- [Announcer] Woodcraft Magazine.

Projects, plans, and web links designed to help you make wood work.

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

- [Announcer] 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 about "The American Woodshop," you can watch free episodes 24/7 on our website, and you can find us on these social media platforms.

(cheerful music)