Nick Offerman Answers Woodworking Questions From Twitter

Hello, I'm Nick Offerman.

And welcome to Wood Support.

At Mark Plays Games asks

please help settle an argument.

Are woodworking aprons really necessary?

Hashtag woodworking.

Yes.

They are.

Any protective garment is necessary.

I mean it depends on what you are doing,

but we wear aprons

because they protect our civilian clothing

from finishing products

and just dust in general.

And they have handy pockets

in which you can store things like pencils,

rulers,

and your one hitter.

At Evan E Richards asks

if I'm staining a big piece of red oak,

do I need to use a pre-stain conditioner

or will oak take the stain well as it is?

Don't ever stain a red oak.

If you're gonna stain it,

get something cheaper than red oak.

Use popular.

I hate stain.

At Beast Thing asks

what books would you recommend

for someone who wants to learn

about wood working?

There's a lot of really good books.

There's one that I happened to write

called Good Clean Fun.

That's great for beginners.

Woodworking in general

has a lot of different specializations.

But the ones that I would generally recommend

would be anything by George Nakashima,

a fellow named Tage Frid,

T A G E F R I D.

At Mod Jam Five One Five asks,

good sir,

wrapping up my first wood project to house guitar amp.

Added second and final coat of poly.

Do I sand again after dry?

It depends on how good of a brush worker you are.

If you get a perfectly smooth finish,

then you don't need to sand it again.

Personally, I don't like the glossy shine

that comes from most finishes.

So after the final coat,

I will at least scuff it

with a four ought,

four zero steel wool,

or a super fine steel wool

just to knock down the shine.

But it all depends on how nice your finish is.

At the Jimmy Chicago asks

what's your favorite shape of dovetail?

That's an ignorant question

because there's only one shape of dovetail.

It is the dovetail shape.

(laughter)

But, if you're asking maybe what's my favorite size

of dovetail?

I do like tiny pins

in a dovetail layout.

I think that's handsome

and it belies a mastery of the form.

At Ottar underscore S asks

need advice on oil slash varnish

that helps maintain look and feel

of antique table,

over 100 year old,

but isn't prone to watermarking.

There's a great set of books by a fellow named

Bob Flexner on finishing

that would be a much better resource than me.

I dislike any finish,

but some sort of oil varnish mix

that's applied by hand.

I would basically just up,

up your varnish in your proportion

so that it has a higher protection.

But if you can create a sample board

and experiment with different mixes

and then hold them up to the existing finish

to see which one looks the most right.

And use coasters.

Woodworking guys asks

noob question,

what angle should I cut a miter joint at?

I would first address your grammar.

Next time try at what angle

should I cut a miter joint?

Traditionally, you're going for a 90 degree corner,

so you always bisect your angle.

So that would be a 45 degree angle.

All your corners should add up to 360 degrees.

So if your making a picture frame,

that's four times 90 degrees,

that's 360.

If your making a hexagon,

that's six corners,

that means 60 degrees per corner.

Bisected would be 30 degrees.

But generally,

a miter joint refers to 45 degrees.

At Grand Rothberg asks

true or false,

most adorable wood working assistant ever?

Looks like a clean diaper.

She's proffering a two by two

of some soft wood,

I'm guessing pine

which loses a couple of adorability points,

but pretty cute

and one might ask is that apron necessary?

I'll give her a seven.

Pretty cute.

Also I can't really approve her footwear.

But she is cute.

At Photo Dude 24 asks,

Master Crafter of wood period.

I assume you're referring to me.

I'm a student of the form.

But I appreciate your optimism.

I beseech thee,

what kind of joint is this?

It blows my mind.

Funky form and function in an antique.

I've seen this joinery in some antique drawers,

and it's very cool looking,

and probably pretty effective,

but I don't think it's that impressive,

because it's pretty clearly made by a machine.

You can imagine a sequence of forstener bits

that have a hole in the middle

to create this.

I'm dubious that it's done by hand

and so dovetails are actually much more impressive

than this.

But it is very handsome.

At Martin W 17 asks

what's the best way to dry a fresh oak slab

with minimum warp.

I seem to have no success and cups a lot

and with spacers and weight.

Again, consider your grammar,

give your tweets a re-read

before you hit send.

Just you know, it helps us all

comprehend our communications better.

Drying wood

is always a conundrum.

It depends on the climate where you are.

I do my best to seal the end grain

to slow down the evaporation of the water

through the ends of the end grain.

I use a lot of spacers and weight.

That's all I know how to do.

If it's still cupping,

maybe create a kiln of your own,

or find a friend with a kiln in the neighborhood

and try to speed up the drying time a little bit.

That usually can help it cure

before the cupping can kick in.

Otherwise, you can cut them a little fat,

and then plane them down to level

once they've cupped a bit.

But that potato chip effect

is definitely a tough road a hoe.

Good luck.

This has been Wood Support with Nick Offerman.

I'm not a master of the craft,

but I have read some books.

I hope it's been of some assistance.

Measure twice, cut once.