more carving & riving cedar

carved flatsawn oak panel

a follow-up from yesterday. Here is the flatsawn red oak panel, now carved with one of the Devon patterns c. 1660s or so. I adapted a couple of different patterns to make this one up. Carving it was an exercise to show folks that if they don’t have the first-quality riven oak they can still do this type of carving. It worked differently of course; was somewhat brittle. There were times when I hit it with the same oomph that I use for good riven green wood, and busted out chips here & there. So I learned that in some parts I needed to strike the gouge a few lighter taps where one strong smack would do in better quality wood. Otherwise, not much to report. I don’t like the looks of it, but some paint & a few hundred years & it would look just fine.

Also today I was riving more of the cedar log to work it into molding stock. I use the same methods as with oak; wedges & a maul to break it down, then a froe & club to rive it into the finer pieces. It was a nice morning to be out in the woodpile.

cedar quarters

Nice straight-grained quarters of cedar, about five feet long.

cedar in riving brake

Striking the froe to remove the pith wood. I stand the stuff up in the brake for this move; then slide it into a horizontal position to twist the froe & help direct the split.  In the photo below I have shoved the froe club’s handle into the split to keep it open as I slide the froe further into the stock.

twisting the froe

 

another view

 

This sort of cedar was much used in seventeenth-century coastal New England. It appears in many pieces of joined furniture from Plymouth Colony, as applied moldings, drawer bottoms & chest bottoms. William Savell, Sr., of Braintree, Massachusetts Bay, had “joyners stuffe & cedar boults” in his 1669 probate inventory. Shares in cedar swamps appear with regularity as well, in deeds & inventories. One assumption is that the cedar is used for fencing; but it clearly shows up in furniture too. The one I am splitting is too narrow to make chest or drawer bottoms, so it’s destined to become a very-long-term supply of stock for applied moldings. No sense letting it go to waste.

 

Atlantic white cedar moldings

Atlantic white cedar for moldings

I recently got a small quantity of Atlantic white cedar, which I sometimes use for applied moldings. The log is pretty narrow, so the riven sections are not all that wide. But for moldings it works out OK. I have riven some of it, and then let it dry before planing – yup…let it dry. The stuff is too soppy & soggy for working green. Once it dries, it works like a charm. Plus I can lift the whole log with little or no effort.

Next month I will shoot the process I use to make the moldings from this stuff; but here is a detail of the applied molding, before any finish. In this case, the molding is applied with glue to a frame-and-panel door. I have a little carving left to do where the corners meet.

applied molding

I don’t make these moldings with a scratch stock; but with a dedicated molding plane. This one I made about 1995; it’s reasonable, but not as good as it could be. I hope to get to making some more planes soon; as always, I have great plans for the winter – we’ll see.

molding plane

Meanwhile, for tomorrow I plan on carving this wretched piece of oak into a typical panel. I always harp about the great quality of riven, straight-grained oak that’s freshly worked from the green log. This board is none of those things, but I want to carve it so I can tell readers that you can carve “ordinary” oak – it just is not as much fun, doesn’t look as nice, and is more work to boot. Stay tuned…

flatsawn oak board

 

more sources for 17th-century furniture studies

In an earlier post, I mentioned a number of sources for study concerning seventeenth-century furniture. http://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/2009/10/05/some-reference-material-for-seventeenth-century-furniture-studies/

Jennie Alexander then called & suggested that I post a mini-bibliography of my writings on the subject. As we spoke, we arrived at the notion that it should include Alexander’s stuff as well…

Here’s a shot at it. Included are the links when the article is available online as well; but I have tried to include the whole publication citation, for those who are interested in books & things like that.

Peter Follansbee and John Alexander, “Seventeenth-Century Joinery from Braintree, Massachusetts: the Savell Shop Tradition” in American Furniture, ed., Luke Beckerdite, (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England for the Chipstone Foundation, 1996) pp. 81-104.

[this is the one that Alexander & I cut our teeth on, and the furniture in it is still my favorite; which anyone who sees my work can tell...]

http://www.chipstone.org/NewSiteFiles/AFintroframeset.html

Peter Follansbee, “A Seventeenth-Century Carpenter’s Conceit: The Waldo Family Joined Great Chair” in American Furniture, ed., Luke Beckerdite, (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England for the Chipstone Foundation, 1998) pp. 197-214.

[The Waldo chair in the Chipstone collection is an amazing piece of mechanics; thanks to Trent for leading me down that road...here's one of my versions of it:]

3 legged wainscot chair

http://www.chipstone.org/NewS. iteFiles/AFintroframeset.html

Peter Follansbee, “Unpacking the Little Chest” in Old Time New England, vol 78, number 268 (Spring/Summer 2000): 5-23.

[not about a "little" chest, but about a chest that belonged to Nina Fletcher Little, whose collection ended up at Historic New England. The chest in question was made in Plymouth Colony, and this project really got me involved in the Plymouth Colony stuff...great variety of furniture forms survive from there. Here's a picture I got of one that will be sold this winter at Sotheby's]

Plymouth Colony chest with 2 drawers

Peter Follansbee, “Manuscripts, Marks, and Material Culture: Understanding the Joiner’s Trade in Seventeenth-Century America” in American Furniture, edited by Luke Beckerdite, (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England for the Chipstone Foundation, 2002), pp. 125-146.

[This one came the closest to showing how I get/got from surviving artifact & document to reproduction furniture...]

http://www.chipstone.org/NewSiteFiles/AFintroframeset.html

 

Peter Follansbee, “Connecting a London-Trained Joiner to 1630s Plymouth Colony” in Antiques and Fine Art (Summer/Autumn, 2007) 200-205.

http://www.antiquesandfineart.com/articles/article.cfm?request=835

 [the first installment in what I hope is a series of articles about London craftsmen who came to New England...I was thrilled when I found old Kenelm Winslow...]

Kenelm Winslow London record

Robert F. Trent and Peter Follansbee, “Repairs versus Deception in Essex County Cupboards, 1830-1890” in Rural New England Furniture: People, Place, and Production (Boston: Boston University Scholarly Publications, 2000) pp. 13-28

 [this one was an offshoot of the next one, but it came first...]

Robert F. Trent, Peter Follansbee and Alan Miller, “First Flowers in the
Wilderness: Mannerist Furniture from a Northern Essex County, Massachusetts, Shop” in American Furniture, edited by Luke Beckerdite, (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England for the Chipstone Foundation, 2001), pp. 1-64.

http://www.chipstone.org/NewSiteFiles/AFintroframeset.html

 [a monster project, spearheaded by Trent...amazing furniture]

Peter Follansbee, “Records of the London Carpenters’ Company” (2005) for New England Ancestors – the website of the New England Historic Genealogical Society

http://www.newenglandancestors.org/research/services/56_records_london_carpenters.asp

 [more London records. One could spend a whole career studying in the Guildhall Library there...]

Peter Follansbee, “Recreating a 17^th-Century Carved Box” in Woodwork (Spring 2009) 42-49.

http://peterfollansbee.com/new_website_Jan_2008/box_article_PDF/PF_box_articl.pdf

 [simple how-to, just took me a while to get around to it... ditto for below] 

Peter Follansbee, “Seventeenth-Century Carving Techniques” in Antiques and Fine Art  (I don’t have the citation here…)

http://www.antiquesandfineart.com/articles/article.cfm?request=439

 Stephanie Stone, “Peter Follansbee: Craftsman Scholar” in Woodwork (June 2005) 26-34.

[Stephanie & Woodwork magazine treated me very well...]

 Stephanie Stone, “Peter Follansbee Researching Historical Furniture” in Woodwork (June 2005) 80.

 John Alexander, “The 17^th-Century Draw Bored Mortise and Tenon: The Heart of Joinery” in Woodwork (October 1996) 66-71. http://www.greenwoodworking.com/DrawboredArticle

[Note that even way back then the fine print reads that John (now Jennie) Alexander & I were working on a book about joinery...well, we are doing our best to really make it happen in 2010...only 14 years later...]

John Alexander, “Riving Wood” in Woodwork (April 2003) pp. 64-70.

John Alexander, “Riving Wood For 17^th-Century Joint Furniture” American Period Furniture (2002)

[There is an online version of these articles; at Aleaxander's website. For the printed version, I like the one in Woodwork, early issues of American Period Furniture were a little rough. Now its production is excellent, though.]

http://www.greenwoodworking.com/RivingArticle

 Adam Katz Stone, “John Alexander: The Science of Simplicity” in Woodwork (October 1997) pp. 22-29.

[I think still a good overview of what Alexander's woodworking career covered...]  

JA riving oak

JA at shaving horse

 

 

a couple of books

oaks in Sibley's tree guide

Just a note about a couple of books I have been reading lately. First is The Sibley Guide to Trees, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009) by David Sibley. Sibley is well-known to birders in North America for his guides to birds. His books have quickly become the standard bird guides.  I have no idea how well his guide to trees will be; mostly because I don’t know enough about the subject. But I got the book out of the library, and I will buy one for my shop next time I’m ordering books.

 

The layout is the same as his bird guides, so will seem very familiar to anyone who has used his previous books. I jumped right to the pages about oaks, and there’s a slew of them. (46 pages) I will never see most of these trees, but there are plenty of eastern oak represented, and I learned a thing or two. Sibley’s paintings of the leaves are helpful, he paints them from above & from below, and includes various leaves from one tree. It was news to me that the leaves at the top of some oaks are deeper-lobed than those from lower down the tree.

 

I have been working some red oak lately I’m always told is called “yellowbark.” I gather from Sibley’s book this is Eastern Black Oak (Quercus velutina) – sometimes called yellow oak, or quercitron oak. Some green woodworkers I know have always stayed away from yellowbark because they said it didn’t rive well, but this one splits very well. The name stems from the color right under the bark, when the wood is fresh.

 

yellowbark

 

The other book I’m reading lately is The Joiner and the Cabinetmaker. This book was anonymously published in 1839 in England. It is written following a young apprentice in the trade as he makes 3 pieces of casework. Joel Moskowitz and Chris Schwarz have published it, with Moskowitz’ footnotes & comment on the original text, followed by a section where Schwarz builds the pieces following the text, more or less.

The Joiner and Cabinet Maker

 

http://www.lostartpress.com/product/b3ffe6ca-66df-46b2-a535-5f58e4cbfb8a.aspx

http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/Merchant/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=toolshop&Product_Code=AQ-1135.XX

It’s quite interesting the number of things that applied in the 1830s that I also see in 17th-century work. The apprentice dovetails a case together, and the author says that if they need to be even stronger, you can nail them too. Here’s a nailed dovetailed drawer, c. 1660s or so.

dovetailed drawer, c. 1660s

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a detailed discussion of shavings in the workshop, and how you need to be careful when scooping them up to sift through for any small tools or bits of wood worth saving… I’ve never seen anything like that in print before; but I contend with it every week or so when I sweep the floor.

Also a rundown on single-iron versus double-iron planes. Nice stuff.

BUT, the best thing I’ve read lately is something I have re-read. (as is often the case..)

A few weeks ago, we heard great-horned owls hooting in the early mornings, very distant across the marsh. Then one evening, just after the time changed, I was at the shop going to my car to come home, and heard two of them hooting back & forth, about 5:30 PM.  And I went and looked up this Thoreau piece about what he called “cat owls” :

“December 9, 1856 From a little east of Wyman’s I look over the pond westward. The sun is near setting, away beyond Fair Haven. A bewitching stillness reigns through all the woodland and over the snow‑clad landscape. Indeed, the winter day in the woods or fields has commonly the stillness of twilight. The pond is perfectly smooth and full of light. I hear only the strokes of a lingering Woodchopper at a distance, and the melodious hooting of an owl,  which is as common and marked a sound as the axe or the locomotive whistle. Yet where does the ubiquitous hooter sit, and who sees him? In whose wood‑lot is he to be found? Few eyes have rested on him hooting; few on him silent on his perch even. Yet cut away the woods never so much year after year, though the Chopper has not seen him and only a grove or two is left, still his aboriginal voice is heard indefinitely far and sweet, mingled oft, in strange harmony, with the newly invented din of trade, like a sentence Allegri sounded in our streets,‑hooting from invisible perch at foes the woodchoppers, who are invading his domains. As the earth only a few inches beneath the surface is undisturbed and what is was anciently, so are heard still some primeval sounds in the air.  Some of my townsmen I never see, and of a great proportion I do not hear the voices in a year, though they live within my horizon; but every week almost I hear the loud voice of the hooting owl,  though I do not see the bird more than once in ten years.”

I’ve only seen them a few times; but I always stop when I hear them…it’s nice to know they’re around.

great horned owl

 

next box-to-be

carving for next box front

As it turned out, I had some time today to work on the next box, so I got the carving done for the front, (above) and the sides (below).

carving for box sides

These are white oak again, I had some nice straight stuff around. I already started a finish on these, a reader asked tonight what finish do I use – it’s usually a combination of linseed oil and turpentine. Sometimes some varnish mixed in as well…for many years this was the vehicle I used when mixing pigments to make paint. Still will, no doubt. But this year I have started experimenting with pigments mixed in animal glue, based on some new research undeway at the MFA in Boston and Winterthur Museum in Delaware. After Thanksgiving I’ll have more stuff posted about the project I’m working on with the MFA, I plan on finishing  it up early this winter…

Here’s another paint sample. Iron oxide, bone black and chalk, all mixed in watery animal glue…on red oak.

paint sample, pigments in hide glue

 

new carved box

newest small box

This summer I saw a very nice, small box made in New England, c. 1660-1700. Its real standout feature was its size, and once I saw it, I knew I wanted to make some. I usually don’t make an exact copy of a piece like this, collectors and museums often don’t want their pieces being copied verbatim. Because I benefit greatly from the treatment I get from these sources, I try to keep them happy…

But as expected, I have made several versions of this small box thus far. The first three have all sold, so I did another one last week, and have one more underway. The size is about 5” high, 12 ½” wide, and 7 ½ “deep. I have done some of my usual adaptations; the original was all oak & I have used pine for the lid & bottom. The most significant change I made from the original is that I carved the sides of the box in addition to the front. Most New England boxes were just carved on the front, (there are some exceptions) but to me the sides might as well be carved too…

I wanted to post the box, so just shot the pictures on the kitchen table, thus a slight garish lighting…

A few detail shots, the side carving, the till inside the box. And for once, the rear view. This box is white oak & white pine. It sell for $600. If anyone is interested in one of these boxes, email me. I hope to have time to finish the next one, and make one more before you-know-what.

side carving

till lid

small box, rear view

 

more about scribed layout lines

For those of you who have read this blog a while, you will have seen before how Jennie Alexander & I work out some of our ideas & theories. This is another installment in such a back & forth…

The subject is a post I wrote the other day regarding a question a reader had asked about the scribed lines found on my carved work.

http://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/scribe-lines/

Leaving these lines showing is in keeping with period practice; and just like nowadays, some craftsmen took more care, some less. To illustrate just how care-free it could be, I illustrated a joined chest from Dedham, Massachusetts, showing the layout of the joinery (not just the carving) scribed on the front faces of the chest. Also scribed on the inside faces. I had questioned the need for this layout to be present on the faces of the stock. Other than carrying the layout from one stile or rail to another, I could think of no use for it…

mortise scribed on front face of joined chest

Alexander wrote in:

  “Peter: Your wondering about joinery’s scribed layout lines puzzles me. The great majority of layout lines are found on the front face of stock. I believe that this is because the front face in joinery is most often not only the fair (finished) face, it is also the only true (tried and trued up) face. The interior face is not only often unfinished, it is also not true in relation to anything. Interior surfaces are often left riven, hewn and misshapen. They cannot accept accurate layout I find it helpful to think of joint furniture as “skin deep” since, in joinery, both fair and true faces are on the outside of the piece. It follows that most scribing will be found there..”

Well, says me, for the mortises, they must be laid out on the inside faces/edges. That’s where they are cut; not on the front faces. And judging by the furniture I have reviewed with this in mind, the majority of the layout for joinery is on the inside faces/edges. All the layout we really are left with is for mortises, that for the shoulders of tenons gets cut away.

In illustrating the Dedham chest I went to an extreme, just to show how much you can get away with…but I think most stuff does not have joinery layout marks showing on the faces. Carving layout is another story.

Here’s a simple example; a joined stool. First the outside face, where the apron meets the stile. No layout.

joined stool, apron to stile

Now the inside view of the same stool. The height of the mortise is struck on both inside faces. Also present is the mortise gauge lines on both the stile & rail:

joined stool, aprons to stile, showing mortise layout

Here is the same sort of layout on the inside faces of a joined chest’s front stile. It’s goulish light, but I had to work it that way to show these lightly scribed lines:

mortise layout, inside front stile, joined chest

The front of this same chest shows no mortise layout:

muntin to upper rail joint

One more for tonight, then I’ll continue this material next time.

This shot shows the inside surace of a joined chest stile; where the mortise is scribed top & bottom. This surface is mostly unplaned, the riven texture is essentially the finished surface. The bottom of the mortise is just above the notch for the till bottom; the top of the mortise is aiming right at the center of the till lid’s pintle hole…

mortise layout, inside unplaned surface

 

scribe lines

joinery scribed on face of chest

A reader asked about the scribe lines I left showing on some carving recently. In seventeenth-century work, I find them running the gamut, from scribed on the face of a piece, such as the chest front above, to being barely if at all discernable. It is quite rare to not see some scribe lines somewhere on the piece…

In thinking about why the layout for the joinery is on the face of this stock, I have worked on the notion that it helps to transfer the layout from one rail to its mate, or one stile to its mate, etc. Thus hold two mating pieces edge-to-edge, and then transfer the lines right across the faces. Then carry them across the edges with a square and awl.  And yet I can’t then explain why this chest (below, from the same shop as above)  laid them out on the front face, and the inside face too…

While I have this file open, here is some carving from one of these chests, and its scribed layout is still visible on the face of the carving. Some of it is hard to pick out, but the margins, compass-work, and three vertical lines that divide the panel into four segments vertically…as well as the lines struck across the panel to locate the compass’ leg for centerpoints for arcs.

detail of scribed lines for carving

Back to the one that started this line of thought, here is a detail from the pews from Totnes, Devon. The scribed lines are faint, but there are three horizontal lines struck here; a centerline, and an upper & lower line to locate the arches of the motif.

There’s lots more, usually we find mortise gauge lines, alignment marks in the form of triangles and/or arrows, and chisel-and-gouge-cut marks to identify & dedicate mortises and tenons. I’m glad they left them there, it’s like a road map for me. Makes my job easier.

 

Devon furniture on display in Exeter

James Conrad, a regular reader of this blog, sent me a comment about an exhibition next week in Exeter, Devon, England. It includes several pieces of joined furniture, mostly chests, made in the area. Devon is significant in New England furniture studies because furniture made there is clearly linked to that made in Ipswich, Massachusetts. c. 1660-1700.

Folks familiar with my carved work will immediately see the influence this material has had on me . I have not seen the pieces in the exhibition, but have been to Devon before and seen a number of works from that area, among them these church pews in Totnes.

carved pews, Totnes, Devon

detail, Totnes pews

Well, I didn’t need church pews here in the house, so I adapted the carvings to fit a box to store junk in:

carved box, oak & pine

detail, box side

Here’s the links to the exhibition details. There’s some great carving there…and I’ll not say more for the time being…

http://www.maineantiquedigest.com/stories/index.html?id=1550

http://www.marhamchurchantiques.com/exhibition

 

better than nothing

flatsawn oak, in joined chest

This piece of wood looks like a bad day at the workbench; knots & cracks enough to really test one’s abilities. I put it here to show that the recent posts I had about riven radial stock are the “best-case” scenario…but when you have no first-quality “stuff” then you use what you have available. Just to show it can be done, here is the front of the photo above.

central muntin, joined oak chest, Devon

So Nathaniel wondered the other day, what use is the flatsawn board I pictured earlier; I say if you have no better, then use it. It will be more difficult, and require more care, than riven stock. But it’s workable. then when you get some nice riven stock, you’ll have something to compare it to.

Here’s a flatsawn white oak panel I carved.

flatsawn white oak carved panel