July is a great time to come “down” to Maine – so why not get over to the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship’s website & sign up for making a carved oak box? You can’t find a better place to be, and we’ll have some fun with red oak… http://www.woodschool.org/furniture-making/17th-century-carved-box
This is the last box class I’m scheduled for this year. Maine is one of my favorite spots, this will be my first time teaching at CFC. I visited there earlier this year, it looks like quite a place… here’s a set of photos from that visit:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.444969838865640.115456.181880515174575&type=1
We’ll have some oak to learn riving with, but the boards for the boxes themselves have been split out and are drying a bit…so we’ll plane those, do a series of carving exercises, then dive in & carve the panels for the box. Rabbets, wooden pins, hand-wrought nails, all that kind of stuff. I’m going to bring some Atlantic white cedar scraps, this class might be the one that we include a till inside the box. I often make the sides & bottoms of the tills with cedar. Oak till lids.
Here’s my latest box, oak with white pine lid, cedar bottom. This one features wooden hinges, this is what we’ll do during the class.
Here’s the hinge:
The more students I get means I get to do more teaching – so if you’ve been thinking about it, now’s the time. See you in Rockport, ME July 23-27.




July 9, 2012 at 9:58 pm
Hi, do you ever come to the west coast? Winstonjames
July 10, 2012 at 4:59 am
Peter
Just ordered the book you had on yr Walnut Book stand. Can’t understand why at some places it is so expensive. I try and use ABE Books ;-)
Think you mentioned hand made nails in the past. Nick Westerman has a nifty jig for making hand made nails; http://www.nicwestermann.co.uk Love the idea of riven and cleft wood. Just made some great branch wood spoons and spatulas from English Elm; bottom of the bowl has the dense heartwood. Bodger
July 13, 2012 at 9:06 pm
Peter where did they get that red oak log? I live in Maine and build Windsors and would appreciate finding out, thanks, Terry
July 19, 2012 at 2:26 pm
I connected up with the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship on facebook….and will plug your class(es) in my own group. We have around 400 members so they should spread the message father afield.
Id love to come Peter…. a family death in Maine ironically pushed out my trip up until latter August.