home again

I returned the other day from the Woodworking in America conference in Valley Forge, PA. It was quite a time; met lots of people, saw many interesting tools & techniques. “Such a long, long time to be gone, & a short time to be there…” To demonstrate to woodworkers makes things so much easier than my usual day job.  

I had only done a couple of woodworking seminar/conference type presentations before. This one went very well, I thought. Best move was having Roy Underhill be the dinner speaker. He keeps your attention to say the least.

I took almost no pictures; except for a few of the old molding planes Larry Williams & Don McConnell brought…

molding planes

 Right now, I am in the midst of a couple of days off, hence walking the beach instead of being in the shop.

 

perfect morning at Plymouth beach

So I will get back to posts tomorrow or so…meanwhile, the woodsy part of the web will have plenty of coverage, judging by what is already out there. So I’ll step aside from that. If you want to see a piece that I had a hand in, see this link to a hatchet/handsaw head-to-head. To paraphrase the Bobby Fuller Four, “I fought the saw, & the saw won…”

http://villagecarpenter.blogspot.com/2009/10/hatchetman-vs-blade.html

 Thanks to Kari for the viddie…

 

in my mind I’m gone to Carolina

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, it’s not just in my mind. I’m off to Country Workshops to make a bunch of carved boxes. I will be back at this blog in about a week & 1/2. I’ll have pictures from our time there, and then we’ll get to this issue of moisture content.

small box, oak & pine

so, more to come.

PF

 

one thing leads to another

Well, I’m not much when it comes to carpentry. I knew the old aluminum screen door had to go; and that I couldn’t abide a factory-made modern wooden door. So I made one, and then of course had to struggle through framing & hanging it.  And that led to new shingles…& on & on.

But today I had help.

willing helpers

As is often the case, the help often has a mind of its own. Apparently, Daniel did not warm up to the chip carving, and thus decided to shingle over it.

so much for chip carving

Meanwhile Rose had decided that there was more pressing work elsewhere, and was ready to go.

ready with the tool kit

The kids work at a faster pace than I do; making photography a little trickier. Plus they were smart enough to work in the shade.

home repairs full-speed

 

new kitchen cupboard door

Well, after a 3 1/2 year interruption (the twins) I have resumed my work at re-facing the cupboards in our kitchen…

Perhaps you could guess, but I am doing them in oak, frames & panels. Here with some accents in black walnut & Atlantic white cedar. The whole thing, if it ever gets done, will be a total mix-up of patterns and styles, all falling within the general outline of seventeenth-century stuff. This pattern is copied from stuff from the Connecticut River Valley, c. 1675-1700 give or take.  The panel was a practice piece a while back, so I made the frame this past week or so…and fitted the walnut & cedar the other day. Now some more finish, then start to figure out how it will fit in the scheme of things.

next kitchen cupboard door

 

carved panel

the June 2009 issue of Popular Woodworking includes an article I did about the carved work in my joined furniture. I was quite pleased with the treatment I received there, and the printed result.

 I carved two panels in photographing the stuff for the article, thus decided I was well on the way to another chest. So it is now one of the too-many projects I have going.  It’s been a while since I made something for the house, so we’ll see if there’s room for it here. 

Here is a detail of the central panel and some of the framing; it’s further along than this now, but I haven’t had much chance at photos. The muntins are made from quartersawn white oak, the rails are riven white oak and the panel riven red oak. I am planning on painting the carvings, and in time the various oak pieces will all blend together…

center panel, new chest

Otherwise, another extra-curricular woodworking that I sometimes do is spoon carving. These days, I keep a few spoons underway in a basket that I take with me when the kids & I go to the playground. It has taken a while for the moms to get used to that guy with the beard and the knives, but so far no one has called the police. I learned spoon carving 15-20 years ago at Country Workshops (www.countryworkshops.org) from Drew Langsner, and Jogge & Willie Sundqvist. This batch contains a few woods; cherry, apple and some birch. The thing I like about spoon carving is that you can take it most anywhere, and do much of it in your lap. I hew the rough shape at the shop, then do the knife work in bits & pieces as time allows.

a few spoons

My interest in spoons got re-kindled by the work of Robin & Nicola Wood http://www.robin-wood.co.uk/spoon-carving.htm and their posts (and others) on the forum at the bodgers’ site http://www.bodgers.org.uk/bb/phpBB2/

Country Workshops’ forum also has a lot of information about woodenware, it has been a staple there since Drew & Louise started the school in 1978…

http://countryworkshops.org/forum.html

 

J. Alexander’s bench hook

Here is Alexander’s shop-made bench hook, now & forever known as the “ersatz bench hook.”

JA ersatz bench hook

 

 

 

an email from JA describes it:

The top of the base block is tapered so that plane blades miss it when working thin stock. The teeth are filed from heavy saw blade stock from a rusted broken two man saw. The screw runs down through a half inch horizontal wooden peg which passes through the base. A bolt and inlet nut maybe even better. This toothy critter must withstand abuse. To that end, the blade is inlet into the top of the block to stabilize it and prevent rotation. One thing the picture doesn’t show is the shallow  relief mortised into the bench underneath the teeth. This allows the bench hook to be driven completely below the bench’s surface.

 

PF adds: I see the excavation in the bench in front of the bench hook, so I think the readers will see it also. For more about Alexander, see www.greenwoodworking.com

 

Autumn 2008

joined stool turning

Fall is a pretty busy time at the museum where I work, so although I have been doing a lot of woodworking, I have had little time for photography, hence no new posts here in a while. As you can see, the shop is full of furniture-in-progress.

One of the first things I have planned when the dust settles is a series of joined stools, for which I have just started planing the square stiles. One of the photos shows a stile that has been mortised and turned, in white oak this time.

I’ll try to keep up with posting my work here, but at the least, I’ll have stuff coming after Thanksgiving.

 

turned chairs underway

van Vliet, turner, 1630s

 I have several turned chairs underway, all in ash. Two of them are the three-legged kind I wrote about earlier. The others have four legs, of these one has a board seat like the three-leggeds. The others will have either rush or hickory bark seats.

One ash log I have around the shop came to me from Rob Tarule. It is somewhat small in diameter, but has grown quite slowly, making for excellent turning stock. Shown in the photos is a billet that I have split into stock for turning the seat rails, or “lists” as they were called in the seventeenth century.

ash billet split into turning blanks

The lathe I use is a pole lathe, for those of you unfamiliar with the term, it is a reciprocal lathe, worked by a foot treadle connected to a springy sapling mounted in the ceiling. In the view of mine, you can’t really see the cord coming down from the pole, but you can see the foot treadle undereath the lathe. The period engraving is Dutch, by Jan Van Vliet, and is from the mid-1630s.

                                           

 In all, there are five chairs total, but three different models; two pairs, and one lonesome armchair. The total grouping entails upwards of a hundred-plus turned pieces. It will be enough of a challenge keeping all those parts sorted.

pole lathe

assorted chair parts

 

another joined chest

Braintree chest restored

PF repro of Braintree chest

Here are two joined chests, one an original I have  been restoring, the other is a reproduction I made, just about to leave the shop…this one is about 52″w x 26 1/2″ h x 19 3/4″ d. Oak with a pine lid and floor. It’s patterned after a group I have studied extensively, having published an article on them in the 1996 issue of American Furniture. The originals date from the second half of the seventeenth century, made in Braintree, Massachusetts, probably by William Savell, and his sons John & William.  

A few years ago I was fortunate enough to buy one of the original chests, attributed to the son William Savell. It was at an auction, and I got it for an affordable price because it needed restoration. I have essentially finished restoring the woodwork, a few minor things, like removing the castors, installing the hinges, are left. Also, I have yet to have the coloring work done to match the drawer front and chest lid to the surface of the chest itself. In due time…I figure it’s been around for at least 308 years, it should last a bit longer.

 To see the article, follow the link to Chipstone’s website, and then go to “publications-American Furniture-1996″ 

http://www.chipstone.org/framesetpublications.html