How did I get started? Country Workshops & the Langsners is how

I have a funny job. 8 months out of the year, I answer questions as I work in the shop. You tend to hear some of them over & over again. And again. I’m going to answer some of them here from time to time. Here’s the first one. 

How did I get started in this kind of woodworking, hand tools, green wood?

It’s not a simple answer like “I served an apprenticeship” or anything along those lines. When I was younger, I inherited from my father a tablesaw, drill press, router, jointer, lathe, etc. – all electric. All 1950s & early ‘60s vintage. I tried to learn something of how to use them. Fumbled around a bit, until I saw a 1978 issue of Fine Woodworking magazine. In it were two articles that somehow struck me just right. One was an excerpt from Make a Chair from a Tree, by (then) John Alexander. The other was an article by Drew Langsner about cleaving wood from a log. I ordered Alexander’s book and tracked down a copy of Drew’s then-new book Country Woodcraft (Rodale Press, 1978)

Country Woodcraft (1978)

That was the beginning of my real woodworking education. Two years later, I went down to Marshall, N.C. for my first-ever visit to Country Workshops, the school run by Drew and his wife Louise. I was not a stellar student that year by any stretch of the imagination. The wood was not the only “green” thing around, let’s leave it at that.

Readers of this blog know the relationship that eventually came about between Alexander & I – its importance I have already written about. But the same is true of Drew’s impact on my career. I see him as the unsung hero of green woodworking…for over 30 years he’s been teaching class after class and studying & exploring numerous aspects of woodcraft.

Drew Langsner teaching riving

I went back to Drew & Louise’s place many times between about 1985 and and 1994. My first class there was in a barn shared with the animals. I seem to remember Alexander standing on a hay bale to write on a blackboard. Over the years the facility grew and improved through a strong commitment on the Langsners’ part.

Drew’s Country Woodcraft is a neat book, I dug out my copy last week to look it over. Many things in there I never made; I have no use thus far for a Spike-tooth A-harrow, nor a drag. But this might be the first place I saw a spring pole lathe…and I certainly first saw spoon carving in this book.

Wille Sundqvist hewing a bowl at Country Workshops

The Logbuilder’s Handbook chronicles how they built their log house. I have the book, read it cover-to-cover, but never did any hewing of timbers. I aim to tackle some hewing this winter.

A Logbuilder’s Handbook

After my first trip in 1980, I shook a few demons for a couple of years before I returned in 1985 to try my hand at timber framing in oak. There I met Daniel O’Hagan from Pennsylvania, who became a great influence on me as well. From then on, I remember waiting each winter for the Country Workshops newsletter/catalog to come in the mail , so I could see what classes were being offered & start making plans for the summer’s trip to N.C.

log building at Country Workshops

I went again & again. Timber framing a few times, Windsor chairs with Curtis Buchanan, basketry, spoon carving with both Jogge & Wille Sundqvist, coopering with Drew..

coopering students, maybe 1989 or so

cooperage

woodenware, early 1990s

For a while I tried each class they offered just about. Drew went on to write many books and articles, – his Green Woodworking is a great book and the Chairmaker’s Workshop is a very detailed exploration into how Drew makes several styles of chairs that have been the focal point of Country Workshops, starting with Alexander’s first class there in 1979.

I spent the summer of 1988 living and working with Drew & Louise. What an experience. The years kept going by. Making great quality tools available became another focus for Drew and Country Workshops, as they started to import blacksmith-made hatchets, gouges, etc. Similarly, there was a series of woodcraft videos, one on spoons & bowls by Jogge Sundqvist, then Drew’s first woodworking teacher Ruedi Kohler, the Swiss cooper. They did another excellent one about Bengt Lidstrom making hewn bowls in Sweden. All well worth having.

By 1994, I got a job. That was great in some ways, my museum work has been another very exciting chapter in my work, but it also changed my travel inclinations for about 10 years. In that time, my travels were about research, studying oak furniture, lecturing, etc. So no time really for woodworking classes. I kept in touch with Drew & Louise through the mail, then email…always with an eye on what was happening down there.

I finally made it back there when the twins were just toddlers, and have been several times in the past 6 years or so.

the new barn

A couple of years ago, I was a student in Jogge Sundqvist’s class, and wrote about that here: http://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/2010/08/31/one-of-the-most-exciting-classes-ive-been-to/

 

It’s great to be back, and I am really looking forward to August 2013 when I will again teach how to rive, plane and carve oak to make a 17th-century box. If you have been to Langsner’s you don’t need me to tell you about it, if you haven’t – here’s your chance. Don’t miss out. Take my class, take a chairmaking class, spoons & bowls, or any of the others. Just get there. Here’s the website http://countryworkshops.org/ sign up for the newsletter, sign up for their catalog/class listings. Get on the mailing list so it comes to your house, just like the old days.

Drew Langsner

Here’s Drew’s website, http://drewlangsner.com/ you can see the sort of wooden ware he’s interested in making lately. To me, it harks back to his days as a sculpture/art student. And while you’re at it, here once again is the link to Louise’s blog about her cooking & gardening. I know I point to this stuff a lot, but we have some new readers here. So bear with me. http://louiselangsner.wordpress.com/

I really can’t state strongly enough just how important Drew’s work has been to mine. Getting to know Drew and Louise has been one of the best parts of my adult life. I can say without reservation, without them, I would not be where I am today. No bones about it. They literally made me feel a part of their family, and have been so generous over the years. See you in N.C.

 

one of the most exciting classes I’ve been to…

Jogge Sundqvist at Country Workshops, 2010

I’m back from my trip south, but still generally unpacking and getting back in the swing of things. The class with Jogge Sundqvist was out of this world. Jogge & I met in 1988, when I was the Country Workshops intern, and he was here to teach a similar class. 22 years between visits is a long time; but my work kept me up north when Jogge had been back a few times in those years. The week we just spent was one of the absolute top woodworking experiences of my career. If any of you are the least bit inclined, drop what you are doing & write or call Drew Langsner, because there was still space left in the next class Sept 6-11. http://countryworkshops.org/sloyd.html

Some people often think it sounds somewhat simple, “I’m going to learn how to carve a spoon from wood” – but this work is often more challenging than much of the joinery I know. There is no place to hide on the spoons, all the surfaces count. Once you get what Jogge is saying about design and function, then you start to learn to see the spoon in the blank piece of wood. Each stick is different, though, and it’s up to you to coax the spoon from the blank. This work is much more than “whittling” a handle & scooping out the bowl of the spoon. Jogge spent much time on the shapes possible, and how the parts of the spoon intersect and interact. It’s fascinating stuff. We had nine (for a little while, 10 – sorry you had to bail, Kari) students working diligently at carving these spoons. Often they were carving long after the day’s class had ended.

In addition to the focus on design, Jogge’s teaching also centers on technique, and both were very engrossing. His various movements and grasps of the two main knives used are really whole-body exercises. You tend to think that to cut this stuff, one just sits and whittles; but to be effective, each posture and grip has movement from your upper body, legs, and hips. The idea is to get the wood cut, not to kill hours & hours shaving tiny bits of wood away…

Jogge w spoon knife

Same ideas applied to the hewn bowls we worked on; but in that case, I went for the really whacked-out shape of a goose-bowl. I had two crooked blanks of birch I got at work & we decided to work these into bird shapes. I only got them roughed-out; but now I intend to carve the birds, and decorate them with chip-carving and paint.

adze work

early form of the roughed-out bowl

I was a clunky student, intentionally starting more projects than I could finish. I figured that way more possibilities for discussion would emerge. I can cut the stuff here at home, but I principally wanted the ideas while I was with Jogge.

Many thanks to Jogge for his great skills as a woodworker & teacher and to Drew & Louise for bringing him back once again. He & I were talking, and he’s been teaching this stuff for more than half of his life…and right about now he is the age his father was when he first came to Country Workshops in 1978, the beginning of that school that has been so pivotal in shaping me into the woodworker that I am… more tradition.

Here’s Jogge’s website. the most colorful on the web, I think… http://www.surolle.se/

and the video from 1988, available again http://countryworkshops.org/books.html