Got this note recently from a reader of the blog, about the Joined Chest DVD
“At 3:05:16 in the chapter on Making and Installing the Top there is a big red error screen that says Media Offline #15067 for a short while, like 15-25 seconds. It looks like a small section of video is missing when they compiled the video. ”
I wrote to Thomas Lie-Nielsen, and he replied:
“Yeah, … It is true. We’ve pulled them and will reprint. Sorry!”
When I get new ones, I’ll send out clean copies to those who bought from the blog. I’ll keep you posted when I hear more.
I went down to Manchester, CT the other day for a Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event at the Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking. As always, I had more fun than I could stand…and just as I came in the door, Ted Dishner of LN saw me & told me, “we have your new DVD…”
So, if you have a few hours to watch me thrash an oak log apart and build a joined chest, you can do so from the comfort of your own home – otherwise, you have to stand at the railing in my shop at the museum.
We shot the DVD last spring in Maine, it includes splitting and riving the stock apart, hewing and planing, then layout, joinery and assembly. I cut notches for the till, and show how to install that, and make a tongue-and-groove white pine floor. The lid is also white pine, a single-width board. For the finale, I attach the lid with iron “snipebill” hinges, (what I call “gimmals” – the 17th-century term for them.)
The disc runs over 200 minutes and is broken into 18 chapters so you can get around to the segment you nodded off at. There is additional content accessed through your computer; some measurements, photos and other bits and pieces.
I have 10 of these discs for sale, you can order from me by emailing me with your mailing info. Price is $42, shipped media mail in the US. Of course, as always you can buy the disc directly from Lie-Nielsen too, while you are there buying tools and other goodies. They have my two previous DVDs on carving, they also sell the joint stool book. http://www.lie-nielsen.com/catalog.php?grp=1320
I guess if you’re not early, you’re late. So the schedule for workshops in 2013 is cooking all over the world right now…
I have a few dates I can post right now, others are being finalized & I”ll put them up here soon. I have to strike some sort of balance if I want to stay married (yes) and employed (mostly), so I have a few full weeks of classes, and a few weekend sessions. I hope to add some as I can…
First is a semi-woodsy bit. I am one of a host of speakers at the Furniture Forum at Winterthur in early March 2013. My talks are easy, I get a workbench and tools, so I just do my usual thing. Only in somewhat nicer clothing, probably. I am also listed as doing some “workshops” but Winterthur means something different from what I think a workshop is…so I look at these as more like a demonstration – like my day job. Here’s the whole brochure. FF Brochure 2013_Web (2)
Now – do you want to make a joined stool?
joined stool, chamfered not turned
Want to make a joined stool way out west? I have been to the west before, having lectured and done research in Hartford, CT. But this is even further west than that…April 22-26 at the Port Townsend School of Woodworking.
Here they are riving some stock, but wait, what woods do they use there? Not oak?? There’s woods other than oak?
Port Townsend WA
Yup, it’s experimentation time. But it should be fun. There’s a weekend class following it in just the carving patterns. I am really looking forward to these workshops, I have never been to that part of the country. The carving class info is not up yet, (I was late getting stuff to Tim, sorry Tim.)
June 7-13. I don’t drink beer. I don’t eat meat. And I don’t speak German. But still, because of Thomas Lie-Nielsen and Chris Schwarz, the folks at Dictum in Germany want me to come teach a class how to make the carved boxes I do. Me? Teach carving in Bavaria? Has the world gone nuts? We’ll see in June. Info is not up yet… http://www.mehr-als-werkzeug.de/page/kurse-in-metten.htm
how could I say no
July 15-19 I’ll do the joined stool in honest-to-goodness oak at the Woodwright’s School in Pittsboro. Roy hasn’t got the schedule together yet. But he will. It will be a gas.
many shavings
Then in August (12-16), I’ll be back in North Carolina at my long-time favorite woodworking school – Country Workshops. http://countryworkshops.org/ We’ll make the carved boxes -
“been there so long he’s got to callin’ it home” is how I feel about this place.
up towards the workshop
and if enough of us show up, I bet Louise will make pizza that Drew will fire in their outdoor oven. Don’t miss it. Have a look:
This coming Friday I’ll be at the Lie-Nielsen Event at the Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking, Bob Van Dyke’s place in Manchester, CT. While I am there, Bob & I will figure out a winter date for a weekend class in carving. So that will actually be first of the season for me…the lineup this weekend is really something. Come by if you are around the area. http://www.lie-nielsen.com/?pg=93
Enough. It’s not like I’m Chris Schwarz or something.
I saw this announcement from Lie-Nielsen the other day in their newsletter. I almost forgot I shot it! There’s no carving how-to in this one, it’s how to open the log, rive the stock, plane it, do the joinery, etc…
I guess when you concentrate on 17th-century stuff, that means you go first. So although others shot their discs before me, mine’s out soon. This is the beginning of project-based DVDs for LN. There’s more in their pipeline. Here’s their picture and text.
new video coming
Over the past nine years, we’ve produced woodworking DVDs focused mainly on hand tool set-up and techniques. In our next release, we turn the focus to applying these skills to a specific furniture project.. “17th Century Joined Chest,” featuring Peter Follansbee, is the first DVD in our new Master Workshops series, which are hand tool based furniture projects with master craftsmen. With only a few hand tools, Peter shows you how to get your stock from an oak log and build a frame-and-panel chest using 17th century joinery methods. Available on our website at the end of October.
One thing Jennie Alexander knows is drawknives for chairmaking. After a brief stint at turned chairs many many years ago, JA switched to shaving chairs at the shaving horse. Like this:
I don’t know the date when the turned chairs were done, & shaved chairs begun, but it pre-dates the 1978 release of Make a Chair from a Tree. And all the students (me included in 1980) made them that way…
When Tom Lie-Nielsen was researching drawknives to make for sale, he got a hold of Alexander. Jennie sent some Witherby 8″ knives up to Maine for testing – and now look at the drawknives Lie-Nielsen makes. They are based on the Witherby drawknife courtesy of JA.
We have a small batch of drawknives for sale, these are not your ordinary antique clunkers, neglected in barns and garages for decades. These tools are in great shape. Tuned & sharpened for the most part…so go get the DVD on chairmaking, grab one of these knives and off you go….
I know it’s hotter elsewhere, but for southeastern New England, it’s been pretty hot & humid. That’s what has slowed down my blog. But I have done some woodworking now & then. After returning from the class at CFC, I finished a couple of carved boxes.
carved box, July 2012
This one I had in the class with me, although that pattern is a bit ambitious for students at first. One student tacked it this spring at Roy Underhill’s class, but he just carved, didn’t make a box….
Here’s the side view, showing the carving, wooden hinge, and pine lid:
wooden hinge
I was moving stuff around in my shop the other day & found parts for two small boxes. So I finished them up last week. Here’s one:
It’s small, about 9 1/2″ x 15 1/2″ x 5″ high. A handy size around the house.
open
There was a larger one that I just finished, this time with an oak lid. Two boards, edge-jointed & glued. Iron hinges.
carved box, oak lid. Aug 2012
There’s more. These will all appear on the static pages of the blog here when I get around to them.
Meanwhile, my friends at Lie-Nielsen need to tighten up security, it seems.
Whew. I’m just back from a week of riving, hewing, planing & carving as seven students & I made oak boxes from a log at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport, ME. Also one wicked croquet game, followed by an incredible juggling demo. It was a good week.
CFC
The students quickly learned the benefits of hewing, mostly once they realized that it meant less planing.
Who knew new hew
Which brings us again to hatchets.
Pretty much the number one question I get is where can I get a hatchet like the one in the book Make a Joint Stool from a Tree. http://www.lostartpress.com/Default.asp
my everyday hewing hatchet
Well….I don’t know. So a couple weeks ago, Chris Schwarz was visiting my shop & we shot a short piece about how you can use several different configurations of hatchet to remove excess stock. Here’s Chris’ video
This prompted some discussion in the Lost Art Press blog…some offering that the Gransfors Bruks company makes a single-bevel hatchet, which they call the Swedish Carving Axe. BUT my memory of that hatchet is that it’s not really a single-bevel hatchet. It’s designed in part by Wille Sundqvist, a great inspiration to many of us; but Wille doesn’t make flat stuff like what I use in joinery. My suspicion was confirmed, it is a double-bevel hatchet with bevels of different lengths. Hhere is the description from GB (thanks to Joe Olivas for chasing this down & sending it to me)
“Gränsfors Large Swedish Carving Axe The Gränsfors Large Swedish Carving Axe is used for woodworking and shaping wood. The axe has been developed in collaboration with master craftsmen Wille Sundqvist and Onni Linnanheimo, with inspiration from old designs. The Large Swedish Carving Axe has a relatively long, curved cutting edge which is double-sided as standard. The axe is also available as a special order with the edge ground specifically for right-handed or left-handed carving. The right-handed Swedish Carving Axe has a broader, straight rather than convex, bevel face on the left side of the edge, if the axe is held in the right hand, and a shorter, straight bevel face on the right side of the edge. The left-handed Swedish Carving Axe is the same but in reverse. The broader, straighter face, on the side nearer the wood, provides excellent support when carving. The handle has an uneven surface, giving good friction for a firm grip.”
I like their tools, but it’s not a single-bevel hatchet. Further, Drew Langsner points out on the Country Workshops page that the GB carving axe needs some work on the bevels for accurate hewing. http://countryworkshops.org/Axes.html This fits with the GB description above in which they talk of special orders with one long bevel and one short bevel, both of which are straight, not convex.
(Drew’s choice of words is “flat” not straight. It took me a minute to know what GB was talking about.)
The point of the video Chris & I shot was to offer that you don’t absolutely have to have a single-bevel hatchet to prep stock for joinery. It makes things easier, but you can do it with a double-bevel hatchet too.
I have several hatchets. The large, German ones I like best for joinery stuff, i.e. making flat boards.
hewing
The small double-bevel ones I mostly use in spoon carving, but they can serve to hew flat faces too.
it can be done
The large Wetterlings I got from Lie-Nielsen is also for hewing, but when I have a lot of stock to remove. (I don’t find it on their website, but it’s in their showroom…write to ask about it http://www.lie-nielsen.com/catalog.php?cat=558 )
Wetterlings from Lie-Nielsen
If you have only one hatchet it might be best to get a medium-sized double-bevel hatchet like the Hans Karlsson one Country Workshops now carries. I use mine all the time…Then keep looking for a single-bevel one.
Some are interested in the small Stanley hatchets that Jennie Alexander modified by grinding the “back” face down to a single-bevel. Maybe we’ll hear from JA on how that was done…here’s the tool:
JA modified hatchet
JA modified hatchet
I know there’s a single-bevel hatchet made by Ox-head. I have never used it, but saw it one time & it seemed a bit off to me. It looked like it had a secondary bevel on the flat side, but not big enough to actually be a bevel, just large enough to keep it from working like a single-bevel hatchet. Does anyone use one of these? I’d like to hear from you if you do. Send me one to try & I’ll send it back to you…
Thanks to all who inquired about spoons, most are boxed and ready to go. If I don’t get them out of here today, I’ll go to the Post Office on Monday.
Right now, I’m packing at home, then later packing at the shop for the first of two Maine trips this month. This weekend is the summer version of the Lie-Nielsen Open House. These things are a lot of fun. The line-up is always great. http://www.lie-nielsen.com/?page=summer_open_house
Matt Bickford’s planes
This time, among all the other folks you’ll see there, you can get in line to see Matt Bickford – I saw parts of his book and it makes you want to plane moldings all over the place.
Chris Schwarz is going to be there too, along with a cast of many. Come & see us. Friday & Saturday. Summer, Maine, woodworking, LN tools, – how can you go wrong?
I just found out this was posted at Lie-Nielsen’s YouTube channel…we shot it in May while I was up in Maine. I first heard of this teaching technique when Roy Underhill collaborated with Frank Klauz at an early Woodworking in America. I wasn’t there, but maybe had seen some video of it. Roy then showed me how to do it the first time I taught at his school. I did it as a slide-show on this blog I don’t-know-when, so now you get to see it as Conor & crew shot it.
well, my head is spinning. I got back from my Maine trip a few days ago…so still unpacking, sorting and trying to get back in the swing of things at home & at the shop. Here’s a recent panel carving:
But I’m distracted in several different directions. One is Doug Stowe’s long run of excellent posts about education. This is a pertinent subject, my kids are heading for first grade next fall…and we need to figure out how we want that to play out. Anyone got a winning lottery ticket to spare? Doug’s stuff is really thought-provoking – here’s one from today: http://wisdomofhands.blogspot.com/2012/05/what-american-schools-should-look-like.html
As I said earlier, the Maine trip was great – I always have an excellent time at Lie-Nielsen, this sign is something I did for the classroom there:
and got lots of birding in,
waxwing in apple tree
osprey
yellowthroat
common yellowthroat
and more waxwings
saw old friends, etc….
but the certain highlight of the whole trip was two hours I got to spend with Bill Coperthwaite.
Bill Coperthwaite
Showing the crooked knife:
I have mentioned here before, but now will again, that Bill’s book A Handmade Life is one of my absolute favorite books. Period. I keep one at home & one in the shop. I don’t know of a book I have read more.
I had visited Bill’s house in 2004, but he was on his way out of town that day. Here’s some photos from that trip:
a detail:
So last week, I planned ahead & got to visit a bit before I hit the road back to Massachusetts. Bill & I have a lot of mutual friends, some of whom were my major wood-working influences. We talked of knives, axes, puzzles, friends, Sweden, England, the lack of corners in his house, and on & on. I can’t wait to get back to spend some time making shavings with him…it was so inspiring.
More photos from 2004:
one more – these were in October that year, but May was equally beautiful:
here’s links to read more about Bill and the Yurt Foundation
