Make a Joint Stool at Roy Underhill’s July 15-19

Well, now it’s April, which means it’s practically May. Might as well be June, which makes me wonder what you’re doing this summer.

What you could do is come to Pittsboro, North Carolina to make a joint stool at Roy Underhill’s Woodwright’s School. http://www.woodwrightschool.com/elizabethian-joint-stool-w-pet/

Out at the mill, we’ll split out an oak, and get to use a lot of wedges, hatchets and other big tools.

splitting oak w wedges

hewing at the mill

Maybe the owls will come out to watch.

Roy’s barred owl

Next, we’ll take the pieces into the school’s bench-room in town and get to planing.

If we make enough shavings, the Bag Man appears.

lots of planing to do

the Bag Man

Mortise & tenon joinery, drawboring, chamfering (turning for those full-tilt crazies) – it’ll be like the book come to life. I don’t remember what’s in the book, so I’ll be making it up as I go along.

chamfered frame

pole lathe practice

There’ll be tools galore, I’ll bring mine, Roy’s school has tons, then there’s Ed’s store upstairs!

If you wanted to know about green woodworking, then a week with me & Roy ought to do it. It reminds me of Twain’s quote about Kipling: “Between us, we cover all knowledge; he knows all that can be known, and I know the rest.”

 

Seriously, it’s a great week there. if you are interested in learning the craft of oak joinery with old-style tools, here’s your chance. My box-carving class at Drew Langsner’s is full, with a waiting list – so this is the only other week-long class I have this summer. Unless you’re in Germany in June! http://www.mehr-als-werkzeug.de/course/KU1631301/Carved-Box.htm

So get going. Get over to Roy’s website: http://www.woodwrightschool.com/elizabethian-joint-stool-w-pet/

get goin’

 

I can see for miles

and miles. Over 10,000 of them.

Cooper’s hawk

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.

http://www.ptwoodschool.com/Home.html

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.)

http://www.ptwoodschool.com/joint_stool_from_a_tree.html

 

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:

pizza at Country Workshops

Here’s Louise’s blog, in case you’ve missed it when I posted before http://louiselangsner.wordpress.com/

 

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.

 

 

 

 

the Woodwright Experience

the Woodwright's Shop

look where I was last week.

I have had very good fortune in my woodworking career – great teachers, friends, projects. All I could ask for…

One of the top highlights has been the chance for the past 10+ years to work on occasion with Roy Underhill. Roy saw my shop at Plimoth one day on a scouting trip he made through New England, looking for ideas for his show. I remember getting a phone message at work – “Roy Underhill called you” …”yea, sure” says me.

It’s hard to express the impact Roy’s books and shows have had on my work. I remember being in my early 20s, having just met Alexander & Langsner – and the green woodworking world was pretty small. Having found a television show about it was astounding…I remember watching the first couple of seasons on my lunch breaks at my part-time picture-framing job. I used to go to the local pizza joint & change the channel to see the show.

Years later, I ended up working in the living history museum field – and lo & behold, one of the books that addresses some of the challenges in that work is also by Roy – Krushchev’s Shoe: and Other Ways to Captivate an Audience of 1 to 1,000  (http://www.amazon.com/Khrushchevs-Shoe-Other-Captivate-Audience/dp/0738206725/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1335301008&sr=8-3)

So whenever I’m at a symposium, lecture, woodworking shows, etc where Roy is also on the bill, I try to make sure I get to see what he’s up to. It’s always worth seeing. Great teacher, presenter, lecturer, also can do woodwork – except he hasn’t finished a project in 32 years! Still worth it.

Last week, we had great students from many parts of the country, they had come a long ways, set aside time from their busy lives, all to let folks like Roy & I get to do what we love to do – share our ideas about furniture & woodworking.

students carving

another

learning to hew

more

many shavings

Ed Lebetkin’s store upstairs continues to swell w tools… if he doesn’t have what you’re looking for, he’ll probably end up with it soon.

tip of the iceberg

 

partial view of the whole iceberg up there. If you’re looking for something in particular, write to Ed  at edlebetkin@gmail.com

 

partial view of the whole iceberg

 Here’s a drawing my son Daniel did after watching an episode where Roy & I made spoons. To the right behind me are the finished spoons that were propped up for viewing in that episode. As well as a bunch of blocks that Roy brought in to make spoons from, behind him:

The episode is here, # 3108  http://www.pbs.org/woodwrightsshop/video/3100/index.html 

So if you have not yet made it to Pittsboro, NC for a class at the Woodwright’s School, put it on your list. It’s getting better all the time. http://www.woodwrightschool.com/

I feel that being a part of his Woodwright’s School is truly an honor, a real highlight in my career. Thanks for having me Roy, it means a lot to me.

BUT – here is the real kicker from the week down south: 

barred owl

 

box class coming up

nailing box bottom

OK – I have a week to get ready. I’m off to Roy Underhill’s place; the Woodwright’s School in a week or so. I have some white pine boards for box bottoms & lids; and a load of tools to sharpen, sort & pack.  http://www.woodwrightschool.com/

And a lesson plan to cook up – so I will re-read this article.  PF_box_articl  (the top banner of the blog now has a few pages from my now-deceased website, including the one that says “online publications” or something like that. That’s where this box article was recently buried…)

It might help me, I haven’t made any boxes from start to finish  this winter; so I am a little rusty.

The bar in the back of the school is no threat to me, but Ed’s shop upstairs is – I need more tools like a hole in the head, but I’m sure I’ll  go up just to see what’s there…

Then we have to come up with a television scheme or two.

And I have to get some birding in, Roy tells me the Louisiana waterthrushes are back at his place.

 

a couple more pictures from the joined stool class

a couple more shots from Woodwright’s school last week…

pole lathe practice

Bill ended up turning all four of his stiles on this lathe.  His stool had carved rails, turned stiles and a one-board seat. He took it home for assembly.

The alternative to turned stiles was chamfered stiles, and most went with that option. here’s some in progress:

In making these stools, I always go through several test assemblies. here’s Harvey’s front & back frames test-fitted, lined up foot-to-foot, so now he can drop the side rails in.

Here’s Bill’s full test-fit.  It was mostly his tree that we used, so his stool has its roots right next to his shop at home.

I didn’t get pictures the last day, I got kinda busy.

It was great fun, despite the heat. when the dust settles up here, I will look into scheduling another trip to the Woodwright’s School next year. it’s quite a place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

back from Roy’s

I’m back from the Woodwright’s School. It was a great week-plus; five days of teaching how to make a joined stool, then a weekend in TV-land. As I write this in southeastern Massachusetts this morning, it’s 63 degrees Farenheit; essentially 40 degrees cooler than some afternoons at Roy’s!

But we had a great class – even in that heat they took to splitting open a very large red oak – we busted it up into parts for about 11 or more stools. Here’s a view of some of the hewing work done out at the “woodsy” satellite of the school.

 

hewing in the heat

Then I thought the students would all want to fold for the day, but we had 2 hours left, so they took the stuff into the school & started in planing the stock.

 

planing in the AC

Roy was all over the scene, here he is tuning up some turning tools out in the shade. The school is, as many of you either know or have heard, smack in the midst of downtown Pittsboro, so there’s lots of foot traffic and rubbernecking going on. And Roy can draw them in…

 

sharpening in the shade

In the window are two Barnes treadle lathes; late-19^th/early 20^th-century jobs. They were lots of fun, and most everybody took a shot at them. Here’s Roy showing us the ropes.

 

Barnes lathe

 

window turning

Long about mid-afternoon one day, he came by to check on the condition of Mike’s mortises.

 

check-up

There’s more. Soon.

 

what are you doing this summer?

What are you doing this summer? Me, I’m driving a bunch, and flying some…

Country Workshops

 I have two classes in North Carolina this year, the first at Country Workshops from June 20-24th. I’ll be returning there to teach making a carved box again. Last I knew there were still maybe 2 spaces left in this class. I’m very partial to Country Workshops; it’s where I learned much of the woodworking that I know. It’s always a great experience there…Other classes there this summer include two courses in chairmaking, coopering, carved bowls & spoons and Carl Swensson’s Japanese Woodworking… I’ve ranted & raved before about what Drew & Louise Langsner do there, now for over 30 years. Have a look here:  http://countryworkshops.org/

hatchet & plane work

Then I’ll scoot home, work a bit, then go back down south in July for a class at Roy Underhill’s Woodwright’s School in Pittsboro, NC. This time it’s a joined stool. Lots of mortise-and-tenon work, after we split & plane the stock from a red oak log. It’s my first time at Roy’s new school & I am really looking forward to it. He told me today there’s 3 spaces left, so if you’ve been thinking about it, get crackin’.  http://www.woodwrightschool.com/elizabethian-joint-stool-w-pet/

joined stool

There’s other demo/lecture type things this year, but these are the only hands-on classes that I’ll be doing in 2011. I just wanted to let folks know that there’s only a few slots left at this point – so if you’re thinking about it…think no more, sign up!