NOTE: for those (few) of you who still read blogs on computers, I posted my workshop/teaching schedule for 2016 both at the header of the blog and on the sidebar. There’s other stuff there too – links to the spoon carving DVD for sale, Maureen’s etsy site, Plymouth CRAFT – just so you can find any of that stuff without slogging around. On phone & devices – I have no idea what it all looks like. Hmm, the sidebar doesn’t show on the ipad…I guess I continue to be a dinosaur. I like to see it LARGE. The menu above has some other content, articles, snippets about my furniture work, stuff for sale; boxes and baskets – DVDs, and the schedule. OK – tour over, now for tonight’s post about the timber framing project.
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You can fit what I know about timber framing on the head of an (oak) pin. I took part in some workshops back in the 1980s, and had aspired to build a frame of my own one day. Never thought it would take over 30 years…but life is funny. I’m thrilled to have Pret’s expertise to guide me through the process, he did the layout. Now I have started cutting the joints. The other day it rained, so I pulled a couple of the frame’s posts in the house to cut some joinery. These are 10′ long, so barely enough room to work on them. Through mortises, and a tenon at each end. Brace mortises still need to be laid out.
There were a couple of other pieces laid out, but those 12-footers had to wait for the weather to improve, which it did today. Here I’m sawing the shoulder on a full-width tenon. Daniel took some photos for me, the 2nd one he caught the sawdust flying! Rose shot some of them too.
Then comes splitting the cheeks – when the wood is straight-grained enough. Just like the furniture work I do…
then paring the tenon’s cheeks. The frame is really like a grossly-oversized joint stool.
A finished tenon. Then I had some actual furniture work to get started. Some white oak for a change! I’ll shoot it next time.
I’ve been posting snippets on Instagram – some of you might have seen this, but if not – here’s the splitting again.
I have been slow to post my schedule for 2016, and now I see that it’s almost upon us. So here are some dates for classes and presentations that I have nailed down thus far. this list is through July, then there will be more later. I have classes at the Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking, Lie-Nielsen and Roy Underhill’s The Woodwright’s School. Also a couple of weekend classes are on the books with Plymouth CRAFT. Links will take you to the details, if there are any.
FEBRUARY 13 & 14, 2016. At Bob Van Dyke’s Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking, I’ll start off with a furniture-carving class,
“Carving in the 17th century style with Peter Follansbee”
This class runs through several exercises, learning about layout, tool selection and use. Over the course of 2 days, we’ll carve a wide range of 17th-century style patterns in oak. Some of the text from Bob Van Dyke’s website:
practice carving
“In this two-day course, students will learn the steps and processes used to recreate carving patterns from seventeenth- century furniture of England and New England. Starting with a single gouge and mallet, we will focus on technique and posture. Also considered are proportions, spacing and the relationship between background and foreground in establishing the pattern/design. Each successive practice pattern builds upon the previous example, adding more tools and concepts. We will incorporate hand-pressure, mallet work, and the use of the V-tool in outlining designs. A compass, awl and marking gauge are used to layout the geometric basis for each pattern, but freehand work is included in each as well.”
FEBRUARY 20/21 – Plymouth CRAFT has had quite a first year! And we’ll just keep rolling into year 2. I’ll start with – what else? Spoon carving! We just confirmed the booking, so not on the website yet – http://plymouthcraft.org/?post_type=tribe_events – but it’s 2 full days of hewing, knife work and spoon design. At Overbrook House, Bourne Massachusetts. Legendary lunch included.
I’ll spend the weekend presenting some green woodworking (spoons, bowls & what else?) at the Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event at Goosebay Sawmill, Chichester, NH. I did this show last winter, what a great venue. All those Lie-Nielsen tools, and a sawmill with timbers galore.
APRIL 1-3, 2016, back at CVSWW. a 3-day class in making (and carving) a frame & panel. Think of this as a crash course in joiner’s work, using oak, mortise & tenon, and frame & panel construction. Come help freak Bob Van Dyke out with the carvings –
“Build- and Carve- this Frame & Panel with Peter Follansbee”
In this three day class with joiner & carver Peter Follansbee, students will explore the fundamental aspects of 17th-century joiner’s work. This frame-and-panel project has all the elements of a larger joined chest, but in a scale that fits the time frame. We’ll use oak we rive and plane for the framing parts; and quartersawn stock for the wider panels. Drawbored mortise and tenon joinery and carved decoration will be the a major focal point. A true crash course in joiner’s work. Now, where’d I put that axe?”
[much later in the year, September – Bob & I are planning to repeat out “one-weekend-per-month for X months” joined chest class. The full project, log to chest. Homework, travel, a museum field trip to study originals, this is the whole show. We did it last year with about 9 people whose scars have mostly healed. Dates to be announced as soon as we figure it out. I’d like it to be 5 weekends, but we’ll see. No drawer this time, so fewer pieces to rive & plane.]
“Your instructor, Peter Follansbee, (free range at last!) gnaws woodworking down to the marrow! Celebrate the liberation of our foremost man of organic woodworking with three days of Scandinavian, “upside-down” bowl carving. Starting with a walk in the woods you’ll learn shaping and carving technique from bole to bowl!”
[there is a spoon-carving class before it, but I guess it’s filled. there’s other spoon classes – (Plymouth CRAFT & Lie-Nielsen) or get on the waiting list.]
APRIL 30/MAY 1, 2016 : Plymouth CRAFT again, this time ash basketry.
We did this class this fall, and I was astounded at the students. They whomped on some ash logs and everyone wove a couple of baskets. The baskets are perfect to keep your spoon-carving tools in.
May means Maine – up at Lie-Nielsen we’ll be carving spoons. I’ll be watching birds in the earliest hours, but class doesn’t start til 9. I think I spent 5 weeks in Maine this year, can you tell I like it at Lie-Nielsen?
JUN 10-12, 2016 GREENWOOD FEST – http://plymouthcraft.org/?tribe_events=greenwood-fest-2016 well, this one’s sold out – but there’s a waiting list. A 2 1/2 day lovefest with green woodworking in the pinewoods of Plymouth MA. I’ll be presenting my oak furniture game, but there will be heaps of stuff to do. 8 out of 9 of the instructors carve spoons furiously…
between holidays and rain days, we haven’t had a chance to do the layout for the timber framing until today. It was cold with an east wind, but we’ve been spoiled by spring-like temperatures til now. With more rain & sleet ahead, I wanted to get some stuff laid out so I could bring it inside to cut joinery. Pret came & did the layout, I started cutting the six shallow mortises in the sills. These are where the posts will sit, they’re only 1 3/4″ deep.
I was using one of Pret’s augers; this one cuts like a dream. A nice tool in fantastic condition. Cook’s pattern auger bit, I’m told from readers on Instagram/Facebook. I knew the shape of this auger from Curtis Buchanan raving about it for his windsor chair work. But here it is in a 1 1/2″ hand auger. And yes, this layout is marked with a pencil, unlike my furniture work. There’s all manner of modern approaches to this work, (some pressure treated wood under the sills, bolts & nuts to secure the frame to the footings, etc) but I expect all of tools will continue to be hand-tools.
There are a couple of through-mortises we’re making. For those Pret broke out one of the boring machines he used when he built his house umpteen years ago. The label on this machine is mostly worn out – but some web search tells me it’s a Snell boring machine. Made in Fiskdale, Massachusetts, over near Sturbridge.
I probably last used one of these in the mid-1980s. So he ran through its features, bored a few holes, then turned me loose on it.
A video posted by Peter Follansbee (@peterfollansbee) on
You can incidentally see in some of the photos that we have floor joists in, but used conventional lumber (2x6s) for them. We have only so many white pine timbers, so conserved them by using framing lumber. The joists are notched into pockets in the sills. Then they will be toe-nailed in place. They also have ledger strips attached (nailed) on, to house insulation under the floor eventually. It feels great to be getting this project going.
I took a couple half-days this week to explore a craft I know almost nothing about. Some years ago I had bought a birch “cannister” from Jarrod Stone Dahl. I had seen his work on his website & blog and really admired it. Here’s one of his, from his website http://woodspirithandcraft.com/
Last year we met for the first time when I went out to North House Folk School – http://www.northhouse.org/ I was there to take a class with Robin Wood on bowl turning, but Jarrod couldn’t let the birch bark go to waste, so he peeled some of the logs before we made bowls outta them. I knew the principal, but had never seen the act before. Amazing material.
One evening, he gave me a quick 20-minute crash course in making the finger joints on these ancestors to the Shaker oval boxes. A gift of some bark, (and some I bought on the web somewhere) and then – where’s the time to explore this? Along came Christmas – perfect.
It’s probably good for someone who teaches crafts to undertake a new one now & then. Some of the mistakes I made were just plain stupid, especially the 2nd time I made them! I finally made a pattern – not to use like a template, but just to help visualize the relationship between the female & male ends of these joints.
The only thing I had ever made like these were hoops for Swiss-style cooperage with Drew Langsner, and that was a long time ago. This past fall, I had a chance to examine a very nice example of birch bark work when a group of us visited Dickinsons Reach, formerly the home of Bill Coperthwaite. The best guess is that it’s Russian work.
Mine of course have flaws many beginners exhibit, but I pulled my usual “distract them with decoration” – employing my horror vacui nearly to its fullest. The Russian one here has its rims lashed with strips of birch bark, some are done with spruce root. I have neither of these suitable, so I might substitute hickory bark, when I next get time to work on something like this.
Here, I have test-wrapped one end around, to scribe where I will make the cuts for the tabs…
Said tabs, and some scribed and punched decoration.
Here’s test-fit – the inner sleeve needs to be thinned so it will overlap with less bulk. But it’s just sprung in there for now, so I can pull it out & finish it. The finger joints are OK, but not great. More beginner problems…this one’s about 6″ in diameter and about 8″ high.
It’s a busy time of year for most everybody…here’s some scattered stuff I haven’t got around to posting. These shots from Plymouth Beach are now a week or more old – I wish I was there right now, the most peaceful spot nearby…the birds are almost all dunlin. We saw a few sanderlings mixed with them.
We took the kids to the Museum of Fine Arts the other day. I’ve been going to this museum since my high school days, early 1970s. The kids always want to see the stuff they’ve seen before, so we always need to factor that in for our time allowance. The ship-model exhibit is always a big hit. we try to remember to bring a sketchbook too.
Follansbee pointing to Follansbee-under-glass.
[Here’s that upper case back when I was making it – ]
In the Art of the Americas exhibit, I ran across this New York/Western New England splint basket –
There’s a large exhibit for another few weeks of Dutch paintings – the sort of thing we used to study in detail at our museum jobs – no photography allowed in that exhibit, but outside it, there’s a painting you can pose in & take a picture. Museums love this sort of drek these days.
Back at home, the principal reason for building a “tool shed” is that there’s no room to work in the house. To compound the small space problem, I brought into the room a 12′ white pine 6×6 for carving. Made a small room smaller. When the holiday’s festivities are out of the way, we’ll get on with framing it.
The feeder birds are around, usual participants. But some numbers are noticeable – counted 8 male cardinals the other morning, along with some females. Every once in a while we get lots of them. Usually just four or five…it was a dreary, rainy day – I could only get a couple in each photo. Plus they don’t sit still.
The red tail hawk sits in a cherry tree in Marshfield, pretty reliable. Lotta spoon crooks in that tree.
That’s enough. I must have stuff I’m supposed to be doing. Distracting the children most likely the priority.
UPDATE – thanks to all (really all, throughout the year) who picked out a spoon, or other woodsie bits. I have 2 spoons left from earlier, then added the last two in maple. Just so folks know, I have baskets and furniture as usual; but there’re on other pages. https://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/baskets-furniture/
For delivery before Dec 24th, Paypal is the way to go. Then I can pack things & get to the post office in time. If I can get these into priority mail by Friday afternoon, Saturday morning – they should get where they’re going the 24th. I can’t guarantee the postal service, so if you want faster delivery, we can adjust the pricing.
Those not in a hurry, if you prefer, you can mail a check. If you’d like something, leave a comment & let me know which ones…
part of the “maple crook” series. Another lefty. I love the way this one took its shape from the tree.
L: 9″ W: 2″
$80
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Dec spoon 16. SOLD
Maple crook again, this one’s a general/righty spoon. Small black knot in bowl is tight. Over time, it will become less glaring, as the spoon gets its patina.
L: 10 3/4″ W: 2 1/2″
$80
Dec spoon 04; birch. A nice crook shape, a large bowl serving spoon.
L: 8 3/4″ W: 3″
$80
Dec spoon 06, SOLD
rhododendron.
L: 7 1/4″ W: 1 1/4″
$60
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Also forgot to remind folks that I have a few copies of the spoon-carving DVD I made with Lie-Nielsen.
Carving Wooden Spoons DVD Or, make your own spoons – I have 8 copies of the video available, price is $38, which includes postage in the US. 127 minutes.
Last batch of spoons for the season. Only six available right now. I will have a couple of additions later today; waiting to hear from someone who ordered a pair. I made 2 pairs, so should have 2 more spoons later. Just so folks know, I have baskets and furniture as usual; but there’re on other pages. https://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/baskets-furniture/
For delivery before Dec 24th, Paypal is the way to go. Then I can pack things & get to the post office in time. If I can get these into priority mail by Friday afternoon, Saturday morning – they should get where they’re going the 24th. I can’t guarantee the postal service, so if you want faster delivery, we can adjust the pricing.
Those not in a hurry, if you prefer, you can mail a check. If you’d like something, leave a comment & let me know which ones…
Dec spoon 04; birch. A nice crook shape, a large bowl serving spoon.
L: 8 3/4″ W: 3″
$80
Dec spoon 06, rhododendron.
L: 7 1/4″ W: 1 1/4″
$60
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UPDATE: The spoons below here are sold. I will add two more later this afternoon –
Also forgot to remind folks that I have a few copies of the spoon-carving DVD I made with Lie-Nielsen.
Carving Wooden Spoons DVD Or, make your own spoons – I have 8 copies of the video available, price is $38, which includes postage in the US. 127 minutes.
To me, the absolute highlight of this batch. I feel like JoJo Wood, not wanting to let this one go. Cherry crook. Just the way I like them, asymmetrical, but still very functional.
L: 7 1/2″ W: 1 3/4″
$75
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Dec spoon 18, SOLD
a nice runner-up in the “best of” category. Also a cherry crook.
L: 10″ W: 2″
$75
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Dec spoon 19. SOLD
One of a series of nice maple crooks I got recently. Great figured wood inside the bowl, due to the shape of the branch it came from. Maple takes the detail quite nicely.
L: 9″ W: 2″
$70
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Dec spoon 20. SOLD
A LARGE apple crook, with a very shallow bowl. Serving/stirring – it’s a big spoon. When I got it out to photograph, I see that I have a tiny bit more chip-carving to do. I’ll do it after posting these!
This has been simmering for a long time. I mentioned the other day I was about to start on the largest project yet – well, it ain’t furniture, it’s a “tool shed” according to the local authorities. It will be filled with tools after all. It’s been nearly two years since my old shop at the museum was packed up & much of my stuff stored. I have since set up a workbench here at home, crammed like many of us in the basement. I also have the luxury of a borrowed space (thanks, TC) where I set up a bench & some tools so I can/could finish photography for the next joinery book. And some stuff has been in storage since the day I packed up the old shop.
Now, it’s time for my very own – just steps outside my back door. This is something I’ve dreamed of for a long time. A month or two ago, my friend Pret Woodburn found a stash of white pine 6 x 6s and 4 x 6s for sale. Decades old, no joinery cut in them. Enough for 2 buildings the size I’m working on, 12’ x 16’. So another friend & I went halfsies on them. One thing or another has kept me & Pret busy until now. Recently I got him hooked on spoon carving, so now to keep him from never leaving his house, we’ve settled on a routine where he comes up here and shows me what to do. He knows house joinery like I know oak furniture, so I’m in good hands. Our first several session were prep work, the site slopes down to the river – so some unglamorous work to get ready for today’s initial work on joinery. Framing the sills. Just 4 joints, and a bunch of checking this way & that. Then just before dark we got some help from the youth to pin the frame together.
so my mind reels with ideas for the inside. But one step at a time. Somewhere, I’ll finally be able to hang up this sign.
Here’s the blurb from Plymouth CRAFT about the current status of Greenwood Fest 2016:
“Greenwood Fest 2016 is sold out, at least temporarily. We expect some spots to open up sporadically, so we highly recommend joining the Waiting List if you missed out on the first round of ticketing. To do so, please email us at CRAFTPlymouth@gmail.com. ”
Meanwhile, I still have a couple of instructors I haven’t introduced yet. I’m very excited to have Beth Moen joining us from Sweden.
She is one of the few participants I have yet to meet, so I look forward to getting to see her a bit. Jogge Sundqvist recommended her with the highest praise – so I was glad she could squeeze us in. Beth will be working on her signature hewn round bowls.
Beth lives in Siljansnäs Dalarna Sweden, and has worked with wood for about 35 years, both with furniture and green wood. Since 1989 she has had a workshop together with AnneLie Karlsson. Do have a look at their website www.norea.nu . The range of projects Beth and AnneLie make is impressive. It includes shaving horses, furniture, crafts and sloyd. And the bowls – some of which are “almost half a meter in diameter” – I didn’t have to look that up to know that’s a big bowl!
Beth is the lead woodworking instructor at Sätergläntan, the handicraft school in Sweden. http://www.saterglantan.com/ There she teaches sloyd and traditional wood craft. In her note to me she says “My favorite tool is absolutely the axe – so I am very happy chopping bowls.”
We’ll be very happy having you chop bowls, Beth. Look forward to it.
PETER FOLLANSBEE: JOINER’S NOTES 