This past weekend was the wrap-up to the joined chest class at Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking. http://www.schoolofwoodworking.com/ One weekend a month, for five months, with homework is a tall order.
In addition to the outlay of cash, these students made the commitment of time – that is really striking to me. I appreciate them signing on for this class, and Bob Van Dyke for making it possible. We had some struggles, mostly related to wood supply; and also had a lot of fun making these chests. When I was a student many years ago, Jennie Alexander used to have us all make the same ladderback chair in the class, there was no deviation. I remember once JA suggested just making the chairs, piling them in a heap, and each student taking one home. That didn’t fly, but it illustrated the general notion of a class project.
My workshops are usually nothing like that. I seem to be dumb enough to say to each student, yea – you could add this or that, make this change – why not carve the side frames and panels – so there’s a lot of variation in these projects. And because of the amount of work involved, each student was at a different point in their chest. The way the class worked, I’d cover two topics each weekend, – layout, joinery/carving, decoration/tills, floors, etc.
Then I’d wander from bench to bench to see where the students were, and what they needed. In between classes, I’d often send them blog posts that served as notes for what we just did, or what was coming up. When it ran smoothly anyway…here’s pictures. Some awful. some ok.
A pile of chest parts; ready for test-fitting
White balance out the window – but framed now, & panels cut to size.
Stock prep. Dwight lays his planes on their sides, I see.
what are these guys doing rooting around in my chest?
Oh, trying to suss out the till lid scenario.
Tidy bevels on panels.
Rick’s tool box – dynamite from 30 Rockefeller Plaza.
Pine lid installed
Back home in daylight again. Started linseed oil. A few moldings left, some drawer pulls & done. then it goes to Fuller Craft Museum for the exhibition about Plymouth CRAFT.
I have two more oak classes at CVSWW – a weekend of carving in May, and later in the fall, a 4-day class in making a carved oak box. Link at the top. Box dates aren’t set yet, but I think it will be late September or early October. I forget…
PETER FOLLANSBEE: JOINER’S NOTES 
Nice LandOLakes butter crate. Minnesota butter. Mmmmm
Looks to be getting dangerously near a year for my chest/arc, oh well maybe not, on checking just 22 weeks or so up to press. Just about ready for test fitting now.
I think there would be a market (albeit small) for “kits” of suitable green ring porous wood that the buyer could make a chest, chair or box from. It seems more difficult than it should be to find the raw materials, which Peter mentions and which I alson experienced when I took Peter’s class at MASW in 2015. Shipping would be prohibitive, but maybe a network of local suppliers who understand what we are looking for could be created. It’s the only thing that keeps me from doing another piece.
Peter, Usually when I plane freshly rived oak it looks great but then black marks appear that look almost like mold on the surface. Is this caused by my metal planes? I use a wood jointer and a wood jack plane but my scrub and smoothing planes are metal. Do you run into this issue? Thanks, Richard.
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[…] and sometimes the family in tow. You can see what Peter has to say about the whole experience here and answers to just about any and every problem you could hit building something like this on the […]