an opening in a JA chair class Sept 11-16

Pete Galbert has just told me there’s an opening in my only class for 2023 – making the Jennie Alexander ladderback chair. The 6-day class is Sept 11-16, 2023 at Pete’s shop in the Rollinsford Mills in Rollinsford, N.H. Details are at Galbert’s site – https://www.petergalbert.com/schedule/2020/7/13/make-a-chair-from-a-tree-with-peter-follansbee-8brcj-7b62n-xafjp

Making chairs in Galbert’s shop is out of this world – an immersion experience if ever there was one. All chairs all week. This is about the 4th time I’ve been there for this class and each time we learn more & more.

We’ll start by riving out the stock, shaving all the parts and steam-bending the posts. At that point, we’ll switch over to stock prepped before hand and chop slat mortises and begin boring and assembly. I’ll have one of my chairs as well as one of the last ones Jennie made. There will be a seat weaving demo – but I don’t have materials for students’ seats. Anyone who has either hickory bark or Shaker tape can bring it & weave their seat on the last day of class.

Joel Paul https://www.instagram.com/13starsfarm/?hl=en will be there to help out. He’s a great craftsman and his enthusiasm is off the charts.

Get in touch with Pete if you’re interested in coming next month. There’s always more to do & see than we have time for…

test-fitting arches

“Me, I’m waiting so patiently, lying on the floor
I’m just trying to do my jig-saw puzzle before it rains anymore” Jagger & Richards

I kept thinking about Mick & the boys while working on cutting the arches for the cupboard’s side panels. The work is all scribing, cutting and fitting. And adjusting. I first cut the arches into quarters with 90° outer corners. Then they need to be scribed and trimmed to accommodate the keystones and imposts. The one on our left below is trimmed. The one on the right needs trimming for the imposts below the arch.

arches in process

I numbered them on the back so they’ll go on the cupboard in the same order. After setting them I moved onto the moldings running down the sides and across the bottom. And mostly forgot to photograph the work!

Because of the cupboard’s shape the panel this stuff gets mounted on is tilted – if the cupboard is lying on its back. That makes test-fitting a bit of a hassle. First time I made the cupboard I hit on the idea of making a mocked-up frame the same size. So did that again. It’s fine for the shapes that fit between the framing parts – probably as accurate as it needs to be.

But these bits below just hang in space under the arches – and I decided that cutting and testing those was probably a waste of time. So what I plan on doing is gluing the arches and the outer moldings in place, then fitting these 3-sided blocky bits as I go.

Over the last few days I wrote about turning the arches and making the keystones/imposts on the Substack blog – https://peterfollansbeejoinerswork.substack.com/

And the first cupboard’s versions are on this blog somewhere in this pile of posts – https://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/?s=Essex+County+cupboard+project+2021

Anyone need a shaving horse?

For some stupid reason, my friend Ted Curtin wants to move his shaving horse along. So I told him we’d post it here & see if someone wants to come to Plymouth Massachusetts and make it go away.

I know little enough about it. Ted says (& his photo shows) bugs have eaten at the sapwood in the bench. Says it’s red oak. I bet it’s over 30 years old – here’s his sparse text:

Red oak, 5’3″ long, 21.5″ seat height. Three position-head. Even has flamed maple legs!

And the damage –

Leave me a comment or send me an email if you’re game & I’ll put you in touch with Ted.

Some blog-house-keeping & some turnings

A little too dark right now to work in the shop – I got some spindle turning this morning, after swimming & before the storm arrived. So I decided to sit at my desk and play catch-up. I’m losing though, wordpress seems to be mad at me. I’ve neglected this blog for a while and now everything I try to do is more difficult than usual. I guess I deserve it. I sat down to put the printed plans for the joined chest on sale – that was more obtuse even then usual, but I got it to work – I think. The page is here – https://wordpress.com/page/pfollansbee.wordpress.com/22343

Edit: If you are trying to order the plans & having a problem, send me an email & I’ll sort them that way. I’ll try to fix some messed-up links on Wednesday. Sorry for the trouble…

Peterfollansbee7@gmail.com

So now my next task is to fix the “widgets” on the sidebar – somehow adding that one & one about the new blog distorted another one to make it look as if El Greco made a JA chair. Well, it’ll give me something to do while I wait for the storm to pass.

If you are new here, or have been wondering why there’s not much written here – the new blog on Substack is where I’ve been putting most of my shop work – yes, it’ a subscription blog – but there are several posts that are accessible for free so people can see what it’s about. It’s much like this blog has been since 2008. And this one will stay here (unless they kick me out…) – so over 1,500 posts here you can browse back on. Some stink, some I still like. If you’d like to see the new one – the link is https://peterfollansbeejoinerswork.substack.com/

Now – here’s a couple shots of those turnings I’ve been working on. The cupboard has a lot of turned decoration. Most are in the form of applied spindles – two blanks glued up, then turned, then split apart. I use a strip between them so they mount safely on the pole lathe.

The view of the lathe – with a detailed photo of the turning pattern I’m copying. I use a story stick for the layout – the photo is to show me what it should look like…

Turned feet – these have 3/4″ diameter tenons fitting up into the bottom stiles. Needs painting (black) then a base molding across that rail and turnings applied to the stile. This foot is birch, 3 1/2″ in diameter and about the same height.

the beginnings of a pile of these turnings – there’s at least 30 applied spindles in the end and dozens & dozens of the applied ovals and rounds. I have to save some of this work for a Fine Woodworking photo shoot next week.

All right – it worked. I’ve killed enough time here that the storm has passed. Time to get up from this desk. I’ll leave with the view behind the lathe at high tide last week.