They’re so 20th century…

May 15, 2017 pfollansbee Uncategorized Alexander, chairmaking, Follansbee, green woodworking, Jennie Alexander, ladderback chair, shaving horse

I have been trying my hand at some at 20th-century woodworking. Going back to where I started, making a ladderback chair like the ones I learned from Jennie Alexander and Drew Langsner. I made them quite often back in the 1980s, but by 1992 I probably made my “last” one. The only ones I made since then were two small ones for the kids when they were little, December 2009. Here’s Daniel showing how much they have outgrown them.

This is one of the late-period chairs Alexander made with our friend Nathaniel Krause. Slender, light, but strong. Very deceptive chair.

But for years, I was swept up in the 17th century – and chairs, turned or shaved, were HEAVY. Here’s one of my favorites I made back then, maple, with oak slats. The posts for this are probably almost 2″ square. The rungs are 1″ in diameter (same as JA’s posts!) with mortises bored 3/4″ in diameter.

Some of the turned ones are even heavier, and this is not the biggest. All ash.

So today I shaved the rungs down to size, with 5/8″ tenons. The rungs are not much heavier than that – they don’t need to be. The rungs have been dried after rough-shaving, in the oven until the batch of them stopped losing weight. Then shaved down to size.

I bored a test hole in some dry hardwood, then jam the tenon into that hole to burnish it. then spokeshave down to the burnished marks. I skew the spokeshave a lot, to keep from rounding over the end of the tenon.

Long ago, I learned to bore the mortises at a low bench, leaning over the posts to bore them. Later, Alexander and Langsner started doing the boring horizontally. Use a bit extender to help sight the angle, and a level taped to the extender too. It’s so sophisticated. I’m sure today’s ladderback chairmakers have passed me & my brace by…

it’s a Power Bore bit. Was made by Stanley, I guess out of production now. I have an extra if something happens to this one.

Then knock the side sections together, check the angles, and bore for the front & rear rungs.

Still needs to go a little to our right..that’s a level in my hand, checking to get the side frame oriented so the boring is level.

Then more of the same.

Then I knocked it together. Yes, I used glue. Probably not necessary, the oven-dry rungs will swell inside the somewhat-moist posts. but the glue doesn’t hurt anything. I never glued the larger chairs pictured above.

I got the frame done. Next time I work on it, I’ll make the slats from riven white oak. I’ll steam them & pop them in place. then weave a seat. Either hickory bark or rush. Bark is best.

Small tool kit – those pictured here, plus riving tools, a mortise chisel. Saws for trimming things to length. Not much else. Oh, a pencil. Yikes.

revisiting an old favorite

February 22, 2017 pfollansbee Uncategorized Alexander, Follansbee, green woodworking, Jennie Alexander, ladderback chair, post-and-rung chair, riven oak, riving

I’ve been trying to finish off this chest with 2 drawers lately. I’m close, but have to go to North House Folk School soon, so the last bits will be in 2 weeks. Today I spent making the last 12′ of moldings – out of a total of over 45 feet! Rabbet plane first…

…followed by hollows & rounds….

Late in the day I still had some daylight. I have been using the last 30 or 45 minutes each day to hew some spoons for evening carving…but today I split some reject joinery-oak and started shaving the rear posts for some ladderback chairs. Must be because I’ve been thinking of Drew Langsner lately…

Here you can see the chest with a couple of clamps holding the drawer’s moldings in place. Shaving the chair posts was like old times…

Here’s the inspiration – one of the last chairs from Jennie Alexander’s hand…and Drew’s book The Chairmaker’s Workshop. I had to look up a few things to remind me of what I was doing.

The last time I made these chairs was some shrunk-down versions for when the kids were small, December 2009. These chairs are put away in the loft now, outgrown…

I hope to bend the posts Friday, then leave them in the forms while I’m away. Hopefully there will be some chairmaking going on in March…

a look at some favorite joined chests

October 16, 2016 pfollansbee Uncategorized Alexander, carved oak chest, Follansbee, frame and panel, green wood, green woodworking, mortise and tenon joinery, Savell shop, seventeenth-century reproductions, wainscot chest

a detail of a carving I did last year…

carving detail

Each time I’m at a museum to study furniture, I ask permission to post my shots of the objects here…some say yes, some say no. I feel like I’ve been very lucky to have so much access to 17th-century furniture, and I know many folks either haven’t got the time or inclination to go search it out. (it’s also heavily skewed to the east coast here in the US…)

I thought I could review some stuff that’s been over on the blog before, there’s always new readers, and it never hurts to see details – even ones you’ve seen before. The following objects are from a group that I studied many years ago with Jennie Alexander and Bob Trent. These were the first oak chests I ever learned about…so I always enjoy looking at them again.

This photograph from 1932 (I think, early ’30s anyway) I saw in the object files at the Gardner Museum in Boston back in the early 1990s. I eventually chased down this chest in a private collection in Maine. Alexander & I published it in our article in American Furniture in 1996. http://www.chipstone.org/article.php/222/American-Furniture-1996/Seventeenth-Century-Joinery-from-Braintree,-Massachusetts:-The-Savell-Shop-Tradition

When I think back on the leg-work to find this – staggering. I also searched for who might have been the original owners in the late 1600s. From our research, we knew the group of chests came from Braintree, Massachusetts, so I had to do some genealogical research stretching back from the 1880s to the 1680s – eventually found some likely candidates, it’s in the article somewhere.

Here’s the same chest, scanned from one of my color slides. Until this one, all but one of the joined chests we had seen had one (sometimes two) drawers underneath. I’ve built copies of this chest many times….

Here’s the other w/o drawer-chest, with brackets under the bottom rail. Lost some height of its feet, and has a horrible replaced lid.

joined chest, Jn Savell 1660-1690 — joined chest, John Savell 1660-1690

One distinctive feature of these chests is the way the floor fits into the chest. Instead of a higher rear rail that the floor is nailed up to, these guys use a lower rear rail, and sit the floor on it. And nail it. Here’s one I restored, with some white pine floor boards, sliding over the lower rear rail, and fitting into grooves in the side and front rails. The back panel is not yet installed, making it easy to see what’s going on. Tongue & groove joints between the floor boards.

Same thing on a repro I did, better view of the lower rear rail. sorry for the garish light. (just think, when my new shop is done soon, only-daylight)

Then the back panel slides up from the feet, fitting into grooves in the stiles & upper rear rail. Here’s an overall view of one lying on its face. A white pine panel, (glued-up to get enough width to fill behind the drawer) – bevelled on its ends and top edge to fit the grooves. Slides behind the lower rear rail(s) – and is nailed to the bottom-most rear rail.

Here’s a detail. It requires some careful layout of the joinery for that/those rear rail(s). The tenon is “barefaced” – it has only one shoulder. Fun stuff.

The same joiners made this desk box, missing its drawers in the upper section. I made one & 1/2 of these a year or so ago..shot it with Roy Underhill, then later at Lie-Nielsen. (Or vise versa, I forget) The Woodwright’s Shop episode is out now, the LN one hopefully before too long. http://www.pbs.org/woodwrightsshop/watch-on-line/watch-season-episodes/2016-2017-episodes/

Since the 1996 article there have been maybe 6 more of these chests that have shown up in auction houses. etc…I never saw this one, from James Julia Auctions in Maine. Clearly weird drawer pulls, something funny about the lid, but otherwise looks great.

and one with two drawers – we saw only two of those in our research, there might be four now

I’ve written about these chests and boxes many times…here’s a search for “Savell” (the name of the joiners who we think made them) https://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/?s=Savell – there’s other stuff mixed in there, but lots of stuff about the chests and the carvings.

recent projects

April 8, 2009 pfollansbee carving, furniture projects, lectures & workshops, seventeenth-century joined work Alexander, carved oak, Follansbee, joined stool

two-stools

I have a number of projects underway, as usual. I have just test-fitted these two joined stools, in preparation for the demonstrations I have next week at Winterthur Museum in Delaware. I plan on assembling them there, but haven’t got a chunk of oak big enough for seats right now…

For that demo, I am mainly concentrating on furniture from Plymouth Colony, where this sort of “lipped” tenon was standard practice for joined chests and cupboards. In this configuration, the molding is integral, not applied.

detail, Plymouth Colony joined chest w integral molding

It makes for some complicated work cutting the tenons. The cheeks are sawn, and the joint is not draw-bored. One or two square pins secure the tenon in place. I haven’t done one in almost 15 years, so I will make a new demo piece to replace this grubby-looking example.

: PF sample repro of “lipped” tenon

But what I have been really excited about is the new London carved pattern I wrote about last week. I knew I would try to squeeze it in, so I carved this sample of it the other day. It took some tinkering to figure out the layout and sequence of cuts. A test version is essential for me when I’m doing something this complex. I got it along pretty well, but knew this one is a sample at best. So I didn’t bother finishing it, but now have a good idea of how to tackle it for next time.

mortise & tenon work

March 18, 2009 pfollansbee furniture projects, techniques Alexander, drawboring, Follansbee, green woodworking, joined stool, mortise and tenon joinery

The post about making the pins for drawbored mortise & tenon joints brought a couple of comments, and a couple of questions. First & foremost, the moisture content of the pins – bone dry…gotta be. I shave mine dry. I split excess straight-grained oak into pin blanks and then store it around the shop. They are small-cross-sections, so dry quickly…but in any event, I always have several piles of them around – from green to dry.

They do have to fit the holes, but the taper in their length makes this easy enough to acheive. It doesn’t hurt to have a piece of scrap stock with a test-hole bored in it, and check your first dozen or so pins in that hole…typically beginners make the pins too stout.

Alexander points out that using a shaving horse & drawknife to make them makes the taper easier to achieve. But JA is working from stock that is easily 3 times the length I use. It’s a trade-off. As far as my method requiring experience and skill, well…I am reminded of a quote I once heard the folksinger Claudia Schmidt repeat:

“Good judgement is the result of experience. Experience is the result of poor judgement.”

(I figured it’s from Yip Harburg [If I Only had a Brain] but on the web I’ve seen it attributed to Twain. Don’t think it’s him…but maybe need to look at Puddn’head Wilson again)

Hmm. I adopted this method of shaving pins when I saw it in a sixteenth-century woodcut. I find it really works, and splitting the stock is very easy in such short lengths. You can often split it down to nearly the size you need. I say make your pins that way, and you’ll get good at ’em. Shaving them from long stock with a drawknife will get you good at shaving them from long stock with a drawknife…either way, make them dry, make them tapered.

It is not a wet/dry joint like in Alexander’s post & rung chairs. The action of the drawboring is what makes the joint work, not a moisture content differential. for more on the drawboring, see https://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/?s=drawboring

(on the right-hand side of this blog is a search button, way down towards the bottom. Let’s see if the above link works to get readers to the previous entries on the subject.)

I do use drawbore pins to pull the joint together first, this allows me to check the joints and make sure everthing is as it should be, before I put any wooden pins in. Some folks think these steel pins will wreck the drawbore, but I’ve never had a problem with them. Alexander found these pins at Sears many years ago, and handled them for me. Cheap & effective.

I also often use a numbering system for making certain that the correct tenon is in the mortise. Here just the mortise chisel chops Roman numerals to ID the joint.

Here’s the inside of a recent stool showing the trimmed pins, the fore plane surface on the inside face of the rail; and the inner shoulder of the rail not quite hitting the stile. Also these pins are staggered in height, so as to not interfere with each other.

pins for drawbored mortise & tenon joints

March 16, 2009 pfollansbee seventeenth-century originals, techniques Alexander

This is my wooden bench hook – I have been thinking of replacing it for a couple of years now, but just haven’t bothered yet. Maybe soon…

How it got this way is simple, I use it when I make the pins that secure the mortise & tenon joints in my furniture.

First I split the stock from scraps of dead-straight dry oak. Any crook & they get discarded. It is critical that the stock be near-perfect because I want it to be strong enough to snake through the off-set holes in the joint.

After splitting out a bunch of pieces, I shave them with the largest chisel I have – a 2” framing chisel. I find this to be the simplest tool for this job. The weight of it helps; when I have done this work with lighter weight chisels, I find I was pushing too hard…of course, it’s important to grab the pin stock up higher than the cutting edge.

My pins start out about 5” long. Shave them square, and then taper them. Finally, shave them into an octagonal cross-section.

Sometimes, as in this period stool, the tips are pointed. Sometimes not, as in a wainscot chair I saw recently.

one more miter square, & inventories

March 14, 2009 pfollansbee historical references, tools & materials Alexander, Follansbee, green woodworking, inventories, seventeenth-century reproductions

In my previous post about miter squares the other day, I forgot Andres Felebien (1676). There is a lot of talk about Joseph Moxon on the web these days, with Chris Schwarz’ interpretive publication of Moxon’s chapter on joinery. Alexander & I have tried to remember to consult Randle Holme and Andres Felebien in addition to Moxon. I’d say Holme is our favorite; his drawings are quite enticing. Searching all three of these 17th-century authors can sometimes make things more clear; at other times, more confounding.

The miter square is quite the same as Moxon’s; which leaves only Randle Holme who illustrated the multi-angle miter square. The modern one I have in my shop is set up to mark angles of 90, 30, 60 & 45 degrees.

Finding miter squares in period inventories is rare; here is one from Essex, England. The numbers are not values in this case, but quantities. This inventory comes from the Essex Record Office (D/DP E2/23)

Thorndon Hall inventory: tools in the joiner’s workhouse, 1592)

An Inventarye of all suche tooles as remayned in ye Joyners Workehowse at Westhordon after ye deathe of Cornelius Everssen, there taken by John Bentley and Water Madison the xvth daye of September, 1592

Inprimis Joyners playnes of divers bignes 15

Item ioynters 2

Foreplaynes 2

Smothing playnes 1

Squiers 4

Myter squiers 1

Addes 1

Hatchettes 1

Handsawes 1

Frame sawes 1

Hammers 1

Holdfastes 1

Jages 2

One percers stock and v Wilkyns for ye same

Thre fyles

Two brode paring chizelles

Thre mortise chiselles

Three small Flemish chizelles

One gouge

Thre ripping chizelles

one lyne rowle with ye lyne upon it

Two staples or banke hookes

Two rules of ij foote ye pece

Thre malletts

Two spare plainyng yrons

This next one has just “squares” so nothing regarding miter; BUT as often is the case, you look for one thing & find another – this one has “patterns” something it’s very gratifying to see. Lincolnshire, very late 17th century. I found it in L.B. and M. W. Barley, “Lincolnshire Craftsmen in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries” in Lincolnshire Historian, II (1959)

Inventory of John Dring of Lincoln dated 1696:

The Yard

The Bed Post, bed rales, bed sides & all other pieces, a turning wheel & bords £2-15-0

The Wood House

The Oake quarters, elme bords, wall nuttree plancks & other pieces £5-0-0

The Shop in ye Street

The coffins the wenscote bords, the base bords & pieces of bords £2-9-4

The Stools & cheese feet & rales 2 gun stocks with other pieces 17s

The molds & patterns squares & leavell frame of table screws & boxes 16s6d

The chist & all tools in it & in the Shop; Hatchets, hansawes, hammer, hold fast, long plain, for plaines, ogees, hollow and round plaines, plowe groving plaines, spring plaines, files and rasps & turning tooles, screws & screw plates, Wimbles & passer stocks & small bits, mortis chissel & all sorts of chissells & formers and gouges, the bench & all things in it [PF: no value listed]

The Old house where they come from

The Oake planck, the wall nuttree planck, the partree planck, the grindle stone and other waist wood in all £4-7-1

The Timber

The Oake timber by Saint Sweethings Church the Sawpitt The faur trees coming in

all £6-13-4

Elme Wood

The elme wood att stamp end 20 pieces coming to in all £3-0-0

miter squares then & now

March 12, 2009 pfollansbee historical references, techniques, tools & materials Alexander, Follansbee, green woodworking, Moxon, seventeenth-century reproductions

In the post about turning stiles for my joined stools, I mentioned and illustrated using a miter square for marking the centers of the stock. Miter squares are as simple as a try square, only instead of marking lines at 90-degrees to an edge, they usually are designed to mark a line at 45-degrees to an edge.

I know of two descriptions from the seventeenth century for this tool, the first is from Joseph Moxon’s Mechanick Exercises (1678-83) :

Joseph Moxon layout tools, including the mitre square

“18 of the Miter Square. And its Use.

The Miter Square marked E, [PF: it’s really marked “R”] hath (as the Square ) an Handle marked a, one Inch thick and three Inches broad and a Tongue marked b, of about the same breadth: The Handle and the Tongue (as the Square) have both their Sides parallel to their own Sides. The Handle (as the Square) hath in the middle of its narrowest Side a Mortess in it, of an equal depth, the whole length of the Handle: Into this Mortess is fitted one end of the Tongue, but the end of the Handle is first Beveld off to make an Angle of 45 Degrees with its inside. This Tongue is (as the Square) Pin’d and Glewed into the Mortess of the Handle.

It is used for striking a Miter-line, as the Square is to strike a Square-line, by applying the inside of the Handle to the outside of the Quarter, or Batten, you are to work upon; and then by striking a Line by the side of the Tongue: For that Line shall be a Miter-line. And if upon two Battens you strike two such Lines, and Saw and Pare them just off in the Lines, when the flats of those two sawn ends are applied to one another, the out and inside of the Battens, will form themselves into the Figure of a Square. Thus Picture Frames, and Looking Glass-Frames are commonly made…”

The other source that Alexander & I have relied upon a great deal is Randle Holme’s Adademy of Armory & Blazon (1688). Holme illustrates two versions of the miter square, one like Moxon’s;

a Miter square, of a contrary form to the following, mentioned chap. 9 numb. 17 It hath an Handle (or top part) an Inch thick, and three broad, with a Tongue of the same breadth, and for length 5, 6, or more inches, according to the breadth of the Work: it is to be Glewed into the Handle by a Mortess and Pinned.

His second illustration is a different version of the miter square, but his description still follows Moxon’s quite closely:

Miter Square, Randle Holme 1688 — Randle Holme, miter square, 1688

Book III, Chapter 9, Section 1b, #17:

“a Miter square. This Square hath also an Handle and a Tongue, as that mentioned numb.15. whose use is to strike either Square or Miter Lines according as you apply the ends of it to the out-sides of the Quarter or Batten you are to work upon; By the help of this, Miter or Bevil Lines are Cut or Sawed so exact, that two being joined together it will make an Angle; thus square Frames for Pictures, Looking Glasses, and such like are comonly made. ”

I have a few in my shop. the one I use most is the shop-made one, slightly smaller than Moxon’s or Holme’s.

I have a modern version like one of Randle Holme’s, that scribes four different angles, but I have hardly used it.

Another place where these tools are applicable, in addition to marking the centers of square turning stock, is the mitered bridle joint, sometimes seen on seventeenth-century cupboard doors from England. Here’s a few views of a sample joint:

Two more things. I saw a post about these tools yesterday, – the site/post is: http://dans-woodshop.blogspot.com/2009/03/old-shop-made-bevel-gauge.html . He calls it a bevel gauge, I know it as a miter gauge. The one he illustrates is a nice tool. I found it through www.unpluggedshop.com/ – When I have time, I look at a bunch of sites through there…but most of the readers here probably already know it.

If you have read my blog more than once or twice, you’ve noticed a presence from Jennie (John) Alexander. Well, JA has updated the website www.greenwoodworking.com and anyone with an inkling might go see what’s what over there. There are a great many green woodworkers today who got their start either directly or indirectly because of what Alexander did over 30 years ago with the book Make a Chair from a Tree. Now, based on JA’s website, I better get to work…

turning joined stool parts

March 10, 2009March 10, 2009 pfollansbee furniture projects Alexander, Follansbee, green woodworking, joined stool, pole lathe, turning

The next step in the joined stools I am making is turning the stiles’ decoration. Here I am using a miter gauge to mark the centers on the stock. Once I locate the centers, I define them with a center punch and apply a bit of beeswax. Then they go on the pole lathe for turning.

I wrap the cord twice around the midst of the stock, then line the stile up with the centers, & tighten the wedge that secures the tailstock.

Once I’m satisfied that the turning is mounted properly, then I check the toolrest, adjust it so it is as close to the turning as possible, and made tight. That can require some fumbling around with wedges & such, but only takes a minute.

Then I get the largest gouge I have, and begin to very lightly remove the corners off the stock. I have marked out the ends of the turned portion before it goes on the lathe – and at first the gouge is cutting well inside these marks. The idea is to get the stock roughed-out as quickly as possible. Once it’s round enough, it spins faster & easier on the lathe. My left hand moves the gouge laterally, my right hand rolls the gouge left & right, using the whole cutting edge in turn. Create the cylinder right up to the scribed lines, making a bevel up to these lines.

Now comes the hard part; cutting the transition from the square mortised blocks to the turned cylinder. Use a very sharp skew chisel, and with some practice it will come. First, I cut into the turned portion right up to the line of transition with the skew. Then I define the corners. I use the “long” point of the skew, and aim the tool just about directly in line with the mark I want to cut. My right hand is low, and the tool is aimed high at the stock. As it enters the wood, my right hand comes up, bringing the point of the tool down into the wood. Light cuts are key.

the skew cutting into the square — right hand comes up, tool begins cut in square

In general making this cut is a difficult one, but with practice it is manageable. There are a few movements that make it more predictable, and effective. Angling the handle left & right changes the relationship between the bevel and the wood, and this is useful as well.

After defining these transitions, I cut the rest of the pattern with a gouge and the skew.

The best thing to do is to turn the whole set in one session. That way you develop some consistency within the stool. I burnish the finished turning with a fistful of shavings when I am done.

Joined stool stiles; planing

March 1, 2009 pfollansbee furniture projects, techniques, tools & materials Alexander, Follansbee, green woodworking, joined stool, seventeenth-century reproductions

Picking up where I left off the other day, I will detail some of what I do to plane the 2″x2″ stiles for joined stools. After splitting and hewing them to shape, I set one on the bench with one of its radial faces upwards. I check this face with winding sticks and a straight edge, then work with a “fore” plane as it’s called in the seventeenth century. This plane has a curved iron; good for quick roughing-out work…I adapted this one by converting a modern German smooth plane. I put quite a curve on the iron, and the mouth is very wide…big, thick shavings can fly out of this plane easily.

With this short length stuff, the planing is really from one stance. I begin with my weight on the rear foot, lean into the toe of the plane, and shift my weight onto the front foot as I plane. The finish has the pressure on the plane shifted to the rear…as I come down onto my front foot, arms extended.

finish of plane stroke — finish planing stroke

I finish the surface with a jointer plane. Here I hold it slightly askew to the stock, this is mostly helpful with wider stock, but habit has me using this method on almost all surfaces. The iron does cut a little easier at an angle; but the body of the plane is in better contact with the stock this way too.

after doing the first two faces square to each other, I hew away any excess wood, then plane the final two faces.

In the stool, these faces are not critical. All that really matters is that they are 90 degrees, or less, to the first two faces. OR LESS is the key element.

See the photo below, of exposed joinery on a table made in Plymouth Colony, c. 1650-1700. It looks pretty beat, but it isn’t. This is the foot of the table, worn down to the stretchers. It looks like the rails’ faces are not flush with the faces of the stiles, but there is a rabbet at the lower edge of the stretchers, that is just sh0wing up dark. The slide is here because of the shape of the stile, the inner faces are clearly less than 90 degrees to the outer faces. Works fine.

Lastly, I plane a chamfer on the inner corner of the stile. I sit the rear end of the stile in a V-block, which both Moxon & Holme call a “joiners’ saddle” and shove the other end against the bench hook. Then just plane a chamfer…

This orients the stile without question, especially helpful when you’re building several stools at once. While you are first planing the stile, you are aware of which face is which, but if you don’t mark them somehow, when later on you get to mortising, you need to re-examine the stile again to determine where the mortises go. With the inner chamfer, you can quickly grab this piece and see/feel which way is in or out. Thus layout of the mortises is simple to begin…