One Heck of a Link

I was reading Caleb James blog and realized that I had to post about it. Looking at his latest entries, it's easy to see the breadth of his abilities and generosity. Not only has he recently completed the plans for Curtis' comb back, which are available here, but he is offering free plans for moulding planes and sharing some brilliant shop jigs. I love watching his development and am positive that it will go on and on. Keep it up Caleb!

Curtis Buchanan's Signature Comb Back

A quick word about Curtis' videos and plans. Curtis has been a friend for many years and he greatly influenced my decision to offer my experience in an open format and so it was no surprise when he started offering his in his videos. Now that he has created a package of videos and plans, I'd encourage you to support him, knowing that he is working to find a way to balance making his living with openly offering his knowledge. A success with this effort will lead him to do more videos, which will benefit you, me and chairmaking enthusiasts for years to come.

Curtis has been Busy!

Here are a few more installments in the video series that Curtis has been making. Enjoy
You can watch it here or click on the title to go to Youtube to see the hd version.

Riving and Shaping the Comb




Carving the Volutes



Final Shaping the Comb

Curtis Turns

Here is the two part installment of Curtis turning a baluster leg. Curtis has done a great deal to refine this form and make it a dynamic element. As he says, he is self taught, so much of his technique is hard won skill and not while not textbook correct, you can't argue with the results.
Here is the 1st part. To see the best High Def version click here.


One technique that he uses that I think is especially worthy of attention, is the way that he forms the coves before he sizes either of the elements beside them. This allows him to get very crisp edges without the any tricky entry cut on the coves. If you've ever destroyed a "birds beak" while trying to refine the cove, you know what I mean!

And here is part 2.

More Curtis

In case you haven't found it on youtube.com yet, here are some more installments of Curtis building his signature comb back. So get a cup of coffee, turn your screen so your boss can't see it, and enjoy your morning!

Curtis...21st Century, 21st century...meet Curtis

 My good friend Curtis Buchanan has finally taken the leap to using the computer! No, that doesn't mean that he's using it, but rather you can use it to see him.
Curtis, along with David Sawyer has influenced my attitude towards freely sharing information and a while back, Curtis called to say that he was undertaking a video project for display on youtube.com. I thought it was a great idea and would be much appreciated by the woodworking community.

Rather than scripting out and shooting an outline, this is more like spending time with Curtis, and if you've never done this, let me give you a piece of advice. Sit back, relax and let go. Curtis marches to his own drummer and as many would say, it's a good one.

Here are the first two installments.






 Here is the second video