Nice to Meet You

Since I moved to Sterling, Massachusetts, I've been swamped with projects and traveling and had little time to get to know my community or let them know me. That changed when I talked to Dave Gibbs at the Sterling Historical Society about combining our efforts and interests. The Society has a lovely collection of Windsors that were made here in town as well as a barn full of the old tools from its workshops. The first floor of the barn is relatively empty, and I thought it would be a great location to host some 6 person classes. So, next summer, I hope to schedule three classes there, but I'll post more on that once we work out the details.
To help introduce me to the community, the Sterling Historical Society hosted a demonstration at the local American Legion post and Ross Jones of Harvard Video Productions filmed it for us. Here is the video of the demonstration.
If it doesn't appear on your screen, click here to go to the original site.



As you can see, I am elated to be starting this project. I think 6 is a great number of students for a class. Plenty enough for a group energy and atmosphere but few enough for lots of personal attention.

And if I got you interested in my talk with Dudley Hershbach, here is a great interview with him that I found every bit as engaging as sitting next to him on the plane.



and once again, the link if you don't see the video here.

Spring Report

From my lack of posting lately, you have probably surmised that it's been a busy couple of months. I have been working to wrap up projects, some new tools, some new techniques and of course some classes. I've been teaching weekends at the North Bennet Street school in Boston. After their initial taste of chairmaking from Dan Faia and Elia Bizzarri, some of the students decided to bring me in to teach some other designs. It's a fun place to teach with lots of talent and energy.

But as with all things in this world, choices must be made and consequences endured, so my maple syrup season has been whittled down to a couple of days of running out to the rig to check the fire, while tending to other business. It's the exact opposite of the way it is meant to be, which is an excuse to hang out outside for 8 hours tending a fire and watching the spring arrive. But, I needed to do it, even if it wasn't the ambling joy of burning wood and time together.

But that said, my efforts last season to improve my rig worked great and I was able to get more than a gallon each day that I boiled. Enough for me and my helpers.
Speaking of helpers, he are pics of Dan and Tim helping me split out parts for a class that I am teaching next week at the Port Townsend School of Woodworking in Washington state.

I am excited to go to the northwest, I haven't been there in 20 years. This is my first time teaching there and I am excited to be expanding to the west. There is one spot open if you are interested.

I forgot how much work it is to prep an entire classes worth of material. I've never missed Greg so much.

I did finally get a chance to paint the "glueless" chair. It hasn't fallen apart yet!

I have been experimenting with some new paint and new techniques and am excited to share the results. I have some more testing to do, but I think that I might be on track to the fool proof finishing that we all want (especially this fool).

I set out to paint the chair blue, and I did, but the layering, and shellac (hint) shifted the color to the green

In case you missed it, check out Jameel's blog over at Benchcrafted.
 
He made his "smarthead" shavehorse and made some updates and additions to the plans. It boggles my mind how pretty he makes everything. I wonder if his sock drawer is a mess.
I am getting very excited for the class at Kelly Mehler's where we will be building this project as well as forging blades, getting down and dirty with our tools and as always, having a ball.
Happy Spring!

Glueless

For years now I've thought and taught that glue should be a back up for already solid joints. It's a belt and suspenders approach. But there has always been a nagging curiosity as to how a chair would hold up without the glue.
So as I went about finishing up a chair that I started during my demonstrations in Rochester, I figured, why not give it a go. And even without knowing the long term results, I have already realized some benefits of the attempt.

In making the joints, I use air dried mortises and kiln dried tenons so that the joint benefits from the swelling of the tenons as the moisture contents equalize.
When I started to put this chair together without the glue, I found my focus on the fit of the joints slightly elevated. Not profoundly, but I suppose that driving the joints all the way home without the glue made for a different experience. The ring that wood on wood joints make when seated is very gratifying.
There is also that little space that generally has to be allotted for the thickness of the glue film, but in this case, I went for the absolute tightest joint that I could manage without blowing out the mortise.

As I turn my attention to the top of the chair, I am thinking a great deal about the joints where the short spindles pass through the thin continuous arm. Without the glue, I am definitely going to make each one a sort of "hammer eye" joint by having a subtle shoulder on the spindle so the arm can't shift down and flaring the top of the mortise so that the wedge will spread the spindle enough so that arm cannot move up.
It may seem like a silly esoteric exercise, but I am thoroughly intrigued as I think and rethink each of the joints and what it takes to count on them without glue. Of course, time will tell which joints loosen, and it will be fun to live with it, watch and learn. I think I'll paint it blue.

Seeing the Light pt.2

A while back, I posted about using a UV flashlight to observe hide glue squeeze out when cleaning up joints. The original post is here. I've taken the process a step further, by adding a tiny amount of UV dye to the glue. The results are amazing. 

Below is the joint in daylight, without the UV light.

 And here is the joint, in daylight, with the UV light on it. I think this is helpful in two ways, not only can it show the location of the residue, but it also highlights the effectiveness of my clean up process! This is especially important on woods that oxidize and change colors, as even hide glue will inhibit the color change where the glue remains.

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It also serves to show how difficult it is to keep the glue only in the joints! I was showing off my new flashlight to Andy Jack, when I spotted this.

Looks fine until I turned on the flashlight!

The dye (one ounce is a lifetime supply) can be ordered here. I hated paying the shipping, but I love knowing where all the glue is. To use the dye, I dip the end of a bamboo skewer in the jar and mix my already flowing glue with it. It takes less than a drop to light up a whole pot of glue.

Fighting Back

When I got into the shop this morning the building was "cold soaked" as my pilot friend Gerry would say. I was out of the shop for two days in a row and that was enough. Luckily, I'd thought ahead and brought my stones and steamer in the house. I probably should have just poured out the water, but I know how much my wife likes seeing woodworking tools in the kitchen.

I realized that the walnut rocker that I am making would hit a dead stop if I didn't get the seat glued up. My preference is to use hot hide glue for this, but I didn't want to take all day to get the shop warm enough to glue up. So I snuck into the house with my glue pot and clamps to get the job done.

This is a photo before gluing. I don't think two spring clamps would get the job done. But I am rather proud of my screw clamp improvisation!

There's two things to remember when doing this. Hide glue, even fresh, smells bad to spouses. So get it out of the house before they return. Also, if you leave the glued up joint in the house, your dogs will lick the joints clean. I brought it back to the shop , foreseeing the dog issue.

From what I've read, it's most important that the glue is still flowing when the joint is assembled and clamped. After the glue gels, which is in a minute or so, much of the bond is established, but you still need to avoid shocking it for 24 hours or so. Yeah, the hide glue has some foibles, but at least I can control them and in the end, I love seeing the cut offs where the wood breaks as opposed to the glue line.

Working with the walnut feels like having cake for breakfast. I tuned up my No# 8 Bailey and dedicated it to edge jointing. I pulled it off the shelf and felt like I had a weapon!

My other stab at winter actually has to do with a bottle of Titebond 3 that I bought recently. I looked for a date on it but couldn't find one, first mistake. Then I glued up a seat with it anyway, second mistake. When I saw the cutoff break cleanly on the glue line, I sawed back through the joint, planed it again and glued it with hide glue. Ah, the joy of doing something twice!

But in the name of preserving the bottle (I'll do some sample joints to test it's strength, who knows, maybe the failure was mine) I used this little trick. I'd love to build a cabinet above my kiln to capture the escaping heat and humidity, but until then, an old plastic bottle will do.

I just make sure that one of the holes is below the cover bottle and that's enough to keep the stuff from freezing, which I know will ruin it. Take that Old Man Winter, by the way, if you don't mind, you can dump all the snow you want, just leave my driveway out of it... please.

Seeing the Light

I can't be the only one out there to discover, too late, a little spot of glue that I missed during cleanup. When painting a chair it shows up as a spot where the paint won't stick but even worse, when working cherry it shows up as a light spot months later as the rest of the piece darkens.

I was reading the book on hide glue that I got from Tools for Working Wood and the author mentions that the glue glows under a UV light. So I went on Amazon and got a UV flashlight, and there it is.


This is the chair that my current student is working on. We don't bother to clean the glue off of the top of the seat because it will be scraped later, so it provided a perfect test case.


Apparently, the best range of nanometer is 365 for detecting a large range of light waves that fluoresce, but the 385 nm light that I got for $12 works fine.
Next I spent a minute with some warm water cleaning the surface around the joint, and sure enough, no glow.


How cool is that!
I also wanted to mention that Greg Pennington has brought my posts on handling drawknives to a new level by bending the tangs to change his knife from a bevel down to a bevel up user. Check it out. Well done Greg.

I've been spending more time on hide glue and the chair joints lately, trying to better understand some things that have been passing for assumptions. I'll be posting more on the results as they come in.

Clean it up!

This is an image of Virginia Chairmaker Chuck Harris, back in the old shop and using Pat Edwards Old Brown Glue. Chuck has made a few chairs with me and has been indispensable in finishing the new shop. After the hard work of moving the big beams around, I had managed to injure my shoulder and come down with a terrible cold. Chuck came to the rescue and helped me and Glenn Palmieri, Rich Pallaria and Bill Whalen finish out all the exterior work. Thanx Guys.
A while back, as I was gluing up an undercarraige, something dawned on me. I looked at the burnished tenon, coated in pine sap (from the fitting and reaming process) and realized that I was not even following the basic directions on every bottle of glue! Free of dirt and oil. That is what a surface must be to get proper adhesion. When would you ever take two pieces of wood and, as prep for gluing, compress the fibers (burnishing) and rub it with a material that won't bond (pine sap)? So now, I take an extra minute to clean the tenons with denatured alcohol, which cleans off the sap and raises the grain enough to allow glue to bond. This goes for all of the other joints as well. Think about how much handling the pieces take in the process of hand fitting and how much contamination the surface has! Maybe it doesn't make that much difference, or any at all, but it takes no time and after all the work that has gone into the chair prior to gluing, I am willing to try.

Hide Glue 1-2-3

I guess the first question is where to get it! I like to know the gram strength of my glue, which tells me about the amount of water to add, the set time and the strength. Gram strength is a measurement taken when squeezing the glue in its gelled form. The higher the gram strength, the stronger the glue, the more water necessary to get the right consistency. I buy my glue from Eugene Thordhal at Bjorn Industries. http://www.bjorn.net/. He is an amazing expert and kind enough to give solid advice. He is also the only person that sells reasonable amounts (5lbs and up) of various gram strengths. The glue arrives in a granular form that will last indefinitely in an airtight bag.
I prefer 192 and 251 gram strength. These are in the middle range and appropriate for woodworking. When I want more open time I use 192 and when I am concerned about strength I use the 251. To extend the open working time of both glues I add 20% urea, by weight. The urea is availible as fertilizer at your local nursery. I have been told all sorts of ways to mix the glue. Now I simply add cold water to the glue and urea and wait about an hour or more. Then I put the mixture, in a plastic cup, in my Sunshine water pot (about $15, no expensive pot needed) set on the lowest setting and wait for the glue to go liquid. Never heat the glue above 140 degrees, it degrades the strength. The measurements that I use for enough glue to make a chair are
1 Tbs. glue
2 Tbs. water
1/4 tsp. urea
This makes a consistency like paint and should have a long open working time (3-4 minutes at 68 degrees air temp). I keep the glue warm when I need it and let it cool to a gel when I'm done. During winter, my shop is cool enough to leave it unrefrigerated when not in use. It is like food, it can spoil, so the fridge is a good place to store it once mixed.
Obviously, speed during glue up and the air temperature will affect open time. If the glue starts to gel up on the wood before you put it together, simply heat it with a heat gun and apply some fresh glue. It takes a little getting used to and gluing the undercarraige, where one joint can be glued at a time, is a good place to start. The joint must be assembled before the glue gels and then left to cure. Like sweating a copper joint, any stress after the joint is assembled can disturb the bond. A good introduction to hide glue is to use Old Brown Glue from Patrick Edwards. It is a liquid hide glue and comes bottled. Because of the shelf life, I recommend getting a small bottle. This is a basic introduction, like any tool, I believe that there is always more to learn to get better results. There is a lot of good info on hide glue if you google it. Always make a sample joint or two before relying on any glue or new mixing process. Good luck
Pete

Why Hide Glue?

The first question has to be "What are you gluing?" I make my chairs to hold tight without glue. Using bone dry tenons and air dried mortises, as well as tight joints ensure that the glue that I choose is a backup. No glue can glue a loose joint, except epoxy, and I'll touch on its limitations.
The next question has to be "why hide glue?". I use hot hide glue for a number of reasons.
The main reason that I use hide glue is that it is infinitely repairable. I give a lifetime structural guarantee on all of my work. Imagine one loose joint amidst the 20 or so joints in the top of a chair. Hide glue is the only glue that can reglue a joint (made with hide glue). Simply add a little steam or hot water to the joint and then some fresh glue. Any other glue would require disassembling the joint, and chair, scraping all the glue off, dealing with a now too small tenon and regluing, the entire chair! Perhaps epoxy could work but it doesn't have the 2000 year track record of hide glue and the only way to repair epoxy is to stuff more epoxy in the joint. And adding epoxy doesn't redesolve the old epoxy so I am not comfortable calling it repairable. All of those revered antiques were made with hide glue, and have been maintained with it through the ages.
Reason 2 is that I use hide glue is the strength. Unlike bottled glues, I can use various strengths of hide glue and never have to worry about cold creep (when white or yellow glued joints shift in time because they never fully harden). The different gram strengths availible can offer longer open times or greater holding strength. I have done many samples and have been amazed to see a 3/4" thick piece of white oak, edge glued, shatter, not on the glue line, or near the glue line but 1/4" from the glue line.
Reason 3 is that dry hide glue that I mix myself (a lot easier that you think) has an infinite shelf life. Bottles of premade glues degrade during their life. Is the last chair from a bottled glued as well as the first?
Reason 4 that I use hide glue is that it allows very tight joints to slide together without seizing. Yellow glue takes an instant bond in a tight joint and can sieze it before it is driven home. Hide glue acts almost like a lubricant until it gels.
Reason 5 that I use hide glue is that it has doesn't require the clamping pressure that white or yellow glues do. Instrument makers often use it to glue braces to the inside of violins etc... Just put glue on the brace and hold it in place until the glue cools.
Reason 6 that I use hide glue is the hot water clean up and interaction with finishes. Even dried hide glue can be dissolved with hot water, making scraping and sanding unnecessary.
There are many things that should be glued with other glues. I have found that hide glue is the simplest and best way for me to make a chair. I know that this is a contentious issue and that my opinions are my own. It is through much experimentation that I have settled on my current method. I will give details about mixing and using hot hide glue tomorrow.