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.

Tool Junkie Heaven

Last week, I had Glen Rundell from Australia here to build a Crested Rocker, like the one in last years Fine Woodworking (shameless plug). Glen is also hosting me in Melbourne as I teach 3 classes and give a lecture this winter. You can see more about this at the Melbourne Guild of Fine Woodworking (shameless plug #2).

Here is Glen in the new shop. Technically, he is the first person to build a chair inside these walls in 150 years or so!

Here is his chair in progress. Note how perfectly the spindles are sitting, even though they are only drilled into the seat, nice drilling Glen!

Here is the finished, though not glued (shipping you know) chair. The blue tape is a new aesthetic that I've been working with!

and here is Glen, hamming it up with his new tool chest.

He bought this patternmakers chest, full of the tools of the craftsman, including his brand and glasses (see Glen's face) from Patrick Leach. I first stumbled upon Patrick's website about 13 years ago while learning more about handplanes. It is the most exhaustive source of handplane and tool knowledge that I've come across. What I didn't know, was that he lives about 30 minutes from my new house.

So I went with Glen to pick up some tools that he'd ordered.

Now, we've all stood at a dealers table full of tools that we've only seen in pictures in complete awe. Well, this is where those tools live. Unbelievable.

Patrick was generous to let us take photos of his tool crazed man cave.

When you keep your Stanleys like this, then you are either a dealer, or have hoarding issues, or both!

Frankly, I think that keeping these moulding planes in an original Starret display case is just rubbing it in.

Then Patrick took us on a tour of the inner sanctum. His private collection.

One could spend weeks in here. Patrick has a variety of old chests and collections that he refuses to break up. Good on you Patrick.

He pointed out with pride these salesman sample books of ivory rules.

I left Patrick's with a simple froe blade, secure in the knowledge that if I ever need a tool, any tool, I know where I can get it.

Rocky Brook Chair Shop

I've taken some field trips recently and have learned more about the chairmaking that took place on our property. The original builder, in 1800 was named Newton Burpee, and he built chairs in the Rocky Brook Chair Shop across from the house. It was a stream powered operation. The part of the land with the stream was later sold into conservancy.

Here is a painting of the chair shop that I came across at the local historical society.

You can see the tree and wall on the left side of the painting are still quite clearly visible. The foundation is still quite intact, but is more difficult to see in the photo.

Here is another painting from the other side, showing the dammed up pond.

And here is the pond now.

This wheel was in the shed behind the house and came from either the chairshop or the mill next to the house.

As you can see, Sterling was quite the hub for chairmaking. Here is the chair room at the historical society. It was a delight to walk in this room.

 

The curator was clearly excited to have a chairmaker back in town and offered to let me take the chairs to my shop to study etc...very kind.

The chairs below were produced by Newton Burpee in the shop.

Here is his brand.

They also had some lovely Birdcages in the display.

I love seeing the slenderness of the parts. Below is a map of all the chairshops in Sterling in the 19th century. Each shop is a red dot. The curator of the museum  said that wherever there was a stream, there was a shop.

Usually, I'm not one to revel in the history of the chairmaking, preferring to think that my role is about the future of the craft, but living in this house and this town has certainly brought the continuum of it all into focus.