A Hardy Lot

I am in Melbourne teaching some classes and have lots of good stuff to share. New woods, new tools, new techniques and new friends!


One of the main obstacles here, is the different variety of timbers that are readily available.
The woods here are absolutely unknown to me, such as gidgee, red gum, kaori, myrtle, houn pine and countless others.
Glen Rundell and Alistair Boell have worked very hard and exercised a great deal of ingenuity to make the available woods suit the windsor form. It makes me realize just how lucky I am to live where there is such an abundance of suitable chair wood.


Because the available woods don't split well, the spindle and arm stock is sawn first while green, being careful to follow the fibers. Once in billet form, it's on to the shavehorses, where the wood, a form of ash, behaved reasonably well.


Since I've been here, I've learned a lot that I look forward to sharing, and in the tradition of classroom innovation, some of the differences here have spurred on new thoughts that I'll take home to advance my own work.

One especially interesting technique that Glen and Alistair have developed, is this strap for bending the continuous arm bow. Even the most well behaved local timber won't bend without some form of strap, and these straps that they've come up with are ingenious, and work great!

Given the limitations of the wood, this class has proven itself to be a hardy lot, and quick with laugh to boot.

Warn your Family!

Lately I've been using Old Brown Glue in the shop, It's great stuff and when the shop is cold, I'd basically end up making my own liquid hide glue to combat the chill, so why not just go with it already formulated?

One problem that I've heard of folks having with the stuff losing it's quality has to do with constant cooking.  The stuff is only liquid at 70 degrees and above, so folks tend to take the bottle and heat it in a hot water bath. But just like food, heating and reheating breaks it down. So my solution is to take the bottle when it arrives and pour the entire contents into an ice tray and set it in the fridge (not the freezer). When the stuff sets up, I empty them into a ziplock.

Each cube makes a normal sized chair. I simply melt one cube in a cup that I immerse in hot water. Reheating a few times won't affect the glue, but I do discard whatever is left after each chair.

Be sure to warn your family so that they don't mistake the glue for some tasty treat!

As usual, I have been discovering new uses for felt around the shop. This time, it's some soft felt that my friend Dana gave me. When working with shaved walnut, it's a bit too easy to ding it up, but the felt on the clamps works great with no loss of gripping power.

I am heading to Australia today to teach a few classes at the Melbourne Guild of Fine Woodworking.
I'm hoping that the longer days will give me a chance to catch up on my blogging!

Below is a gift from my hosts, a real Aboriginal boomerang. I've always been fascinated by these objects and have longed to make one. They fit my definition of a perfect wooden object. The wood is perfectly suited to this use for its strength, beauty, workability and durability. I nearly choked when they presented it. I'm looking forward to the new woods that I'll experience there.



And for my friends in Atlanta, here are the kids in their new home. I was going to leave them and my brothers house until I returned, but it just didn't feel like home here without them. This is the view from the kitchen window. They are loving the new surroundings.

See you on the other side!

Not What I Meant!!

I've been getting some feedback that tells me that my last post might have been misconstrued. My pal Dan came over and said, "So, you finally got sick of people bugging you!?"
Then, a few sheepish "I hate to bother you" emails and I figured that I need to clarify. I pointed out the search box because I thought that it would be helpful. Please feel free to contact me, but be patient for my reply, as lately I've been overbooked!

Here is some of what has been taking my time. The class in Atlanta was small, but a great success. I've been using this simple drilling aid to help students drill the bow.

I know, I know, it's better to teach skills then jigs, but coming in at the end of a 65 hour work week and asking students to drill their bows by eye (which is a very achievable skill, by the way) proves to be a bit inhumane. Some visual guidance is helpful, such as placing a spindle near the hole and against the bow, but I figured, why not take a minute and make the aid more focused.



The jig is basically a tuning fork shaped block of wood with a dowel drilled into it that fits in an aluminum tube that sits in the mortise in the deck. The aluminum tube make the jig adjustable for height. The rubberband around the dowel locks the height.

Here you can see that pointing the top of the "tuning fork" helps find the center. Notice that the spring clamp is place so as to not affect the position of the "fork".

I've used this in a couple of classes now, and the chairs come out great and the meltdowns have stopped! There are plenty of hurdles in this race and I think that this fits fine within the goals of learning,  having fun and building a great chair.

Plus, the result speak for themselves.

Here is another student from last week. Jack has made about 30 chairs, so he was ready to tackle my most complex style.

We had fun making this one and I got to bone up on teaching it, which is good because it's one of the classes I'll be teaching soon on my travels.

 Jack really befriended Rocket, I had to tear him away from the poor dog just to get some work done! So Jack, this one's for you.