Good Stuff

I recently came across this fellow working in Japan, making some great stuff and taking the time to share it on his blog. 
His name is Dennis Young, he's an American, trained in England and living in Japan, if you like it here, I think you might find his site worth a visit. He blends Japanese and Western tools to get some fine results.
This post about his "master" is absolutely fantastic.

And speaking of things Japanese, I was asked a few times about my oil jar that was featured in a post recently. It's a Japanese design that holds oil in a reservoir and wicks it through a felt to the top. It's available at Highland Woodworking and I'm sure other retailers as well. I use camellia oil in mine.

Here is a pic of the latest chairs made by Steve and Jerry in my shop. Nice work guys!

Finishing the Shavehorse!

Here is the final video of building the adjustable shavehorse. I will be posting the plans for it next week. All in all, the project went smoothly. As I built it, I was reminded of the importance of accurate drilling and tight tolerances between the parts within the adjustable arm, as well as between the arm and the shavehorse body. If I've left any details out, or glossed over them, feel free to ask me to clarify, it might help someone else out as well!

Soup to Nuts

Before I show the next installment for the "Smarthead" shavehorse process, I want to mention that I will be teaching a two week intensive chairmaking class at the North Bennet Street school in Boston starting July 9th. This class does it all. The students will turn their own legs and split and shave their way to a Comb back rocking chair, one of my favorites. There are openings, so tell come on down and tell your friends, it promises to be a great time.

Here is the video on cutting the toothy parts of the arm. Hopefully you'll see that it's rather simple.