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!

Among the Trees

Every time that I step outside I seem to be fighting the trees. When they talk about the amazing colors of fall in New England, no one seems to mention that the clean up is worse than at Woodstock. I've been blowing leaves with abandon and clearing paths to the firewood that I split last spring.

After two eye blistering days at the computer and drawing board, I took to the woods to take down a couple of trees for next year. I know that winter is bearing down on me and I am woefully short on firewood for this year, but I still reverted to my favorite posture in the woods, playing.

I got a new hatchet at a garage sale recently and it holds an amazing edge. It's one of those blades that rings out when you tap it. So I took a few minutes and hewed one side of this ash log.

It isn't exactly a hewing axe, which would be flat on one side, but I sharpened it so that it was close to one and for a lefty too.

I got it reasonably flat. The blade held the edge and took great shavings but it would have been better with the correct geometry. It was all that I could do to keep from building a fort.

New Wood and Travisher Update

Recently, my friend Dan Monsees and I went to his parents land and cut down a bunch of trees. Roz and Pete were incredibly generous and lined up all of the hauling and sawing apparatus. Having moved to a new area and losing my decade long sawyer connection, this was a great gift.

We used a Timber King bandsaw (which my friends in Australia import as well) to mill the walnut, maple and oak.

The walnut is one type of wood that I always have sawn, but coming across a supply that hasn't been run through the kiln is tough. Some of the boards are wide enough for one piece seats!!
The oak, I had sawn for rockers and the parts of my "Crested Rocker" that are more easily handled dry, such as the arms.

The real surprise was when we took down the maples. They were curly through and through. Which is not my choice for chairs (I know, it's a personal preference but I find curly chairs a bit too intense) but for tool making and flat work, it's great stuff.

But the maple trees had one more surprise, they were further colored by Ambrosia beetles. You can see the telltale color on the endgrain.

And what a sight when they were sawn!

I wouldn't use this wood in chairs, so I was a bit confused about how to saw it. I had a variety of boards made, mainly for table tops and legs. Some will definitely end up in travishers when it's dry.

On the travisher note. I have received many more orders than I anticipated and it pushed me to engage a machinist to mill the metal parts for better speed and consistency. I also bought a gas forge for more control over the heat treating process. But this has pushed my output back a bit. I hope to be fillng orders in the next couple of weeks and to have all the orders filled as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience.

Murray Kidman

I was fortunate to have my friends Carl and Glen in Australia introduce me to Murray Kidman. He is a rare breed of Aussie who goes out into the bush with a chainsaw and a boatload of skill and comes back with some beautiful woods. He specializes in tone woods for guitar makers. Watching him work is pure pleasure. I've never seen a chainsaw handled so expertly.

 Here is a snake having a particularly tough day. He was in the log and managed to get cut into thirds. We never did find the head!

Check out this video of Murray at work.


I watched him rip a board less than 3/8" off the side of the log like it was cut on a resaw bandsaw.
Here is the final product at the Maton Guitar showroom in Victoria.


























For another video of brilliant Aussie bushmen, check out this one that Robin Wood posted.

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!

Field Trip, Part1

After moving, I finally have internet and phone access again, so it's time to catch up on all the goings on here. Seth and I recently traveled to Irion Lumber out in Pennsylvania to get some wood. I needed some air dried walnut for some chairs and Seth was in the market for the wide butternut that Lou Irion had in stock. We were not disappointed. Here is Seth inspecting one of the 20" plus board that Lou had set aside for chair seats. Look at these monsters!

The field trips that I've been on recently have been helpful in calming all the chaos that goes with moving again. Irion is a paradise for the wood lover. Lou comes from a furniture making background and not only knows what we are looking for, but is helpful in meeting our specific needs. It didn't hurt that he knew that we were 8 hours from home.

Below is Seth in the air drying shed. There are many buildings on the property that hold the dried stuff, and when the doors slid, my jaw nearly hit the ground.

Usually, I am not a typical "woody" swooning over figure and exotic colors and widths, but this place is simply amazing.

Thanks Lou, for letting us look through the stacks and hanging out in the rain!

 

Coincidence?

Those of you who have followed the blog for a while know how much work Sue and I put into our old house and workshop. I'm sure it came as a surprise that we left it, and yes, it was in many ways difficult. So I'm very happy to report that we've bought a house and if ever there was a nod towards destiny, here it is.



The house caught my eye because the photos of the interior were so reminiscent of our old place, and sure enough, it is exactly the same layout, only the new house was built in 1800. Basically, it was the house I was trying to build. Plus, it has an attached carriage house and garage that will finally give me that separate space for my dusty tools that I've always wanted.

But here is where it gets weird. This house was part of a chair making operation in the 19th century. There was a mill in the nearby pond and a chair shop across the street. The chair maker lived in the house and to commemorate this, the carriage house walls are lined with the boards from the old chair shop.

Here is the carriage house, as I'm putting down a new floor. The timberframing is done with hand hewn chestnut beams.

And who better to help me finish the floor than Chairnotes pal Seth Weizenecker! Seth came for a visit just in time to help me with the floor and move my shop over. Thanks and sorry Seth!

And yes, this is the last time this floor will look so clean.

Here is the Chairnotes covergirl with the maple in the front yard.

Besides being surrounded by conservation land on all sides, the property has maple for sugaring and of course, room for the goats and chickens.

Here is the new portable goat shed.

While we don't have a pond here, there is a brook that runs across the street where the chair shop was.

We set up the shop and I'll be posting shots soon. Ok, perhaps it's not fate, but it sure feels like home.

A Ray of Hope

Yesterday, I just needed to whallup something. As I mentioned, we are in a crazy transition place and the tension has finally gotten to me, "Where's my sledge hammer!" So I went to JB Sawmill and got a white oak log for the rocker that I'll be making with Glen from Australia in a few weeks.

 

It's not the best log that I've gotten, but, white oak is a bit tougher to come by here and you know what they say about beggars and choosers. But when I split it open and stood over it, soaked with sweat and somewhat relieved of my anxiety, I saw this.

I've never seen a ray so large and perfect. To give more perspective than the wedge supplies, it's larger than an slice of rye bread. Very cool. So hopefully this is an omen, and will forever put to rest the question as to why the ray plane is easier to split and shave.

As promised, here are some detail shots of the Birdcage armchairs. I worked out a new scraping routine for the seats that yielded very nice results.

First I rough scraped the seat, trying of course to make it as even and fluid as possible. Then, I sanded with 180 grit sandpaper. Usually, this is coarser than I like, fearing that the sandpaper will eat through the compressed fibers from the scraping and make the grain "pop" look uneven or leave large scratches in the endgrain areas. But the 180 does a such a great job leveling the surface, so I simply scraped lightly afterwards. I know that this breaks the "no edge tools after sandpaper" rule, but I cleaned the surface with a microfiber cloth and a brush, besides, scrapers sharpen easily.

Then I sanded lightly with 220 grit and painted the first coat. As usual, I sanded the seat again very lightly after the paint hardened thoroughly. It seems like a lot of work, but the grain shining through looks great.

Besides the pine seat, I made all of the other parts out of oak. I really like the way that the texture of the grain shows through the paint.

On a sad note, my favorite chicken was killed by a neighbors dog the other day. Most of my chickens are, as you might expect, pretty dopey and lacking in personality, but Doris (the only chicken with a name) was a smart bird. Each day she would escape her enclosure (the only one with the Steve McQeen gene) and come over to the shop to be pet and lay an egg. At the end of the day, she'd just walk over and lay down so that I could put her back with the others. She had a great life.

A Great Resource

Since the articles in Fine Woodworking came out, I've gotten lots of inquiries about the butternut and where to get it. We in the chairmaking community are lucky to have Nick Cicchinelli thinking about our needs and working to help us out. I've bought lots of seat stock from Nick, and so has Curtis, Greg, Elia and the list goes on. He bought the Timbersmith Company from Mike Coseo about 5 years back and I have been rooting for him ever since. It's rare for someone to tune into the special needs of chairmakers and keeping his business moving forward serves us all. 

The Timbersmith
Nicholas A. Cicchinelli

302 St. Hwy. 458
St. Regis Falls, NY 12980
Phone: (315) 323-4880 ~ Fax: (315) 265-3186
Email: nicholas@cicchinelli.com 

Air dried seat blanks & planks ready to go.

Real Tree Wood

I know that I've said it before, but here goes...If you want to learn about working wood, carve spoons. I was lucky enough to have Andy Jack helping me out recently after returning from a spoon carving class with Jogge Sunquist and he brought back some great tips about the tools, materials, geometry, and body technique. It's spurred me on to a flurry of production and now the hardest part of every meal is figuring out which utensil to use!

Early in my spoon carving, I used applewood almost exclusively. It's tough as nails and lovely to boot. When it's green, it carves relatively easy, so it's best to do as much as you can before it dries to stone.

The little paddle above can be made from relatively straight stock, and while it seems diminutive, I reach for it all the time when cooking. It does what every good tool should, it feels like a sensitive extension of my hand.

Here is another "paddle" that also has enough of a bowl to be a good serving spoon. The curved front also makes it very handy when cooking in a pan with curved sides. This one is maple and came not from a crook in the tree, but from a branch to trunk union. I've been using branching parts this way and having a lot of fun learning to follow the grain. If you do it right, the neck of the spoon is straight grained and strong and the bowl follows the grain as well so there is no short grain at the lead edge. You can't get much stronger, which lets me take away all that unnecessary wood.



Here you can see the "curly" area that is in every branch spoon where the wood takes the heavy turn. It's always fun to find.

 

Every time that I see a large limb in a tree that fell or that I cut, I can't help but think LADLE!! It's always an endeavor. This one out of maple took me nearly 5 hours to rough out. I know this because I started on it one night at 5:30 and the next time that I noticed my surroundings (yes, I know, my poor neglected wife) it was 10:30 and the rest of the house was dark!

 

I've taken to scraping and sanding the bowls lately, both to highlight the grain and sculptural quality, but it also makes cleaning easier.

 One of the great revelations that Andy returned with, was how much easier birch spoons are to carve. But the softness of the wood also calls for bolder decisions as each cut can be that much more direct and clear. Here are a couple that I roughed out the other night. These took just a few minutes a piece after I roughed them with an ax.

And finally, here is an eating spoon from a crook. I've been working on the shape of these to get the proper feel in the hand as well as comfortably delivering food to the mouth. It's fun because when I'm done, there is surprisingly little wood left.

There are some great videos on Youtube.com if you search spoon carving. I think my favorite is the Romanian Carver, his motions are so effective and concise. And this fellow is great with all sorts of old technology and way more efficient with his hatchet than me. If these guys don't make you trek out into the woods, nothing will.

This photo reminds me of Sue's reaction to seeing me in a magazine photo, she said "They photoshopped your hands, they're never that clean!" I could think that it's retaliation for my obsessive carving during "our time", but I'm afraid it's simply the truth.