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.

Louie gets his finger back

When folks meet me at a show or display, they often ask whether the craft was passed on to me by my family, and I answer no. I think that they yearn to hear that there is a generations old tradition for which I am the torch bearer. Well, in some ways it is true.

When my grandfather Louie Kaplan was a teenager, circa the 1930's, he was showing another student at the high school how to use the jointer (I imagine a gorgeous old Oliver or something), he managed to nip off the end of his pinkie finger. Of course, as a child, the story shifted to a warning of the dangers of nail biting, but as I took to woodworking, he seemed to take more and more pride in explaining the end of his woodworking career.
Louie went on to become a pillar of the St. Paul community on a variety of levels. While he barely stood 5 feet tall, his name could unlock doors, and drinks, all over the twin cities. I won't bore you with tales, but suffice it to say, as a child companion of his, I was as close to a prince as I'll ever be.
We buried Louie the other day, and if he hadn't outlived most of his peers, reaching 97, I swear that half of St. Paul would have shut down.
Witnessing the impact that one man could have on his community, and the joy and endearment that he brought, even to his nurses at the end of his life, was humbling.
I've received plenty of kind remarks about my postings here, but rest assured, there is much work to be done if I am going to fill his tiny shoes.

Sightline Rule Refined

I've been all over the map lately, but I am home now for a few months and am excited for all of the new stuff that I have to show. First, I'd like to share the sightline square that Steve First made for me (us) at Kelly Mehlers. It's a beautifully accurate way of creating the sightlines and discovering the drilling angles for laying out legs mortises etc...
He made to versions, a large legal version and one that fits on normal sized paper that requires a bit of cut and pasting but works just the same.
Here are the PDFs (actually JPEGS)

I've also made this video to explain the use of this tool and a bit about rake and splay.



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