A preview of a technique students will use in my upcoming ESSA class on making a Viking style chest. Making a coopered chest lid. Viewers may be curious why the fence in on the left rather than its usual position on the right. The reason is to take advantage of the blade's left hand tilt enabling the cut to be made without stripping away the tape.
Sunday, September 29, 2024
Saturday, September 28, 2024
Gluing a mitered box.
Friday, September 27, 2024
Thursday, September 26, 2024
Wednesday, September 25, 2024
Tuesday, September 24, 2024
preparing for class
I have a class at ESSA coming up in which we'll make Viking style chests from white oak. To prepare for the class and refresh my memory, I've made the parts for a coopered lid. Unlike the Vikings we will use power tools, a thing made necessary by the fact that two days from the week long class will be spent forging the hardware.
In the woodworking portion of the class we'll not shy away from techniques that provide a greater chance for success.
I applied tape to the inside surfaces of the lid staves before the angles were cut. With the tape remaining in place as the edges are glued, excess glue will be easy to remove. The Vikings had no blue painters tape. I do. To glue the staves, we'll simply tape the staves together on the outside, apply glue between them and then use additional tape to pull the parts tight to each other. The excess glue that gathers on the inside will peel off with the tape.Make, fix and create.
Sunday, September 22, 2024
Sanding table top
A photo shows my happy students from last week's class. Mario's table was already packaged for shipping home to Buffalo, NY.
Make, fix and create...
Saturday, September 21, 2024
cyborgs? I hope not.
Friday, September 06, 2024
moving beyond the junk in American life
An essay in the New York Times by David Brooks alerts readers to the "Junkification of American Life." He doesn't mention the role that crafts can play in altering our American culture, but I wish he had. The junk he's discussing is not of the hand-crafted stuff you can find on Etsy, but instead the diet of empty calories we find on our phones, in our choice of foods and in overly shallow relationships with each other.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/05/opinion/entertainment-junk-psychology.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Ik4.Y1GA.ZQGFRevK-i1-&smid=url-share
In my shop I've been working on wooden hinges to be used in making small wooden reliquaries, these not for holding samples of Arkansas woods, but that folks might use in housing and celebrating things of great value to them. You may think of them as shrines that folks can use to cherish and celebrate precious things. The chapel shape will alert to what one might find inside.
But the real value is not in the finished product, or even in their use, but in the shaping of myself... my refinement of self into higher form. In simple terms, it's about the value we discover in our own aspirations.
Otto Salomon had noted that the value of the carpenter's work is in the objects the carpenter makes, but the value of the student's work is in the student. One should never think that carpenters are not learning and growing for they are students themselves. In the ideal life, learning, making, growing and offering value to others must be affirmed as a thing with no seams between.
Yes, I'm sitting on the porch with my dog Rosie, with the flat screen of my laptop staring me in the face. I'm also looking up to see the beauty of the world staring me in the face. I'm preaching (forgive me), just as one might from inside a reliquary of wood. Position yourself if possible to live in the real world that exists beyond your own head.
Make, fix and create.
Wednesday, September 04, 2024
obsequious observance of flat screens
There's a story of Captain Cook having arrived at an island, and his arrival was not noticed by the natives on the beach until his men disembarked into smaller boats. Up until that point, the billowing sails of the ship were observed in the familiar as clouds.
making wooden hinges
I'm working from a picture in my head so the plans may evolve. My first test hinges are reasonably robust. Even in a smaller size they appear clunky. But don't worry, they can be made much more interesting and beautiful.
This link is to my article in Fine Woodworking #234.
https://www.finewoodworking.com/2013/06/06/wooden-box-hinges
Make, fix and create. Assist others in learning lifewise.