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.

 

Gluing a mitered box.

Assembling a walnut and spalted maple box using rubber bands as clamps to hold the box together as the glue sets.
 

Fitting a floating panel lid in a box

 

Making a  mitered finger jointed box is a bit more complex than a regular mitered box or a finger jointed box but offers opportunities you may not want to miss in your box making.

 I'm loading a few processes onto my youtube channel. I have to more than double my yearly watch hours in order to make any money as a "YouTuber."

Attention to woodgrain

Push sticks

 

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.

Sanding table top

I'm getting around to finishing the table I started as a demonstration during my table making class at ESSA   last week. The broad flat surfaces lend themselves to sanding with a random orbit sander. The edges, in order to keep lines crisp, require hand sanding with a sanding block. The wood is white oak. Its color will darken when a clear oil finish is applied.

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... 

cyborgs? I hope not.

 

A friend, Josh Pauling offers interesting insight into the Amish use of technology in this article in Front Porch Republic—https://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2024/09/steel-manning-the-amish-the-wisdom-of-communal-discernment/

And a student from last week's table making class at ESSA shared a photo of his finished table. Making Dan's table unique from the others done in class is a gentle inward curve along the front and ends. Our studio assistant Megan made a very cool sanding device to assist Dan in developing a smooth curve along the front edge.

A number of years ago, a writer for Time Magazine was excited to introduce his two year old daughter to the wonders of his first love, gaming. Then he decided to consult experts in child development. One expert he nicknamed Suzie Joykiller in response to her careful explanation of all the developmental hazards computer technology offers to kids. When he asked Suzie about the wonders of hand/eye coordination he expected his daughter's pecking around on flat screens to provide, "Suzie" asked him whether or not he'd heard of scissors.

Josh Pauling, along with co-author Robin Phillips have a new book out "Are We All Cyborgs Now? Reclaiming Our Humanity from the Machine."

Make, fix and create... assist others in learning likewise

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.

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.

A reader reminded me of something I'd written a few years back about Huxley's Doors of Perception and the role that the hands can play in that. I wrote pretty well back then.

https://wisdomofhands.blogspot.com/search?q=doors+of+perception

These days due to our obsequious observance of flat screens, will we see nothing that's not flat? In the meantime, I'm sitting on the porch with Rosie. The woods are alive in quiet sounds. Rosie's nose is lifted to catch scents from which I can only imagine.

making wooden hinges

In the shop I'm setting up to make small wooden hinges. Unlike those I've made in the past, these are made with thinner stock and utilize 1/16 in. brass rod as the hinge pins. My plan is to use the wooden hinges on small white oak reliquaries. The hinges will fold in two points, allowing the sides and roof sections to fold flat giving easy access to the samples of wood within.

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.