Timber Frame Shed Foundation

We have had so much rain lately that I am just now getting the foundation done for the tool shed. Seven floor joist that have to be cut to length and sized at the ends to fit the mortise.

 After cutting to length I saw kerfs down to just above the correct depth of the tenon.

 I knock these off with the carpenter axe.

 Then simply plane the surface off to the line with the slick.

 These are white oak floor joist and work easy in clear grain. This wood is very green.

 The last step is to adze off the stepped surface down to the tenon.

 I think this is done to help prevent cracks down the beam.

 Ready to install in the frame, the floor joist from start to finish only takes about 10 minutes.

 All seven joist done and waiting for the frame to begin.

 The foundation is ready. We have set the date for the barn raising for August 17th. The Cumberland Furniture Guild is going to have their summer meeting here based around this raising. All are welcome to come so mark your calenders.

 I'll leave you with this bit of color. Raspberries are coming in and with all the rain they are very sweet. Stay tune for more timber framing post. I'll start the three bents next.

From Across the Country and the World

The family and I just returned from the Black Hills in South Dakota. I'll try not to bore you with too many vacation photos but here are a few. Mount Rushmore is simply awesome. 

 Mr. Borglum who carved the mountain died just before it was completed. His son finished the work. It took the crew 14 years to carve all the faces. I thought chairs took a long time.

 We saw Crazy Horse. This is a mountain currently being carved to commemorate the American Indian. The silhouette in the foreground is how it will look someday. They have been carving this for 50 years with no end in sight. To give the size, the Mount Rushmore carving could fit on the forehead of Crazy Horse. It's huge!

 Everywhere I went I picked up beautiful granite rocks. This one was blasted from Crazy Horse. I'll put some of these rocks in the foundation of the timber frame shed.

 We drove through the Badlands. No garden here. Very cool place. I could imagine it would be like walking on the moon. Logan wanted to climb everything which stressed out Kim.

 Rapid City, South Dakota just happened to be in Pennington County. I could live here if they had more hardwood for chair making. (my last name is Pennington if you didn't know)

 Upon returning home I found a wonderful package with curly Red Gum inside. This is from Glen Rundell from Australia. This is what his firewood looks like.

 Recently he blogged about some firewood he got that was all very curly. Well you know we Americans love curly wood so I requested some to turn some handles. Check out his blog here.

 Instead of turning handles for an antique draw knife I thought I would finally do something with these stained handles on my Barr knife with the big nuts. Don't get me wrong, this is a great knife and the handles can easily be removed which is a good feature. But those nuts....

 If you have never removed your handles from a Barr knife this is how it looks.

 While I had the handles off I heated the handles to bend and fine tune for a bevel up knife. Heating to cherry red is the only way to bend this knife. I also buffed the whole knife on the baretex to polish further.

 Then I turned the Red Gum. It turns nice but I really had to sharpen the tools to keep from chipping this curl.

 I turned the handles to incorporate the nut that holds the handle inside the end. I had to cut some of the stud to keep the same length handle.

 I like the simple look and the heft of this wood makes this knife have a quality feel. Glen, you are the man. Thanks for not burning those two pieces. Cheers!

Spotlight-Sackback

Oh, the sackback. The chair that started it all for me many years ago. I have made more of this chair than I can recall. It's a great chair to learn windsor technique. The bendings are simple, the seat is simple to carve, and assembly is straight forward. It still has it's challenges and I still like making this chair. It has a comforting look of purity and American history that draws me to it even now. I think this may be the perfect first chair for beginners.

 This version with double bobbin legs is a great choice if you want to do your own turnings and don't feel comfortable turning the ballaster style. This natural finished chair is white oak with an elm seat.

 This week I am working on a set of 4 sackbacks for a couple in Nashville. This is the page in my chair book that keeps me on track to make them all the same. See if you can make since of these numbers.

 I have the first one complete. I always build them one at a time even though I might turn everything at once. Tomorrow I will be splitting more oak for bending arms and backs.

 Other things around the shop lately. We just returned from the Braves game in Atlanta. They beat the Giants on Sunday 3-0. It was fun spending time with Kim and Logan.

 My student Fell just completed this musician's perch. The box stretcher with four legs works nice hooking your heel while playing a guitar. I like his design and deep carvings. I am going to make him do his turnings on the next one himself. He should have no trouble.

 This is the chair we demo'd the rocker jig at Kelly Mehler's a while back. I finished the chair at home using the new "Real Milk Paint" and shellac technique that Pete Galbert just blogged about. We played around with that at Kelly's. It works great and is very durable. I highly recommend trying this finish.

 The red really shows under two coats of black. Very little elbow grease involved in this process.

Forging Ahead

What a great week we had in Berea, Ky. at Kelly Mehler's school of woodworking. Peter Galbert did a fantastic job as usual with great new information and tools that he taught everyone to make. Early in the week we made curved adzes with the gas forge with O1 tool steel.  

 Here you can see Kelly who worked really hard to keep up with the things Pete and I had to mill for the students. He never complains.

 Here is Pete with his draw sharp tool he invented to sharpen draw knives. I can't wait until he introduces this on his blog. It's very cool.

 One of the highlights of the week was when the students used the adze they made to carve the seats for the shave horse they made. We had a great group of students. Kelly said it was the best class he ever had. (inside joke)

 This is the horse we built for Kelly to keep at the school. The smart head design that Pete invented worked flawlessly. Everyone's horse came out perfect.

 Pete demo'd his rocker slot cutting jig. I made a rocker base to try the jig. It works so good and really tunes the rockers to allow things that couldn't be achieved before and so fast. I have an extra jig for sale if anyone is interested.

 And yet another jig Pete designed is this adjustable tool rest for grinding tools with the slow speed grinder. I hope he shows this on his blog. It is one to watch.

 We had lots of fun and I know the students got more than they paid for. Pete always gives 150% of himself. I am sure all the students were overwhelmed with all the cool things they learned. I know I was.

 Kelly decided to sell his FW complete set. I got lucky to be in the right place at the right time and took these beauties home. They look great on my bookshelf in the shop. Thanks again kelly.

 Although we were all tired in the end we were all smiling. Great class.

Back to School

Preparing to head to Kelly Mehler's for Peter Galbert's class I picked up this sweet maple log today to rive up into leg stock for the shave horses we will be making. I bet I looked through 1000 logs til I stumbled upon this one. Maple this time of year can be scarce around here because the log yard saws them quickly to keep them from staining. They saw most of their maple for hard wood flooring.

 I sawed this into 22'' lengths. White almost to the center the way I like em.

 This log has proved to be a winner, no curl.

 I will round these into simple turnings for the shave horses.

 This is Fell Merwin who recently finished his chair here in class. Fell is one of those students who can do anything which makes teaching easy. He lives near by and has a wood lot. We talked about sharpening up my cross-cut saw and cutting a tree for his next chair that we will document. Fell is also my photographer for my chairs. This should be a fun project that we will do to with hand tools start to finish. Maybe we should ditch the glue too. Stay tuned.

 Well, the shop is all cleaned up and ready along with everything else. My cousin Lauren is getting married this weekend and they are having the rehearsal dinner here at our house. I leave for Berea Ky on Sunday for a week. When I return I will begin the joinery on the garden tool shed. It's going to be an eventful summer.