Eye to the Sky!

Thanks to weather technology and early warning systems and 8 windows around my shop I can get really close to the action when it comes by. I wish you could have seen the movement of these clouds. It was not a tornado but wasn't far from being one. The weather people called for a severe thunderstorm warning for my county but we dodged the bullet. Lately the weather has been very interesting in middle Tennessee.

The barstools I have been working on shows below the mock-up for what they might look like. The card board is flimsy but I like to see in 3-d when doing something new and it's the quickest way to get results and work out the bugs. The swivel will be mortised into the lower part of the stool and somewhat into the seat. It will be sort of a hybrid windsor/ ladder back stool. Thanks Brian for your influence. I knew your class would come in handy someday.

I'll be posting more of the process soon.

Career Day

I had the opportunity to spread some knowledge of woodworking to the wonderful kids at Whitten Elementary School on Career Day. They were very excited to see wood shaved on a shave horse. They were struck by the strong smell of white oak. I explained how furniture comes from trees. They liked it when I blew bubbles through a piece of red oak with liquid soap to explain how there are pores in wood. They asked more questions about the shave horse than my chairs I brought. I hope maybe something I said might spark some interest in these kids. They are wonderful people with very curious minds.

I have been without my computer lately and have not been able to post but I have returned. We have had all sorts of devistation around me here in middle Tn with flooding but we were fine. All my questions where water could go were answered with 13 inches of rain in 48 hours. My heart goes out to those who lost so much.

On my last post I had mentioned uncle Kenny's adze which he got from his grandfather. It was a nice piece of forged metal which after cleaning and sharpening took a really good edge. As you can see below with the new handle it is now a very usable tool but not for tilling the weeds from the garden (O.K. Kenny).

The steam bent handle was easily shaped from white oak, dried in the kiln, then carved to fit the adze, then split and wedged. A little oil on the handle, done. This tool with the flat edge really removes wood fast for hewing timbers. I wish it had been curved to chop out seats but none the less it is a beautiful tool.

This week I have started on some barstools that swivel, should be interesting. The biggest challenge will be to design the stool to look good with the bulky swivel section. Stay tuned.

Bevel Up or Bevel Down?

The first time I used a draw knife was to build my first chair. Man were my hands sore and my thumbs were numb from gripping this tool learning and feeling it's power. I only thought I had control of this simple tool but was fighting what I did not understand. What I quickly learned was how the relationship between the blade and handles determined whether the tool should be used bevel up or down. From what I have learned over the years is that when the handles are in line with the blade then it is a bevel down knife. Using the bevel down knife gives you more freedom to cut coves such as the side of windsor seats. When the handles are not in line with the blade you use the knife bevel up. The flat back of the blade will ride along the long fibers of the wood giving you great control to follow the grain. The best way to check which knife you have is to sit down at the shave horse and pull the knife toward you till it starts to cut. At that point if your wrist are popped up higher than your hands then flip the knife over and try again. Your wrist should be in line or slightly lower than your hands and the knife should perform much better.

When making spindles for windsor chairs I like the control I get with a "bevel up" knife. Most of the knives I have are "bevel down" . Upon reading Pete Galbert's post on replacing the handles on his draw knives I saw my opportunity to finally fix all my knives to perfection. At least to me. I had 3 knives to repair handles and two of them to turn into a bevel up draw knife by simply bending the handles. Now I did the first one cold with no problems. If you have really thick metal you could use a small torch to heat the handles (after the wood handles are removed) to aid in bending. Just stay away from the blade so you don't lose the temper of the steel. The picture below shows the handle furthest away from you still in line with the blade and the handle closest has already been bent. It is not a severe bend at all and could be done with the wood handles on in a metal vise and padded vise grips. If you were to make a pommel knife by bending the handle straght out on one side then heating to a cherry red is a must or the arm would most likely break.

Here are some shots of one of the draw knives after turning new handles and bending to make a bevel up knife. After sharpening this $12 flea market knife really sings. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. See Pete's blog on how he did this.

Stay tuned for the restoration of uncle Kenny's adze. He gave this to me to use on the soon to be floor joist for the new loft. It had a tobacco stick for a handle and he used it to dig the weeds from the garden.

Ready for the Trip!

The settee going to the museum in Ireland is complete. It will be picked up on Thursday to be shipped. I wish I could go with it .I guess maybe a part of me will.

I think the settee turned out good and has a nice look in its simplicity. I have learned plenty in reproducing this piece and inspired to try some new designs. I am grateful to the Tennessee Historic Society for this opportunity and I hope I can work with them in the future.

Chairs Old and New

The Rogan house settee going to the Mueseum of Ireland is coming along nicely. Below you see the one piece poplar seat being scraped. Although this piece looks very simple the complex drilling angles to match the original has been a challenge. I would love to know how they did this back in the 1830's. Using Peter Galbert's method of drawing sight lines and getting the resultant angles has really helped. Also scribing the line to the leg and drilling with one angle has become habit now and really keeps things accurate both sides of center. No more wind swept looking chairs. Thanks Pete, the results of your wonderful techniques will follow this settee all the way to Ireland.

I'll post the finished settee soon.

Last week I spent a lot of time at my parents house cutting down the big red oak. When searching around Dad's garage looking for splitting wedges and mauls I came across some family history. The chair pictured below was my grandfather's first chair when he was a child. The chair had been forgotten and left under the crawl space for the last 30 years or so. If I had to guess it probably is about a 100 years old. The arms are 2 different sizes and the arm posts are not an exact match. The original color seen underneath the seat was turqoise. I can't decide whether to restore this chair or reproduce it. It was cool to find it. My grandfather taught me many things when I was young. How to swim, how to draw and use oil and acrylic paints, how to play guitar, golf, and many other things but never chair making. He passed away back in 1986 when I was just 16. Now all these years later I will learn from him again by the study of this chair.

Goodbye Old Friend

Several years ago we were hit by a severe drought in our area of middle Tennessee. This was the worst drought I can ever remember. It killed many trees, shrubs, and gardens. One tree in particular stood next door to my parents home where I grew up. This tree seen below draped my parents back yard standing over 80 feet tall. The loss of this tree has made me think of all the times spent under its canopy raking many leaves from its branches, hearing the wind blow through the top during spring storms, and watching animals build homes safely up high. This tree has been a big part of my childhood but has gone really unnoticed. It's part of the landscape that I assumed would always be there. So this is my dedication to this old red oak. Goodbye old friend.

We cut the tree down last week for fear of it losing branches putting the children in danger. The tree leaned toward some homes behind my parents yard so we had to use cables, ropes, and a truck to pull it the safe direction. This isn't so hard with a small tree but 3 feet in diameter and 80 feet tall put some concern not only on me (who was doing the sawing) but on the nieghbors near by and Shawn who owned the tree. Below is the video that Shawn Lance took as the tree came down. Notice at the end of the video after the tree hits the ground the wisk of wind coming past the camera. It's sort of the last breath of energy the tree could give.

We were able to cut this oak on my sawmill. It will live on as floor joists for the lofts in my timber frame shop. Not a very romantic way to honor this tree but I will remember it everytime I look up. The 24 3x6's you see below came from one log.

From Ireland to Here and Back Again

Hugh Rogan was an Irish immigrant who settled here in Sumner county back in the late 18th century. He settled the community of Rogana near Bethpage Tn. You can see his original stone house above.Hugh was responsible for bringing Catholics to this area. His son built a second home in the early 19th century. The National Museums of Northern Ireland have purchased this 2nd historic home to dismantle and ship to Ireland to be re-assembled. This is where I come in. Several of us have been commisioned to build furniture from that period based on records from Sumner county to complete the restoration. I will be building a settee based on one fron 1828 that use to sit on the porch of Wynnewood. This is a historic home that was damaged by a tornado 3 years ago. With the help of John Garrott I was able to measure the original settee which was also damaged and in storage. Below is the settee pictured at the bottom of the page out of the book "The Art & Mystery of Tennessee Furniture Makers before 1850".

Pictured below is the condition the settee is in now. It is in great need of repair but I am able to get enough measurements to make a reproduction.

I mentioned John Garrott who at 82 years old could probably work circles around me. He started the Sumner county museum back in the 70's. He is involved with a lot of historic sights in this area. Now he makes reproductions of 18th and 19th century furniture. You can see John below showing me the chair he made for the Hugh Rogan house(pictured at top) which was moved to the Bledsoe Creek historic sight. John made most of the furniture in this house.

The settee has to be completed by late April to be shipped over to Ireland. I will post on the progress soon.