A Great Week of Woodworking and Fellowship

July 13th thru the 19th was as enjoyable a seven day stretch as I can remember ever having. I spent those seven days in tiny Pittsboro, North Carolina at The Woodwright's School. My wife, Jen, had gotten me the trip as a Christmas gift for the Saturday and Sunday Restoring Wooden Planes class. Then, about two months ago when I told her that Peter Follansbee's Joint Stool class started the day after the plane class ended, she told me to go ahead and book that one also. How cool is that?! She's so good to me. :-) She rode down with me on Friday and stayed with me thru Monday morning, when she had to head back home. We stayed in a nice little bed and breakfast, the Rosemary Inn, that was within easy walking distance to the school. It was a nice little get-away but unfortunately Jen spent most of the weekend battling sinus issues and working in the room. Probably not quite as fun for her as it was  for me. :-(

Saturday morning I headed to my Restoring Wooden Planes class with Bill  Anderson as the teacher. Bill's a great guy and a great teacher. He explains things well and is very helpful with diagnosing problems. I was glad to get my large Clark and Williams smoother operating properly. Ever since I'd bought it, I could never get the wedge to hold. After trying a couple different things with no luck, Bill checked the iron and sure enough, there was a hump on the back side of the iron. A little time at the grinding wheel to hollow out that hump a little and I had a functional premium wooden smoother! I was also able to rehab two dado planes and patched the throat on a vintage smoothing plane. I learned a lot and was glad to get these 4 planes functioning properly. It was a productive weekend for sure.

Sunday night I was like a kid on Christmas Eve waiting for Monday morning and the Joint Stool class with my co-favorite woodworker, Peter Follansbee. Making it even more exciting for me was the fact that Monday morning was to be spent busting open oak logs at the home of my OTHER co-favorite woodworker, Roy Underhill. Monday morning started out with Roy showing us around his place and getting to know the other students in the class. We had a great bunch of guys! The first person I met was Jerome Bias, the joiner at Old Salem historic sight. I was familiar with Jerome from seeing him on an episode of The Woodwrights Shop and from the internet but it was great to actually meet him. There were a couple people who traveled a pretty far distance to attend, Kelly from Dallas and significantly further, Dave all the way from New Zealand! Roy spent most of the week trying to get Dave to try distinctly American/southern dishes ( Chicken and Dumplings, Pecan Pie, etc. ). There was Luke from Virginia who worked as a historical interpreter at a living history museum in the Richmond suburbs, Bill and John, both great guys who were fairly local to Pittsboro, and Tony, who it turns out lives less than 5 miles from me! Small world. Bill Anderson rounded out the class, finishing up a stool he'd started the last time Peter was in town. After some donuts for fuel in Roy's kitchen, we were off the rive some oak. Turns out we had some primo, straight grained oak logs that Elia Bizzarri had sent to Roy. After getting about 40 stiles, 40 stretchers, and 20 aprons ( 1 long and 1 short apron out of each apron blank ) it was back to town for lunch and some hewing and planing at the school. I never had a bad meal all week by the way. Pittsboro's restaurants are all very good! After lunch, we started on the stiles. Green oak planes SO easily and before long we had barrels of shavings all over the place. We also found out the importance of cleaning your tools at the end of every day. The tanic acid from the wet oak will rust out plane irons and chisels in a hurry.

Day two and three were a lot more hewing and planing with I believe some cutting of tenons and chopping of mortices mixed in along with chamfering the stiles and adding lambs tongues. I really enjoyed the new experience of green woodworking. And Peter's method of chopping mortices was better than any I'd ever tried before. He starts in the middle of the mortice and alternately works his way toward both ends. Works great. Thursday I got to do some carving, which was a lot of fun. I used Peter's scratch stock and then found a nice SJ Addis gouge upstairs at Ed's amazing tool store that was just the right size and sweep that I needed to complete the carving on the  aprons.

Friday was the moment of truth when we got to assemble our stools, drilling and drawboring everything together with bone dry oak pegs that Peter had brought with him. A draw bored joint is a powerful strong joint; no glue necessary. I hated to see the week end, but it was very satisfying to see a stool come together from what was a log a few days before. I didn't have time to get the seat board finished and attached before I left, but I got that finished up earlier today, applying a thumbnail profile on the edges using a rabbet plane, a fore plane, and a smoother. All that's left now is to apply some sort of clear finish to the stool and enjoy 400 years of comfortable seating. ( Peter says that they're guaranteed for 400 years, after that you're on your own. )

I can't say enough about how enjoyable  and educational this class was. Peter is a first rate teacher and one hell of a nice guy to boot. He kept the class fun and entertaining all week. I'm really hoping he comes back next year for a carved box or joined chest class. I'll be first in line to sign up for one of those. And God bless Roy Underhill for all he's done and continues to do to promote the craft of hand tool woodworking. He is a tireless champion for the cause. I'm very lucky to have learned from both these men as well as from Bill. Can't wait to get back down there next year!

One of our three prime oak logs.

So this is what we're supposed to end up with?

Our Motley Crew.

Splitting very nicely.

A stack of stretchers and a stack of aprons.

Back at the school squaring up a stile.

Draw boring it all together. That's Kelly in the background.

Getting a little silly. The victory pose after draw boring it all together and weight testing.

Roy, Peter, and myself with my almost completed stool. Doesn't get much cooler than that for me.

Back at my shop, seat board with the edge profiled and pegged onto the stiles.

In the light and shadows.

A little closer look at the carving.

The Shop is Open - Colonial Williamsburg Style

Inspired by a side trip to Colonial Williamsburg on my way back from a class at The Woodwright's School, I came home and promptly ordered a flag to put out beside my shop. For those of you that have not been to Colonial Williamsburg, the way to tell if a shop or an exhibition is open is to look for a flag outside the building. Flag out, building open; no flag, building closed. So I thought that would be a neat little feature to have outside my shop door. Granted, Colonial Williamsburg uses a British flag and I ordered a "Betsy Ross" style Colonial American flag, but you get the gist of it I think. :-)

Flags out. Come on in!

Oh, I also put in a sidewalk out to the shop before I headed to North Carolina. Really nice to be able to walk out to the shop without getting your feet wet or grass all over them. I was lucky enough to come across some circa mid to late 19th century handmade bricks a few years back and this is what I used for the sidewalk. I really like the look. Being hand made, there are some variances and inconsistencies and this is right up my alley.

I jokingly call this my "path to enlightenment".

My New (To Me) Completed Hatchet

I was able to complete my hatchet handle the other day. I'm pleased with the way it turned out. It's nice to make your own tool handles because you can fiddle and whittle until it feels just right to your hand and suits your grip. I think hatchet handles are even easier to custom fit than saw handles; less worrying about the style of them. At least in my mind.

This was a fun little project and the first time that I've made anything useful from a piece off the firewood pile. All of the shaping and fitting was done with a hatchet, a drawknife at the shave horse, and a little work with a paring chisel. I don't have a decent spoke shave so even the fine tuning was just done with the drawknife, bevel down. The toughest part, not surprisingly, was getting the top of the handle that goes into the eye to fit well. This is made even more difficult when the  eye has sort of a bell shape to the inside as mine did. It didn't come out quite as tight as I'd have liked; I had to glue a small wedge to the back of the handle at the bottom of the eye section, but that  tightened things up significantly. With the hard part done, it was time to shape the rest of the handle to the shape I wanted. When I got it to where it felt good in my hand, I shaped the butt end by nipping the corners with a crosscut saw, eased the edges with a paring chisel, and smoothed it up with a bit of 120 grit sandpaper. I carved a B in the end of the handle with a v gouge just to personalize it a little and then put two coats of Tru-Oil on it. This is the same finish I put on my saw handles. I really like the look and feel of it and it couldn't be easier to apply.

After letting the finish dry really good for a few days, I cut a slot about 2/3 of the way down the part that the eye of the hatchet fits in, tapped the hatchet head on real well, and tapped in a wedge that I'd made from the same oak log the handle came from. This tightened things up nicely. Then I trimmed the excess length from the wedge and called it a finished hatchet. It feels good in my hand and I'm happy with the way it looks. I'll get a pretty good idea of how it works in about 12 days during my Joint Stool class with Peter Follansbee down at Roy's place. Very much looking forward to that.

My First Attempt at a Hatchet Handle

I'm feeling a little better and getting a little energy back after finishing radiation a few days ago and getting a drain removed which I'd had in for about 3 weeks, so I'm easing my way back into the shop.

I won an eBay auction last week for a really nice single bevel hewing hatchet head with no handle. It came in yesterday and since a hatchet head with no handle is pretty useless, I figured what better way to get back into some woodworking than to make one. The head was in really nice shape with just a little bit of mushrooming on the heel. I took care of this with the combination of the bench grinder, a belt sander, and a file. Everything shaped up quite nicely. Then it was on to the firewood pile to scout for suitable handle stock. The traditional material for axe and hatchet handles is hickory, but with the way a hewing hatchet is held and used you really don't need the springy whipping properties that make hickory such a good choice for say a felling axe handle. Really just about an wood would do for a hewing hatchet I believe. I chose white oak because that's the straightest grained piece of firewood I had; it even had a slight sweeping curve to it which will be beneficial to the way I want to shape the handle. Now to give this former piece of firewood a more noble calling. It was also a good chance to try out one of my Fathers Day gifts, a Drew Langsner designed Lie-Nielsen froe. ( The Woodwrights Shop seasons 7 & 10 were the other gifts. Now I have seasons 1-10 &  season 20. You can never have too much Roy. )

I placed the  hatchet head on top of the oak and oriented it so that the growth rings were perpendicular to the blade of the hatchet and traced the inside profile of the eye onto the wood, about 3/8" from the previously split edge of the log. Then I placed the froe about 3/4" from the outline of the other side of the eye, allowing extra room if the split decided to run the wrong way. It didn't. This was a nice, straight grained piece. Then it was on to the shave horse. I have two draw knives but only one was sharp enough to use, so the curved blade GreenLee with the folding handles got the nod. I had forgotten how enjoyable working on a shave horse can be. And what a nice shape and smooth surface you can get in just a short amount of time. In about a half hour I had a nice pile of oak shavings and a roughed out handle.  I took the handle down to about an 1/8" of my marks for the eye and then stopped to allow it a day or two to finish any drying and shrinking it may want to do. I don't expect too much, as this piece has been cut and split since last fall I believe, but better to make sure. I weighed the handle and it came in at 551 grams. I put it in the collar ties of my shop rafters and I'll weigh it tomorrow and see if it's lost any weight. If so, I'll keep replacing it in the collar ties and weighing it every day until it stabilizes at one weight. In the meantime, I think I'll put a keener edge on those drawknives and make sure my spokeshave is sharp. More to come later...

The hatchet head after some reshaping of the mushroomed heel. Can't quite make out the mark. Doesn't look as if
it was fully struck.

The non beveled side.

The eye required just a little bit of filing to remove some mushrooming on the inside.

The raw material for my hatchet handle, with the inside of the eye traced on.

Gotta love a shave horse and a draw knife. This type of woodworking is refreshing and fun.

Ready to weigh and put aside for final drying.

Just to get an idea of how it'll look.

A Brief Explantation for My Silence

Well, I never wanted to talk about anything but woodworking on this blog, but I feel like I owe an explanation to the blog readers for my extended absence, so here goes.

Back in March of 2010, at age 41, I was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. I was fortunate to find the right doctors and after a 12 hour surgery to remove 40+ tumors, a 23 day hospital stay, and 12 rounds of chemo, all was good until August of 2012. That's when a tumor presented itself in the area around the liver. Would not have been a big deal except it decided to nest itself amongst blood vessels so that it can not be surgically removed. Eight more rounds of chemo kind of held it where it was, but now I'm getting ready to start IMRT (targeted radiation) to try to fry this thing and kill it. Radiation is scheduled to start next week, 5 sessions spread out over 10 days. I thank God for a strong and loving wife and family that helps keep me going and keeps me on track.

So anyway, that's my story and the main reason for my lack of posting. I've been able to work out in the shop and even build the shop through most of this, but I just haven't felt well enough to get out there much in the last few months. I do get out there when I can, even if just to do a little light sanding on a saw handle or just to sit there and soak up some shop atmosphere.

I still have big plans though. I have a trip scheduled to Pittsboro in July to take a 2 day class at Roy's on restoring wooden planes. And I'm still asking for woodworking tools for birthday's, Christmas and Father's Day. :-) I've got a couple of panel saws that I got a start on and a hanging cabinet for the shop that's in progress. And I have to find some time to get on the spring pole lathe and get some turning practice in for some joynt stools/formes that I want to build. And some windsor chairs are definitely in my future. Hope to be posting again real soon.

Spring Pole Lathe in Action - Finally

After a few medical procedures and a 3 night stay at John Hopkins, I finally got feeling well enough to complete my spring pole lathe. The following is a short video showing the lathe in action. I have found out two things; one, the lathe seems to work as it should and excess vibration doesn't seem to be a problem. Two, I have absolutely NO natural ability as a turner. I think this is going to be a rather steep learning curve. I have fun with the roughing gouge though. :-)

I will try to do another video later showing all the features of the lathe.

Oh well, without further ado, here's the video, my first on this blog.

Video by Casey Bacon

Music: Protect the Innocent by The Fuzzy Mountain String Band

Slip Out The Back Jack

Finally got a set of steps off the back of the shop. Laid the stoop a few weeks back and have been piddling with the steps along with about 6 other projects for about a month. Got them installed on Monday. Rough cut 2 X 10's; leftover 2nd story floor joist material from the shop, so they're a full 2" thick, actually about 2 1/8". I can now confidently bring an elephant in the back door. Well, I guess I'd need a bigger door. But the steps could handle the weight! :-) Steps were finished with solid color white and gray stains. Left the rough surface for better traction. Through tusk tenons are pegged with 1 1/4" dowel that I cut at the appropriate angle to wedge everything together tightly. The good news is I'm really happy with the way these turned out. The bad news is I now like them better than the front steps. Oh well.