College of The Redwoods Fine Furniture: Week 6

 I can't believe that I've been here for six weeks, that of the past 42 days 35 of them have been spent inside the wood-shop, on the machines and at my bench. Time moves differently here. For me it is not measured so much in hours or days, in the hands of a clock, but in the movement of my hand. The building of a plane or the cutting of some dovetails each marks a passing moment. Then it all begins to meld together and I only know Sundays simply because I am not in the shop. This morning I woke to the sound of bandsaws and tablesaws in my mind. Dreaming again.

Shorts day at the shop.

Everyone's getting into their projects now. Drawing, making cardboard mock ups. Changing the height of this or the thickness of that. Thinking about wood other than poplar, that wood that lends itself so humbly for our learning. Darrick has been living in the wood room recently, only coming out for air when there is a board he'd like to look at in a different light and to take a few shavings off in order to discover what there might be in the wood. Teak, Madrone, Bay Laurel, Cuban Mahagony, Walnut, Oak, Maple, I could go on and on. I think Darrick has seen them all in the shape of his handsome wall cabinet. And some are already cutting into their wood, finding things they did not expect; a beautiful grain pattern, or a bunch of insect holes. Roger's finding some of his apple was already host to something else before he got to it. He'll make it work though.

Adam Vorath, from NYC( by way of Iowa and Florida...)

I spent the first few days of the week alternating between sketching, flipping through design books and past students projects, and coming up with a mock up. I've found out I'm quite taken with modern Scandinavian design. I'm also surprised to find myself mocking up not a cabinet, but a bench of sorts. I thought that I would definitely be working on a wall cabinet for scotch or tea this first semester. I think I'll be using walnut.

Various stages of my mock up.

Don't worry mom, we're not getting too picky with the wood. See? We still build stuff from pallet board on Sundays.I feel a bit like Antoine de Saint-Exupery before his first flight as a mail carrier. I've learned what I need to take off, but there is a great unknown before me, an unknown filled with legends of past students work much like the legends of mountains and storms that towered in Exupery's mind before he took off on a rainy night. "The magic of the craft has opened for me a world in which I shall confront, within two hours, the black dragons and the crowned crests of a coma of blue lightnings, and when night has fallen I, delivered, shall read my course in the stars." 

Don't worry mom, we're not getting too picky with the wood. See? We still build stuff from free pallet boards in our spare time on Sundays.

Chase working in a "looser" manner than in class.

College of The Redwoods Fine Furniture: Week 5

Week 5

The week started out with some unusual excitement. Wacker was out behind the shop steam bending in the typical Fort Bragg fog when a man in full fatigues toting an assault rifle rambled up out of the ravine and then beckoned for Wacker. There was a brief moment of panic as Wacker debated between running before he realized it was a SWAT team member, and not the murderer they’ve been looking around for. The rest of the afternoon we had a SWAT team patrolling the land east of the shop. Wacker didn’t go back to his steam bending.

SWAT team members looking for the bad guy.

The main exercise of the week was coopering, or putting a curve into a board. There are various ways to achieve a subtle curve in a board; one of them involves cutting the board into several staves with a slight angle on each surface and then jointing them back together. There was some minor trepidation as we realized this was like jointing the Prefect Board, only on angles and five or so times. Surprisingly the exercise went pretty smoothly for the class. Once the boards were glued up the sharp angles were taken out with our newly made coopering planes.

It was with relief, excitement and perhaps some nervousness that the lecture and exercise phase of the class ended with coopering. A few of us celebrated by burning our Sows Ears cabinets at the Elephant on Friday.  Hours upon hours of work put to flames and turned to ashes. It’s not so much for the physicality of things that I think most of us are working. It’s to learn and to do. The value of the work put into my Sows Ear will carry me into future pieces, and into myself as I learn both new skills and how to work well. I do hope the products of my efforts will be pleasing to the eye, but I hope more for pleasantness within me as I move forward in woodworking.

My Sows Ear Cabinet in the flames.

With the end of the lecture phase various people started moving forward on their projects, designing, putting up cardboard mock-ups, and piecing together fir as they began the process of figuring out what they’d like to make and how to execute it. To see the pieces of furniture that have come from classes before ours is daunting while fully knowing we too will be attempting such fine things with our hands, and surprising that despite ourselves we will actually create such fine things.

Anton working on a mock up.

Poster in the bar, the Golden West.

I have yet to come to what I’d like to make, but its presence is felt in my mind. In the still, unfilled, moments of the day, before I fall asleep or just as I’m waking up I find my thoughts moving over cabinets and such, shaping their size and moving drawers here and there. I think these thoughts used to fall on girls and mountains, but there is not much of either in Fort Bragg, so it’s thoughts of furniture.

College of The Redwoods Fine Furniture: Week 4

The short week following Labor Day went by just as fast and as slow as the previous weeks. And by a short week, I mean most of us in the class had a few hours on Monday when we did not go into the shop. I was bummed to not end up in Yosemite for a couple of days. For now my climbing fix will have to be crumbly beach rock. I’ve taped a Obata dyed woodblock of El Cap in my tool cabinet to try and keep me pysched to stay in some sort of climbing shape while I work in wood here.

El Capitan and Chisels. Normally the two don't mix. 

I worked on my frame and panel, glued up my sows ear cabinet, had some time practicing more dovetails and learned ordering new woodworking tools is just like ordering new climbing equipment. Someone else opens your box, and at least five people have ogled your new tool before you get to it, and then you get to hear everyone’s opinion on push vs. pull saws. I’m taking to marking my tools in the same way I mark my climbing gear. I’m not worried about anyone taking anything, but working in the shop is like climbing at Indian Creek. There’s about fifteen three-inch Starrett squares floating around the shop and I inevitably leave mine here or there and there’s high potential for something to move around. It’s like letting Marc or Ben “help” you sort your rack. Better count your Attaches, number twos and runners. So tomorrow my squares get a dot of red nail polish, and my pencils get marked with “XXX”.

My jointing plane and some stiles to a frame and panel.

I also learned that when Budlong says you could make something a little bit bigger, he’s probably thinking in 32nds, or 64ths, not eighths. This guy can see that you’ve got a gap less than a 128^th from ten feet away. A 16^th is the difference between having to grind your new plane iron to fit or not, and one paring too much with your chisel ruins your nice dovetail fit. Budlong sees it all, and almost before you do it.

Steam Bending for Dan Wackers mock up.

So despite the comparison of Fort Bragg to prison by Adam, there are other things going on from time to time other than just woodworking. There’s been a pretty intense Volleyball rivalry between the east and west side of the shop, and I’m happy to say the east side is leading the match. I’m on the east side. I guess though that is just like prison blocks out in the yard…

Anton post Volleyball.

Friday nights are the weekly Elephant, a gathering of students past and present, other woodworkers, beer and food. This week Jim Watkins, a student from last years summer class came in with coolers of beer and food for both the Elephant and for our house.  And a rice cooker. Generosity is an understatement. Last year Jim very well saved Chase’s and I’s life by making us stay with him at his house after he saw where we were staying. The Wildwood campground is a place where social services won’t go without an escort and the police wont go without backup. The bars and stars fly from fifth wheels surrounded by pallet board fences and there were far less teeth than there should have been. We spent this past Saturday night and Sunday having a blast hanging out with Jim, talking wood and furniture.

Hank and I head to the beach every so often. He needs to get some energy out since he can’t jump the fence and run all over town any more. Chasing seagulls seems to be second to cats.

Hank Chasing a Seagull.

Hank post beach nap.

College of The Redwoods Fine Furniture: Week 3

Week 3

Another week has passed by. I try to think back at what I’ve done and it doesn’t seem like much, but somehow every day has been filled with about 9 hours of work either at my bench or in the machine room. Calling a single day off per week a weekend isn’t right. Maybe I’ll just call it Laundry/Nap day as that’s about all that happens.

A picture of me, as per requested by my mom.

8 am Monday and I’m back at my bench staring down some dovetails and hoping that I can complete the first set without having to sharpen my chisels. I do not like sharpening, but it’s essential. It’s a goal this year to keep my tools as sharp as possible, so I’m trying to be good about stopping with my work and sharpening when I need to. Apparently by the talk in the bench room I'm not the only one starting to dream about dovetails. And one advantage of living with three guys from the program, no wife or girlfriend to bore with shop talk. Darrick's wife made a formal request that he leave the dovetail bemoaning and general wood grumbling at the shop. My second set of dovetails came out a little nicer than the first, but improvements can still be made.

Tuesday 8 am and it's Dovetails again. I spent 9 hours today working on a single set of dovetails. I was surprised at my patience with them and my ability to slowly work on them until they fit well. They’re nothing but a piece of practice wood; they’re not going on a drawer or a box, they are simply an exercise on a piece of wood that I will throw away. My dovetails became my sole focus, and they transformed from a piece of practice wood into an endeavor of excellence and patience. I may have learned more from the experience of the work than the procedure of the work. They’re starting to look decent too.

9 hours of work.

Wednesday, Half Blind dovetails. Mine look like they were cut by a full-blind woodworker. All that talk of patience yesterday and today I feel like I may throw a chisel through a window. I need some time in the machine room to rip apart some boards, send some sawdust flying, and then I’ll come back to dovetails later in the week. 

Planing the end grain of a set of half blind dovetails.

Thursday, a little bit off lurk about (checking what other people are working on) and then off to the machine room. I was thankful to get away from the precise work of the dovetails for a little bit today, put on some ear muffs (hearing protection, not ear warmers) and drowned my precsion sorrows in some saws. I worked a little on my sawhorses, bringing the pieces down to the dimensions I wanted. Greg Smith was teaching today, and went over dowelling for cabinet carcasses. Too much sugar earlier and I'm finding I'm crashing hard in the afternoon. You're right mom. Thankfully all my dowels and holes lined up and my carcass is now ready to plane and bring together. I guess I’ll spend the start of tomorrow sharpening plane irons. Stay sharp!

Adam listening intently to a lecture. 

Friday and my 10 am Union break is interupted by a lady who intercepted Hank after he jumped the damn fence again. Instead of working in the machine room I’m doubling up the electric wire on the shorter sections of fence and adding it to the five and a half foot high section of fence Hank is clamoring over. He hates the electric fence, and loves the cats on the other side. Some wood for sale came into the shop today and I bought some Myrtle (also known as Pepperwood, Bay Laurel and it’s latin name, umbellularia californica) and some crazy looking Siberian Elm (ulmus pumila). Laura told me as I was hesitating to buy wood that Krenov's philosophy was to buy it if you can afford it and buy it anyways if you can't. I may not have a project for it now, but I'll come up with one. 

Another picture of me since mom requested more. Horizontal Borer.

After a Friday night potluck at Ron Hocks with some steel talk I'm back at work on my Sows Ear Cabinet this morning. It’s all squared up with a level backside and ready to take over to the shaper to get ready for the frame and panel back. I have two days off this weekend thanks to Labor Day, and thought about heading out to Yosemite. I really would like to climb some, but the 7 hour drive, plus the cost of diesel combined with my tiredness makes me hesitant. I think I’ll stick around and just head into the shop to work on Monday to work on some more dovetails.