The School of the Transfer of Energy
workshop studio land
A Portrait of the Workshop in April
Posted on April 18, 2013
The provision for me in my shop this past week: cutting dovetails in black walnut for a chest, some goat-milk and lime paint for the butcher block legs, and finishing up the milling of the mighty locust.
Carved Bowls in Cottonwood and Birch
Posted on February 15, 2013
Carving bowls helps me to live on the land
Table Build in Red Oak Part 1
Posted on September 5, 2012
The following is part 1 of a photo essay on a rustic and a little bit twisty red oak hall table build.
Composing
Roughing out the leg spindles
Cutting the tenons to width
Establishing taper with a gouge
Breather, almost there
Leveling out with a jack plane
Down to size with the spoker
After shaping with an angle grinder and hand sanding through many grits
Leg # 2 at dawn
Side by side
Composing again
About 11 days left and a lot of work to go
Wood-rick and Dressing Oak
Posted on August 25, 2012
Here is my small woodrick inspired by the folks at Plimoth Plantation. With a small door to admit the chickens. 
From the top.
From the west
Dressing a plank of red oak. The radius of the iron leaves tracks.
The iron with a pail-bottom radius takes heavy shavings.
Chainsaw-milled and well seasoned,
Cut just north of the heart with enough character to remain functional.
Hope Chest Drawer Case
Posted on April 29, 2010
Below is a group of photos of some details of the construction of the black walnut drawer carcass and the drawer fronts for the cherry and walnut hope chest. Please click on any of the pictures to view larger.
The lower web/ frame for the bottom of the drawer unit, it is constructed of white oak with the front (visible) rail being walnut.
The drawer case with the web installed with tongue and groove
The main chest rests upon the drawer case
Flattening walnut drawer fronts with a jointer
A forged bench hook (I learned from Peter Follansbee)
The flattened and drawer fronts ready to be marked and cut to length
The drawer fronts wedged in their spots to see how they look. Also the dividers have been installed with stopped dovetails.
Hope Chest
Posted on March 10, 2010
Pictured below is the beginings of a hope chest in cherry and walnut, primarily. The pictures depict the joinery of the upper case of the chest, which is cherry, and will lit atop a narrower walnut case with a row of drawers.
Here the dovetails have been cut and the piece is clamped together in order to mark precisely the corresponding pins.
cutting the pins with a dovetail saw…
cutting out the majority of the waste with a coping saw…
chopping out the rest of the waste with a paring chisel…
the board with pins cut out on both ends…
the case dry fitted.
Chair Repair
Posted on February 8, 2010
Repairing a hickory and oak chair that was brought to me with a broken front leg.
Riven white oak leg, turned on the lathe then bent green in the form.
Marking the tenon on the top of the leg.
Splitting the waste from the tenon with a chisel.
Cleaning up the tenon with a rasp.
Workbench top with the leg and tools.
Drilling the holes for the stretchers with a brace.
The chair with its new leg.
Walnut Burin Handles
Posted on February 1, 2010
After snapping the shaft of my smallest lozenge shaped burin, I now have two with longer handles to makeup the distance left by the shortened steel.
Making New Scratch Stock Cutter
Posted on September 10, 2009
In order to make a bead detail for some frame molding I could either buy a router bit or make a new cutter for my scratch stock (a traditional shop-made molding cutter or scraper). I believe that it is good to make your own tools when you can.
Below is the new cutter in the body of the scratch stock (similar to a marking guage), a piece of scrap walnut that has recieved the molding and an old triple flute cutter I made last winter.
The profile is marked on the blank before cutting. The blank is roughly cut from an old handsaw blade with a cold chisel then filed smooth.
The profile is then cut out with a dremel cut-off wheel…
then cleaned up with files.
The finished profile cutter in the scratch stock body and the resulting bead cut into the walnut.
Dovetails
Posted on May 9, 2009
The set-up for chopping the dovetails for a large walnut chest, which will be incorporated into a bed I am building.
Here a joined walnut board is clamped upright in the vice and to the stretchers for sawing the dovetails.
Finally, in the act of chopping.
