Traditional Woodcraft
Traditional Woodcraft is a special page devoted to displaying the use of the slighlty more ancient technologies that are often employed in the building of some of our furniture. I have always tried to appreciate the practicle and observable technology of past generations and have attempted to learn and practice certain methods of their problemsolving and craftsmanship- in my own incomplete way, that is I used to attempt to be a purist, until I realized that American craftsmen, in particular, were rarely “traditional purists” but readily borrowed from many traditions and innovated new ideas into them to fit their own certain tasks and purposes. I think it is that I enjoy learning from the past in order to incorporate it into the present set of my own problems to solve.
Turning a bowl on the pole lathe.
The bungee-treadle lathe set up in the yard for work. This is a variation on the spring-pole type of lathes. This is my first lathe, so I am constantly adjusting it to get it just right. I wanted it to be portable so I could cart it around the yard as I watch my son play- and so it can be moved for other purposes as well.
A better photo of the removable tool holder, and general set-up.
Three legged black-walnut stool.
The Shaving Horse.
Pealing bark from a hickory tree for chair seats.
A primitive-style white oak (Quercus alba), or post oak (Quercus stellata) chair frame with a seat woven in the “herring bone” pattern from the hickory bark peeled from the tree in the previous picture. The chair frame was riven and shaved round with a draw knife from the oak while it was still green.
The chair-shop set up on the front porch, with the red oak (Quercus rubra) shaving horse in the middle ground. In the stiles of the porch rail, in the background, are some hickory back slats bent and drying.
A shagbark hickory (Carya ovata) chair and stool frame, turned out of the log pictured above. No glue is used in this method of joinery, instead the varying stages of drying and shrinking of the green-worked wood is utilized to hold tight the round mortise and tenons of this chair and stool. That is, the mortises are allowed to shrink around already dry tenons, thus holding them firmly in place. The woven seat will further help to hold the chair together. -An interesting note: the shagbark hickory tree, though only 10″ diameter was over 70 years old when it was harvested this summer.
Tapping the weave tight on the seat bottom with a hammer.
Then pulling a strip of bark through on the top- the brake adjuster is to help it through.
The plow-share froe.
Green Ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica) chair rungs.
Bending green ash backslats and posts in the shop.
[...] piece to be turned are black walnut, with the remaining pieces made of Q.S. white oak. Go to the Traditional Woodcraft page for more on these [...]
It makes me very happy to see you making these tools! I love learning about traditional ways of making things; knowing that every peice of the process has your hand in it makes it feel so special.
hey Jack! I ran into Genesis recently and we ‘caught up’ on some folks. I really wanted to know how you were doing. I am excited to see your chair work. I have been doing some chair work myself – mostly replacing bottoms from rush and the old type of ‘hole caning’. I’m so happy to hear about your family and I hope I will get the chance to see and talk to you.
much love and peace, missy.
Fantastic stuff!
I loved my experience when a visiting artist came and taught my fellow students and I green chair making. We made Continuous Armed Windsor chairs. We weren’t allowed to use any tools not available to the 17th century chair maker.
One question: does the bar under the bed of the lath inhibit your leg movement when using the foot peddle and the bar on the ground which is attaching the foot peddle get it the way of you other foot not using the peddle?
The laths we used got around this by using a foot plate which your ‘achor’ foot was located. To this the peddle was attached as is yours using hinges.
If you needed to put in struts to prevent racking perhaps small triangular blocks located in the corners attached to the bed and feet would suffice?
Thank you for your gracious comment, Adam. Green chair making is pretty fantastic.
To answer your question about the lathe: the bar under the bed of the lathe has never caused any problems for me. It is actually an extra lang tool rest for when I am turning the back posts, and is just hanging on a coulple of nails. It also doubles as a handle bar for my son when he wants to help me pedle. Also as I stand far enough back from the lathe, my resting leg doesn’t really come into contact with the cross bar at the bottom.
I am constatly tweaking the design as I go along, though- escpecially the foot treadle, and the height of the pully, so thank you for the advice. The pulley is now higher than in any of the pictures, and is on a hinged support, so I can carry it out of doors or from my porch without hitting the top.
I hope to eventually build an oak framed lathe when I get all the kinks worked out of this design.
Your lathe looks great. Ive seen a similar one in an old wood working book a friend hand only it had a spring were yours has a pully. The use of shock cord is a great idea much easier to adjust than a spring.
Ive only every used one which ran on a big stick on a chair making course I did last year, I enjoyed it a lot and would love the opportunity to make another chair using only tradional tools. It would be interesting to compare the two lathes, Have you ever used a stick powered one?
Thanks, I am glad that you like the lathe. I have never used a stick or spring pole lathe before. I have thought about setting one up to use with this lathe to see how it is compared to the bungee cord I am using now, but I will probably wait untill I have it in a more permanent location.
I had seen some different designs using extension springs and some using pulleys and bungee cords. I thought about using a spring for this lathe, but ultimately I thought, for the money and availabiltiy, I would get a better length of pull from a rubber bungee cord.
If you are interested, you can view quite a variety of foot powered lathes at http://www.bodgers.org.uk. It was a good resourse for me when I was designing this lathe. I am kind of a hack compared to many of the traditional turners out there. But I love it, anyway.
Jack
[...] Traditional Woodcraft The School of the Transfer of Energy Posted by root 6 minutes ago (http://theschoolofthetransferofenergy.com) Thank you for your gracious comment adam green chair making is pretty fantastic for when i am turning the back posts and is just hanging on a coulple of nails also as i stand far enough back from the lathe my resting leg doesn 39 t to compare the two lath Discuss | Bury | News | Traditional Woodcraft The School of the Transfer of Energy [...]
can you point me in the right direction in how I could make mortise and tenon’s by hand without power tools? I’m making a tree slab table and I want to use tree branches cris-crossing and put togrther for the base of the table and i want to make these by hand. any info, websites, some kind of instructions on how to do this would be very helpful.
Thanks again for whatever you could provide.
Rick Johnson St. Louis Mo.
Rick, There are many ways to make mortise and tenons using a variety of traditional tools and methods usually as simple as a saw and chisel. I am not an expert, but there are many traditional woodworkers with very informative sites. A great place to start is Chris Schwarz’s blog. He has a lot of useful information, as well as quality links. A few other contemporary traditional woodworkers to look into are Peter Follansbee , and Roy Underhill’s books are useful.
Wow thank you for showing all of your art and woodwork it is all so wonderful!
You’re absolutely right about purism. If you want to know what the past was like look to the present. There would have been purists and adopters at every point in time. It’s just that innovation came at a much slower pace in the past, so in looking back we see it as everything remaining the same, and tradition. In reality woodworkers of the past weren’t necessarily being traditional by choice, but by the lack of choices. On the other hand a lot of people cling to the past, using only what they learned in school, from their forefathers, in apprentice programs etc… But if you could send a battery drill back to the 1800s with a way to charge it, who wouldn’t have used it?
You see the same thing in printing. The printers that survived embraced offset or carved out a niche in art printing, but the small job printers, printing tickets, letterhead, etc… mostly went out of business if they clung to tightly to their craft.
Narrow-minded stubbornness and tradition are two sides of the same coin.
Personally, I am currently doing a lot of carving work and a lot of it happens with a chainsaw, but I don’t consider myself a “chainsaw carver”. I do a lot of work with chisels and gouges too and it’s always nice to turn off the engines and motors off for a while. I love traditional tool work, but I don’t adhere to it religiously.
You know the water run mills weren’t exactly quiet, clean working environments, and as soon as they had motors the mills moved away from the water.
People like to see something different. They love to see how quickly a chainsaw carver can sculpt a log. They also love to watch lost arts like someone working away at a shaving horse. Nobody wants to see someone running a table saw!