craft

Walnut Timber Mantelpiece

The six and a half inch thick, 13 foot long walnut slab filled the shop as it came from the chainsaw mill.

Beam cutter on the old worm-drive

“rough-sawn” to the max

Using the “beam-cutter” to rip the slab into a six inch square timber

Pulling the saw at the end of the cut to save the last bit of slab for the corbels

Aluminum C-channel as a guide

start of the smoothing

a jack plane with a radius set to take heavy shavings

Now the joiner

pretty obvious

chopping out for a patch over a rotten knot

the same, fitted

filing the edges of a little copper butterfly template

bench-top with tools for making butterfly templates

variety of butterfly templates

Scribing the timber for butterflies to bind the main check

Routing out the waste

chopping the rest

right up to the knife line

ready for the joining

carving the corbels (my documentation fell off for most of this process)

mating the various natural edges of the corbels to the mantel

a little further back

fitting the opposite corbel

rough-cut cove on the left corbel

both corbels with coves-cut and awaiting final shaping

apply the final touches on the ends of the timber

“C” for the covenant

installed over the fire box, and the home-owner’s sandstone work.

I look forward to seeing it with the stone work done

Carved Spoons

carved walnut ladle

carved pear spoon

carved pear spoon

cherry wood spoon

cherry wood spoon

Walnut spoon

walnut spoon

carved pear-wood spoon

walnut spoon

pear wood cooking spoon

pear-wood spoon (root and leaf)

“JACK’S STORY” BY ISAIAH ELDRIDGE

Wood Turning – Jack’s Story from Isaiah Eldridge on Vimeo.

Isaiah Eldridge, a local film-maker and journalist, spent some time with me last week as I we both plied our trades.

There Is A Season

Beautiful Industry

Fumed White Oak

The above are eight turned pieces from a single 24″ section of a 24″ diameter white oak from Boaz, Kansas. The tree fell over and across the Van Horn Branch Creek about 10 years ago- We finally pulled the log out 2 years ago, and it has laid in my log pile since then, although I did mill a portion of it. The heart wood is still green, so these bowls were turned green and allowed to warp as they dried. Ultimately all the pieces were exposed to ammonia vapors (fumed) which reacted to the tannins in the wood, darkening the surfaces.

Champion Table Build, Part 4: Base & Arc

preparing to fit the base to the leg assembly

defining a semicircle with 3 saw cuts

3 saw cuts get refined into facets with a paring chisel

and again

then shaped with a rasp

the base of one of the leg assemblies after the 1/2 lap-tapered dado has been cut

here, mated with the white oak leg

a different piece of white oak being shaped with a rasp, one of three slats joining the top of the leg assemblies together and to the table top

the slats also receive a long bevel

the slats will rest in the notches being cut into the top of this leg section

clearing out material from the notch with a 1″ chisel

establishing the final depth with a router plane

here the slats are temporarily in place

an arsenal of shaping tools to begin sculpting the legs

shaping inside-curves of the leg assembly with an aggressive rasp

forming a radius where the legs meet the base

the preliminary drawings had a horizontal stretcher connecting the two leg assemblies at floor level. Having rough-shaped the components and taking a look, I started visualizing an arc instead. PVC pipe (already bent from a previous life in some low garden tunnels) offered a quick prototype to help see how it would look.

the arc made sense, so now setting about squaring up a white oak timber for re-sawing

re-sawn white oak and a glue-lamination form ready to make an arc

the glue lamination in the form- my 8 year old son was indispensable in this process, helping to roll glue, assemble, and clamp

rhythm is in unity to woodwork

the white oak timber, reconfigured as a messy arc

work for the jack plane

now the smoothing plane

cutting the tapers along the length of the arc at the band saw

marking the taper at the width

cutting the taper at the width

more elbow grease with the smoothing plane

shaping the many curves and facets along the arc, first with a drawknife

then with spokeshave

establishing details with knife

facets ease into curves

test fitting- some refining-shaping to go yet

setting the location of the chamfers on the leg-base

shaving away rasp markings

carving corner transitions

so many details to bring together- here the leg base is about done.

That’s it for this round- next week there will be lots of sanding, also carving and inlay work as the table finally starts to become unified. Thank you to everyone for following along, and for your encouraging comments.

The Champion Table Build, Part 3: Leg Joinery

flattening walnut stock with a wooden joiner for the top rails of the leg assembly

using winding-sticks to make sure there is no twist in the board

finishing up with a #7 jack plane

squaring up the remaining edges and dimensioning the walnut on the bandsaw

layout lines

initial shaping of the curves on the top rail of the legs

testing it against the table-top

sawing lengths of white-oak for the vertical posts of the leg assembly

the white oak after squaring-up

testing the concept and a few angles before committing

laying out the leg joints

establishing the sliding dovetail angle with a knife

cutting the front of the sliding dovetail

all the bandsaw work done, now the hand-tools will finish

paring the back cheek of the tenon

the joint is most of the way there- the waste between the mortise and the dovetail is yet to be removed

the four white oak legs all cut

the arsenal of tools to accurately transfer the dimensions of the tenon/ dovetails onto the walnut rails

marking

starting the cut for the sliding dovetail socket with a carcass saw

another view cutting sliding dovetail sockets

chopping out the waste in the socket

paring the sidewalls unreached by the saw

using a router plane to achieve an accurate floor of the joint- the leg on the cutter allows it to reach the angled corners

another view of the router-plane

starting the mortise with a 3/4 mortise chisel

the first row is delicate- just establishing the shape and protecting the corners

going the full depth of the mortise with an auger – you can see the round-topped sliding dovetail socket parallel to the mortise

squaring the mortise the rest of the way with the mortise chisel

cleaning the sidewalls with my extra-big paring chisel

thank God, they fit!

step one is successful- to get to this point took endless drawings and two complete practice joints and a lot of patience

marking the leg rails for some shaping/ sculpting cuts on the band saw

the top rails post rough-shaping, and the taper of one of the white-oak legs marked with blue tape

dry re-assembly just to make sure

the glue-up

next week will concern the joining of the bottom rail and the final shaping of the leg assemblies

Der Aufbau des Champion-Tisches, Teil 2: Rand

surface preparation with a Stanley #80 scraper

the swirly walnut grain is difficult to plane but the scraper is able to deal with it efficiently

beginning to fit the side rails and bread-board ends

marking the end cuts with a sharp knife

then creating a shoulder along that line with a chisel assures a clean cut without tearing the grain

cutting along the shoulder with a sharp crosscut saw

a small array of saws to do this job

cutting the central breadboard tenon

coming up to the other side with a pull-saw

both ends of the table are now cut

cutting the base of the tenon “cheeks”

really no other position to accurately make this cut

cutting away the “cheeks”

the finished tenon, and a groove has been cut to receive a floating tongue to align the breadboard

laying out the positions of the mortise and tenons on the side rails and breadboards

cutting the tenon on the side rails

checking for a tight fit. the side rails are attached with glued tongue and groove joints, while the breadboards are “floating”, held in place by a tongue and groove joint and two “draw-bored” mortise and tenon joints, which will allow for expansion and contraction where the grain intersects perpendicular rather than parallel, yet holding the boards tight to the edge of the table. Two opposing corners are pinned miters and the other two are mortised. imagine the table being able to expand in width along the length of the two boards left long to see the allowance for seasonal cross grain movement.

treating the edges before the final assembly

drilling for the dowels for the pinned miter joints where the live edges come together

a brad point drill marks the center of the tenon inside

re-marking the tenon with an offset so that the dowel pin will “draw” it tight to the edge of the table. the holes will be elongated laterally to allow for joint movement.

altering geometry with violence

shaping the dowel pins by pounding the straight oak through a succession of smaller holes drilled in a steel plate until they are round and the size I need