craft
Carved Spoons
“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

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

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

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

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

going the full depth of the mortise with an auger – you can see the round-topped sliding dovetail socket parallel to the mortise
Der Aufbau des Champion-Tisches, Teil 2: Rand

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

both ends of the table are now cut

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.

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.

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

the top all joined. there will be a considerable amount of detail work on the top yet, but first the base