craft – Page 2 – The School of the Transfer of Energy

Posted by jackbaumgartner on December 14, 2015 in art, bowls and vessels, craft, design, land, nature, photography, transfer of energy, vessels, wooden bowls, woodwork

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.

Posted by jackbaumgartner on November 4, 2015 in art, Bone Meal Bread, craft, design, photography, technique and process, tools and tool making, traditional woodcraft, transfer of energy, woodcarving, woodwork

Champion Table Build, Part 4: Base & Arc

base arc01 — preparing to fit the base to the leg assembly

base arc03 — defining a semicircle with 3 saw cuts

base arc02 — 3 saw cuts get refined into facets with a paring chisel

base arc06 — the base of one of the leg assemblies after the 1/2 lap-tapered dado has been cut

base arc07 — here, mated with the white oak leg

base arc09 — 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

base arc08 — the slats also receive a long bevel

base arc10 — the slats will rest in the notches being cut into the top of this leg section

base arc11 — clearing out material from the notch with a 1″ chisel

base arc12 — establishing the final depth with a router plane

base arc13 — here the slats are temporarily in place

base arc14 — an arsenal of shaping tools to begin sculpting the legs

base arc16 — shaping inside-curves of the leg assembly with an aggressive rasp

base arc17 — forming a radius where the legs meet the base

base arc18 — 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.

base arc19 — the arc made sense, so now setting about squaring up a white oak timber for re-sawing

base arc20 — re-sawn white oak and a glue-lamination form ready to make an arc

base arc21 — the glue lamination in the form- my 8 year old son was indispensable in this process, helping to roll glue, assemble, and clamp

base arc22 — rhythm is in unity to woodwork

base arc23 — the white oak timber, reconfigured as a messy arc

base arc25 — cutting the tapers along the length of the arc at the band saw

base arc28 — marking the taper at the width

base arc29 — cutting the taper at the width

base arc30 — more elbow grease with the smoothing plane

base arc31 — shaping the many curves and facets along the arc, first with a drawknife

base arc33 — establishing details with knife

base arc35 — test fitting- some refining-shaping to go yet

base arc36 — setting the location of the chamfers on the leg-base

base arc37 — 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.

Posted by jackbaumgartner on October 25, 2015 in art, Bone Meal Bread, craft, design, photography, technique and process, tools and tool making, traditional woodcraft, transfer of energy, woodwork

The Champion Table Build, Part 3: Leg Joinery

champion table 301 — flattening walnut stock with a wooden joiner for the top rails of the leg assembly

champion table 302 — using winding-sticks to make sure there is no twist in the board

champion table 303 — finishing up with a #7 jack plane

champion table 304 — squaring up the remaining edges and dimensioning the walnut on the bandsaw

champion table 308 — initial shaping of the curves on the top rail of the legs

champion table 309 — testing it against the table-top

champion table 310 — sawing lengths of white-oak for the vertical posts of the leg assembly

champion table 311 — the white oak after squaring-up

champion table 312 — testing the concept and a few angles before committing

champion table 316 — laying out the leg joints

champion table 317 — establishing the sliding dovetail angle with a knife

champion table 318 — cutting the front of the sliding dovetail

champion table 319 — all the bandsaw work done, now the hand-tools will finish

champion table 320 — paring the back cheek of the tenon

champion table 321 — the joint is most of the way there- the waste between the mortise and the dovetail is yet to be removed

champion table 322 — the four white oak legs all cut

champion table 323 — the arsenal of tools to accurately transfer the dimensions of the tenon/ dovetails onto the walnut rails

champion table 324 — starting the cut for the sliding dovetail socket with a carcass saw

champion table 325 — another view cutting sliding dovetail sockets

champion table 326 — chopping out the waste in the socket

champion table 327 — paring the sidewalls unreached by the saw

champion table 328 — using a router plane to achieve an accurate floor of the joint- the leg on the cutter allows it to reach the angled corners

champion table 329 — another view of the router-plane

champion table 330 — starting the mortise with a 3/4 mortise chisel

champion table 331 — the first row is delicate- just establishing the shape and protecting the corners

champion table 332 — going the full depth of the mortise with an auger – you can see the round-topped sliding dovetail socket parallel to the mortise

champion table 333 — squaring the mortise the rest of the way with the mortise chisel

champion table 336 — cleaning the sidewalls with my extra-big paring chisel

champion table 334 — thank God, they fit!

champion table 335 — step one is successful- to get to this point took endless drawings and two complete practice joints and a lot of patience

champion table 313 — marking the leg rails for some shaping/ sculpting cuts on the band saw

champion table 337 — the top rails post rough-shaping, and the taper of one of the white-oak legs marked with blue tape

champion table 338 — dry re-assembly just to make sure

champion table 340 — next week will concern the joining of the bottom rail and the final shaping of the leg assemblies

Posted by jackbaumgartner on October 18, 2015 in art, Bone Meal Bread, craft, photography, technique and process, tools and tool making, traditional woodcraft, transfer of energy, woodwork

Der Aufbau des Champion-Tisches, Teil 2: Rand

Champion Table Build Part219 — surface preparation with a Stanley #80 scraper

Champion Table Build Part218 — the swirly walnut grain is difficult to plane but the scraper is able to deal with it efficiently

Champion Table Build Part201 — beginning to fit the side rails and bread-board ends

Champion Table Build Part203 — marking the end cuts with a sharp knife

Champion Table Build Part202 — then creating a shoulder along that line with a chisel assures a clean cut without tearing the grain

Champion Table Build Part204 — cutting along the shoulder with a sharp crosscut saw

Champion Table Build Part206 — a small array of saws to do this job

Champion Table Build Part205 — cutting the central breadboard tenon

Champion Table Build Part207 — coming up to the other side with a pull-saw

Champion Table Build Part208 — both ends of the table are now cut

Champion Table Build Part209 — cutting the base of the tenon “cheeks”

Champion Table Build Part210 — really no other position to accurately make this cut

Champion Table Build Part211 — cutting away the “cheeks”

Champion Table Build Part212 — the finished tenon, and a groove has been cut to receive a floating tongue to align the breadboard

Champion Table Build Part213 — laying out the positions of the mortise and tenons on the side rails and breadboards

Champion Table Build Part214 — cutting the tenon on the side rails

Champion Table Build Part216 — 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.

Champion Table Build Part220 — treating the edges before the final assembly

Champion Table Build Part217 — drilling for the dowels for the pinned miter joints where the live edges come together

Champion Table Build Part221 — a brad point drill marks the center of the tenon inside

Champion Table Build Part222 — 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.

Champion Table Build Part223 — altering geometry with violence

Champion Table Build Part224 — 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

Champion Table Build Part225 — nearly there

Champion Table Build Part227 — a batch of pins

Champion Table Build Part226 — planing a taper

Champion Table Build Part228 — the taper will allow the pin to engage the offset hole in the tenon and slowly pull it tight

Champion Table Build Part230 — pounding the pins home for the final assembly

Champion Table Build Part229 — a little help form a ratchet strap to pull the center tight

Champion Table Build Part232 — cutting away the exposed ends with a saw

Champion Table Build Part233 — a tightly pinned joint

Champion Table Build Part234 — the top all joined. there will be a considerable amount of detail work on the top yet, but first the base

Posted by jackbaumgartner on September 20, 2015 in Bone Meal Bread, craft, design, photography, technique and process, traditional woodcraft, transfer of energy, woodwork

The Champion Table Build, Part 1: Compose, Scribe and Fit

Champion Table Scribe02 — the beauty of God’s edge

Champion Table Scribe04 — composing pieces

Champion Table Scribe01 — flattening black walnut with a router and jig

Champion Table Scribe03 — more looking, more composing

Champion Table Scribe05 — smoothing and shaping edges

Champion Table Scribe07 — smoothing and joining white oak

Champion Table Scribe06 — assembling white oak panels

Champion Table Scribe08 — white oak and black walnut adjusted and clamped for scribing

Champion Table Scribe09 — knife scribing every curve

Champion Table Scribe10 — the white oak panel marked and ready to cut

Champion Table Scribe12 — rough cutting on the bandsaw, staying about 1/16th to 1/8th away from the scribed line

Champion Table Scribe13 — cutting the line deeper

Champion Table Scribe14 — paring away the waste to establish a shoulder along the scribe-line

Champion Table Scribe16 — making the shoulders broad and deep

Champion Table Scribe17 — chopping and paring right up to the line

Champion Table Scribe15 — the shoulder becomes a jig to cut the rest of the piece right to the line using a pattern bit and router

Champion Table Scribe18 — after cutting a slot for a floating tenon, dry-fitting pieces

Champion Table Scribe19 — the floating tenons cut and laid out

Champion Table Scribe20 — tenons glued in

Champion Table Scribe21 — glued and clamped

Champion Table Scribe22 — joining and smoothing the new edges

Champion Table Scribe23 — on to the next step…

Posted by jackbaumgartner on August 20, 2015 in art, bowls and vessels, craft, farm, Oil Paintings, Plein air, prints, transfer of energy, woodwork

Commerce

Workshop, Studio & Land

commerce01

A slew of recent additions to our Etsy storefront are pictured below. There are prints, bowls, handmade goat milk soap with free shipping and a few paintings, even. Please click on the green BaumWerk sign immediately below to visit the store. Thank you!