green woodworking

Wood Fire

Lift Earth Rise , compositional sketch on guitar

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small eyes wonder

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A five year old little girl with a pension for the aesthetics of random objects

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while carving walnut to look like earth

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of the golden dust of osage

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he discovers eggs make lovely lanterns

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walk out to find these things from my Goldsworthy protégée

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the horse rolls out, making its provision and fuel

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Quercus rubra holds Quercus alba for a shave

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showing how much learning is found when a draw knife pulls through the grain

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and much beauty in the life of trees

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yielding four legs from the rugged giant of civilization (that is Mr. Q. Alba)

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back to the door. routing tongues and tenons, applying coiled energy to transferred pattern

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every fit feels like a miracle

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and the two become one

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“Onforan” becoming a door, framing a passage

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embers stirring embers

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into the incense of fearless youth

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a seed within a seed, life and healing travel in a mysterious shell

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later, the arrangement has changed, she’s at it again

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meanwhile, nature imitates nature

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round violently became flat, then eases its way into concavity

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green tips taken by the hoof-shod

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the edges wound-up by the steel-shod

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summits of pollen-yellow splendor arise from the dust

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in a moment, history and beauty merge and glow

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while the broad axe composes its song

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as it was written in fire

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as it was written in wood

The will of a 3-legged stool

The stool declared loudly by snapping every black walnut rung I made- that it must be white oak throughout.  OK, says I, you win.

Still much work to be done, however, as of yet the  most complete sense of a stool that has pretty much dictated itself, and made me sweat in the process, and I still have to build his hopefully less mercurial brother.

Below:  shaping the underside of the seat.

Post-Oak Stool Legs

Below are some photographs from the process of the rough-shaping and bending (green) of post-oak, which is a variety of white oak, for use as legs in a pair of 3-legged stools -hopefully.

First the log was cut and split.  This one has quite a of twist, which I am hoping to integrate into the design of the stools.

Next the halves are split into quarters and then into eighths with froe at the brake (no photos), then the eighths were trimmed with the hatchet.

After trimming the pieces are shaped down with drawknife at the horse.

After this rough shaping each piece was place in a form and bent using clamps, the clamps were removed after a few days and were replaced with wire.  The legs will remain in the forms until they are dry and I am ready to shape them to final size.

For deep information on working with green wood please see Peter Follansbee’s blog.

Chair Repair

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.

Bald Cypress Bowl and More

Cypress bowl on the lathe.

Same bowl on the bench.

A few other shop pictures…

A white oak chair leg for a repair job, being bent in a form.  The leg was turned and bent while green.  You can see my first failed attempt.

flattening a walnut half for turning with a fore-plane