The teaching job I was looking forward to the most this year was in Anchorage, AK, with the Alaska Creative Woodworkers Association. I have wanted to visit Alaska since reading Jack London’s “White Fang” as a little boy (yes, I know it takes place in the Yukon Territory).
As it turns out, the state is even more beautiful than I’d imagined. Flying into Anchorage was more like landing in an alien country than an airport. I have simply never seen so much undeveloped wildness.
The woodworkers in Alaska are, of course, just like the woodworkers I have met everywhere else in the world. They are a close-knit and friendly bunch, easy to like and drink a beer with.
The club doesn’t have a dedicated facility, per se. But they hold their classes at the shop of member Don Fall, who has an enormous and fully equipped facility that can easily handle 14 woodworking benches. The shop is on the outskirts of Anchorage, so there is a lot of wildlife.
This morning, the members were smoking ribs for a barbecue, and the No. 1 concern was luring bears in from the woods. And after lunch a moose visited the school and stripped some bark off a birch tree to eat.
This was a small moose – only about a year old – but was bigger than any horse I’ve seen. (I know I sound like a tourist. But getting 10 feet away from a moose is both stupid and incredibly cool.)
For the last two days we have been building precision layout tools – straightedges, winding sticks and try squares – and working on the finer points of sawing, planing and chiseling. Tomorrow we start building Dutch tool chests and will focus on working our butts off.
Some of the fun parts of the class:
• We built Alaskan polissoirs. We made these from a whisk broom and hose clamps. Then we wrapped the whole thing in duct tape. They worked quite well. I only wish the duct tape were camo (so you couldn’t see it).
• Tony Strupulis of Raven’s Edge Toolworks transformed a worthless chisel/rasp into something useful: a bottle opener.
Time for bed. My body still thinks it’s tomorrow.
— Christopher Schwarz
What was the name of that show that had a Moose walking down main street… Ahh yes “Northern Exposure”
Filmed in Roslyn, WA.
Are those the French style try squares with the bridal joint, or the English style with the mortice and tenon, and fancy French decoration? Just curious. From the Woodwright’s Shop episode I was under the impression the English version was the preferred style.
We are building the French style square. It is much easier to do in a classroom environment.
Wow. I’m jealous. All I can say is, what the hell would Roubo have have to say about a moose? You guys rock, love the rasp/beer opener.
BTW, how is your krenov plane? I’ve moved to Nevada since I saw you last in Valley Forge. So many pieces of my wood furniture are crazy warped in afraid to unwrap my krenov plane.
My Krenov plane is doing fine. Exotics are much less sensitive to moisture change once they are acclimated (in my experience).
As to Roubo and moose, I think he would find some way to boil or weld parts of the moose to make them useful to marquetry (read his section on marquetry and I think you’ll agree. I’ll bet the French tried using squirrel boogers as a finish at least once.)
Nice use of disposable paper plate in the first picture. Presumably to protect the bench and the waxy surface easily releases from the square. I use the bags out of cereal boxes for the same purpose. Yes wood workers are very special people and I wonder if it is the creativity and the use of our hands that tames us. Must pop down to the shop and make a square.
chisel/rasp? so you can impale yourself while shaping? or pare to an ever shifting reference edge? What numbnut came up with this tool, and who was foolish enough to buy it? sounds like something from those crazy canadians who came up with the chainsaw dovetailer and the 4 wheel drive lathe.
Oh duct tape! Is there nothing you can’t do?
(Well, open a beer bottle for one.)
If you can open a bottle of beer with a sheet of paper (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00DWLkVLbd4) there must be a way to do it with duct tape.
This calls for research. Lots and lots of research. And not that namby-pamby library kind. This is gonna be a Kon-Tiki project!
I was thinking the same thing. With duck tape I am considering rolling it up and using it as loop to pull off the top. If it works the first time I will retest several times to make sure the first time was not a fluke. Plus there are hundreds of brands of duct tape to test.
multiplied by the number of brands of beer 🙂
Thanks Chris. We had a blast!
I love the comment about sounding like a tourist. I too am pretty well traveled. But when I went to North House in Grand Marais, MN (http://www.northhouse.org/) I had a similar experience. I saw a moose and her cub on a dark drive back to town one night and couldn’t believe my eyes. If you folks haven’t heard of this place you have to check it out. Follansbee posted about it a few weeks ago. I highly recommend it.
So jealous! Can’t believe there’s snow on the ground. It was almost 90 here the other day.
A Møøse once bit my sister