We are delighted to have Monroe Robinson, author of “The Handcrafted Life of Dick Proenneke,” as the host of today’s Open Wire.
Monroe earned a degree in fisheries from Colorado State University before moving to Alaska. Turning down an offer with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, he built his home, much of the furniture and later worked with master log builder, Lee Cole, in 1977. Building a trussed-log bridge over the following two summers led to his meeting Dick Proenneke – their mutual passion for craft and wildlife kindled a friendship until Dick’s death in 2003.
A graduate of The Krenov School of Fine Woodworking, Monroe has taught woodworking courses around the country and has written articles for Fine Woodworking magazine.
Today Monroe has given up part of his Saturday to answer your questions about woodworking, Dick Proenneke and a conversation he’s been having with himself and others about using tropical hardwoods.
Here’s how it works: Type your question in the comment field. Monroe will answer it. It is that simple.
Thanks everyone! Comments are now closed.
Good morning Monroe. If someone were to travel to see Dick’s place, do you have any recommendations on where to eat, sleep, etc.? Also, any places you would suggest also seeing.
Thanks for being first Eric.
There are numerous air taxis that fly from Anchorage to take visitors to Dick’s cabin. Many of these visitors stay just an hour or two while the pilot waits. Visitors can also fly from Anchorage and stay a night or a few nights in a cabin / lodge in Port Alsworth and come to Dick’s cabin for an all day drop of and be picked up in the afternoon. One can include fishing, wildlife viewing, and sightseeing along with seeing seeing Dick’s cabin. One can look at The Farm Lodge, Lake Clark Air, Trail Ridge Air and others. Alaska Alpine Adventure offers multiple day hiking and kayaking trips in the Twin Lakes that includes a visit to Dick’s cabin.
One can camp at a tiny campground a few minutes from walk from Dick’s cabin. The only cabin rentals on Twin Lakes, a 10 minute boat ride from Dick’s cabin, is at Windsong Lodge.
If you are inclined to hiking in remote wilderness where there are nothing more than wildlife trails… the region around Twin Lakes is one of Alaska’s special experiences.
Let’s talk more about sustainable woods. Should the woodworking industrial complex stop promoting these exotic hardwoods? (I’m thinking of the often tacky overuse of woods like purpleheart, wenge, etc.) Also, are there domestic woods we use too much, shouldn’t use at all or only sparingly?
I try not to encourage the use of exotic hardwoods… but to use what is grown and harvested closer to home. I can somewhat wrap my head around managing the west coast forest in a sustainable way but do not profess to understand at all what is needed to both protect and have available exotic hardwoods. Seems indisputable that forests around the world are being abusively logged, sometimes to fill an exotic wood market. I assume some of the exotic woods I purchased decades ago, came for forest operations that would appall me if I could see what the long term effects of those operations had on the forest and the people who lived nearby.
I do not know of domestic woods one should avoid using. Old growth ub several species including redwood, fir, port Orford cedar, Western Red cedar and Pacific yew are all somewhat had to find but I don’t think when one does find a source that one’s use threatens the that species in the environment. The threat to the remaining old growth forest is an issue of industrial forest management. I am unaware of any domestic woods that are threatened by their use by small scale woodworkers.
What are you building in the photo?
I was replicating Dick Proenneke’s cargo sled of local white spruce with gas can metal soles on the runners.
Are you still spending time during summers at Dick’s cabin in Alaska?
The last year my wife and spent caring for Dick’s cabin and meeting visitors was 2018.
Are you still visiting Dick’s cabin during summer season?
Regarding exotic wood – I enjoy building acoustic instruments and there is a mindset among many players & builders that guitars must be rosewood, mahogany & spruce if it’s worth anything. My luthier instructor built a guitar from mdf plus a stair case product that’s harder mdf just to make a point. It’s held up for several years, sounds and plays great and at a Chicago music store demo/blind test about 50% chose it as the better sounding instrument over the conventional instrument. But changing perception is tough. Any more thoughts about this topic?
The thought of playing an instrument made with mdf turns me off… but great that your instructor use it to make a point. Isn’t it the same prejudice I have against one made with mdf as when someone can only imagine a great instrument if it is made with rosewood or mahogany with a spruce back? If the sound of an instrument made of mdf can easily be chosen in a blind test… aren’t there test using lesser used, locally sourced woods?
Black walnut for instance is plentiful and sounds great! Why not mulberry? Or white oak? Maple is another great one. Or how about a guitar with the side out of luan?
I am not a acoustic instrument maker so am not in touch with favored woods… don’t know how other woods compare with rosewoods and mahogany. I would think there will be a continuing supply of Sitka spruce even if the harvest is limited. Sitka spruce is not threatened as a species just like redwood is not threatened as a species. Seems like the more one looks to source their wood locally… you will be able to find and feel good that the wood you are using is not negatively effecting the forest. You can more easily know exactly where that wood comes from.
For instance, as old growth redwood becomes more and more scarce in decades to come, I think if you live local to where redwood lives you would be able find some redwood soundboards that were sourced in a manner that felt ok to use… and you would be able to know that. When it comes to using rosewood and mahogany… trusting the source is a stretch.
To join in on the subject of tone wood and luthiers, I have two tenor banjos. Both were made by Paramount, in 1928, and all the hardware (including tone ring and tail piece) as well as all the paraphernalia (head, strings, bridge etc.) are identical. One is a Style “A”, made from hard maple (Acer saccharum), the other (my main banjo) a Style “C”, made from Cuban (or possibly Honduran) mahogany (Swietania mahogani or macrophylla). The difference in tone is night and day – the maple is sharp, on the verge of shrill, and quite cold, while the sound from the mahogany is round and warm, and by several country and a few town miles my favourite.
I obviously don’t expect you to have an opinion on this; ‘‘twas instead meant as a contribution to the luthier woods discussion that your evocation of endangered woods has engendered.
I was, however, intrigued by what you wrote about the primacy to you of the surface. How do you see that in relation to the overall shape of the piece?
Personally I quite like to paint wooden furniture, to a great extent because I love colour, but also because it reveals shape and design by hiding the grain. Is this something that you have looked at or have a thought about?
Painted furniture has never done much for me with a few exceptions. I did like the creativity of a few of Jim Krenov’s cabinets that he had painted the interior. And I am very impressed with several chairs I’ve seen including ones on LAP blogs of chairs that have milk paint wiped off to give an aged patina and a glimpse to the wood itself. I’m super glad we all have different taste in what create.
With a few exceptions shape has not been my initiation for furniture. My imagination is typically aroused with the finding a certain piece of wood. Shape follows with letting my imagination wonder. I’m one who loves wood grain on wood surfaces. Watching Jim Krenov cut curved legs from a timber in a manor that the grain followed convex curves… it was instantly clear how to do that and know that I wanted to incorporated that into my furniture making. I think it came so easily for me because I was already imagining in that direction. And from there to know when I look at a timber if the grain in a particular timber is such that I can cut curved parts for furniture with the grain I desire. Jim sometimes compared his cutting curved pieces from a timber as his way of ‘painting’ the grain to follow the shape. Cutting the wood was his pallet of paint to be expressed on every surface.
Thank you so much, Monroe, for your delightful answer, and for taking the time to explain in such detail your thoughts and feelings on the matter! And I wholeheartedly agree that it is a fine thing, indeed, and source of great joy, that people see and do things so differently.
Again, warmest thanks and all best,
Mattias
The simple spoon and wooden cooking utensils from Alone in the Wilderness set me on this spoon making journey I am on now as well as learning how to use other hand tools. Thanks for the work you’ve done bring this biography to so many people. Are there photoes out there of Dick’s pre Alaska work as a cabinet maker?
Dick was never a cabinet maker before moving to Alaska. He was mostly a heavy equipment mechanic and operator before moving to Twin Lakes. He was a carpenter’s helper for a while during World War II. Dick Proenneke was fascinated with Jim Krenov’s work and with the furniture I made while studying at the College of the Redwoods woodworking program with Krenov’s instruction.
Oh I was mistaken then. Thanks for clarifying that for me.
Hi Monroe, I like what Sam S. wrote on July 5th in the preliminary comments about getting in front of the message about cutting more precious trees to make more beautiful things. What about having an elegant bronze plaque made that affixes to the underside of the table that makes the statement about precious wood ethics. It would always go along with the table.
Great idea Erica. I have passed along photos and some times written a few lines that related to the old growth redwood boards or slabs I was selling… and had already thought of expanding on that when Lou and I make the wavy grained redwood tables. This wood has such an interesting history and a story can easily go along with the table that promotes good stewardship of the redwood forest. That was already part of my thought for the redwood tables… now with your suggestion I will include a similar message to be with the tropical hardwood tables for as long as the tables survive.
Hi Monroe and others. Thanks for sharing all the great questions and answers!
Reading Erica’s note above about wood ethics, I also like the idea of a wood ethics statement – particularly for a large piece like a table. Perhaps this could serve to educate and inspire consideration of right action.
On local materials. I’m thinking of an interview I read a long time ago where Hamada Shōji (an important 20th century potter) was asked about what kinds of clay he preferred. He expressed that it was important to use the local to him clay, even though his local clay was considered by others to be lower quality, that was part of his expression and life. Over time he developed the skills specific to his material.
Monroe, I think of you and redwood this way.
How would you describe your relationship to redwood? And do you need to use different or specific techniques or touch when working with it that you had to discover over time?
Thanks!
Speaking of experiencing the Alaskan wilderness… I assume you and Becky have just returned from another great adventure since I haven’t hear from you in awhile.
I am so inspired by you and Erica… your thoughts are encouraging me to explore how to pass along this message of stewardship and honoring the material we use, in a way that stays with each piece… how to impart this intention with the project.
In remodeling our home throughout the past 35 years I made a choice to use only local woods, old growth fir and redwood, second growth fir for structure, two species of local cypress, black acacia, nutmeg (a local conifer related to yew), pine and several species of eucalyptus. The eucalyptus fits with the your story of Hamada Shoji. Eucalyptus locally does every imaginable sort of degrading as it dries; warping, twisting, shrinking excessively, cell collapse, case hardening, etc. It is basically not used in construction locally but there are a lot of beautiful straight trees that are sometimes removed. I wanted to find a use for it. I milled a logging truck load that with a lot of effort became a 4000 piece herring-bone floor throughout the central part of our house… all to keep with my effort to use local woods.
This house was not the house I had wanted to build when I moved from Alaska to the north coast of California. Living in a redwood/fir forest it is not easy to find property where one can get enough sunlight to have a garden, orchard and berries. This property has just enough open space to have those things but had this rambling house that was pretty disgusting… so I have replaced the 7 exterior doors and many times more windows with all old growth redwood/cypress units made from logs I salvaged from the forest. I made my living during the 1990s by selling the best of my old growth redwood and saved the inferior boards that didn’t fit the grade I was selling. Then by ‘creatively’ using this rejected redwood, I have made my own windows, doors, exterior siding, facia, decks and railings…. and the exposed surfaces show only as a premium grade. It is really the only way I could afford to live here and along the way I have filled my days working with magnificent wood and learned deeply how these ancient tree lived. Looking at my home I see no boards cut to the dimension one would purchase from the lumber yard. Throughout my home, I’ve replaced the monotony of looking at boards cut to the size one purchases commercially with lumber sawn to dimensions that never ceases to fell refreshing.
I’ve used my reverence for this old growth redwood forest as a catalyst to understand that the forest is not just trees but an entire environment that without, there would be no great runs of salmon and steelhead as Alaska still has. In introducing myself to the past mayor of the town nearby that once had two sawmills, he said that he knew me, “that I was the one who was responsible for the closing of sawmill.” His statement was not true… as if any one person could be responsible for the closing of a sawmill… and the fact that there are numerous other folks that have done far more than myself toward changing how our local forest is harvested. The major reason the two sawmills closed is because of a lack of quality logs due to over harvesting. I do not in any way want to see the redwood forest turned into a huge redwood park. I put effort into having the forest managed in such a way there would be jobs for folks to work in the forest in perpetuity… while requiring stream setbacks wide enough to reestablish spawning beds and a shaded river environment for salmon and steelhead. This is the forest I want to be be a part of leaving when I am not longer working… a forest that would have quality wood products being used with reverence by every future generations of woodworker. I feel grounded working with material sourced close to home. This feels full circle back to the life exemplified by Dick Proenneke.
Hi Monroe,
I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Someone I know is looking to give to me old growth redwood tongue and groove siding (4″ ish wide) that he removed 30ish years ago from the inside of his house as decorative paneling. The prior owner painted one side white (tested negative for lead). He’s moving soon. I really don’t need it and would like to find a good home for it (I’m fairly certain it would be free). Could you (or someone you know use it)? I don’t mind driving to areas near Ft. Bragg (especially when the Krenov school has their display going at a local art gallery). I can be reached on Instagram (joeleonetti1) if you’d be interested or if others are. Many thanks.
Sincerely,
Joe
Hi Monroe,
This might be the weirdest question you get today. We had a death in our family of someone near our age. It got my wife and I talking about what we would like to have done with our remains more seriously than in the past. I’ve told her that I’d love to buried in the ground and have a tree planted on top of me so I can fertilize it and basically come back as a tree. Living in the Bay Area, a reasonable location would be Northern California and I think redwoods are majestic trees. Have you ever heard of someone doing this in Norther California? I can certainly google it but given your location, profession and fondness of redwoods and sustainability, you might have a lead on this. I’m only 54 so it’s not a pressing matter, I hope. Many thanks.
Sincerely,
Joe
When a friend died many years ago who wanted to be buried on his own property his family looked into this. I don’t remember all of the particulars. He was killed on his own property and the family had to allow his body to be moved and examined and as I remember there was some going back and forth about embalming. They were allowed to bury him on his own property (I believe without embalming) but by doing so I think it meant his estate would not settle as quickly as planned, that it had to go to a hearing or court.
If someone wished to be buried somewhere in the great redwood forest… I think it would be possible on private land, with permission of course. Being buried on public land… something one would have to look into.
Don’t know anyone off hand that could use your redwood paneling but will have your contact information if I can make a connection. About how much paneling is there?
Thanks for the feedback. There was on the order of 200 square feet of wall coverage based on image I saw a year ago.
Please send me your email so I can let you know if I find an interested party. My email is monroe@mcn,org
The student show has already finished for this year… I’m sure you keep in touch with the dates.
Hey Monroe
Things change,
When we were young , we were hungry . The rivers were full of fish .
Among the willows , moose and caribou were plenty , we made furniture out of pine boards from shipping crates , and hardwood pallets from behind keni supply in anchorage, you made scrapers from old blades and we set pumps from a home made Derrick driven around on your ford econoline
That was before we all new dick
And now we’re old
We all have a responsibility to leave a few pallets, fish and moose
For the next dick and Monroe that comes along
After 50 years
You set an example of conservation
And inspiration …
Just saying
Things change ,
Just saying
Things change
Just imagining
Thanks Lou,
I have started using logs sawn straight through leaving the live edge intact in my furniture that I build. I work mainly in local woods, walnut, cherry, maple etc.. I have built a coffee table and a pulpit for my son who pastors a church using this live edge walnut. I am currently remodeling part of my house tearing out a wall to build a dining room. I am going to build a dining table and chairs as well as a buffet from this live edge walnut. My question is about the buffet. The top will be from 13/4-2” stock. The base will be conventionally constructed using square legs with mortise and tenon construction. I have some 3/4-1” stock that is sawn straight through with the live edge that I want to use on the base cabinet underneath the top but I haven’t figured out a way to use it. I can’t use it as panels in the traditional sense. Any suggestions?
I’m not able to visualize exactly what you are asking. Maybe some further explanation would help… or maybe someone else can answer Jeff’s question.
I started furniture making with live edges… got completely away from it for decades and now have returned. The live edge gives me a closer connection to the wood’s origins as part of a tree.
I want to enclose the base frame with a shelf inside using the live edge material for the doors and the ends of the base cabinet if that helps. Just having trouble visualizing how to put it all together. I will probably figure it out as I build it just looking for starter ideas
Sorry, I am not coming up with any ideas.
Has working with LAP as your publisher been as fruitful as you had hoped? Any chance you will ever go to a LAP open house for book signings?
Yes, working with LAP was beyond my wildest expectations. You can read a blog that LAP posted on January 2, 2022 – A Note from Monroe Robinson that expresses my appreciation to LAP. Working with LAP was another of those super satisfying collaborative projects… but also a lot of work. Kara Gebhart Uhl worked with me for two years to make the book a reality.
A LAP stopover was planned a few years ago… our kayak was already on the car… an emergency changed our driving trip to faster transportation to the east coast. I had hoped to take Kara to dinner as a more formal ‘thank you’ for her efforts. Maybe someday.
Hi, again. 🙂 Thank you for your thoughtful answers about the ethics and aesthetics of using wood. This conversation unearthed biases and preconceptions I didn’t know I still had. For example, using redwood to make a table… A friend of mine did this with a log he and his father harvested. He loved the table, but it became a source of endless grief for his family. The rest of them wanted a table that could be used to dine on, put plates and teacups and cutlery on, have drawing and board-game sessions with the younger children, etc. All those activities dented the softwood top, which deeply upset my friend. I think he saw it as an 8’x3′ memento of his time with his late dad. In the end, the table was sold to someone who promised to treat it as a sculpture. I must have made a note to only make tables out of hardwood, because I confess I did a double-take when I read you’ll be building tables with your stunning curly redwood. Ha! I have a long way to go to be rid of bias and preconceptions about what’s possible and desirable. It was very refreshing to read that Dick Proenneke made cutting boards out of spruce (!!!) .
I’m wondering how your own woodworking practice and imagination evolved as you moved between the Krenov-Proenneke continuum?