Author: kalevogt

Every chair class Chris teaches seems to develop its own gravitational pull. It’s inevitable – if you orbit within 50 feet of a class taught by Chris Schwarz you will get sucked in.

Now getting sucked into a class can mean many different things: Perhaps it means assisting students taper chair legs by hand until your shirt starts sticking to you; or remaking an arm in record time due to a irreparable and untimely break; or sometimes becoming the designated lunch fetcher of the day (this task can quickly make you popular among the students).

I of course am speaking from experience. I’ve completed all of these tasks at least once and am in no way complaining about it. I openly love the infectious energy of a class week – it’s chaotic and exhausting at times and I live for it. I love walking into work unsure of what the day will hold.

While the palpable energy from last week’s class was no different, one of the tasks I was given was new to me.

With how often we use our tools here, on top of student usage, shop maintenance is a constant. Planes and chisels need sharpening, floors need sweeping and carver’s vises need new jaws.

This is nothing against our beloved carver’s vises; we use them daily here. There is, however, one fault we’ve found with most of them – the softwood jaws that come standard on the vises have a tendency to lose their heartiness over time. (The newly recast Grizzly vise comes with hardwood jaws.)

Either the constant use causes the screw holes of the jaws to strip (which is what happened in this case) or the soft pine cracks. Or both (which is what happened in this case). When these things happen, either oak or hickory are what we typically use for new jaws.

After Chris gave me a quick lesson on how to replace the old jaws, I got to work.

Below is a visual step-by-step of how I made this repair.

Last week I walked into work to a brand-new Veritas spokeshave sitting on my bench. Chris had ordered several for students and kindly ordered an extra for me. (I’m spoiled, I know.)

Grateful, I took a picture of my new tool and posted it to my social media account, not thinking much of it.

The following day I received a comment: “Would you mind posting a video of how you file the throat (if you follow Chris’s approach)?”

Huh? File a throat?? This was news to me, but according to Chris, this is common practice when breaking in a new spokeshave.

He explained that in chairmaking, sometimes cuts that are ranker than the spokeshave will allow are needed. The solution? File the throat, just a hair or two to allow a thicker shaving to pass through.

So as asked, we created a video demonstrating the process. Next week’s chairmaking class will be the first to break the new spokeshaves in.

Well, back to work for me. I have two more spokeshaves to file.

Hey all, Kale here. The other day when Chris asked me to document our Piggly No Wiggly glue-making process, I may have taken the task a little too seriously. I have no regrets.

After receiving interest from readers about how our Piggly No Wiggly glue is made, we decided to share our operation. The video above documents our glue procedure from beginning to end, with some words from Chris about how it came to be.

But wait, there’s more. Per y’alls suggestions, a “bundle and save” option has been added to our online store – meaning, the more you buy, the more you save. One 8 oz. bottle of Piggly No Wiggly is $16, two is $29 and three is $42. There’s a drop-down option on the store’s landing page where you choose your number of bottles.

It’s a little thank you from us for the continued support and a reminder that, yes, we do read your comments.

– Kale Vogt

I woke to a text this morning from Chris: “Found this tip for making our carving vises lower.” (See above.)

“Put the base on the underside. Works great. Might be helpful for you.”

Even though he’s off teaching in Germany, he’s still looking for ways to improve our shop here in Covington.

It’s no secret that I’m the most vertically challenged person in the shop (with Megan just a few inches taller). Megan’s two benches are 30″ high; the other six are 33″ and 34″ – and because I want the larger surface and good window light of the Holtzapffel (34″ high), this forces me to finagle myself into some awkward positions when performing certain tasks.

When building my first chair with Chris, I had block planed only half of my first long stick against Chris’s carver’s vise before my shoulder nearly gave out. Chris quickly corrected this by bringing the low Roman bench into the shop from the back room. Using my body weight, I propped the long stick against the Hulot block with my chest to plane. Instant relief.

So needless to say, I was elated to wake up to this little spark of ergonomic hope from Chris. I was eager to give it a go.

I mounted the carver’s vise to my bench. First with the base on top, in its typical location. Then with the base underneath. I measured the height of the base beforehand out of curiosity. 1-3/8″. Could it really make that big a difference?

Now the difference in the photos may not look dramatic to you, but I truly could feel a difference. The ability to lower my hands nearly 2″ allowed my shoulders to relax. This immediately relieved tension and allowed my arm muscles do most of the work.

I also noticed the stick’s placement against my body. With the base located underneath the bench, the stick was able to sit lower on my chest, nearly against my belly. Lowering the stick’s gravity and having the stick land in an area that has more cushion than my sternum was more comfortable overall.

I know what you’re thinking and sure, this trick may not be the be-all and end-all solution to short-person-on-tall-bench carver’s vise issues. But I think this is a great start. My shoulders will be thanking me for this technique after planing seven long sticks.

There is one problem with this arrangement, however. Because the vise is flush with the benchtop, the handle used to tighten the jaws bumps into the bench. You have to have the handle hanging fully off the edge, which limits the vise position.

All in all, though, I’m pleased with this simple modification. I plan to keep my vise in this position while working to continue feeling it out and work out any kinks along the way. What do my fellow shorties think?

– Kale Vogt