In an article in “The Conversation,” researchers Rob MacKenzie and Richard Norby, with the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research (BIFoR), shared findings from a recent study published in Nature Climate Change. Their question: How will trees respond to more CO2 in the future?
Their laboratory is a forest in Staffordshire, England. Their equipment, tall pipes that infuse the air with extra CO2. Their samples, 180-year-old English oak (Quercus robur).
“After we increased CO2 levels to what will be the planetary level in the 2050s, trees took more of it from the atmosphere and their wood production increased by 10%,” MacKenzie and Norby wrote.
Several FACE (Free Air Carbon Enrichment) experiments are happening around the world in an attempt to better understand which trees are more likely to thrive in the future. You can learn more about BIFoR FACE here. And you can watch a video about the BIFoR FACE facility here, and a more recent video about BIFoR FACE experiments here.
I’m headed to Virginia this weekend for a few days at Colonial Williamsburg where I’ll be studying, measuring and taking careful notes on all the details of a late 18th/early 19th-century Virginia blanket chest in the CW collection – a chest I’ll be replicating for the 27th Annual Working Wood in the 18th Century Conference, Jan. 23-26, 2025.
The 2025 Conference theme is “To Furnish a Town: High, Low, and In-Between.” At a glance – and that’s all I’ve had so far – I think this chest part of the “in between.” While it’s not a fancy piece, it likely wasn’t made for the least fortunate. I’ll use it as a stepping off point to discuss dovetails (surprise), blanket chests and painted furniture…and will discuss my presentations in more detail when I have more detail. The most difficult thing (other than standing on a stage and speaking to an audience) will, I think, be finding air-dried yellow pine boards wide enough to replicate this piece, which has overall dimensions of 22-5/8″ x 45- 1/2″ x 17-7/8″ – and I might not be able to (in which case I’ll call it a reproduction rather than a replica).
High-style work will be represented by renowned cabinetmaker and teacher Steve Brown, who will present the build of a Virginia cabriole leg dressing table, discussing its design and construction, as well as its relationship to New England examples. And by CW cabinetmakers Bill Pavlak and John Peeler who will trace the evolution of style and construction through the lens of fall-front desks and a drop-leaf dining tables (if you follow Bill and John on Instagram, you’ve seen some of what they’re working on for the conference…at least that’s my guess! And it’s making me anxious, as I’m itching to get working, too!).
Also presenting are CW joiners Brian Weldy and Ayinde Martin, who will demonstrate the sophisticated greenwood turning and joinery techniques from seemingly humble forms, and carpenter Matt Sanbury and others will show how logs were turned into lumber.
You can read more about the 27th Annual Working Wood in the 18th Century Conference and register (for in-person or virtual attendance) at the conference website.
Millions of PBS viewers first met Dick Proenneke through the program “Alone in the Wilderness,” which documents Dick’s 30-year adventure in the Alaskan wilderness. On the shores of Twin Lakes, Dick built his cabin and nearly all of the household objects he required to survive, from the ingenious wooden hinges on his front door to the metal ice creepers he strapped to his boots.
And now, “The Handcrafted Life of Dick Proenneke” examines this adventure through the lens of Dick’s tools and the objects he made. Written by Monroe Robinson – the caretaker of Dick’s cabin and his personal effects – the book weaves together vintage photos and entries from Dick’s journals plus new drawings and images to paint a portrait of a man fully engaged in life and the natural world around him. The italic text after Dick’s journal entries is commentary by Robinson.
June 28, 1968:
Today I would build some furniture. First a kitchen chair and then a bench three feet long. I had them both ready to glue by 11:30. Back on the job I augured the hole for my table legs and the bunk poles were ready. I could sort, cut and fit them in. I’m near the end of the job of building on the cabin until I get a plane, glue and polyethylene for the roof. By the time I had the scraps cleaned up and tools sharpened as I do every evening it was time to call it a day.
Three-foot bench. (Photo by Monroe Robinson)
In 1995, Dick wrote, “My chair still giving trouble. One back rest support broke off at the hole in the seat foundation. I would shorten it a bit and shape a new end to fit in the hole with the broken support end. Working like a beaver when here came a Cessna 180.”
My replicated chair without caribou pad. Note the black bear tooth punctures in the end of the seat. (Photo by Monroe Robinson)
In 2001, a black bear broke the chair when it climbed through Dick’s nine-pane window to pull the chair and its caribou fur pad outside. I repaired Dick’s chair only to have it break when someone leaned back too far. I replicated his chair, repaired this new break and sent Dick’s chair to the archives.
In replicating the chair, I particularly focused on drilling the mortise holes for the legs and back rest at angles matching Dick’s. The chair’s stance, the splay and rake of the legs, along with the angle of the backrest support-post, make it a beautiful and comfortable chair. The back legs splay back a few degrees more than the front legs, and the back legs are slightly shorter. The chair looks simple but most handcrafted chairs at wilderness cabins are not crafted like this. Dick’s matter-of-fact approach did not mean a thrown together, uncomfortable chair. And constructing a handsome chair did not mean taking all day.
When a black bear, in 2015, managed to turn the handle of Dick’s door and pull out my replicated chair with a new caribou pad along with Dick’s four-legged stool with his original caribou pad, it was apparent the fur created an attracting odor. All fur was removed from Dick’s cabin.
A primitive chair finished with “Welsh Miserable.” Photo courtesy of Drew Langsner.
The following is excerpted from “Good Work: The Chairmaking Life of John Brown,” by Christopher Williams. It’s the first biography of one of the most influential chairmakers and writers of the 20th century: Welshman John Brown.
John Brown by his own admission wasn’t a fan of finishing. (See Good Woodworking issue 63.)
“American chairs are really polished. Typically, the finish is paint. Without exception all the American chairmakers I meet ask me how I get my finish. I fail to understand this because it is the least interesting part of my work. It’s an aggravating necessity, as far as I am concerned.”
Here are the finishes that John Brown regularly used. These were always applied before assembling the chair.
‘Welsh Miserable’ This term could be seen as a criticism of the Welsh and brown furniture. But I always took it in jest. During the ’80s and ’90s, brown was deemed to be the accepted colour of country furniture. Newly made furniture was also brown. JB secretly wanted to paint his chairs or leave them blonde. So “Welsh miserable” was his private joke.
JB’s recipe for this was a dark oak stain from a tin. Once it was dry, he applied a coat of sanding sealer. He would rub this back with fine sandpaper. He then applied two or three thin coats of shellac button polish and left the finish to dry overnight, if time allowed. He lastly applied a coat of dark oak wax polish with #0000 wire wool.
A Cardigan chair possibly finished with the “Spirit of Wales” finish.
The Spirit of Wales This finish was a favourite of his. It probably was the only finish he was enthused about as it brought out the artist in him! JB wrote, “The effect is not meant to reproduce an antique finish, but to try to capture the Spirit of Wales.”
JB would first apply a dark green water-based dye to the raw timber – always remembering to raise the grain a few times beforehand. When it was dry, he sanded it smooth and didn’t worry about sanding through the green. He then applied a dark brown stain over the green. When it was dry, he gave it a coat of sanding sealer. He sometimes added a coat of button polish before applying dark brown or black wax.
The finished chair had a greenish, brown/black appearance. In a certain light it’s spectacular.
Two primitive Welsh chairs with John Brown’s blonde finish.
Blonde JB described a natural-coloured chair as a “blonde chair.” He had two approaches to this.
If the natural colour of the grain was needed to be kept as bright as possible he used a white shellac polish. He would first apply a coat of sanding sealer. Then he gave it two or three coats of white shellac. In most cases he didn’t thin the polish; it was used direct from the bottle. Great care was needed as a high gloss could be attainted very quickly. This in turn gave the chair a glassy look. Finally, he applied a clear wax polish with #0000 wire wool.
He would sometimes (in his words) want to “kill the lightness.” By adding a few coats of shellac garnet polish over the sanding sealer this gave the chair a honey colour and a warm glow. He would finish up with a light, oak-coloured paste wax.
JB predominantly used the combination of oak and elm for the bulk of his chairs. Each species complemented the other colour-wise. If a steambent ash bow was added to the mix, it was coloured to blend in with the oak and elm. He achieved this by first making a strong pot of tea. The tea was applied to the ash arm before the sanding sealer and subsequent finish.
Oil I only saw JB use oil on occasion. The tenons on the legs, stretchers and sticks were covered in masking tape to prevent the oil from penetrating. The oil was applied and left to dry before he applied a coat of paste wax with #0000 wire wool.
To me it looked lacklustre compared to the shinier shellac finish.
It’s part of an all-day livestream event on Saturday, Sept., 21, during which Joshua will take you behind the scenes at Mortise & Tenon, show you his historic house reconstruction, answer all your questions and more, as well as lead the Jonathan Fisher House guided tour.
