“‘Leave me to my repose,’ is the motto of the sleeping and the dead.”
— William Hazlitt, literary critic (1778-1830)
Some Will Ask, ‘Why Oak?’
Some will ask, “why oak?” Besides its great strength and durability, oak has features that make it ideally suited to working this way. It is a ring-porous hardwood, a term referring to the way oak trees grow. In the first part of the growing season, oak trees put on a band of nearly hollow, thin-walled pores. The second phase of growth features a layer of very tough, fibrous material, denser than the previous growth. This separation between “early wood” and “late wood” is one of the key identifying factors in these hardwoods, as opposed to timbers such as cherry and maple, in which the pores and fibers are evenly distributed. Another feature of oaks, and most other ring-porous hardwoods, is the prominence of the tree’s medullary rays. These are cells that radiate out from the pith, or center of the tree, toward the bark. Almost all the ring-porous hardwoods split or cleave cleanly and accurately along the medullary rays. This is the principal feature of the oaks that makes them well-suited for riving.
— from the forthcoming “Make a Joined Stool from a Tree,” by Jennie Alexander and Peter Follansbee
P.S. You can follow along all the posts about this book by clicking on the “Make a Joined Stool from a Tree” in the “Categories” section at right.
Cameras, Music and Bottle Openers
Some days my inbox is stuffed with odd questions about what I do. And when the number of those question eclipses the “What wood should I use for my workbench?” questions, then it is time to write a blog entry.
Recently, there have been a spate of the following questions:
Question: What cameras do you use to take photos and video?
I’ve always been a Canon enthusiast. I prefer the colors that these cameras produce, and I am comfortable with the controls. For blogging, I use a Canon G10 (now the Canon G12) for both videos and still photos. It is a remarkable camera with a metal – yes, metal! – body so it can take a hit. The photos are nice enough that you can publish them in a book (it’s what I recommend that some Lost Art Press authors use).
The best accessory ever for woodworking photography is a tripod. Don’t buy a cheap one. I have a used Manfrotto – you can pick these up on Craigslist and fix them up if need be. Mine needed a lot of tightening and adjusting. A tripod allows you to use available light, small apertures and long shutter speeds. That is the sweet spot for most woodworking photography.
If you won’t buy a full-size tripod, spend $28 and buy this Manfrotto pocket support. It lives on the bottom of my Canon G10 and allows me to stabilize it in the field when I don’t have a pod. This thing is 100 percent pure unicorn magic. I have personally made at least 100 sales by demonstrating this gizmo at woodworking shows.
I have a second Canon camera, a SLR, that I use for shop photography. Until January, I was using a Canon Rebel – very entry level – with good Canon lenses. I shot all my magazine articles and books using this camera, including most of “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest.”
In January, I bought a Canon 5D, a big step up that was made possible by you, the reader. Thank you. I also have an L-series Canon zoom on the 5D. Yes, that was a gloat.
I have some basic lights, but those are packed away. I always prefer to work with existing light.
Despite all the text above, I don’t obsess about equipment. In fact, I’m fairly oblivious. I’m much more concerned about composition and spend far more time studying that than reading equipment reviews.
Question: What is the music in your video?
I get this question every single day. I like Americana music, especially with a Southern flavor (duh, I’m from Arkansas). If you want to download some of the tracks I’ve used and search for other like-sounding stuff, I recommend two sites: freeplaymusic.com and freemusicarchive.org.
At freemusicarchive.org, check out the stuff from the Black Twig Pickers. That will sound familiar.
At freeplaymusic.com, check out these two collections of music:
Question: And finally, I saw your video on rasps and want to buy the belt you are wearing. Where do I get it?
The belt I’m wearing is from Thomas Bates. Yes, that is a bottle opener. It works great. However some people freak out when you open a beer for them and you take it to your bathing suit area to do the deed.
— Christopher Schwarz
Coming Soon: ‘Make a Joined Stool from a Tree’
One of the most pivotal woodworking books of the last 50 years is “Make a Chair from a Tree” by John Alexander.
Despite being long out of print, this book has had an immense influence on several generations of woodworkers. It sparked a revolution in green woodworking, launched many love affairs with wood and was one of the first sparks that ignited the recent revival in hand joinery.
So it is with great pleasure we announce that Lost Art Press will be publishing the long-awaited follow up to this book, “Make a Joined Stool from a Tree: An Introduction to 17th-century Joinery” by Alexander (now Jennie) and Peter Follansbee, the joiner at Plimoth Plantation.
This book is a decade-long effort by these two woodworkers to research the tools, materials and processes used by 17th-century joiners to construct the gorgeous work of the time.
To piece the puzzle together, Alexander and Follansbee have studied the limited texts of the period, the tools and – perhaps most important – the surviving furniture record. These pieces gave up many of their secrets through close examination of the toolmarks left by the makers.
But “Make a Joined Stool from a Tree” is far from a dry historical text. In it, the authors take you into the forest and the workshop to find an oak, split it into bolts and turn those into a joined stool – an excellent first project for the new student of 17th-century methods.
While many of the tools from the 17th century look familiar to the 21st-century woodworker, the way in which they were used in the 17th century to make furniture is surprisingly different. How the fresh oak is processed, cut and joined to make the stool featured in the book will both stretch your skills and expand your understanding of the craft.
And with the help of Alexander and Follansbee, you will be able to build your own joined stool with just a few simple woodworking tools, a little determination and a strong back.
“Make a Joined Stool from a Tree” will be Lost Art Press’s first book in color and in a larger page format. We are planning on releasing this book late in 2011 – or early 2012 at the latest. Like all Lost Art Press books, this will be hardbound, Smyth sewn, printed on acid-free paper and produced entirely in the United States.
More details on the book, pricing, alternate editions and a release date will be released here on the blog in the coming months.
In the meantime, I highly recommend you spend some time at the authors’ web sites:
Jennie Alexander’s “Green Woodworking” site: http://www.greenwoodworking.com/
Peter Follansbee’s “Joiner’s Notes” blog: http://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/
— Christopher Schwarz
‘Make a Joined Stool from a Tree’
I promised to post more today about this book coming from Jennie Alexander and Peter Follansbee.
I don’t mean to go all Robin Lee on you, but isn’t that a nice photo above of some fine turnings and mortises?
More tomorrow.
— Christopher Schwarz