Gabe and Mark at work on pre-production assembly of the Crucible Tool Exeter-pattern nail hammers. We hope to have these available soon.
Update: Comments are now closed (if there are questions we’ve missed, we’ll jump into the backend to answer later). Join us again on Oct. 19.
Do you have a woodworking question in need of an answer? Then you’ve come to the right place! Just post your question in the comments section below, and Christopher Schwarz and I shall do our best to answer. As always, brevity is appreciated. We’ll be online on and off today until around 5 p.m., at which time comments will close.
And mark your calendars for the remaining 2024 Open Wire days: October 19, November 16 and December 14. Plus, our holiday Open House on Saturday, Nov. 23, featuring special guest Rudy Everts!
I am delighted to announce that the book I started writing four years ago – “Dutch Tool Chests” – is finally in the hands of our printer. I also hope to have proofs to review by the weekend. Above is a mockup of the cover (surprise, it’s gray/blue). The real thing will look a lot better, with cloth over 98 pt. boards and a platinum die stamp. The price will be $39. (As are all Lost Art Press books, it will be printed in the U.S.A.)
Inside the book is everything you need to build your own Dutch tool chest – 192 pages, from choosing materials at the home center or lumberyard to the paint. And of course, lots of hand-tool instruction in between – techniques and tool instruction that will come in handy for any number of projects. Oh – plus a brain dump on through-dovetails (the thing I teach the most), but written so that if you already feel solid in your dovetail abilities, you can skip all but the first sentence of each paragraph in that chapter. I’d hate to bore you.
My favorite parts of the book, though, are the two sections I didn’t write: the foreword from Roy Underhill (thank you, Roy!) and the gallery of Dutch chests from 43 other makers. These clever adaptations and customized interior designs show the great flexibility of the form, and how you can make it your own.
I’ll be sharing more from the book in the coming weeks. For now, I’m just so happy that it’s done. With luck and a lack of printer delays, I hope we’ll have it in house around November 1 (and I’m limbering up my hand for signing copies). And of course, I hope our international retailers will carry it, but as always, that is up to them. (Those that do will likely have it by January.)
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.
Welsh chairmaker and teacher Chris Williams, who will join us once again in March/April.We have alerted Crafts & Vines so the owners have ample time to stock up on red wine.
We have a handful of new classes – including one from Welshman Chris Williams – to announce for the first half of 2025, tickets for which will be on sale at 10 a.m. Eastern on Sept. 16, 2024, on our ticketing site.
For more information, click through (above) to each class (but pay no mind to the “Register Now” button you’ll see – you cannot register until 10 a.m. Eastern on Sept 16).
Christopher Schwarz’s Welsh-style stick chair, which he’ll be teaching three times at LAP this winter and spring.
– Fitz
p.s. Classes sometimes sell out within nano-seconds (class sizes are quite small, so there are very few spots available), so if you’re interested, limber up those fingers and get ready. And if you don’t get in, sign up for the waitlist – we almost always have at least one spot that needs filling.
p.p.s. We might add a class or two in the coming months – so stay tuned!
The prototype of a Shaker-inspired dovetailed step stool that I will be teaching; I have finally tired of making and teaching Shaker trays.
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.
