Take two bandanas, sew them together and you can make a nice throw pillow. Recently Megan Fitzpatrick and researcher Suzanne Ellison did just that, and their work now adorns our office.
Suzanne even went a step further and embroidered the bees and skep on both sides. The pillows are surprisingly comfortable, and now I can throw out the “Live, Love, Laugh” pillows that were really just an emotional crutch.
We are nearing the end of our run of bandanas. If you want one, you can order them from our store. Customers in the European Union can order them here from our Swedish distributor, Rubank Verktygs.
This is an excerpt from “Cut & Dried” by Richard Jones.
The word grain brings to mind several characteristics of wood. It is an indistinct word requiring context. If someone says, “That wood is beautiful,” what do they mean? They might be referring to the patterns, colours, striking illusory figuring or the lustre. Alternatively, the comment may be in response to touching the polished wood, and it is a reaction to its smoothness or roughness.
I think every person, whether they be a woodworker or lay person, has an instinctive concept in almost any circumstance of what they think the nebulous word “grain” means. In truth, it is really necessary for the sake of accuracy and the ability to communicate effectively to provide some context when discussing the subject. Perhaps most commonly inferred or understood amongst woodworkers when we say grain is a reference to its orientation within the longitudinal axis of the trunk or limb, e.g., long grain, with the grain, across the grain or cross-grain. This really summarises the primary characteristic of grain – its direction. The word grain holds fuzzier meanings for laypeople. They recognise the wood displays patterns and shapes visible on the surface along with concepts such as lustre and colour. They generally have an indistinct concept of such characteristics as strength as it relates to grain direction or the importance of allowing for expansion and contraction.
Figure 13.2. This ash veneer sample is straight grained, uneven pored and is ring porous.
A parallel exists when I deal with inexperienced woodworkers. Their inexperience sometimes leads them to make elementary construction errors. They sometimes inadvertently make two sides and a top of a solid-wood box where the long grain runs conventionally up and down the sides and left to right on the top. Then they add a bottom where the long grain runs front to back. In the same vein, new woodworkers will mistakenly fix a solid-wood table or cabinet top down to a framework. Both these examples of construction errors are likely to lead to failure because neither allows the wood to expand and contract across the grain.
Grain Terms used to describe grain putting the subject into context are “end grain,” which is a transverse crosscut surface, e.g., the view of the end of a board; “side grain,” which is a tangential cut parallel with the growth rings, and “flat grain,” a plank cut out of a log at right angles to the growth ring, i.e., radially cut.
Further definitions adding specificity to grain descriptions in the log or trunk of a tree are as follows:
Figure 13.3. Straight-grained red pine. Red pine in British timber trade terminology refers to Scots pine.
Straight grain. The fibres run parallel to the long axis of the tree. An example of a correctly sawn tangentially cut board shows centred-arching grain patterns in which the legs of the arches are of roughly equal length as is their angle from the centre line of the board (figures 13.1, 13.2 and figure 13.3).
Figure 13.4. Diagonal grain illustration.
Oblique grain, cross grain or diagonal grain. The fibres show as anything from a slight deviation to a severe deviation from straight grain. The least deviation is usually described as oblique grain; the most severe, diagonal grain. However, many sawmill operators, wood sellers and woodworkers themselves make no distinction between the names and describe all deviations as cross-grain, oblique grain or diagonal grain depending on their preferred nomenclature and local custom. In a cut board, this may be caused by tangentially sawing a spiral-grain log, or through a poor choice of cut made by the sawmill operator. Boards cut from crooked logs and logs with significant sweep frequently show cross-grain defects. Another cause of cross-grain is because of the sawmill operators choice of cut when milling heavily tapered logs, i.e., a log that has a small diameter at one end and a much larger diameter at the other. Cutting parallel to the pith results in cross-grain boards, many of which are tapered in their width. To win straight-grained boards the solution is to “taper cut,” wherein the log is cut parallel with the bark. This too results in some planks tapered in their width, particularly as the cuts approach the pith. However, this form of cutting does result in more clear, straight-grained boards because the greatest majority of the knots in a log are clustered around the pith, the tree’s original stem. A mature tree in a forest with a trunk of sizeable girth puts out relatively few side branches compared to a young sapling.
We will start selling Crucible Lump Hammers at noon Eastern on Wednesday. You can read all the details here. If you have questions or need assistance with Crucible, please use the help@crucibletool.com address. Sending questions to Lost Art Press will only delay the response.
Joshua Klein of Mortise & Tenon Magazine is coming all the way from Maine to celebrate the release of his book “Hands Employed Aright.” He’ll be around the shop during the day for the Open House, then from 7-10 p.m., we’re hosting Joshua and his wife, Julia, for a reading and celebration – and you’re invited!
“Hand Employed Aright: The Furniture Making of Jonathan Fisher (1768-1847)” is a rare peek into the life of an early American woodworker through his extensive diaries, his tools and the furniture he left behind. The book is gorgeously illustrated with Klein’s photographs, plus historical paintings and letters.
Come hear Joshua discuss this intimate portrait of Jonathan Fisher as he built his life on the frontier in the 18th century.
We’ll supply the snacks and beverages (we’re thinking 18th-century-style cool ranch mutton bites along with small beer and cider…but we’ll likely come to our senses); you help to supply the fun!
Click here to register (the event is free – we just need to know how many mutton bites to make).
Since June, I’ve been working on a book-publishing project that has ripped up my insides. I can’t talk about it yet – maybe in the next week or so – but the fallout has been odd. Each day, after 10 to 12 hours of editing, processing photos and designing book pages, I have been coming home to write like a madman until I fall asleep on the couch.
As a result, I’ve finished two chapters for the expansion of “The Anarchist’s Design Book” and have just three more to go. Today I finished designing the pages for the short chapter on the Staked High Stool and now offer it up for a free download for people who already own the “The Anarchist’s Design Book.”
At this stage, I’m operating on the honor system. If you own the book, please download the chapter. If you don’t own the book, know that I have instructed a hedgehog with Comic-Con breath to gnaw your danglies at some point in the future.
You can order the book via this link and save yourself an embarrassing trip to the ER.
Note that this chapter is not polished. There are typos. The construction drawing is not the crazy beautiful copperplate etching from Briony Morrow-Cribbs. It’s just my working drawing. But the information is there. I hope you like it.
Since June, I’ve been working on a book-publishing project that has ripped up my insides. I can’t talk about it yet – maybe in the next week or so – but the fallout has been odd. Each day, after 10 to 12 hours of editing, processing photos and designing book pages, I have been coming home to write like a madman until I fall asleep on the couch.