There’s a quick tutorial on laying out a traditional pommel on a seat with a French curve and only two points. Check it out on the Crucible Tool site here.
— Christopher Schwarz
Two More Upcoming Classes at our Storefront
Megan Fitzpatrick and Brendan Gaffney will each teach a weekend class in April at our storefront in Covington, Ky. Registration will open at noon on Friday, Oct. 20.
Just like with the Welsh stick chair class with Chris Williams, these will be small classes with only six attendees. Also, these are not money-making enterprises for me or Lost Art Press. All proceeds go directly to the instructor.
I’m allowing them to use the space for free because they are my friends, I think they each have something valuable to teach and the classes build the local woodworking community in Covington. Here are the details.
Build a Shaker Silverware Tray with Megan Fitzpatrick
April 7-8, 2018
Cost: $250, plus a small materials fee for wood & cut brads (likely around $30)
Make a classic Shaker silverware tray in this introduction to hand-cut dovetails. In this two-day class, you’ll learn:
- Dovetail layout using dividers
- How to use a backsaw to saw to a line
- How to wield a coping or fret saw
- How to pare and chop to a line with a chisel
- Several strategies for transferring the tails to the pin board
- Techniques for fitting the joint
- Why dovetails work – and we’ll look at some examples of long-lasting period dovetails that look as if they were gnawed out by a beaver – “perfection” is overrated when it comes to the efficacy of this joint. (That said, you’ll also learn some “tricks” for fixing less-than-stellar dovetails.)
- How to lay out then cut and fair the handles (both the hand holds and the curved top edge)
- How to smooth-plane your surfaces
- How to use cut nails (to secure the bottom board)
- And of course, how to put it all together (and why I recommend liquid hide glue).
Build the Cabinetmaker’s Sector with Brendan Gaffney
April 21-22, 2018
Cost: $300, which includes all raw materials
In this two-day class, students will build their own Cabinetmaker’s Sector, my modernized design for the ancient geometer’s tool, used for drawing, drafting and (in my shop) the layout of dimensions and joinery on woodwork. The class will revolve around the skills of modern hand-tool makers, including careful marking and measuring, mixing metal and wood, hand shaping, finishing and (of course) how to use the tool.
Each student will be provided the wood and the necessary brass hinges and pins, everything needed to produce the sector. The first day will revolve around affixing the brass and wooden tabs into the tools, riveting the leaves together, flattening and lapping the tools and reviewing the principles behind the geometry of the sector. The second day will revolve around shaping the sectors, stamping and inking the sector marks, finishing the sectors and learning to use them in the shop. Every student will leave with a completed sector, plus the knowledge of how it works and how to use it.
Its OK to Think Inside the Box
Yes it’s fine to think inside the box for a change, especially when there’s no need to think at all! At least not if your goal is to divide the box into any number of divisions. Thanks to the geometry of diagonal lines that occur inherently within a square, you need only a straightedge to reveal these fractions. This truth/tool allows you to lay out the baffles that will keep the bottles of spirits from rattling or worse. Of course there are easier ways to come up with these fractions (the sector springs to mind), but this is still a great way to construct by hand and observe by eye these geometric patterns as they spring to life.
See if you can follow the steps below which I’ve sketched on a sheet of graph paper. Why don’t you grab some paper and follow along too? Bet your kid can (and would like to) help you out! Get out a pair of dividers so you can confirm that the intersections do indeed produce perfectly spaced segments along a line.
Now isolate the first square…
…and continue by drawing a pair of diagonal lines as shown in green in the next sketch:
Next draw a horizontal line through the points that have been given to you where the (green) diagonals cross the first set. If you set your dividers to the intersections along this new horizontal line, you’ll find there are exactly/precisely/perfectly three equal-length segments. Now let’s draw another set of diagonals and connect their intersections with the original diagonals with a horizontal line:
As your dividers will reveal to you, that line is now automagically broken into four equal segments. Let’s continue the process with two more sets of lines (I really do highly recommend that you stop right now and grab a sheet of graph paper and watch this happen in real time through your own hands and eyes).
You’ll discover the red lines produces fifth segments while the yellow produce sevenths along their horizontals. Add another set (in blue here) of diagonals and horizontal and you come up with ninths:
Keep going if you like:
You’ll get ninths, elevenths and thirteenths – and on to infinity I suppose. What if you want an even number of divisions along a horizontal line, say tenths along the line of fifths? Well they are there waiting for you to discover with your dividers!
— Jim Tolpin, one of the co-authors of “From Truths to Tools“
Posers need not apply
The following is a short excerpt from Making Things Work.
![IMG_2342[1]](https://blog.lostartpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/img_23421.jpg)
It was a spacious shop, well lit and outfitted with a tidy mix of old and new equipment. “I’m working on a dining table and chairs for a client in Miami,” [my host] told me. “Quite a famous bloke, actually. To tell the truth, he’s got such a big name that I’m not allowed to say it. Not that that’s anything out of the ordinary in my world. These days it’s rare for me to work for anyone who’s not routinely written up in Esquire or Vanity Fair, that sort of thing.”
“Which part of London are you from?” I asked, curious as to the origin of his accent.
Ignoring my question, he turned his head to the right, saying “Come an’ take a look at this table and chairs” as he strode toward his workbench. The dining set was inspired by the work of French Art Deco designer Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann. The table, made of rosewood, was stunning. A cross between Deco and neoclassical, it had an extending top that could seat an intimate foursome or expand to accommodate 10. It was waiting to be finished, as soon as the chairs were ready.
“Double tenons hidden in those miters around the seat,” he remarked. “Ever use those darlin’s? I’m telling you, they are quite the challenge to pull off. But what a sturdy bit of join’ry they are. Those chairs will last forever. On the other hand, so will everything I make. That’s one of the reasons my clients are willing to wait years for an opening in my schedule.”
“I took a look at your website,” he went on. “Nice enough work, but really….’Period-authentic furniture and built-ins?’ It’s all been done before, ‘ain’t it? You couldn’t pay me to do that type of guff for common punters. On the other ‘and, someone’s got to do it, so I daresay it might as well be you.”
Now that he’d established I didn’t even rank high enough to engage in a pissing match (not that I am ever inclined to take part in such b.s.) I thought he might answer my question. “Which part of London are you from?” I asked again.
You can read the scintillating remainder of this tale and learn the origin of my host’s accent in Making Things Work.
Saddling the Dugout Chair (and a Cologne Request)
I tried to finish the seat of the dugout chair today in preparation for our open day tomorrow (10 a.m. to 5 p.m. – lots to do and see). But I was only able to squeeze in about 30 minutes of work as I was dealing with heavy construction out back with the Lost Art Press Horse Garage.
In any case, I’m trying not to make this seat too refined or precious. I want it to match the ruggedness of the chair. But I don’t want it to look sloppy. So I’m shooting for “done quickly and with purpose.”
This seat is made from the last significant chunk of Eastern white pine from Midwest Woodworking I own. I’m going to miss this stuff.
I don’t wear cologne (heck, I barely wear deodorant). But if someone could make a cologne that smells like Eastern white pine when it’s being cut, I would actually wear that scent. Of course, the scent would only really attract beavers and some bark-eating grubs. But oh well.
— Christopher Schwarz, editor, Lost Art Press
Personal site: christophermschwarz.com