Woodworking

Does anyone have any thoughts on what this may be? It’s at a local auction house listed as “lumber”

It’s out and it’s disappointing. If you are a free version user of SketchUp you have a new name to deal with for 2013: SketchUp Make. In addition you are more restricted in your use of SketchUp Make; you can not use it for business or profit oriented activities in any way. Other than that, you don’t have much to look forward to from a user interface point of view. It is quite possible that SketchUp Make (and SketchUp Pro) are a lot faster in some applications and hopefully more stable and less buggy. But the jury will be out on that for some time. SketchUp Pro has some new features that are nice in the LayOut application; most notably you have cross section fill capability. But there is very little in the SketchUp application itself of import. Higher price, uglier icons, still Ruby 1.6 internally even though Ruby is up to 2.0, no improvement in Ruby console (I thought sure Unit Test would make it in there) etc. etc. etc. Let’s hope they did something of value when they expose the under the hood changes. Right now, very disappointing. The one thing that is obvious is the toolbar set up. You can now set up your toolbar with its own dialog box and when you collapse the window the toolbars and position is returned when the wind is expanded, Nice, but setting up the tool bar is a onetime thing and I could easily have lived with the old method. And Save Toolbar Postions worked quite nicely. What I don’t like about the new toolbar behavior is that I can’t place a vertical x 2 column on the left or right side. It forces a x 1 horizontal column when I try. The fill capability in LayOut is nice, but it would have been better if it were integrated into the Section tool in SketchUp. I haven’t checked my list of bugs yet, but I bet when I do printing to scale and printing extents still isn’t fixed; a problem that has existed since the beginning of time. So far Trimble gets a failing grade from me for its influence on SketchUp. I hope I have to retract or alter my First Blush opinion on SketchUp 2013. Trust me, I would happily do so it warranted. But I am not hopeful.

I learned something yesterday. Something that I probably should have already known (and may have) but with everything that has been going on in my life, it may have been pushed down somewhere so deep inside that it was nearly forgotten. I am glad to have been reminded of it though, because it is something that is important to my every day well-being and happiness. It has been a busy time for me. Believe it or not, I am in the middle of my “holiday rush.” As a designer working for several different publications and catalogs, we have to have our projects completed well before the first day of summer. Not to mention keeping our own site current and keeping our retail customers happy with new and timely seasonal designs. It gets to be a bit overwhelming at times. I have been feeling the crunch lately. My life has pretty much revolved around work these days. This is in no way a complaint, as I do really love what I do and I am so fortunate that what I do for a living is what most people consider a leisure time activity. I certainly consider it a privilege. One of the projects that I am in the process of creating is a beautiful Christmas box. It will be used on its own as a decoration, but I am also creating a coordinating ornament set for the same publication, which can be stored in the box and made as a set. Overall, I really liked the project, and even though it took me a bit longer than normal to draw and design it, the final design is pretty and elegant and I am very happy with it. I spent Monday cutting the lid of the box. After starting out with the idea that I would complete the cutting all in one day, I quickly realized that it would take much more time than that. I took my time and cut carefully and slowly, paying strict attention to every point and corner and flowing line. It paid off though, because the piece came out beautiful, and I was truly proud of my work. So much so that I featured it on yesterdays’ blog post here. I had planned on cutting the remainder of the box yesterday, but an hour or so after I posted my blog I received a personal message from one of my readers on Lumberjocks. (I post my blog on Lumberjocks, my site, Facebook and Google+) He very nicely and gently noted that I had misspelled the word “Divine” on my box lid. My heart stopped. I immediately went to Wikipedia and much to my horror, the word “Devine” was defined as “a frequent misspelling of the word divine” At least I wasn’t alone in my error. But nonetheless, it really took the winds out of my sails. Nothing screams “idiot” like spending approximately four hours cutting an incorrectly spelled word into a piece of beautiful wood – and then posting it all over the internet so everyone share in your humility. (Not to mention that it would have went on to the magazine to be published! That would have really been special!) Keith’s first response is that I should take the picture down. I think it was a reflex response though, because both he and I know that once something is posted, there is no real turning back. That would have meant rewriting the blog and besides – many of you receive it directly in your mail box anyway. So who would I be fooling. The minute I hit the ‘post’ button the jig was up. The deed was done. At first I felt really humiliated and embarrassed about the whole thing. After all, people look up to me as a designer and you would think that things like that wouldn’t happen. I write here every morning and yes – there are some spelling or grammar errors, but I consider this a rather informal venue and I do just type off the top of my head here first thing in the morning and as the coffee is thawing my brain in the morning, I do realize that errors are made. But you are all used to that and usually if I catch them later on when I reread what I wrote,

I'm heading off to Amana for Handworks in a few days and preparing like mad. A trip to Handworks reminds me once again that point of all of this iron-mongering is to enable people to make stuff. These days our basic furniture needs are met very economically by factories so if you are making furniture the reason is usually a personal challenge, a desire to work with one's hands, and a desire to push the envelope of what can be made with wood. Two recent exhibits bring the idea of pushing the envelope clearly in focus. This blog is about a carver pushing the envelope. A few months ago I was planning to take a Wednesday off to see the Roentgens exhibit at the met before it closed. As it happened I got an email from a Randy Beranek, who reads my blog, about a week long exhibit of work by carver David Esterly which was at the W. M. Brady Gallery on 80th Street down the block from the Met. I had seen pictures David's work many times in Woodcarving Magazine so naturally I jumped at the chance.My friend Jeff Peachey and I were scheduled to have lunch that day at Mile End and he had just finished reading David's new book so he wanted to come too. The exhibit was carefully and leisurely laid out in several rooms so that you can enjoy the pieces without distraction. The pictures I have seen of David's work just don't do his work justice. The carvings are generally bigger than what I expected and all the carvings have a sense of hyper realism. It's not a real bouquet of flowers, it is a perfect bouquet of flowers. In his sculpture of vegetables, the arrangement of everything is perfect. Even imperfections like a caterpillar eating a leaf is done elegantly. By coincidence the artist himself happened to be in the gallery when we visited, so chatted about this and that. I asked David if he worked from actual flowers, fruits, and if he mocked up the pieces before he actually carved them. He doesn't. He draws them in illustrator and once he is happy with his design he goes from the drawings directly to carving wood. Not being constrained by the reality of a mock-up, David has the freedom to do with carving what artist can do with drawings. He is freed from the physical constraints of how actual reality looks like. His approach to realism is also very much grounded in the physical limitations of the detail limewood (which is what he primarily carves) can take and the sense of what detail we can see. The gallery hung the pieces at normal "gallery height" but most of David's work was borrowed for this exhibition from various private collections and many of the works are designed to mounted higher on a wall and viewed from below. In general the detail of a lot of the pieces are meant to be absorbed from a few feet away, not examined under a magnifying glass. There are a few carved carving tools mounted in a few pieces which have handles that are stippled to emulate ash. It's a very convincing look, and from a few feet away the tool handles all look like ash. The carved drapery of one piece has that fuzziness to it that you get on fabric. But the leaves are mostly plain with very few if any veins or texture to them. I think this is because from a few feet away you would not really seem them, and what you register is the leafiness of them and the delicacy of plain flower petals. Fabric and tools have the detailing of texture so we register it as fabric. This approach to carving in itself is very interesting. One of the absolute benchmarks of modern sculpture is that it isn't realistic at all. And of course at first glance at Esterly's works it is realistic and can be easily dismissed by a lot of modern art critics as "craft" rather than "art". And then of course there is the school of criticism that dismisses this type of work as "decorative art". And of course in the modern world of art schools by and large craft isn't taught which immediately puts this sort of work as "outsider art" even if most of the time that term is used to describe more

It has been my pleasure over the past six years to welcome many new blogs to the woodworking blogosphere. I have seen many of them come along – some making a big splash, while others have flown under the radar. I have seen some with very short runs, while others keep going on a steady pace. About one month after I started my blog, a very talented woodworker came onto the scene – and she had longevity on the internet.  Talk about expertise. This blogger forged her own plane irons, built her own planes, demonstrated in clear language how to carve and threw herself into the online woodworking community with reckless abandon, much to our benefit.  During the six years of her blog, she has thrown open the doors of her shop to invite us in to see how she does her work. To show us examples of outstanding pieces she saw at different museums and other places she had visited. She showed us where she was going to teach and how she instructed her students. She showed us the definition of determination when learning new techniques. And, she showed us the meaning of patience as morons like me asked countless questions about what she was doing and how I could do the same things in my shop. Kari: The early days By now, you must know I am referring to Kari Hultman of the Village Carpenter. Earlier this week, she announced on her blog that she was making her last post.  It’s totally understandable why she did this. A recent health scare in her family caused her to refocus on the important things in life, and I applaud her for her decision. This also allows her to woodwork on her own schedule without having to worry about ‘feeding the beast’ on a regular basis. In many ways, Kari is kind of like the Beatles of woodworking. She is leaving the online woodworking world at the top of her game on her own terms and on her own timetable. Each of her recent posts is still a masterpiece of clear communication and awesome woodworking knowledge, and I’m sure she could continue to produce online woodworking content until the cows come home. But, for now, the Village Carpenter door has closed, and I will be waiting to see when a new one opens. Does this mean that Kari is giving up woodworking?  Heck no. She’s going to continue working in her cozy Pennsylvania shop, producing more museum-quality pieces. She will still be out there at woodworking conferences, rubbing shoulders with other appreciative woodworkers. And, I’m sure, that one day in the future, she will be contributing again to the online woodworking community.  I can feel it in my bones. Thus, the title of today’s post.  In German, the farewell of auf Wiedersehn does not mean goodbye, it means ‘until I see you again.’ Kari, here’s to you, until we see each other again in the online woodworking community. Thanks for everything. ### Similar Posts: Important People: Kari Hultman Announce it.. and they will come A lighthearted interview Membership has its advantages A perfect storm – of what? Important People: Marc Spagnuolo Much to be thankful for…

Yes, I do know that when you are building a house or a barn you normally start at the foundation, lay your brickwork until the first window and than well… it makes sense.But in this case, the recycled materials and the old walls are pulling the strings. Some friends decided that they didn’t want to paint their windows every year and bought these plastic ones. Some of the old ones were in good shape, and they didn’t mind me taking them. These windows would decide how big of a gab there would be left to fill with the old stones. So, I hanged them on the roof beam, making sure they we leveled out and constructed the inside first, leaving a mold to fill from the outside. Now I didn’t take pictures while doing it. It took about 10 days, sorting out the stones, finding the stone’s faces, combining big with small ones, and the worst part, getting them up there. Many times a bucket and some rope would do the job, but others had to lifted up on the old shoulder. I can tell now that it’s not easy carrying a 50 kilogram piece of rock on a ladder. But in the end it’s all about the result, and to me that looks pretty good. I placed a 11 cm. pipe at one point right thru the wall, at that time I just thought it would be a good idea. Now I’m happy I did that, because a future dust collection would need such a thing. It would be almost impossible to get a hole in the 70 cm. thick wall now. It gives you a feeling of satisfaction looking at the job done… but that’s just temporarily… realizing there’s a front wall and specially the rest of the old wall that’s almost 7 meters high. Next time; not just another brick in the wall…

An update to the previous post of Koyamaichi’s workshop in Kobe: Taylor Donsker: Today I was given this gorgeous set of chisels that put my used eBay collection to shame.  If Taylor won the Powerball over the weekend, he’s playing it very close to the vest. But this is a better gift. Be sure to click on the link and check out the rest of the photos.

I have never made boxes using dovetails beforeSo this was an experiment in box making along with learning how to use the dovetail Jig.They all came about from a visit to the Brisbane wood expo on the weekend.It was while I was there I saw a demonstration of the Givkins Dovetail jig by Col Hosie. I selected some pine for my first attempts and then used some european walnut for the final box. The photos show the results I achieved. I was going to add a blog on the dovetail jig. but today whilst at LLWW Larry (Degoose) also had purchased one from a previous demonstration conducted at Malaney and he said he was going to do a full review on his purchases, and as not to steal his thunder I will leave it for the time being. Hint: Larry bought some pretty interesting equipment as well so standby for some really facinating tool reviews. Regards Robert Brennan

Hello Fellow LJs All of April saw me away from the workshop visiting Sydney the Gran children, and of course their parents.I was busy with electrical work as opposed to woodwork, but needed the funds. Any way while I was there my eldest son asked me to make a cover for their stove top, he needed more bench space and the glass stove top was getting scratched from using it to prepare food so he wanted to cover it and make better use of the bench space. I wont bore you all with the actual dimensions but its made to cover the glasstop and sit above it. I had the choice of some Tassie Blackwood or Tassie Myrtle, I did a couple of samples photographed them and sent to my son.He wasnt too fussed as to the material so I decided to use the myrtle. I milled up a length of rough sawn myrtle 2.2m x 195mm x 25mm and cut three sections for the top, jointed the edges and then used 5 x biscuits per section to assist in the edge glueing. From a second length of stock I cut enough for the edge trim, (See photo No4) then jointed an thicknessed these.I then used my shaper to produce a recess for the insert and then used a rounding over and a cove bit for the top and side edges.Cut the 45 deg miters in the edge trim with the drop saw and then dry fitted everything up to check the fit’ All was OK so with a generous application of titebond III I assembled everything and added a ratchet band and left everything to dry. FinishingThe insert I sanded 120/180/220/340 and finished with wet & dry 400 this wwas done afer the dry fitupThe trim I also sanded as above only this time as an assembled unit Glue residueI cleaned all the glue residue off initally with a wet rag, then once dry used a cabinet scraper on the edges to remove any traces.One final sand with the 400 grit saw the finish in photo No2. Test pieceThere is a test piece visible in photo No2, this was used to set the final profiles you see in Picture 1.The test piec was used in every step in producing the edge trim and finally cut in half at 45 degrees to ensure I didnt waste any material. Time, tools and Materials Time It took me about 3 hours to produce not including the overnight glue ups. ToolsThe tools I used were:Table sawShaper Drop saw1/2 sheet sanderTitebond IIIBand clamps3 x sash clampsBiscuit cutterCork sanding blockChalkShaper rebate cutter25mm Core box bitJointerThicknesserVarious grades of sandpaperA couple of steel rules 1×500mm abd 1×1m Materials2 x length of 2.2m x 25mm x 195mm rough sawn Tasmanian myrtle.One completly used, the second I cut the edge strips from. Conclusion Once I had everything finished I sent a photo to my son and requested advice on finishing method. Well the reply I got back was Just send it the way it is we are going to paint it !! Oh well their choice, its for their home !!

Just getting started with this kreuzaxt and will keep a going til it’s done. Ernest