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Making Tools: Workbenches (partial)
Warning!!! Stream of Consciousness ramblings about workbenches and how I use them! Proceed with Caution! I cannot think of anything to say about workbenches that hasn’t already been said, and said better by other people. Tolpin and Schwarz both wrote books specifically about workbenches, they are good books. you should read them too. and just […]
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Make a Democratic Chair class with Elia Bizzarri and Curtis Buchanan
Oct 10 Last weekend I was antsy about taking this class so I started splitting out some stock early. Now I’m even worse. They could have told us how to make the templates in the email (I’m going to suggest that). Now my brain is demanding that I have got to get outside and make […]
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This year so far.
I promised myself I’d keep posting at least once a month if not once a week this year… Apparently not happening. Back in June I finally got a log of white oak (chinkapin oak specifically) for the roof shingle making project. The Ft Mifflin forge’s roof is in bad shape. And I also acquired a […]
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Experimenting with recording myself
To start with: I should fire the production manager, the cameraman, the sound man, and the lead actor… And all of the post production crew! But then what would I do? I used to think that knowing how to make things was enough. So now if I want to make videos of my work I […]
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Making Tools: Straight Edge
I fear that I may open up a kettle of worms with this one. In order to produce a truly perfectly precisely accurate straight edge most machinist manuals will tell you to make 3 straight edges, and there is a process to “prove” them against each other… I’m not working in metal, I do not […]
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Making tools: Compass
With all us stuck at home I thought that now would be a good time for me to start a series about making your own tools. Thus thinking back… When rocks were soft etc. I’m asking myself what was the first tool I made. It’s a large compass. Everyone in the shop had one. […]
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Isolation time
You’d think that with all of this “spare” time I’d spend more time writing here. Judy is home but working full time. Greg is home and not working. And I’m still trying to straighten out the mess in my workspace. I gave myself till the end of April for that, so I’m still right in […]
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Shaving Horse Design, a unitized approach.
First off: making a shaving horse is easy peasy. Don’t over think it or over engineer it. Exact measurements are not as important as making it work for you. and if you make one and it doesn’t work right, change it, rip it apart, rebuild it, burn it at a weekend bonfire and start over… […]
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What is “Craft” vs “Art”
(I have ruminated upon this before and probably will again…) Ars longa, Vita brevis This saying was ancient when St Francis of Assisi wrote it down. Ὁ βίος βραχύς,ἡ δὲ τέχνη μακρή,ὁ δὲ καιρὸς ὀξύς,ἡ δὲ πεῖρα σφαλερή,ἡ δὲ κρίσις χαλεπή. Was written by Hippocrates, it starts: life is short and art takes time, this was […]
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I told you…
I was going to start making more chairs… it’s only taken me all summer to get a round tuit. this is intended to end up as a tall stool, no back. it is an Amur Corkwood Tree slab I flattened last fall. The shape is somewhat dictated by the slab… be well Karl […]
The Broken Tradition
my musings on woodworking and other things I do.