January 27, 2012

Got Slabs?

Here's your dinning table! 3+"thick 11' long 43" to 48" wide live edge!

This is a White Pine. I remember this tree, when I was in high school. It lived on Bernoudy road at the Big Falls rd end over looking the river and White Hall proper, it was huge then. B.G.E cut it down last year and told Tom Nicholson about it, he had the good sense to get it. It sounds like a bit of an ordeal he was alone but being an arborist he managed to muscle it out with machine and winch. Counted the rings,over two hundred of them. If there is a White Hall Historical society and there should be, they should be tripping over themselves to get some of this wood. It’s gorgeous for pine which doesn’t impress often.

   This is the first time using the slabber attachment on his Peterson Sawmill, it was a bit tough to dial in but once I figured what needed to move and how much, it was easy, you did have to square it back up after each cut. This was a big run 48″ at the widest point, it didn’t go out enough to mess up the cut but its best to start as square as possible as in life, to avoid a pile up of misery. That and it was best to sharpen after each run. It uses a full skip chain so there really aren’t many teeth to sharpen. I felt pretty comfortable running this after using my Logosol set up, I’ve re-sharpened my chains to a rip angle, 10 degrees, so I was comfortable with sharpening and it cut with a speed better than what I had expected or am use too with my set up.

Here is a neat burl on the side of the slab, This one has dinner table written all over it to me.

I cut four slabs from the choicest section and was going for a fith but thought bettter, it would have cuped most likely and this tree is not one to experiment with. So there is a lot of 5/4 and 8/4 stuff 10″wide all FOR SALE!

ATTENTION CHAIR MAKERS there is a lot of clear 8/4 seat stock here 11″ long 9″ to 10 inches wide.

Here are two I’m gonna use for a settee.

Other exciting news (if your into green woodworking) is Jennie Alexander and Peter Follansbee finished  “Make a Joint Stool from a Tree: An Introduction to 17th-century Joinery”.

The first class I took in woodworking , besides shop in high school, was with these two. I could be mistaken but I think they just finished a run of “Make A Chair From A Tree” I remember a stack of new books and I  bought one, this was a joint stool class, my first introduction to green woodworking and I wanted every thing to do with it I would have lived in the shop and slept on the floor if I could,  Alexander encouraged me to come work and learn so I did in my free time.It hit’s the stands the end of February.

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January 14, 2012

got wood?

With a new year comes new endeavors. I get a fair amount of wood in log form offered to me and cant use it all in a reasonable amount of time. If it’s not top quality Oak or Ash I get it sawn or now saw it myself. I recently got the Logosol Big Mill Timberjig. The timberjig attaches to my Stihl MS 660 and slides on a fence I made that attaches to the log to be milled. So far Ive milled locust for post and a little bit of quarter sawn Red Oak. In the pic above the Oak is stacked in the back its about 15 board feet of 4/4 and 6′ long and planed one face. In front of that is Locust, the remainder of the tree that I was getting post out of, that’s 5/4 and 4′ long and again about 15 board feet. I’m selling each stack for 25$  that’s a little more than 1.50$ a board foot. The stuff is air drying not kiln dried though I could point you in the right direction to get wood kiln dried, the oak I wouldn’t wast the time its to easy to dry yourself. The locust is a little harder to dry, I would do a slow air dry under cover. I hope to be able to offer unusual or hard to find local stuff, like the locust, one could make a really interesting and unique piece or spice up a project already in the works. I used locust to make the hinges on our pine kitchen cabinets. Under those two stacks are White Pine with the live edge the longest being 12′ long and is 2 3/4″ thick. The one above that is 1 3/4″ and two short sections are 8/4. 8/4 or two inches makes a great chair or stool or bench seat thickness. The pine came from where Ive been working lately running a swing-blade mill. It started off as fill in work for me but it’s really kept me busy, we are sawing out some really neat stuff,  Cherry that Tom took down as a tree service job and the home owner wanted it milled, it’s going around his fire place in panels shelves and a mantel, pretty cool! I’m  mostly milling White Pine cause he gets a lot of it, its easy to mill and dries fast. We have a lot of 4/4, 5/4, 8/4, 4×6, 6×6,2×4 and a bunch of miscellaneous stuff ITS ALL FOR SALE and I need to make room for more.The price is right about .50 cents a board foot and again its not kiln dried but I have been pleasantly surprised how fast this stuff air dries. I brought some inside and it’s real stable and didn’t check. It went from the log to usable in a month.

Each Time a new pile is started I do my best to make a level platform.

There’s a ton of wood over there a bunch of nice cuts, a lot of quarter sawn pine which might not be as spectacular as oak but is still a unique cut where the growth rings are left as straight lines. If interested please contact me sunwoodworking@gmail.com or 410-807-1010

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November 28, 2011

Black Friday Furniture Sale

Look in the Gallery  for sale items.

I’m hopping on the holiday “discount some of your items” train, it really feels like a train this year with stores opening thanksgiving night and all the emails I’ve received from big clothing stores telling me to “hurry up and buy cause these deals wont last” and it works it was the best black friday many had in years.

I want to offer a bit of a break on three pieces because I really like them and want someone else to enjoy them as much as I do, not that I have been using them much but they are where I can see them and I stop for a rest every once and a while….I cant help it. I have two of the tree stools left that I recently made of Apple for the seat and riven Red Oak for the legs and stretchers , they have an oil finish are very comfortable have multiple positions on the foot rest for you and are a good height, 25″ that’s a good counter height, I used one the other night to sit on while washing dishes. I sat across the seat so the foot rest ran front to back and I could get closer to the sink, it worked really well.

I was asking $380 each  they will be $320 each until Jan 2 2012. 60 bucks off.

        

    The legs are split out the same way, the mortises on them dried in a shop made kiln then final shaping/fitting, glued and wedged into the seat. The Apple came from a farm in Bently Spring Maryland and I took it to Bobs in Hickory to have it milled on his Woodmiser band saw mill then air dried for probably three years. The Oak I got from a tree service in Harford county it was a veneer quality log.

I really want some one to get this settee, I’m pretty proud of it and I’d like to make another I need the room.

Its Walnut, White Pine and Red Oak with a lacquer finish.

I was asking $1200. Until 1/2/12  it’s $100 off, so $1100.

Again, local wood. I could show you where the trees grew. There is more information about these three pieces and how to order in the GALLERY tab at the top of this page.

Check back too I have some smaller items, two bowls and some spoons that need to go.

   

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October 19, 2011

6′ Band Saw

My daughter presented this to me today when she got back from hiking with her mom at the Gun Powder trails on this rainy day. It’s a monster of a Poplar leaf and its doing what so many trees in the north county are doing, bidding farewell until next spring in a most elegant way. The Poplar leaf has been the inspiration for my chair seats, the shape of it and the wood makes a great seat.

While at Hearne Hardwoods last weekend they demonstrated the process, no procedure of milling a log with their almost 7′ band saw. Wow what a showing, I’m not big on the exotic woods what we have around here suit me just fine. Our domestics have much to offer and I think there is something to keeping a wood in the climate it grew in when it becomes furniture BUT I really appreciate all trees and what Mr. Rick Hearne had cued up on the sled is forever burned into my wooden brain. A Koa log. Apparently it only grows in Hawaii, this one came from the big island. The soil there is arguably the best in the world and this one came from land that backs a national park. To harvest trees especially the Koa from the park land is practically unheard of and when it has happened the wood went to Polynesia for reproduction work.  That area is mostly cattle farming and obviously severe storms  blow through often enough knocking down fencing, when the cattle get out and into the thick mountain vegetation its almost impossible to get them all back. They’ll eat the barks off a 12″dia Koa tree then move on to the next one, wild pigs are a problem as well.

You can see the laser line on the end grain, try to follow that to the other end to see the blade clicking on the pics make them bigger.

These guys are so careful handling this wood but I bet it goes for all the logs they mill, they don’t let the slab slam down on the rollers or floor they lay each one down by hand.

Then swing this contraption over, each disc is a suction cup, and move each board with an airy ease, no fork lift. They would pour denatured alcohol to show even more of the natural brilliance. the stuff was pretty wet to begin with. Not as wet as the Oak I rive and split.

This is a sacred tree and should be treated as so, I feel lucky to have witnessed this. Their web site is neat the passion I saw at the mill transfers to the site with interesting info about the trees they mill.

some blades

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October 11, 2011

Hand Tool Event

This coming weekend Oct. 14, 15 2011 in Oxford PA at Hearne Hardwoods   Toms gang along with guest demonstrators will be showing there wares in the best possible way, through demonstration and letting the common civilian have a go at one. Personally I hope they have the new Draw Knife  and a copy of the new Follansbee dvd on how to carve a “S” scroll since I have tried an embarrrrassing amount of times to recreate since taking the class. It’s getting the spacing of the es, I cant seem to line it up properly, and the DMT lapping plate, what a time saver that would be, I have the Norton thing it’s my second one and although a lot of people on the intranet seem to hate on it I’ve managed with it. Like anything woodworking you have to keep it flat and that is time consuming, its amazing, it might be 3/16″ thick and hasn’t snapped every time I go to use it I think it will be the last….. no I wont miss it. What else…. OH that bench, that looks nice. If I was to buy one, that or that style would be it.How many years have I threatened the bench I have with making a new one?, I have the wood you know….. I COULD DO IT! ……..but i haven’t i aint got two grand either, so me and benchy get along alright, were good for a while longer.

Nuff ramblin my point is if you are interested in hand tools and are having trouble making say your hand plane  sing, go to one of these events and just listen to what Deneb (or any of the demo guys, Deneb is the guy at the ones I have been too) is saying while setting up and using these planes, and the questions asked, I have picked up little bits that helped me out. And of course ask em if ya got em.

I’m not trying to sell these tools I think what works for you is best, you can get great tools like the old Baily’s planes from auctions and your parents basement but they will need some lovin, flat sole, flat back, good bevel and sharp, all things  I have heard mentioned and demonstrated at these events.

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October 2, 2011

VPC SHOW

Today is the last day of the “Art for land’s sake” show at Halcyon Farm in Lutherville MD. If you haven’t already you gotta come  and check out my stuff. I’m super excited about a couple of pieces and getting great feedback on them. This is the best compilation of local art I’ve had the pleasure to be around. In the top of the barn there are paintings and some blown glass and pottery, amazing photos too. A great mix of North County, Chesapeake and East Coast scenes.

I’m downstairs with a fun group of jewelers, textiles and photos. There are pit beef sammies  too that are awesome so come hungry.

My settee is so comfy you wont want to get up and this set of three counter stools seem to be just as inviting I wish you all could be here to see them.

I’m still working on better pics of these guys but the seats are Apple wood and the undercarriage  Red Oak. The Apple is one board cut into three sections so the grain runs through each seat to the next. This effect does not jump out at you like I had hoped but its a nice subtle detail. I feel like all the pieces I make do this, the more you look at it the more detail you see, not necessarily my doing the treats are in the wood;  grain pattern, ray flecks, shadow and light.

Lots of art to look at and be inspired to dream. gotta check it out.

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September 27, 2011

Valleys Planning Council – “Art For Land’s Sake”

We here at Sun Woodworking have a show this weekend, Sept 30 October 1 and 2. Its for a good cause The V.P.C holds a fund raising art show every other year.The proceeds help conserve land in the north county (Baltimore), a portion of each purchase goes to the council. I’m excited about a couple pieces I’m taking,one is a settee the other a set of three stools.

Beeing a child of the sun and water, I want to introduce those elements in my work and growing up and living near the Chesapeake, at the beach and in the woods the incentive is always present.

arm rest

The settee has arm rest’s. On the back of the arm rest there is a whale tail. I was careful not to make it stick out past the feet, dont want it to hit the wall say if its in a hall-way or mud room backing. At the front is a curl or rams horn. These two desighn elements together look to me (unintentionally) like a whale. Under the seat is the side strecher, I turned some step downs on each end and it really works for me. Sorry if I’m gloating but if you knew how many things I try or think of that I cant make work you’d understand. Any way it’s a bench made from local woods in log form, sawn  or rived and dried, like most every thing is done here. It’s got  a nautical feel to represent this area and the east coast.click the pic for detail.

That’s my take anyway. y’all can talk amongst you-selves about it now.

I have had this idea for a while and didn’t really pull it off the way I intended but take a plank of nicely figured wood and make a series of stools that are continually segmented?? yea cut it up but still be able to see that it was one piece at a more important time in its life. In this example I used Apple for the seat’s. it came from a farm in Bently Springs, here in the north county, it’s a super hard wood that’s extremely unruly when trying to plane and not typical seat material but I had a bunch and wanted to use it for a while now and thought it looks cool so off we go!

contiually segmented stool

I put some metal in the foot rest (screws), I’m not proud of that but they need to hold up to really harsh stresses being foot rest. The settee came together without any metal fasteners  and of course neither piece was sanded, just finished with hand tools, the Baily’s #41/2 , spoke shave, travisher  and a very open sweep gouge.I say I didn’t really pull it off because the seats don’t touch edge to edge when lined up creating effect #1 the continuous board. The splay of the legs don’t allow it , I was limited to the width of these seats because the board was only so long and to make them with a tighter angled leg they would be too tipsy. Something to think about next time.

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July 19, 2011

susccess?

I was talking with a musician the other day, we were going on about how to get noticed and just be able to live comfortable in success with our creative side, and how tempting it is to bail and get a regular job  and ultimately not follow the original vision you first had.Thats a really hard thing to do when you set out for something that feels so right but sometimes society just doesn’t allow fair access . We both agreed persistence is key and even with that nothing is certain. The life lessons learned through out earn me something I otherwise would not get. And if you stick with it long enough you’ll come to many crossroads that take you away from the goal, if you stay focused on what you started the time away from it can give you new insight and a renewed desire and lust for the art you are tryimg to find and creat.

When I started down this road of trees and working along side of them I didnt have an end picture in mind but there was something, a direction, unorganised and grey but I thought I should just make things and see what became. I didnt have nice tools or know how to use the ones I had. I did\do have a #41/2 bench plane that my grandfather bought but was neglected and needed to be tuned up before it would allow me to work the wood. A great learning experience ensued.  Some folks might make one feel they are wasting their  time persuing such goals and visions and its easy (or at least for me) to buy into it a little, you just want to say “I know it’s not great but wada ya think?” “can I translate a feeling or a mood? can you relate to what I’m doing?” These things only sort out over time and if you halt your persuit youll never know the ansewrs .

I’ve always wondered how people evolve to a successful point, the picture above is  photographer Scott Pommier  the link attached to his name takes you to a site with a video (where I pinched the pic, I think it’s killer) and he talks about the road he took of camera and working along side them.I might be reading into it to much but he is talking about the same thing. I found out about him when I stumbled on this site the selvedge yard, a gritty blog with a retro feel.

The musician I was talking to the other day at my cousins graduation party, is related to George Nakashima. I have always been a great admirer of Uncle Georges work. I went to a gallery on a side street in Phily, I have no idea where it was, maybe south Philadelphia, many years ago, because they had some of his pieces on display, that left an indelible mark on me. I’ve read his book “The Soul of a Tree” and want to again whenever I see his work. There are many approaches to becoming noticed and ultimately successful, when you read what Mr. Nakashima went through its easy to be inspired.

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June 26, 2011

Birch Bowl

I was working at a friends in March and April when work here was slow,  he has a tree service and was real busy ,too busy to take care of the operations there at the shop. He wants to make and sell benches, has a saw mill (more on that later) there’s work in his house, it’s awesome lots of unique wood , hand rails, steps ,doors etc. any way he brought a whole load of birch back one day and I dove right in, he said “I thought you’d want some of that”. It’s really great stuff the kind of medium that takes you to another place and time when working it.This is a great vid.

It was good timing for the upcoming shows I have. Making wooden ware is fun you can be creative and although there are rules to follow in the beginning it’s not real strict. Work around knots and scars and figure out where the top and bottom will be and, split. This stuff was sopping wet, the sap was running , she was in full spring mode, the bark stripped off in sheets.

I was able to hold this blank between my feet while adzing, made sure there were chips from the hewing  under it so not to collect grit from the floor and roughed out. You can see I established  a center line this helps to draw a roughly uniform shape to be excavated.I am ahead of myself here there is a process to flatten the split side with the axe and winding sticks, scrub plane and smoothing plane first, then go with the adze work. I’ve been making bowls lately this way, from the bark side, its more challenging to get a lot of depth but I don’t think salad bowls need to be super deep anyway. You get a nice grain pattern it follows the contour of the shape your creating on the outside and the growth rings swirl smaller and smaller to the bottom of the bowl.

I was gettin real restless for some water time when making this, spring fever?                          

 

 

 

 

 

descending growth rings

 
 
 
 
 
This was a large blank and it was possible to get depth, detail with curves, length and width.When the wood is wet it’s easy-going too much so sometimes you really have to check the thickness of the walls and bottom often or you’ll go through.It’s kind of a slow process but when it gets thin it’s as if time accelerates. Also trying to remove any tear out takes a lot of focus and concentration, it’s easy to forget about going through a wall.
The process is always moving in start and stop mode, you do some maybe a few hours then put it away in a plastic bag to sweat out the moister. This way the bowl wont crack because it’s drying to fast , its in a very wet climate with no fresh air being added but the moisture is being pulled out. Here you’ve stopped working but the process is still moving forward.
 
The dryer it is the less tear out you’ll experience but the wood will be harder and the process slower so you wanna get it close as you dare before the last bag storage.
 
There I go again with the Bench Cookies,  it worked good. Clamping these puppies down is always a creative challenge. This dog leg gouge is a Hans Karlsson from C.W  This is one of the most usefull tools I have though I mostly use it for bowls it is indispensible. That said I still went to far. I stopped to check my progress on the bottom and man you could see light shinning through, I went to far, push on it and the infected spot flexed. It was about the size of a nickel. It hadn’t cracked and there was no tear out inside the bowl so it was ok but I don’t trust it, would eventually crack, wich wouldn’t be the end of the world it would still be usable but I would be super bummed and definitely would not sell it. I have a lot of heart and time in this piece and need it for the GunPowder show.I ended up putting a base plate on it, a piece of cherry that was decorative, it’s actually two pieces book matched to make up the width I needed.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
It made it heavy and I’m annoyed at myself for the mistake but the fix was succesful.
 
 
 
 
 
It was the first sale I had that day.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
This little guy is kinda cool too its a limb section that tapers from end to end, very subtle,but I think it adds a design element that is all its own I couldn’t do that. At first I didn’t know what it would be used for but it felt right to make it,when it was done Amelia said it would be good to serve asparagus, now I can see crackers, a bowl to eat an ear of corn….. when you make or get this type of organic woodenware it finds many uses.
Birch narrow bowl
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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June 16, 2011

Shaping an Alaia Surfboard

I have always wanted to shape a surfboard, the foam and glass kind.A few months back Sievert’s called and talked me into making an Alaia, a traditional Polynesian surfboard, it didn’t take much convincing I was immediately searching the web for  information. I always thought Catalpa would be a great wood for a surf board and still do but sawn it’s not very plentiful. Turns out Paulownia is the wood the Polynesians used before reaching Hawaii. It grows like crazy around here it’s not unusual to see one popping from a crack in the sidewalk . The three woods of choice in Hawaii at that time seems to have been the Wiliwili  (Hawaiian Balsa) a very buoyant wood used in floats for fishing nets and to make the Olo, the longest of the wooden boards at 18′ to 25′. The Ula (or bread fruit) has sap used as a glue and the leaves used as sandpaper. And the Koa, similar in strength and weight to our Black Walnut, it was used for bodyboards and alaia’s. There has been a revival or new-found interest in these boards brought on largely by Tom Wegener.

I remember in the late eighties there was a lot of talk of Paulownia how its a fast growing tree and  praised in Japan,….. so start growing it now and maybe yours will be ready to harvest before everybody and their brother gets on the band wagon,it was talked about as the new cash crop by guys I worked with,not to many people did it though. As luck would have it Sieverts found a guy here in Maryland who did listen and invest in the propagation of these trees, he has a plantation in South Carolina and one here in MD. and he’s the guy that the big shapers get their stock from, he ships all over the world. Pretty cool, no ordering some exotic species that has to be shipped from a far away land and shaped with love and devotion just to be a complete failure, snap in half and sink to the bottom cause I really don’t know what I’m doing.

Me being of little space and minimum power tools had to bring Cris into my confined hand tool world. We did thickness plane them with the Dewalt 13″ power planer but had to flatten one side by hand first because they had some twist, this was a bit of planing using the winding sticks .He like a lot of people, don’t use hand tools much and he didn’t seem to mind.No power jointer so we edged em by hand, with a sharp blade and properly set up plane it doesn’t take long to square them up for glueing.This wood is really soft and planes easily.

 Then glued with west systems 6×10 wich is super over kill I know now after messing around with it, it’s not going to come apart at the glue joint. Next time I’m going to use Titebond III.

Then we traced from  templates Cris got on line in a PDF format.

Jig sawed them out and hand planed to the line. There is a good set of instructions that come with the template PDF from Wegener its well worth the 15 bucks, he illustrates how to do the basic shaping.

We beveled the rails two inches or so from the edge to 1/4 from the center of the edge with a draw knife and hand plane. My rails finished at about 3/8″ thick. 
Bevel the rail with hand plane

The only rocker the board has is a relief on the underside about 16″ from the nose. Rocker helps keep a board from pearling or having the nose go under while taking off. The flatter the board the faster the ride and the less forgiving  too, so this will be a learning experience but what I have seen and heard is these boards glide, like real fast and smooth.

rocker

We used a scrub plane and a travisher to make the concave in the bottom, this helps hold the board in the wave so it doesn’t slide down the face as easily or allow the wave to wash under the board and pop off the back of the wave.

A quick power sand and couple of coats of Tung Oil and were ready!

I wanted to show some pics of the finished boards.

And to say how neet it was to work with Paulownia, I most likely would not have had the opportunity to experience this wood had it not been for this project. I made a comment about not having to use exotic lumber but this experience was as if I had, there are so many unusual characteristics of  Paulownia it is extremely flexible with out being very dense, that’s what makes it maneuverable in the surf is the ability to bend and bow flex and twist.

  There are a few different ways to seal the wood, Linseed oil seems to be the most popular, I saw in the how to we got from Wegener that pure Tung Oil is the best in that it resist mold,  protects better and doesn’t darken with age. I was looking forward to it darkening up and having a patina all its own. Maybe it will. I have a quart of Tung Oil I bought years ago and never used because of the  slow dry time so here was a good opportunity to put a dent in it.

It took almost two weeks to dry but did and had a nice rough texture to scuff sand, the second coat wont take as long to dry. I’ let ya know how it works.

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