Pirated Plans

I have just been made aware that Curtis Buchanan's plans for his Comb Back Windsor Chair have been pirated and put up for sale on a scam website.  The scammer/thief who's name is Ted "Woody" McGrath has taken it upon himself to copy and sell Curtis's plans without his permission.  When I went to the scam site it is clear that these are in fact Curtis's plans.  Curtis's name and the copyright are clearly visible.  You can call it scamming or piracy, but let us call it what it is; STEALING!  I HATE A THIEF!  Apparently ole Woody has been called out before.

Curtis has taken the time and put forth the effort and money, along with the help of others, to share his years of knowledge.  He has done this with an absolutely wonderful series of free instructional videos on his web site and YouTube.  On his site Curtis has an online store where he offers his plans and a video series on DVD.

Curtis is one of the most genuinely giving people I have ever met and had the pleasure to call my friend.  I believe in and practice supporting people that are willing to freely give of themselves while trying to carve out a living in the world of woodworking.  You may say, "Why would you pay for something if it is free online?"  In no way can you have the experience that an in shop class with Curtis provides with an online video.  For example, some of the conversations we had during our time together in his shop gave me insight into different ways to go about my chair building.  There is no way to put a price on that and that is something I would never get from a video.  

I will continue to support Curtis by buying his plans as they become available.  Could I make a chair without them, yes!  But to me that is not the point.  If you feel as I do, I urge you to put the word out about this thief.  If you ever considered taking a class to learn to build a Windsor Chair, do yourself a favor and contact Curtis.  I guarantee he will not disappoint.

~ Ray Schwanenberger

Where Have I Been Part 2

As I noted nearly a year ago, along with a partner, I started a Radon Testing and Mitigation company.  After many hard months it was apparent that there was not the need for another Radon company in our area.  As Kenny Rogers advises (know when to hold em, know when to fold em), I decided to fold em and cut my losses.  This along with the passing of my mother and the untimely passing of a nephew, I have been somewhat of a social recluse.

I have been keeping up with a few of my favorite blogs and watching the work of friends.  I have begun to restore a 1920's bungalow that my eldest daughter purchased.  That should keep me busy for a few months.

What I yearn to do is get back into my shop.  Lost Art Press recently published Chairmaker's Notebook by Peter Galbert.  For me, this was the most anticipated release since LAP opened shop.  I have to tell you it was well worth the wait.  If you have ever thought about building a Windsor Chair this is a must have book.  Pete wrote and illustrated the entire book.  His writing style make the intimidating process of building a chair seem very doable. Today I read a post on Brian Eve's blog, Toolerable about him starting a chair build.  He is encouraging others to join in with their own chair build starting in the month of June.

I have dried seat blanks in stock, dried maple rounds and my choice of two white oak and three ash logs, so why not.  I'm in for a build in June.  I too hope you will venture down this path and get a glimpse of what I have come to enjoy, building chairs.

Stay tuned for photos of the build and watch Brian's wonderful blog also.

~ Ray Schwanenberger

Where Have I Been?

It has been exactly 4 months to the day since my last post.  How time flies when you are covered up with the daily workings of getting a business venture off the ground.  I have been retired from my air traffic control career for a little over two years now.  During that time I attempted to turn my passion for chairmaking, and woodworking in general, into a viable business.  There are many pitfalls in trying to make a living as a "Professional Woodworker".  The most difficult being, finding customers that are willing to pay what a handmade piece is worth.

Marc Spagnuolo AKA The Wood Whisperer wrote a wonderful article on this very subject.  So I suggest that anyone considering going down this path go here and check it out.  I will continue to pursue making my furniture and hopefully along the way be able to acquire a few more clients.  I would encourage anyone to follow their dreams, and I will do the same.

So you ask where have I been.  Since February of this year I have been partnered with another local businessman in getting a Radon Testing & Mitigation business off the ground.  This has kept me from my shop, the blog, and most things related to working wood.  Now that much of the preliminary work is done I am hopeful that I will be able to return to the shop, catch up on projects, and keep the blog up to date.

With that being said, I am going to the shop to figure out where to begin.  

~ Ray Schwanenberger

Method of Work

While I am away from the shop I have been thinking about the most efficient way of working when building case goods, beds, and things other than chairs. With Windsor chairs my process is pretty straight forward. Split the log, work the spindles to an octagon shape, shape the arm and bow (if building a Sack Back) and bend in the forms, then set to dry. Leg and stretcher billets are turned out of stock that was split and turned round to dry. While all parts dry, I carve the seat, and so on.

However, with things other than chairs, I usually put on paper my little sketch with some dimensions and into the shop I go. Man do I save time on the front end! I choose my material and I begin. I get the framework of the piece built and then build the details in accordance to what the newly constructed frame work calls for. Sounds fairly easy and straight forward does it not? Suffice it to say, things are not as they seem in my somewhat wonky mind.

With this method, I end up doing so many different machine set-ups it is unbelievable. As you can imagine this can result in minuscule discrepancies in measurement accuracy, which in turn leads to woodworker frustration, and results in me writing this blog post.

I have sought professional help for this malady and here is the advice I have received, as I heard it. Start with as accurate of a drawing as possible. Time to learn Sketch-Up! Develop a cut list, to prove the piece can be built and to purchase material. Take time and think about how to efficiently break down the material with minimal machine set-ups. THEN begin building! Build the carcass, dispose of the cut list, and finish with the remaining parts.

I hope I understand the advice I have been given but more importantly I must fight the urge to skip the prep work. I wonder if there is a support group out there?

The Leather Attache' And A Road Trip

Lets talk leather first.  Yes I was able to snap a shot of the Jedi Leather Master (JLM) Ty Black, who brought by the prototype of the Leather Attache'  and I must say it is sweet!  This is not your ordinary run of the mill leather tool roll.  Ty really put some thought into the design of this piece. 

When the flap is folded back and the Attache' is draped over a board as pictured below, accessing the tools is extremely easy.  As you can see it is very easy to determine what tool is where with this design.  When the Attache' is laid flat the blades of the tools are completely concealed between the alternating pockets on the opposite side, providing maximum protection.

This Crazy Horse leather is so very nice.  Ty crafted the 12 pockets to nicely fit my chisels,carving tools, and even my new Galbert 6 degree reamer.  This will make traveling with these essential tools easy and worry free.

Now for the latest road trip.  On Monday I made the four hour trek to the shop of Tennessee Windsor Chairmaker Greg Pennington.  I left my northern Kentucky home, in the Eastern Time Zone, at 5:00 AM to arrive at Greg's shop in Hendersonville, by 9:00 AM.  About half way to Louisville I remembered that Greg lives in the Central Time Zone, insert V8 head slap!  I traveled the four hours, each way, to learn some new turning skills and how to turn the all so sexy Baluster leg and arm post, the way Greg turns them.

I was once told if you want to know how to do something, ask a person that does what you want to do.  In adherence to that sage advice I try to take at least one or two classes a year to learn from the experts.  Greg is one of these experts.  Greg received the majority of his training from two people I consider to be the best in the business; Curtis Buchanan and Pete Galbert.  Besides teaching classes in his own shop, Greg assists Pete with his teaching at The Marc Adams School of Woodworking and The Kelly Mehler School of Woodworking.

I have to say that Greg meets all of the qualifications of "All Around Nice Guy".  Like Curtis and Pete, Greg is very giving of his knowledge and information to help his students succeed.  I will be making the trip back to Hendersonville again for another class with Greg.  If you have never seen Greg's work stop by his web site and or his blog and take a look.

 

During the day Greg's friend Bill showed up at the shop.  Bill is the gentleman that milled all the timbers and more for Greg's magnificent shop.

 
As for my class with Greg, there were a few skew catches, read soiling my britches, and  a gouge corkscrewing or two.  However, I felt like I was starting to get the feel for it when I had to start thinking about heading home.  After working with Greg until almost 6:00 EST/5:00 CST I headed north.  The 4 hour trek home seemed to go by quickly.  My thoughts were consumed by the images of the warm and welcoming shop and all the great things I had learned.  Thank you Greg and Bill for making this a wonderful experience.


~ Ray Schwanenberger

Oh Sweet Leather

Last week Ty Black stopped by the shop to bring by some leather goods and to play with Matilda.  Being a chair maker the scorp is a tool that I can not do without.  Protecting the edge, and my fingers, of a sharp scorp is difficult to do, unless one knows a person that is proficient in making such devices.  This is where Ty comes in.  Besides being a woodworker, Ty is an excellent leather-smith.

Above is the scorp sheath entirely hand stitched.  I witnessed this process while Ty was making an adaptation, lets just say I think I will stick to working wood.  He also went the extra mile and made me a scraper wallet and a block plane holster.

I am looking forward to getting the finished Tool Attache' made of Crazy Horse Leather.  If you need some leather tool protection, drop Ty an email, you won't be disappointed.

~ Ray Schwanenberger

Missing In Action

It has been a month to the day since I last made a post, WOW how time flies.  I was released by the doctor to return to the shop and have been busy ever since.  So this is what has been going on.

I went back to work on the bed I'm making for Carol and me and after the long lay off I had to bring the parts back into true.  Deciding on the finish has taken quite some time.  Finishing not being a strong point of mine, I decided to dive into Bob Flexner's book "Understanding Wood Finishing" and rectify that situation, at least partially.  Some of the quarter sawn ash, I had been air drying for 2 years, had some spalting and needed to be covered by the stain and or dye.  So began the experimentation.

It took a total of 22 recipes before we were able to find one that we could agree on and that covered the spalting.  I will make a post later on recipes.  I will say this, the good folks at General Finishes are a great source of information and an absolute joy to work with.  When I called I expected to get "For this department press....", instead a real live human answered, and she was able to answer all my questions and offered some really great suggestions.

I used the badly spalted ash, pictured below, for my test pieces.  I figured if this could be covered the very minor spalting on the bed components would cover with no problem. 

A picture is worth a thousand words, they say. 

I promise my next post will be sooner than a month and it will include "Leather"!


~ Ray Schwanenberger

Physical Therapy: Dovetails & Practice

I have been getting a wee bit antsy about getting back to the bench.  So yesterday I thought I would do a little physical therapy to take off the edge.  This came in the form of dovetails and practice.  I surmised what better therapy for a recovering shoulder than a little light sawing.  It has been close to nine months since I last cut dovetails and I figured I needed to knock the rust off of that skill.

In keeping with my goal for this blog, I thought I would share some of my thoughts, no matter how psycho-pathetic they may be, on practicing woodworking skills.  Sounds odd I know but stick with me for a moment!  Think about this; a guitarist doesn’t learn to play a song like Hotel California without first practicing and learning some basic skills.  First they must learn and practice chords and chord changes while keeping time.  It is only after the basic skills are learned that the musician can move forward with learning songs.  So why do we as woodworkers attempt to build things without first practicing and learning the basics?

Quality shop time is hard to come by for many of us, so why not make the most of the little time you have.  Practicing basic skills can help greatly in this area.  It has been my experience that a little time spent practicing a basic skill prior to building a project pays off in many ways.  I rarely ruin material anymore and the time it takes to complete a project is dramatically decreased.  By taking time to correctly practice these basic skills they have become second nature allowing me to concentrate solely on the project at hand.

Sawing is a critical and basic skill required to properly cut dovetails.  When I first started cutting dovetails by hand I took 10 – 15 minutes a day for a week and practiced rip sawing to a line perpendicular to the board and angled while stopping on a scribed line.  In the same practice session I practiced rip sawing perpendicular and a vertically while stopping on a scribed line.  These are the basic sawing skills needed to accurately saw pins and tails.

If it has been awhile since you last performed a specific skill, like it was for me in cutting dovetails, do some warm-up practice before jumping straight into your project and risking ruining your material.  I took my own advice and practiced the two exercises as pictured above.  As a result the dovetails I cut were pretty good.  It wasn’t great because I need to sharpen my chisels, but that is another post.

So if you only have 15 – 20 minutes don’t blow off going into the shop.  Grab some cutoffs, your saw and marking implements and practice these sawing skills or whatever basic skills are required for the project currently on your bench.  I guarantee it is worth the effort and you will be amazed at the results.  I know I was!

~ Ray Schwanenberger

It's A New Year

Happy New Year!  It is that time of year where we make our resolutions and with good intentions set forth to bring them to fruition.  My “I’m going to eat better/lose weight” resolution usually comes to a screeching halt in short order, so that one is out.  Well then, what should my resolutions be?  Based on my last seven weeks I think I know what they will be.  Allow me to elaborate.

  

In November I had my right shoulder surgically repaired after the sixth dislocation.  It was a wretched mess, much like Christopher Schwarz’s description of his first coping saw in his book The Anarchist’s Tool Chest.  Chris wrote that his first coping saw had a blade that rotated “sickeningly like a dislocated shoulder”.

 

This meant there would be no woodworking for quite some time so I decided to finally read some of my LAP books that had been collecting dust on the shelf.  I started with The Essential Woodworker by Robert Wearing, next was The Anarchist’s Tool Chest by Christopher Schwarz, and followed by The Joiner and Cabinet Maker.  As of this time I have not cracked open Mouldings In Practice by Matthew Bickford and it may be some time before I do.  You see, I can’t quit going back to The Anarchist’s Tool Chest (ATC).

  

This book struck many a chord with me.  ATC is a wonderful resource, listing the woodworking tools needed to make high quality furniture.  Mr. Schwarz breaks his list into two categories; the essential tools and the good-to-have tools.  He writes about the good the bad and the ugly of the different examples of these tools and the advantages of owning quality tools (first chord struck).  Next, you are given wonderful instruction on how to build a proper tool chest to house these essential tools.  Appendix B is a very useful list of resources for vintage tools.

However, the chord that rings loudest with me is echoed throughout these wonderful pages penned by Mr. Schwarz;  We have become a throw-away society and this vicious cycle of consumption and disposal could very well bring the end to the craft that I love so dearly.  He states “I think you should buy tools that are as durable as your furniture”.  “Buying poorly made tools only encourages manufacturers to make more crappy ones”.  After reading this, I would have jumped in the air and yelled HALLELUJAH and AMEN, if it weren’t for waking a sleeping grandchild!  In part, a few of my favorite lines in the book are these: “By filling your home with furniture that will last for generations, you are knee-capping the system that requires constant consumption.  I call that anarchy.”  If any of this strikes you in any way I highly suggest you read The Anarchist’s Tool Chest.

So this brings me to my 2013resolutions:

I resolve to build the absolute finest furniture I am capable of (my wife will be happy to hear that her furniture projects will finally be built).  I resolve to purchase quality tools from reputable American tool makers whenever possible (followed by Canadian and European makers).  I resolve to continue my education in the craft by reading more books and taking at least one class.  Most of all I resolve to freely pass on any and all knowledge I have through this blog and whatever means are at my disposal.

I invite you to join me in the aforementioned resolutions.  I believe that we, the individuals that have a great love for the craft, are the only people who can and will preserve the craft.  In part we can do this by supporting reputable manufacturers and independent tool makers, publishers, woodworking schools and independent instructors.  To a larger part build the highest quality furniture you are capable of for you and your family.  Lastly, if you have information and knowledge to pass on, do so.  Consider spending time in your shop with someone who shows an interest or maybe even write a blog.