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metropolitan museum of art that les had started a number of years ago while dry fit it served to provide a small amount of temporary storage for a number of years he opted for a oval top made from a single piece of curly maple that he s had in storage since the last dempsey fight he decided that heavy distressing was just the ticket so les our friend scott midegeley and i attacked the thing with lanyards full of keys sticks rods stones it was scorched earth after the beating the top was dyed with amber water based dye then glazed with black oil a combination of asphaltum turpentine and blo the top was then finished with several coats of waterlox the cherry base was stained coated with waterlox then painted with a satin black alkyd enamel then the paint was wet wiped to create a heavily distressed look in the areas that would have been subjected to the most wear imagine the founding fathers sitting around one of these little beauties drinking warm ale and trying to determine the best way to run a republic the turned legs were terminated with simple spanish feet of the fluted variety ends of the ogeed aprons were finished up with a decorative cockbead i became so enthused that i ran right home and started my own tavern table there are a few differences but the design is essentially the same the carriage is of walnut the top is elliptical the finish is the same with less distressing and i opted for a little longer more feminine spanish feet probably a subliminal influence of having just watched a penelope cruz movie the aprons are relieved to create a lighter look and the top has a simple torus edge and i nixed the cockbead for no good reason other than the fact that i wanted to get the thing finished here s a look at the table through part of the construction process and if you don t believe in the possibility of resurrection just stand near the parking lot gate at quitting time gramps share this share share on facebook opens in new window facebook like loading comments 7 comments andy gets his own chair and iddy biddy parts posted february 27 2017 by d b laney categories uncategorized woodworking has been subordinated by the work of giving the home interior a new look but we still manage to scratch out a little time for making chips les completed another high chair for raggedy ann s soulmate andy cherry was used and les opted to give the chair a little sun tanning the result was rewarding the chair darkened to a deep reddish color then was finished with three coats of waterlox original prior to the seat weaving we continue to plug away on the jewelry box project changing designs on the fly we re at the point of making small interior partitions i ve concluded that sawing up bunches of small parts is not my favorite part of woodworking but the final product should displace the anxiety share this share share on facebook opens in new window facebook like loading comments be the first to comment winter work posted january 28 2017 by d b laney categories uncategorized working in my shop in winter is akin i imagine to being sent to the gulag suffice it to say that it s difficult to be at the top of your game while wearing a toboggan cap gloves a sweater and a mackinaw so the bulk of the winter months provides me with time to work on designs play the banjo and catch up on reading however les and i get together at least once a week to indulge our creative demons the projects tend to become somewhat smaller during the first quarter of the year this year s effort is centered around getting rid of scraps my guess would be that just about all woodworkers share a certain reluctance to get rid of shorts and drops a number of justifications for this failure to eject seem to be universal these can be used as glue blocks the minute i through that away i ll need another or the classic i ll never be able to find another piece like that if anyone needs glue block material let me know this year les came up with a plan to rid his shop of fancy and exotic scrap his plan jewelry boxes so we ve been doing our best emulate several of the older elves at the north pole the process is proving to be rewarding there are few things better than the feeling of freeing yourself from the aggravation of surplus potentially unusable inventory however this project poses a conundrum in it s own right what will become of all the finished boxes share this share share on facebook opens in new window facebook like loading comments 1 comment not forgotten just finally complete posted december 9 2016 by d b laney categories uncategorized tags asian table hall table wiping varnish those of you who have followed this blog for any length of time know that les and i tend to work slowly and it s not unusual for us to put aside an unfinished project due to being distracted by some new bright shiny object one might argue that this is evidence of old men being similar in many ways to children we started our asian inspired hall tables quite some time ago we ve both gotten tired of tripping over navigating around and moving them out of the way so we completed them les table is all blood wood mine has a blood wood top and an ebonized walnut base our first plan was to finish them in sprayed lacquer but the weather just never proved to be cooperative we opted to use a variety of finishes but the common thread was the use of waterlox original finish for the tops waterlox is a marvelous finish one of the very best wiping varnishes on the market but a word to the wise it is a fairly expensive product and it doesn t have a very long shelf life the manufacturer recommends one year after purchase normally i look the other was at shelf life dates but not on waterlox a final word of caution never never shake it it polymerizes and when you entrain air especially if you re closing in or past the use by you re in for a big surprise a can of semi solid goop that can t be re solubilized now that we ve had our little adventure in the realm of contemporary furniture i expect that we ll get back to the old lookin stuff share this share share on facebook opens in new window facebook like loading comments 3 comments puttering for practice posted november 15 2016 by d b laney categories uncategorized everyday after his retirement my grandfather could be found in his workshop friends from my youth will remember that in a corner of the shop was a sofa for napping television for baseball beer tap for sustenance and refreshment and a cigarette rolling machine it was the 1950 s equivalent of a man cave but much of the time gramps would be found at the workbench when asked what he was up to his usual reply was just puttering of course what he was doing was continuing to practice skills that he knew were valuable to his craft he maintained this activity to within just a few days of his death he was fond of telling me that there was a difference between talent and skill talent was a gift skill needed to be exercised when i m between projects or it s too warm or too cold to spend entire days in the shop i find myself puttering i guess the apple doesn t fall far from the tree share this share share on facebook opens in new window facebook like loading comments 3 comments bannister back finds cozy corner posted november 14 2016 by d b laney categories uncategorized the bannister back chair is completed for all intents and purposes the finish sequence was medium walnut oil stain two coats of one pound shellac van dyke glaze two more coats of shellac and a final coat of waterlox the seat is woven sea grass and after a little adjusting with a fid and a sharp knife i ll give it a wash coat of shellac as well our home looks more and more like a museum with each passing day share this share share on facebook opens in new window facebook like loading comments 3 comments bannister back chair simple jig saves the day posted october 30 2016 by d b laney categories uncategorized in an earlier post i mentioned that i had decided to sight bore the stretcher mortises on the chair big mistake i m loathe to build fixturing for a one off project call me short sighted call me cheap but sometimes you ve just got to do it so after realizing that my original boring method yielded a far less than perfect result i vowed to plug and re bore with the assistance of some sort of drilling guide i opted for something very simple knowing that in all likelihood it would end up in the kindling box when i was finished three blocks of scrap same section dimensions as the posts rubbed together inscribed with the correct drilling angles for the side stretchers a fourth block beveled at the seat pitch angle is inserted and provides the correct angle for the seat rails as simple as that down dirty quick and easy why didn t i do this from the start answer being 70 only means you re older not necessarily smarter plus you forget techniques rules etc if you haven t used them in the past two weeks or so the result was rewarding assembly required only a few gentle taps and voila the chair sits perfectly the arms are roughed in now begins the clean up fettling the details with any luck we ll set santa s milk and cookies along side the chair btw here s a thought you may want to share with family friends and neighbors who are unable to put down their communications devices whilst driving honk if you love jesus text if you want to meet him share this share share on facebook opens in new window facebook like loading comments 2 comments bannister back chair oh so many angles posted october 17 2016 by d b laney categories uncategorized well it s coming together and looking something like a chair but i have a little confession to make i thought i d save a little time by simply sight boring the posts for the side stretchers seemed simple enough the seat plan is trapezoidal only two angles should be able to do this in my sleep but then i decided to drop the back of the seat by an inch to make the slouch angle a little more comfortable kaboom i created a resultant angle situation like when does a triangle contain more or less than 180 degrees when you introduce a second plane into the situation kind of like bending space you know time travel that kind of stuff to complicate matters even further i was using mirrors one mirror in one plane works like a champ but add a second mirror which can create a resultant angle if not placed correctly add an actual resultant angle and you ve got way too many moving parts the moral is either throw together a jig or invite a couple of friends over to sight for you however offer them nothing to drink till the boring s complete i m going to have to dig deep into my bag of tricky corrective measures on this one remember the old adage the difference between a pro and an amateur is that you can t find the pro s mistakes share this share share on facebook opens in new window facebook like loading comments 2 comments carving the spanish foot with simple bench tools a pictorial posted october 13 2016 by d b laney categories uncategorized as i mentioned in an earlier post the spanish foot vernacular must surely have been a godsend to furniture makers its manufacture requires very few specialized tools the only carving tools i m using are a 90 degree v tool and an 8 sweep 16mm gouge you can forgo the fluting and get by with a sharp bench chisel and knife even rural craftsmen could present something to clients that mimicked the styles popular at court bill brown suggested that a brief tutorial on carving the spanish foot with a minimum of handtools might be a good idea and i agree so what follows is a simple pictorial presentation of just that if the pictures don t tell the story just ask me and i ll splain it in english btw for those who have to price things out this was an hour s worth of work share this share share on facebook opens in new window facebook like loading comments 5 comments the spanish foot posted october 12 2016 by d b laney categories uncategorized first i d like to thank john kissel on a recent trip to the metropolitan museum of art john took a number of photos in the period furniture area that he was kind enough to share with me john and i briefly discussed the wide variation in spanish foot designs i think the shot below says it all one might ask why is it called a spanish foot my answer is i m not sure i can only surmise that this was one of many decorative post terminations used by continental craftsman during the baroque period this style was heavily influenced by spanish baroque artisans and approved by holy mother church interestingly enough spain also gave us the inquisition at about the same time the spanish foot seems to have followed aristocratic catholics around europe then made it s was to england in the furniture that we now refer to as jacobean the stuart period which ended stylistically with william and mary i m hoping that my friend jack plane will weigh in and provide a little more background again if you re not visiting jack s blog on a regular basis you re cheating yourself here s a look at a number of spanish feet basically they all begin as right or obtuse trapezoids from that point it s all a matter of imagination from the craftsman s point of view the good news is that the spanish foot is much easier to produce than it looks it requires the use of very few tools in fact a simple yet very satisfying version can be manufactured with a handsaw a couple of bench chisels and perhaps a file or 200 rasp if you ve got one the spanish foot is not for everyone it seems that you either love it or hate but it s quick and unique and may have some contemporary applications or maybe i just have a fetish share this share share on facebook opens in new window facebook like loading comments 10 comments bannister back chair front assembly makin parts posted october 6 2016 by d b laney categories uncategorized tags spanish feet spanish foot before starting on the actual front posts i turned a model of the post and carved a model of the spanish foot this insured that things were going to go together as planned and it allowed me to warm up at seventy contending with some nerve damage i need all the warming up i can get while the spanish foot looks difficult to carve it s really pretty straightforward the basic shape is cut on a band saw using the same layout method employed when making cabriole legs it requires very few tools to carve btw there is no standard spanish foot flutes ridges or any combination of the two have all been mixed and matched to create a wide variety of individualized designs that said remember that structural integrity is critical here s the rough carving i ll leave the tool marks in the fluted areas but the convex surfaces will be cleaned up a bit with a fine riffler and a little light sanding the main stretcher on any bannister back chair is always an attention getter these eye catching features take the notion of decoration way over the top you could club someone into submission with...