September 2014

It’s September again.  The swamp maples are a brilliant red and orange, ash trees are rapidly loosing their leaves, and geese are heading south.  Our first killing frost was September 15, 28°.  If that didn’t do the tomatoes in, the the 26° on September 19 sure did.  When the air gets that cold and the water is still warm from the summer heat, steam rises from the pond up the road.

In the shop I made a Shaker round stand, a bit different than my usual cherry.  It was figured rock maple, dyed bright blue.  It’s off to the WoodWorks exhibit at the Hancock Shaker Village, Pittsfield, MA until November 2, 2014.

I also made a Shaker wall clock.  This one in white pine with a shellac finish.  It’s been a few years since I’ve worked with shellac, but with a bit of effort, it came out just fine, very close to the original Isaac Newton Youngs clock.  The interior was left natural, to retain that wonderful pine scent.  In addition, I had to make a crate for the clock’s trip to Germany.

The last clock I made was in 2010, and now all of a sudden they are popular again.  Next on the shop schedule is a Shaker tall clock, in ebonized maple, with a satin sprayed finish.  That is my favorite clock, in black it looks tall, thin, and elegant.

Outside the shop, I volunteered for yet another wood project.  The 1898 sugar maple at the Sabbathday Lake Shaker community had to be taken down. It was planted in honor of Elder Joseph Brackett, composer of Simple Gifts.  Instead of cutting the timber for firewood, six turners and woodworkers will use a portion of the wood for a variety of projects and donate 25% of the profits back to the Shakers.  Peter Asselyn has already turned over 30 bowls.  Big pieces of the tree are still available.  Stay tuned for the results early in 2015.

Finally, the butler desk mentioned in my June 2013 blog has finally made it into Fine Woodworking, the December 2014 issue.

Don’t forget the annual Open House at my shop October 11 & 12, noon to 5 pm.  It is scheduled this year to coincide with Maine Craft Weekend.  We’ll have cookies, cider, doughnuts, and several prototypes and leftovers for sale at reduced prices, plus  wood, tools, books,and DVDs for sale.  Make an effort to stop by.

C.H.Becksvoort © 2014

August 2014

The end of summer.  Goldenrod is in full bloom, and the swamp maples are turning bright red.  Nights are cooler, and the swallows have departed.

In the shop, I finally finished the letter opener that I started in May (see Metal work, for a change, May 16, 2014, below). It took a while to locate Moose bone, but I got a piece from Gerry Hoff of Maine Bonecarving http://www.mainebonecarving.com/index.html.   It turned very well.  The handle, cherry burl, was a bit more difficult.  I cut it in half, routed out space for the blade shaft, drilled and filed a rectangular slot in the bone, epoxied the parts together and made a jig to hold the blade to do the lathe work.  Not bad for a first effort, I think.

I’ve had a lamp base in the attic for a few years and at long last decided to make a shade.  The base is face turned cherry, the post is spindle turned cherry, hollow for the electric cord, and the shade is maple veneer, 13″ at the top, and 15″ at the bottom.

C.H. Becksvoort © 2014

Summer Vacation

Summer is brief in Maine.  The vacations of the self-employed are even briefer, fewer and farther between.  For the first time in 12 years, I took a week off and we rented a cabin on a lake.

Not a bad place to spend a week.  Of course I can’t spend seven days doing nothing,  so between reading and kayaking, I commuted to the shop a few times and did a variety of other chores.  I planned ahead and bought a 1″ x 6″ x 10′ piece of basswood, and printed out a 4″ alphabet, which I transferred onto the basswood.  It’s the first time I’ve ever worked with basswood, and what a treat it was,  carving through such soft and consistent grain. It only took me two days, off and on.

Photo by M. A. Stevens-Becksvoort © 2014

I coated the whole thing with urethane, painted the letters black, belt-sanded the face, and added a cherry frame.  It is now at home in a library, all 10′ of it.

C. H. Becksvoort © 2014

July News

Summer weather is in hot swing, so to speak.  Deer flies are out and the air is humid and still.  The early summer flowers are gone, replaced by black eyed Susans, clover, bunchberries and the fragrant blossoms of the Linden tree.  At night with the fan on, it smells like honey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last summer my camera went through the washer.  It survived.  This summer, the camera went on vacation,  or at least it sat idle for two weeks.  I made a small half round table, 32″ wide and 16″ deep, tapered legs, bowed front skirt, all cherry.  Simple, understated and one I should have photographed, but forgot.

The weekend of July 11 & 12 was the annual Lie-Nielsen open house.  It really is something to look forward to every year.  Such great people, and amazing tools.  I was fortunate to be upstairs in the main classroom, next to the AC and the coffee machine.  I had my teaching cabinet, did a few DT demos, sold a few books and DVDs, and spent a lot of time talking wood, joinery,  business, design, tools and chatting up fellow woodworkers. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera.  Fortunately, Robin took some nice  photos.  https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152214121253016.1073741897.100708343015&type=1  Better yet, there was a video crew on hand, and they caught me a few times: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6hfDsD5mt4&list=UUv4YYB2UbfkMc1LiWWYL5sw    There were also a great group of exhibitors: Peter Follansbee, Chris Schwarz & John Hoffman of Lost Art Press, Mary May, Matt Kenney of Fine Woodworking, Matt Bickford, Peter Galbert, Megan Fitzpatrick of Popular Woodworking, and Isaac Smith of Blackburn Tools, among others.  And of course the lobster dinner.  Definitely the highpoint of July 2014.

As I mentioned in the May 2014 post, my wife was asked to a series of photos for the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Museum.  After hundreds of shots, she narrowed it down to 16 of the best and made them into cards to be sold at the reception center.  I got to make the display rack, painted with blue milk paint.  It turned out pretty well for a “not-for-profit” item.

My favorite of all 16 is the closeup of the end of the bench in the Shaker Meeting House.  Two straight lines and the curved end, 1794 original blueberry milk paint, with the wood showing through. Unadorned with great lighting.  Less is more…

Photo by M. A. Stevens-Becksvoort © 2014

C. H. Becksvoort © 2014

Summer Is Here

Everything is green.  Summer is finally here, and the weather has been most cooperative.  A few rainy days, but mostly clear, dry and temps in the 70’s.  The sun is up at 4:58 am.  Peonies, lupines, lemon lilies, and Siberian irises are in full bloom.

This year for the 16th or 18th year in a row, I got accepted into the Early American  Life magazine’s Directory of Traditional American Crafts.  For the first time in all those years, they actually featured one of my pieces:  a Shaker style work counter.  I had submitted 3 pieces, one of which had a bone escutcheon plate.  The bright lights at the magazine changed that to bone pulls on the piece below.  Do those cherry pulls look like bone to you?

I was recruited to do some instant housework on a small house in South Portland: baseboards, trim, and a few new stair treads.    In the shop there were a variety of small projects.  I finally finished the Shaker sewing desk that I started in April.  I don’t think I’ve ever taken that long on any single project.  On the other hand, the parts sat idle for over a month, and there were lots of other time-eating projects.  This particular desk is a smaller version of the usual Shaker sewing desk, only 27″ wide with 4 drawers and a pull out work surface.  I had the original (below, with a birch frame with pine panels and drawers) in my shop back in 2008.

This is the  newer version, in cherry and 2″ taller

At the end of June I was privileged to  teach a two-day workshop at Lie-Nielsen Toolworks in Warren Maine.  The classroom is gorgeous, with a high 4-sided ceiling and skylight, 15 magnificent workbenches and all the hand tools your heart could desire.

We made a modified Shaker bench, sturdy and beautiful:  four wedged through tenons seated in a shallow dado, and four dovetailed braces.  All 15 participants managed to complete their benches, although not planed or oiled.  Everyone had a great time, and hopefully learned a lot.  Looking forward to the Lie-Nielsen Open House July 11 & 12.  Make an effort to stop by and chat.  With demos, tours, and as lobster dinner, it’s worth the drive.  Hope to see you!

C. H. Becksvoort © 2014

 

May at the Shaker Village

My morning walk today gave me a bit of surprise: frost on May 29.  May is a wonderful time in Maine.  Every year it’s a renewed thrill.  The highpoint of May 2014 was a series of visits to the Sabbathday Lake Shaker village.  I feel so fortunate to live in the same town as the last active Shaker community.  Folks come from all over the world to visit.  I feel even more honored to have been doing restoration work at SDL since the mid 1970’s.  One of the major benefits is that I can look at, examine, and photograph many of the interior details and furnishings.  This spring the museum director asked my wife to take photos for sale at the Shaker store.  We spent a day doing exterior shots, and a few days inside the 1794 Meeting House an the Ministry Shop.

The interior of the Meeting house is an architectural marvel; a big empty room with no posts, boxed and supported roof beams, built in benches around the perimeter.  The floor is worn hemlock, the walls are white plaster and the trim is the original blueberry milk paint from 1794.  The color is almost indescribable.  Worn, weathered and faded in places, deep dark blue in sunlight protected corners.  It speaks distinctly of history.  Sitting quietly in the big, light room, on can imagine the Shakers of the late 18th and 19th centuries dancing and singing.

Upstairs, and in the Ministry Shop, are some of the finest examples of Maine Shaker furniture.   An amazing collection of the earliest pieces, the classics, and the later Victorian style.

The Sabbathday Lake Shaker community is a national treasure.  I can’t recommend it enough.  If you are at all interested in the Shakers, their influence, and legacy, then a visit here is a must.  For more information, have a look at the web site of the Shaker museum, soon to be updated. http://www.shaker.lib.me.us/

C. H. Becksvoort © 2014

Metalwork, for a change

I tried something totally different, stepped out of my wooden comfort zone.  I took a Maine Craft Association workshop, Damascus Steel, at the Haystack Mountain School of Craft in Deer Isle, ME.

I was amazed and astounded at the pleasure of pounding yellow-hot metal into shape.  We started out with nine sheets of alternating 1095 and 1055 steel.  These were welded onto a 2 foot shaft, then stuck into a gas furnace and heated to yellow-orange.  We poured borax , (20 Mule Team direct from the grocery store), between the layers, and pounded the layers into a single chunk.  Welcome to forge welding, something so new, so simple, so thrilling, for me anyway.  We then alternately pounded and re-heated the billet until it was about 3/4″ square, and 8″ long.  After a short cooling off, one face was ground to a clean surface, re-heated, cut almost in half and folded over on itself, heated and forge welded. Now we had 18 layers of alternating steel.   Again, heating and pounding into 3/4″ by 3/4″ by 8″ billet, and then cut in half.  The part left on the shaft was re-heated, and pounded round, the placed into a vice and twisted with a wrench, like taffy, about three turns. More heating and pounding until the metal was about 3/16″ thick, 1  1/4″ wide and about 8″ long.  This was rough ground to shape, heated and quenched in oil.

Lots of grinding and sanding to make a rough  letter opener.  After relaxing the metal at 500° for about 3 hours, the letter opener was hand sanded, polished an acid etched.  The other half of the billet was heated and pounded, half was drilled on both sides, and the other half abused with a grinder.  Same procedure as with the letter opener, and here is what I ended up with after three days:  a beautiful letter opener (cherry burl handle to be added later) and two pendants.

In Japan, Damascus steel is known “mokune-gane”, or “wood grain metal”

Nick Rossi, and Jason Morrissey were amazing instructors, and made it all look easy.  Nick teaches at the New England School of Metalwork in Auburn, ME.  Jason has his own shop in Portland, ME .  This is definitely something I plan to explore further!

C. H. Becksvoort © 2014

FWW Collection Looking for a Home

 

Not being in the shop has its pluses and downsides.  I wander around the house a lot looking for things to do.  The desk behind my computer has been piling up with Fine Woodworking magazines.  After 27 years, I’ve run out of shelf space.  Can’t put them where they belong, and don’t want to have them hogging my desk,  so they are going up for sale.  Yes, all 240 issues, 8 or 10 with me on the cover (you’d think they could come up with something more original than “Man in shop, screwing around”).

All for only $475. plus shipping.   That’s 8 bundles of 30 each, for a total of about 160 lbs.  You might consider driving to Maine to pick them up.  It’s a great place to vacation, and you can take in a workshop at the Sabbathday Lake Shaker community (check it out in the Events section, also the Record #405 Multiplane in  the Specials section).

First check for $475. gets the collection.  All others will be returned.  Send to C.H. Becksvoort, Box 12, New Gloucester, ME 04260.

C.H. Becksvoort©2014

Banned from the shop

So… what do you do when you’re banned from the shop for three weeks? It’s only been
a week, but the frustration is already at the boiling point. I mean, my shop is not just my job, my identity, my livelihood, it’s also my man cave, my solace, my sanctuary of meditation.

I got a new hip last week. It’s a miracle, really. No muscles were cut, but you’re left with a 6” incision, the ball at the end of your femur is sawn off, a titanium replacement is pounded into the bone, (surprisingly similar to the spinning wheel shaft repair I did last month), a plastic-lined cup glued to your hip, and you’re stapled shut and up and walking seven hours later. An amazing procedure, considering that I could hardly get my sock on or tie my right shoe before the operation.

What do I get to do around the house? Grouse a lot, and practice with the walker through the kitchen, living room, front hall, dinning room, and around again. I have specific exercises, in addition to walking as much as possible. And there is the ever present computer: e-mails to answer, the Boston Bruins to keep track of, starting a proposal for another FWW article, answering reader questions, but I can only keep that up a half to an hour at a time before frustration returns. Not being able to drive doesn’t help, either. I’ve got my iPod going, but it’s not the same, if you’re not pushing a plane or whacking a chisel. And I really miss walking my dog twice daily. I guess it’s the lack of the physical exertion  that is hardest to handle.

A few days before I had just started a Shaker sewing desk.  The legs are 1 7/16″ x 2 1/4″.  The turnings are for me the most difficult part: cutting straight into a spinning rectangle without tearing off any of the four corners is not the easiest thing to do.  Then you get to do it three more times.  It takes a steady hand, and I got lucky.  Four legs out of five tries.  The mortises and panel grooves are all laid out, just waiting for me to get back into the shop.  I can’t wait.

C.H. Becksvoort © 20014

March 2014

Here it is April first, no fooling, and I’m just now getting around my March blog.  This year March came in like a polar bear and went out like a duck, a frozen duck at that.  March 4 it went down to -12°.   Maple season this year will be pretty sad.  On March 31, we had a really heavy rain, mixed with sleet.  It left the road like a mud bowl.  The New Gloucester road crew brought in four truckloads of crushed stone.  I tried to get wood shavings out the back door of the shop, but no luck.  The disadvantage of a metal roof.   Maybe in a few more weeks…

In the shop, there were a variety of small projects. I finally finished the single door cabinet.  And got the last of my tree photos taken, with the help of friends around the country.  My daughter did the pen & inks.  Now a bit of organizing, and they’re off to Lost Art Press.

I also got to restore a Shaker spinning wheel.  It was in really poor shape.  The ash post holding the great wheel into the base was completely worn.  If any of you have ever made ash baskets, you know that all you have to do is pound a brown ash log to collapse the large early wood cells, and the smaller, tighter late wood cells come off in strips.  All the early wood cells in the post had collapsed, as well as a good portion of the red oak cells in the base of the spinning wheel.  What was left was an over-sized hole and a shaft with a papery base.  Not only that but someone had tried to lacquer the entire wheel, and did an exceedingly lousy job.  After stripping the wheel (which left a beautiful brown patina), I turned a new conical base with a 1″ shaft 4″ long, and drilled a corresponding hole into the bottom of the post.  I glued it in place and smoothed it to size with a  block plane.  I also had to chase the threads with a file to get the other parts to adjust properly.  A coat of linseed oil brought out the original color.

Lastly, I purged the showroom of too many items and rearranged everything.  The new single door cabinet is now next to the older 15-drawer chest.  It’s always a surprise when you see a freshly oiled piece of cherry next to an older one.  Stop by and have a look.

C. H. Becksvoort © 2014