Keep It Real…

Yet another rant, and no pictures this time.  I don’t want to embarrass anyone.

Some time ago, I visited a furniture exhibit at a woodworking school.  It was a 50/50 exhibit:  50% really nice, well built, identifiable furniture and sculpture, and 50% “ego” or  “gallery” furniture.  I’m sure you know what I mean: young inexperienced woodworkers desperately trying to make a statement.  There were a few items that were neither furniture nor sculpture, a table with holes in the top, and a chair that cried out “don’t sit on me,” since originality, rather than comfort seemed to be the intent.

Years ago, I attended one of Tage Frid’s lectures.  He recalled a senior furniture exhibit, where one of the participants created his project in secret, only to be revealed at the opening.  The maker proudly stood by and and said to Tage “I bet you’ve never seen anything like this before”, to which Tage pointed to the object and replied “That’s why”.  This anecdote inspired a favorite ad of mine “Any artist can make something you’ve never seen before.  Very few can create a piece you’ll want to see, or live with, for the rest of your life.”

The Shakers never had measured drawings to be slavishly copied.  Instead they had general rules, like “Beauty rests on utility.”  That was 200 years before Louis Sullivan declared that “Form follows function.”  More to the point was the admonition that “All beauty that has no foundation in use soon grows distasteful, and needs continuous replacement with something new.”  Unfortunately, that is what our consumer culture seems to be based on.

I have no qualms with wood being used to create art, but please don’t call it furniture if it can’t function as such.  It gives furniture makers a bad name.  Good design is timeless, while fashion is fleeting:  that which is cutting edge today, is dull as a butter knife tomorrow.

C.H. Becksvoort © 2014

February 2014, Tired of winter…

Usually by the end of February, the cold starts to ease a bit.  Not this year.  We’ve had a few days around 40° F (4° C), but then it’s back to the deep freeze.   Last night was -8° F  (-22°C).  Makes walking the dog prior to sunrise lots of fun.  I need double wool mittens, a thick knit hat and my Maine Game Warden’s coat.  Snow piles along the side of the road are 4′ to 5′ high in places, and it gets quite narrow, sort of like a toboggan run.

In the shop I’ve been dragging my feet finishing up a single door cabinet.  On really cold days it takes two trips to the wood pile to stay comfy.  But at least the sun is higher.

The Lost Art Press has asked for ten more trees to add to the book With The Grain, and  I’m busy collecting samples and  photos.  My daughter is doing the pen and ink drawings this time: silhouettes, twigs, leaves,  and fruit.  Finding photos for the silhouettes is a real challenge. Last  fall I went out with the Arborist for the city of Portland and we located most of the trees.   Believe it or not, I even got a photo of a Douglas fir, right in South Portland.

The trees need to be “typical”, and growing in the open, to make them easier to draw.  Last weekend I spent a few hours on snowshoes hunting down a nice hornbeam.   They are pretty common, usually growing in damp areas and along riverbanks.  I slogged almost  a mile into the woods before I found a good specimen.  Even got a good photo of the bark.  Hornbeam, a really tough, hard wood, is sometimes called ironwood, blue beech or muscle-wood.  The bark is smooth and undulates in wide ridges , like muscles.

I already have the photomicrographs of the end grain of each of the woods, and the wood samples, too.  Now all that is left is to write the copy for each of the trees.

If you enjoyed the dovetail article in FWW issue #239, The box I made for the article is now available on the SPECIALS page.   C.H. Becksvoort © 2014

Looking Back…

I recently built yet another Shaker side-stand with a drawer.   Most of the ones I’ve made are patterned roughly on the Enfield, New Hampshire style stands.  I particularly like the turned legs with the swell tapers and the small ring at the transition between the square and round.  The tables are between 25 1/2″ and 27″ high, with tops 20″ to 30″ wide.  Perfect next to a bed, couch or arm chair.

Back in 2001, I was filmed making one for Martha Stewart’s television show.  An abridged version can still be seen here: http://www.marthastewart.com/926551/ch-becksvoort-handmade-shaker-furniture .   It still takes me about 20 hours for each table.  The video clip also shows me making “speed tenons” on the table saw.

Great fun. Enjoy this bit of history. C. H. Becksvoort © 2014

Welcome to 2014

January’s weather has been back and forth: very cold, then warming with rain then back to the deep freeze.  This picture shows a cold front coming in on the west wind.  It was 40° during the day and went town to -2° that night.  Pretty dramatic, a straight line of clouds, peeled back to a clear, windy sky.

This being an even year, it was time for the  Maine Crafts Association’s biennial Inspired Hand exhibit at the Atrium Gallery, USM in Lewiston, ME.  As usual, it was a superb display of the talent we have here in Maine: glass, jewelry, weaving, batik, baskets, sculpture, clay and metal.  I had my Angel Gabriel weathervane, above, on display.  The original was a sheet copper vane on the Universalist church in Newburyport, MA in 1840.  Mine is made carved white pine gilded with 23k gold.  The directionals were found at an antique shop.

Thanks to Carl Little, juror, and Robyn Holman curator, for yet another extraordinary exhibit.

In the shop, there were numerous small projects.  Jon Binzen was up for two days shooting photos for two FWW articles:  Turning Knobs on the Drillpress, and Building a Shop Stool.  I built a shorter version of my kitchen stool.  The following week I had two Haystack armchairs to build.  Both projects are shown, above, and both await leather seats currently at the upholsterer’s shop.

 C. H. Becksvoort © 2014.

December 2013, The Month & the Year

Both the weather bureau and the almanac predict a cold and snowy winter here in Maine.  so far, they’ve been proven correct.  We’ve had two big snowfalls, and an ice storm, with more snow on the way.  With winter just starting, it’s already been down to -14°F.  And windy.

December is always busy in the shop, and this year was no exception.  I finished a 5-drawer chest, awaiting delivery to upstate NY.  This is one of my most practical pieces.  Every bedroom should have one.  Of course it is solid cherry throughout, even the web-frames and drawer bottoms.  The back is frame and paneled, the upper corners have exposed dovetails, and the molding rides on dovetail keys.

In addition, there were a lot of small projects: a toy table, picture frame, and a variety of candle holders.

Highlights of 2013 include the Fine Woodworking Live! event in New Haven, CT, the book With The Grain, and the accompanying DVD A Craftman’s Guide to Understanding Wood, and four DVDs, Making Through Dovetails, Making a Drawer, Build a Chisel Box, and Build a Shaker Bench.  Also a long overdue new catalog of my work.

Lest I forget, the Shaker raffle was a great success.  The small round stand raised over $4,000. toward improvements to the Shaker Library.  It was won by a woman from Milo, ME.

Best wishes to all my friends and clients, and looking forward to a healthy, happy  and successful 2014.   C. H. Becksvoort©2014

It’s November, again

Each year the first cold appears as a shock.  You wake up one morning and the lawn is white with a hard frost.  The fabulous colors of October have given way to the grays, browns and ultimately white of November.  The pond up the road has a thin skim of ice, which is usually gone by noon.  This year at Thanksgiving, we got a real hard freeze, and the pond is most likely frozen until spring.  It’s thick enough to walk and skate on.   The weekend after Thanksgiving also marks the end of deer season in Maine.   That means no more orange hats and vests.  But now it’s thick jackets, felt lined boots and heavy mittens.  Each morning the sun rises a bit later, and sets sooner.  During the summer we have almost 16 hours of sunlight, while at the time of the winter solstice it’s a bit more than 8 hours.

In the shop I start a fire every morning.  I’ve got heat, but it’s set at about 50°, so the fire makes it a lot more comfortable.  In November I had a bunch of small projects, including a 6 arm chandelier and a new-one-of-a-kind walnut 4-arm chandelier.  Just started is a 5- drawer chest, which needs to be done, finished and delivered before Christmas.

C.H.Becksvoort ©  2013

October 2013

October is that magic month between the last summer days and the beginning of winter.  At the end of September leaves are just starting  to turn, and by the end of October, ice is forming along the edges of the pond.  This year was especially nice, with great weather and a wonderful Open House on October 5.  It was very well attended by friends, clients and neighbors, and I sold two tables, a lamp and many books and DVDs.  All 5 DVDs are now available, A Craftman’s Guide to Understanding Wood from Lie-Nielsen http://www.lie-nielsen.com/dvds/, and the four EllKat DVDs can be downloaded direct from www.TheLessonStore.com,  or bought through my website (Cool Stuff, or For Woodworkers).

I also managed to get on to the cover of FWW yet again, the December special issue Tools & Shop.  My studio was listed as an example of a  big shop, Mike Pekovich came up to do some really nice photos, and I had a chance to clean up, to get it to look presentable.  Also in the works for FWW are two articles on dovetails, a stool and the butler’s desk article has yet to make an appearance.

The week after Mike left, I finally decided to build my own standing desk for the office corner.  It has been on my “to do” list for almost 6 years. Better late than never.  So it didn’t appear into the Tools & Shop issue, but it sure makes it easier to write, take notes, make drawings and get things organized.  I had to squeeze it between the file cabinet and the window, yet leave room for the 3-phase switch on the wall.  So two thirds is a slanted writing desk and one third is flat for an iPad or a cup of coffee.  Best of all it has a foot rail of the correct height, which makes life much easier on my back. Underneath, I installed a shelf for big catalogs, and a few CDs.

October is also the time for the Friends of the Shakers Work Weekend.  Lots of weeding, raking, brush cutting, screen removal, window washing, and moving picnic tables and benches in for the winter.   November is your last chance to get raffle tickets for the Shaker Roundstand (for details, see below, July 2013).  The Drawing will be held at the Shaker Christmas Fair on December 7.  Hope to see some of you there.

By the way, I’m still looking for a Skil 409 or Porter Cable 503 belt sander in good working order.  C.H.Becksvoort ©  2013

September 2013

I had another busy month.  On September 7 I was invited to join Michael Graham Director of the Shaker Museum at Sabbathday Lake, at the Willis Henry Shaker auction at the Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield, MA.  The best part of the auction was actually the preview.   We got to see, touch, and examine some of the finest examples of Shaker furniture from the McCue collection.  The auction itself was a real eye-opener.  There were some good deals, and other unexpected pieces reached astronomical prices.  A ladder-back chair from Ohio went for $57,000.  Michael bid on, and won, one special Maine piece:  a 5′ brick-red work table from Alfred, ME, with a full width drawer and swell taper turned legs.

On September 14 I gave a talk at the Vaughan Homestead in Hallowell, ME. The main house sits on several hundred acres overlooking the Kennebec river and a beautiful formal garden.  The talk was well attended and received.  I covered basic wood technology and how it affects furniture construction.  My small teaching cabinet was a big hit.  It comes apart to show the paneled back, web frame, glue blocks, keyed dovetail moldings, drawer and door construction.

In the shop I finished a Shaker lap desk.  This one was made of cherry with a beautifully figured and quarter sawn lid, and the usual tiny ink drawer.  I also set aside a week to build a standing desk for my shop.  It is something I’ve needed for years.  Photos next time.

Mike Pekovich from FWW was up for a day to shoot photos of the shop for an upcoming issue devoted to shop layout.  Great photos, interesting article.

Four  new DVDs will be on the website soon:  Making Through Dovetails & Making a Drawer (sold as a set of two for $45.), Build a Shaker Bench ($30.), and Build a Chisel Box ($30.).

C H Becksvoort © 2013

FWW Live 2013

The second annual Fine Woodworking Live event  at SCSU in New Haven, CT has come and gone.  What a wonderful time we all had connecting with woodworkers, friends and staff.  It was a resounding success, and I heard nothing but praise from all the folks I talked too.

The fun started Thursday night with registration, drinks and snacks, a chance to mingle and see the variety of products from the sponsors:  Lie-Nielsen, Knew Concepts, Lee Valley,  Eureka Zone and NexaBond. Friday started with a presentation by Jon Binzen, followed by a full day of classes and ending with the Build-Off (photo at left).  Eight teams of four were given a stack of 2 x 4s, a Bosch saber saw,and drill/driver, and asked to construct and type of seating in 90 minutes.  There were benches, settees, rockers and chairs, and prizes for the first three winners.  Great fun.

Saturday started with a short viewing of a series of evolving designs by each of the presenters: Michael Fortune, Steve Latta, Mike Pekovitch, Matt Kenney, Peter Gedrys, John Tetreault, Phil Lowe and myself, followed by another full day of elective courses and workshops.  I had presentation on dovetails and drawers, 40 years of shop tips and tricks, and Shaker design.  Saturday evening was the reception and banquet, with Brian Boggs as keynote speaker.  Sunday morning concluded with two more sessions of classes and presentations.

It was a well organized, well attended, much appreciated, and fun weekend.  Many thanks to the folks who attended my presentations, stopped the chat and ask questions, and to the sponsors and the great staff at Fine Woodworking.  It was an event not to be missed.  Sign up early next year!

C.H. Becksvoort © 2013

July 2013 in the Shop

July continues hot and humid.  It’s a real treat to have AC in the shop.  Used to be that I’d be sanding and a drop of sweat would leave a gray spot on cherry.  I’d sand it out and get two more drops…

The best project this month was a three legged maple table.  A client brought in a 4″ thick maple cross section.  It had been in the barn for over a decade, and had only surface checks.  I figured that wouldn’t last, and told them so.  After it was re-sawn to two 2″ slabs, and brought into the shop, it cracked directly to the center within 4 hours.  The shrinkage in circumference (tangential direction) is twice that of the radial direction.

Nonetheless, I had it sanded down to 1 3/4″ and then polished it to 320 grit, oiled it and put it aside to construct the base.  I sent the clients about a dozen different design options for the base, and lo and behold, they picked the nicest one.  Each of the three legs is a 90° angle, supported by an arch.  The top portion is connected with a metal spider, and all three legs are joined by a center tapered rail.  From a low angle it looks quite Gothic.

Next project is a 15 drawer chest going to Alberta, Canada.  I’d love to deliver it in person, but it makes no economic sense.   Roughly a 4,000 mile round trip.     C. H. Becksvoort © 2013