Tag Archives: Woodworking

Historic Places, Traditional Woodworking, Workshop, Workshop Projects

Making a Jointer Plane with Willard ‘Bill’ Anderson — Part 1

September 10, 2013 @TheRainford 3 Comments

A single iron jointer plane is one of those tools you have use yourself to truly appreciate. Over Labor Day weekend I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to make one of these planes with Willard ‘Bill’ Anderson at the Woodwright’s School in Pittsboro, NC.

Entrance to the Woodwright's School — Entrance to the Woodwright’s School

Bill is a passionate woodworker and skilled teacher. You may recognize him from his appearances on Roy’s television show or the articles that he’s written. He’s a molding plane aficionado and has studied plane-making and general furniture-making with many masters in the field. He recently retired from being a Scientist for the EPA so I see a lot of parallels to my own life working in software.

The plane is made of air dried American Beech and a new old stock English iron.

We started out by squaring up the stock using a wooden straightedge and winding sticks.

Next up was laying out the mouth and throat. The mortises are all chopped by hand with a chisel and refined via a series of floats and scrapers. It was my first time using that many different floats, and for what looks like it might be a fairly coarse tool, when sharpened leaves a remarkably good surface.

As we worked through the throat mortise a key was to make sure you don’t overshoot and chop through the abutment.

One of the last steps in refining the abutment and sides of the throat was to scrape the surface using a scraper chisel.

A very nice scraping chisel that Bill made

This beast of a chisel was made by Bill and heat treated by Peter Ross. It was based on some research Bill did into traditional plane making tools. The long bar of tool steel and handle allow you to put a lot of your weight into it as you scrape the surface flat. The cutting edge is a very steep angle similar to a scraper you’d use with a lathe (upside down compared to the lathe tool) but works well since you are only removing a little bit of material at a time.

Regular bench chisels are used to clean up any fuzz in the corners. Next up is cutting in for the wedge and cleaning up a cheeks. This is an operation that requires a steady hand and the ability to work to an exacting standard. You want your test wedge, and eventually your actual wedge, to fit tightly against the abutment so the iron does not move when you are working with the plane. I took my time and was very happy with the results.

In upcoming posts I will document more about my experience in building and finishing this plane.

In the meantime, if you’d like to learn more about Bill Anderson or take a class with him, and I highly encourage you to do so, please check out his website here.

-Bill

EAIA, Historic Places, Museum

Dominy Clock and Furniture Shop

August 3, 2013 @TheRainford 4 Comments

As a preservation carpenter and traditional joiner I spend a lot of time trying to retrace the steps of early craftsmen. While the fruits of their labors survive in pockets — the buildings and pieces that survive; the places where they worked and plied their trades often did not. Thus we often have to look for tool marks, log books, letters and newspapers to piece together the life and work of individual craftsmen.

This summer my wife and I had the opportunity to visit the Winterthur Museum and Gardens in Delaware and visit the Dominy Clock and Furniture Shop exhibit which was an exceptional window in the life of an 18th and 19th century family of craftsmen.

Nice long joiner's bench. Chisel racks in the wall and nice big windows to provide light to work by.. — Nice long joiner’s bench. Chisel racks in the wall and nice big windows to provide light to work by.

The Dominy’s were a family of craftsmen from Easthampton New York — out on the east end of Long Island, not terribly far from where I grew up in West Islip, NY. Over the course of four generations and active from ~1750-1850 this family produced fine clocks and furniture pieces that were sold locally and in regional markets. The surviving pieces are now prized by collectors.

Templates in the Dominy Furniture Workshop

Beyond the body of their work the shop is notable for how intact it is. The shop and it’s contents were cataloged and moved from Long Island in 1957 then reassembled and put on display at Winterthur starting in 1960.

Massive hold-fasts that would have made Roubo proud. Note that for the hold-fast on the bench, the arm is at an unusual angle.

The tools, benches, templates, partially completed pieces, log books and parts of the original shop building survived together.

Traditional style bench full of tools, templates and parts ready to go.

It looks as if that last Dominy walked off the job and and could be expected to come back and resume work at any moment.

Peering into the Dominy Furniture Workshop from Long Island, NY you can see the great wheel lathe and workbenches

From the great wheel lathe, to the benches and shave-horse they had a sizable and well laid out shop for the time period. The tools were a mixture of locally made and imported tools.

Lathe setup and ready to by used some more

I was fascinated by the tool marks, storage racks and modifications similar to things I’ve done in my own work.

Shave-horse ready to go. Note the sliding deadman on the bench in the background

In addition there is also the diminutive Clock Shop which is packed full of metal working tools needed to craft intricate gears and other clock component.

Written to go with the exhibit was Charles Hummel’s seminal book ‘With Hammer in Hand’ (1968). The book can be hard to find and on the pricey side as it has long since been out of print, but is worth every cent. I finally obtained a copy this spring as part of the EAIA’s annual fundraiser auction. The book explores the family, the tools, and the work they did in a way that was enjoyable to read. It paints a vivid picture of what life was like for these skilled craftsmen.

If you’d like to plan your own visit to see the Dominy exhibit you can learn more about it here.

If you’d like to visit on a budget, you can view some online video tours of the gallery below as Roy, Norm and even Bob Vila have segments about the shop.

Roy Underhill Visits the Dominy Shop (towards the end of this clip)

Norm Abram visits the shop and builds a replica clock at the New Yankee Workshop

and Bob Vila explores the shop

Take care,
-Bill

EAIA, Historic Places

EAIA 2013 Cape Cod — Day 1 — Woodworking with Peter Follansbee

May 21, 2013 @TheRainford Leave a comment

For me, one of the highlight’s of this years EAIA conference was a lecture from and later talking with Peter Follansbee of Plimoth Plantation. I met Peter before as some of my classmates from NBSS have worked at the plantation, but on this visit, it was particularly interesting to learn more about what brought him to the plantation and how his work and research have changed over the years.

Peter Follansbee in his natural habitat -- the Joiner's shop — Peter Follansbee in his natural habitat — the Joiner’s shop

Peter answered many questions and demonstrated some carving at the bench. In person I find he often has funny anecdotes and snarky comments that are both cutting and entertaining.

Shavings from the early part of a day's work -- the way a shop should look. — Shavings from the early part of a day’s work — the way a shop should look.

I particularly liked the carved book stand (seen below) which could be adjusted for viewing angle, and had small dowels that can keep the book open.

Carved Book-stand by Peter Follansbee — Carved book stand by Peter Follansbee

He also demonstrated some light spindle turning at his pole lathe.

In the shop, as always, were examples of the varied sorts of work he carries out. Seen below is a great looking carved English style chair, and behind is a greenwood chair similar to that which is seen in Jennie (John) Alexander Jr’s book on working with green wood which I heard was the inspiration for Peter’s recent book on making joint stool from a tree.

Beautiful carved chair. In the background a chair built to the specs from 'Make A Chair From A Tree : An Introduction To Working Green Wood' which was the inspiration for Peter's 'Make a joint stool from a tree' book. — Beautiful carved chair. In the background a chair built to the specs from ‘Make A Chair From A Tree : An Introduction To Working Green Wood’ which was the inspiration for Peter’s ‘Make a joint stool from a tree’ book.

Peter was gracious enough to sign my DVD of his carving, so that also made my day.

Peter splitting wood with a froe and answering questions from the audience

Surrounded by a throng of overly eager visitors, Peter took question and demonstrated the use of a froe for splitting wood.

Peter's version of the Anarchist's Tool Chest — Peter’s version of the Anarchist’s Tool Chest

Above you can see some joint stools from his book on that subject along with his own interpretation of the Anarchist’s tool chest based on the recent book by Chris Schwarz. It was neat to see how Peter used (presumably) blacksmith made hinges and painted the chest. (Along with a different panel configuration for the lid). You can learn more about it on Peter’s blog here.

A sample of the high style work Peter produces. Similar to a piece he has at the MFA next to a partial original. It's amazing to see how much brighter the colors were originally. — A sample of the high style work Peter produces. Similar to a piece he has at the MFA next to a partial original. It’s amazing to see how much brighter the colors were originally.

And finally, shown here is an example of some of the high style work Peter produces. When I give my class a tour of the MFA America’s wing each summer I am always happy to show them the original they have on display alongside the reproduction Peter produced for the museum to show how the piece likely looked when it was new. I always find it interesting to see how earlier generations enjoyed color, and changing styles much as folks do today.

It was another great visit to Peter’s shop, and I look forward to seeing what he’s been up to on my next visit to the plantation.

Rainford Restorations

Tag Archives: Woodworking

Making a Jointer Plane with Willard ‘Bill’ Anderson — Part 1

Dominy Clock and Furniture Shop

EAIA 2013 Cape Cod — Day 1 — Woodworking with Peter Follansbee

A Joiner's Guide To Traditional Woodworking and Preservation