Lord Godfrey

New Projects

2012-01-17T20:54:00.000-08:00

I am at work on a commissioned desk and a sideboard. Here is the desk.

It is based on another well known desk design but made to double as a place for the client's DJ gear. This is where I step in. The desk's top slides out revealing the contents within. The client is an artist as well so it was fun to work through the design process together. We both would have liked to see it a little less thick but function always comes first.
The sideboard post will come soon, I have been playing with too many ideas for a week now and ultimately am coming back to what I started with! So classic me. Got to explore all options and make sure.

In other news, my shop is mess. I should go clean it.

Current Work

2011-12-06T17:57:00.000-08:00

Another Danish Cord Bench order is underway. Here are some pictures of the progress. There is no way around it, these things take time to build.

It has been really nice being in the shop. I feel really fortunate to be inside, warm and doing work I love doing.

Photos

2011-11-23T23:07:00.000-08:00

Here are a few photos of the side board from the shoot. I will post more in the next few days. Photo credits Ingeborg Suzanne.

Photoshoot

2011-11-08T16:15:00.000-08:00

Here are some crumby pics from my point and shoot camera at the photo shoot today. I apologize for the lousy quality. I will get the real ones in a week.

Almost there!

2011-11-01T20:29:00.000-07:00

Finishing and pulls left. Phew, this one killed me.

Still Going, and Going and...

2011-10-12T19:22:00.000-07:00

Here is a sideboard update. I am a little further along than this but these are my most resent photos of it.

This is a shot of the side leg assembly with dowels ready to be glued to the carcass.

This is a shot of the bottom panel of the cabinet upside down. The rabbet is there to lighten up the look of the box when viewed from the front without giving up strength in the plywood sub-straight. Thanks to Robert Van Norman for this idea. A very good idea it was!
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Here is the cabinet with an MDF dowel and leg routing template placed in top.

Same thing from the back.

More to come very soon.

Sideboard

2011-09-21T17:28:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of the sideboard construction. Most cabinets are pretty straight forward construction wise, no real adventures along the way. It's all formula. Throwing curves in them obviously complicates things and my life has enough complications right now.

The partitions and backs are doweled to the bottom shelf and aligned vertically with splines.

The back panels will have a shadow line detail along the top and bottom as will the side panels. This is for a reason I will explain in an upcoming post were I can demonstrate it visually.

This veneer is very nice and after just two coats, the chocolate tone is making me salivate. And dare I say, feel a little aroused?

Currently...

2011-09-14T21:52:00.000-07:00

I am busy! It seems I have not had a day off in a long time but have to admit to loving it. For once I am not complaining so take note! I am a gifted complainer, so things are looking up for this dude.

Here is another desk I have finished that is now on sale at Kozai in Vancouver. If you are around 6th and Granville, stop in, take a look a look and say hello to Ron the owner of Vancouver's best furniture store. I was happy with the results of this one.

I have also been at work on a walnut sideboard as mentioned in a previous design post. The client opted for a design similar to the teak one seen at the header of this blog, with integrated legs but with some minor adjustments. I think it will look pretty sharp and clean, stripped down even more than the teak one. It marks the first time I have ever used commercial veneers so I had to learn how to joint these and "stitch" them together. I did not really stitch them, instead I used blue tape and it worked like a charm. I am glad I faced the challenge as it opens my pallet to many species that are only offered in commercial thickness. (Brazilian Rosewood!)

It is no secret I like straight grained wood and these were great.

With all the parts veneered and cut, I am onto dowelling. I can not wait to oil these panels up!

White Oak

2011-08-18T19:30:00.000-07:00

So after a year of searching for the "ideal" finish for white oak, I finally found it.

I initially finished my pieces with wax as it did not alter the look of freshly sanded oak but found the wax dried over time, requiring constant reapplication. I then went to an oil finish as it is durable but it changes the look of the wood, making it yellow, giving it a mellow, light brown complexion. This has its charm but I wanted to preserve the pale tones.
I stumbled across some new Danish pieces that I liked that said they finished with a soap finish, so I did some research and found nearly nothing pertaining to how to make/use it. I did eventually find a technique (which entailed boiling soap flakes into a paste) and experimented but could not get a result that I liked. Then I saw a piece online that said it was finished with something called "white oil". The wood nerd in me got aroused. I could not sleep. I needed to find this "white oil" After endless searching online I found nothing. For a year!
A Danish friend at the IP woodworking school had a lead on some through PP Mobler and after promised samples from them never came, the trail ran cold ( Christian, it is not your fault!). Out of the blue the other day I had a sneaky way of procuring some. There is a company in the States that sells high end modern furniture so I told them I had one of their pieces that needed refinishing and asked if they could they send me some? Reluctantly they sent me two bottles.
I tried it out today on my bench and let me tell you, it is the sh$t! It was everything I was hoping for. I have only put one coat one and these pictures do no do it justice but it suffices to say I a very happy woodworker these days.

And it is my dirty little secret.

Desk Construction

2011-08-05T10:40:00.000-07:00

One of the pieces I am working on this week is another White Oak desk. The components of the base have been milled, shaped and all joinery completed. All that is left is the procedural glue ups and finish sanding.

Here are the side assembly parts sitting on my shop drawing. I always use shop drawings for production pieces. I measure angles and cut lengths quickly off the drawing. If you don't want to measure, you can just keep cutting and placing your parts over the drawing until they fit. Incredibly simple and quick. Make shop drawings, don't think you are too cool for school. I am done telling you what to do now.

Floating tenons in stretcher stock.

Parts on drawing being checked for fit.

Detail.

Upon glue up, I like to assemble the pieces actually on the drawing to make sure the final shape and splay is accurate and consistent. With long parts like these it would be very easy to glue everything up with tight joints and have two side assemblies horribly out of whack. The end result would be wind in the base when the front and back stretchers get glued in resulting in a base that does not sit flat. That would suck.

Design Process

2011-07-28T19:54:00.000-07:00

It is going to be a busy few months for me. I just took a bunch of orders and am very excited to be heading back into the shop. I am happy there. I wanted to talk about how I approach design on pieces that I am commissioned to make rather than ones I make on spec. Both involve a similar process but of course when dealing with clients, their needs for the piece take priority over exploring designs for design sake. I like the challenge and I like trying to give people a product they will be happy with for years to come.
It always starts with a function. They need a table, a desk etc. In this case, they needed a console table, something smaller than a sideboard. Size is discussed and so is style. I have turned down a few commissions by those who wanted a piece that was so outside of the work that I do that I wonder why they even came to me in the first place. I have also done pieces that you will never see on this blog, ever! Stuff I am ashamed of, I was young and experimenting.

I like to design in a 3d software package called Maya. It was what I used in my animation days so I am fast at it and it is a massively powerful program, not that I utilize any of that power for my designs. I like to brainstorm and submit as many ideas as I can. I look at furniture from other companies online and get the client to send me images of pieces they like. I take bits from their favourites, blend them with mine and submit them back to see what they respond to. I usually present some very tame designs and some wild ones, just anything that comes to me without much of a filter. At this point proportion is hinted at without mocking it up, this is all doodling, things I like today and will hate tomorrow, it all takes time to see what will stick. I like to label the designs and present them in a concise email to make future dialogue easier, we know what pieces to refer to. This too came from my advertising days when presenting options to clients and it seems to work well.

These are the broad strokes. The finer details are settled upon later, this serves as a starting point so I can order wood and start mocking it up while it gets delivered. This is how I do it.

And...

2011-07-24T19:49:00.000-07:00

Here is the oak bench in its current state. Glue up, edge treatment and finishing are all that is left. I apologize for the blurry pic, someone wanted to see pictures so I snapped this not really looking to see if it was a good one or not. It is, in fact, not a good one. The plywood is where the upholstered mat will be. It will either end on a third or I'll use the golden ratio thing and see what looks more gooder ;-).

Ciao

Currently...

2011-07-21T18:04:00.000-07:00

Here is a walnut Danish Corded bench I was working on some time ago. I finally finished it. I stripped down all shaping and kept the parts simple.

Here is the top of another bench I was working on in the last post. I have yet to glue the edging on. The base just needs to be surface prepped and this top will go on with an upholstered mat as well.
I should be done next week I am hoping.

New Work

2011-06-27T17:30:00.000-07:00

I have designed a new bench in an attempt to see how minimal and clean I could go with a design while still being functional, shapely, and with style. I have not mocked it up so we'll have to see how it turns out. Consider it an experiment.
The four legs of the bench will be turned cylinders. I opted for this shape over a tapered spindle in an attempt to go super clean and minimal. I have posted this joinery technique in the past where I mortise a housing and the tenon mortise into the piece that is to be turned while it is in the square. A simple process that needs no explaining.

Here I have plugged the joint so that my gouge does not catch in it while on the lathe and either kill me or destroy the leg completely. I try for a decent fit but it is not worth devoting much time to as they are extremely temporary. I insert them with double stick tape to ensure that they do not come out while spinning.

Here the legs are turned.

I take a screw and drive it into the plugs to pull them out. The resulting joint is clean, crisp and ready for the stretcher to be shaped to fit into it.

Those are next.

Photos

2011-06-12T12:58:00.000-07:00

Photos Ingeborg Suzanne Hardman

Oak Desk

2011-06-07T23:25:00.001-07:00

More photos to come.

Bevel Jig

2011-04-16T19:40:00.000-07:00

Here a post describing the jig I made for routing the bevel on the underside of the walnut pedestal table. It is a nice detail that lets you keep a thick and stable top but makes it look thin and well proportioned from the side. Seeing as I do not have a shaper with massive bits I had to figure out a way to accomplish this. After talking over various options with different people, I figured the router would be the safest way to go after investing so much time and wood into the top of it. (minimizing risk) I think Don Stenner actually was the one who suggested making a jig that held the router at the angle I needed to accomplish this.

I started with a drawing. I knew the table top was 1 1/4 " thick and I wanted it to be 3/4 " at the edges and the bevel itself was to be 3" wide. I concluded that the bevel angle needed was 9 degrees.

So I built a jig out of mdf that was basically a router trammel.

On the bottom side of the table I had a tiny hole drilled in the center. This was actually left from the method I used to cut out the round top. It is a tiny hole that is never seen as it is on the underside. The jig has a dowel that fits into this hole and acts as its pivot point. You just spin the jig in a circular motion. On the front side of the jig I fastened a ramp at 9 degrees.

The second part of the jig is the plate that the router gets fastened to.

I designed it to slide up and down the ramp without slop and so that it could be clamped to it.

The straight cutting router bit I used was 1" wide approximately, so I knew I would have to remove material in at least three passes.

Next I scribed the outside of the table to my 3/4 thickness using a marking guage. The rest was turning the router on and removing the material little by little. I started at the outside and worked my way to the scribe mark. Then I released the plunge router, and crept the plate uphill on the ramp and clamped it in place. Slowly I took off material in the second pass until I just reached the depth of my outside depth. With time and a micro adjust it was not long before the bevel was cut. It took minimal sanding and went a lot smoother than I anticipated.

It took some thinking about and some time building but it ended up being a detail I liked. If anything it was a challenge.

I hope this made sense for the wood nerds out there.

The Table

2011-03-28T11:21:00.000-07:00

Here are some informal pictures of the walnut table upon delivery. For those interested I will do a post on the jig I made to do the bevel over the next day or two.

Dining Table

2011-03-19T13:22:00.000-07:00

I have been at work on a dining table commission for a young family in Vancouver. They wanted a 4 foot round walnut table top with a pedestal base that could sit 6 people at most around its circumference. They liked the legs from a De La Espada table and the tops off a few others so we fused the best from all of them and came up with this one.

It was a fairly simple construction but there were some interesting joinery challenges, mainly the legs on which the top sits have to be super strong as there is a lot of weight on the "toes" of the base. So I decided to use massive slip tenons, or a bridal joint, which ever you prefer to call it, and concluded it would be more than enough to support the weight of the table.

I found there were some interesting challenges in cutting the round table top out with the router. If anyone else has done this email me how you did it as I found there was only one way to do it and it took a big screw up to discover it.

Another challenge was a bevel detail on the bottom of the top. It is a nice detail that will never be seen but it allows you to keep the thickness of the top for stability purposes and visually make it look thinner from the top. The actual execution was another mind bender but it worked out better than I had expected.

The attached photos are of the piece in progress. Some don't have the oil finish built up yet. I am delivering it tomorrow and will attach the legs in place. I will be sure to take some pictures of it completed as I have not seen it standing yet myself.

I will be back with more then.

One Armed Bandit

2011-01-31T18:16:00.000-08:00

Hello

Here is what the one armed version of the bench looked like. I delivered it last week and Ron at Kozai did a great job crating it up. I actually found the experience really interesting because not only was it built with a single arm but it is actually an inch narrower in depth. I actually like the proportions better and would not have had the opportunity to look at the design had this request not come it. I like that aspect of production furniture very much, the ability to refine designs instead of living with attributes of a one off that you wish you could change.

I am onto a walnut pedestal table that looks like a lot of fun to build.

Ciao!

Wooly Bully

2011-01-04T19:43:00.001-08:00

Ello, ello.

Believe it or not I have been busy over the holidays building. Now, before anyone cups their hand and sarcastically coughs the word "bulls@#*" into their chests, I'll have you know that I am hard at work on two cord woven benches, one in oak, one in walnut. So there! The oak one is a custom order through Kozai for a designer in New York. I'm pretty excited about it. It is unique in that they wanted it with only one arm so I am anxious to see what it ends up looking like in the end. The other walnut version is a stripped down, simpler version of the two armed species for my wife Marnie. She likes the less sculpted pieces. And so I deliver.

Upon opening my mail today, I received my upholstery fabric samples for my easy chair. I got a few colours and a few different wool blends. I am very happy with this product and the service from the distributor. I can not wait to see the chair wrapped in it. This part of design really excites me. I love wood, to death! But I also love texture and colour. I think I love colour more than music, food or wood actually. So I am very keen to start exploring the use of it and various materials in my designs.

Happy New Year to all who follow this blog!

Chair

2010-12-05T19:31:00.000-08:00

Here is a picture of where the chair is at. I have a few stretcher members to add to the frame to be upholstered. Then refining of the shaping to make it soft and organic. I have also been busy with a dining table commission as well. It is fun to be back making things again.

Easy Chair

2010-10-22T18:06:00.000-07:00

Here is the design I am working on these days. I posted a version a while ago but changed it a little since. The base is about done and it too is a little different. It does not have spindle legs in order to keep the joinery relatively simple. The frame is white oak (big surprise) and the seat upholstery will be a Kvadrat fabric, probably wool. I want it to look warm, fuzzy and cozy, like muppet skin.

IDS West

2010-10-19T19:48:00.001-07:00

Hello! Wow has it really been 7 months since I last posted that lame Warcraft posting? Well, it looks like I should get back to this furniture stuff as I was at the IDS West show here in Vancouver this past weekend and had a really good time. I had a white oak desk on display there through Kozai Designs so thought I would go check out the show. I met some of the local makers from the city which was really cool and met up with old friends. I actually came away feeling inspired and flattered that other people knew who I was. I saw some great solutions to construction issues, some really nice forms and finishes. And I saw people who took a realistic approach to the craft and I got excited by it. It felt like being a chef who went to school at the best school around and you got to hang around other chefs who work at restaurants that are really making a go at it, working in a city where people will only pay at most $40, not $400 a plate and seeing what they came up with and how they solved problems. The bottom line was, the food they were serving was smart, affordable, new and really damned good! I am glad I went.

Warcraft

2010-04-01T19:46:00.001-07:00

Funny I googled the name Lord Godfrey the other night to see what came up. This is one of the things I found out about myself. It came from a World of Warcraft website. For those who don't know what Warcraft is, it is online video game played by the loneliest, super nerd variety of human beings.

Lord Godfrey is an NPC in Gilneas. He is involved in quests for low level worgen. He could be a possible relative to Mayor Godfrey, who is the former Mayor of Wintergarde in Dragonblight but has been turned into a Ghoul by the Scourge.

I think I will use this write up for my artist Bio's from here on in.

The Good and the Bad

2010-03-13T13:26:00.000-08:00

I got the photos back from Ingeborg Suzanne of the walnut desk. I am happy with them. She shoots all the pieces for the Inside Passage School. This time I was present for the shoot and was able to make choices about using a white back drop, angles etc. Here are a few that I have prepped.

That's the good news. The bad news was that I planning to bring this piece to the Wood Co-op Gallery once I got the photos taken. Well guess what? The Wood Co-op is closing its doors as of next week. After 10 years of being Vancouver's only hand crafted furniture gallery. It is sad for everyone who worked there and sad for craftspeople in the city. I can't help but think it reflects the health of the market of what we are trying to do. Makes me sit back and think, that is for sure.

I am also close on the dining chair designs. I have to teach at the IP school next week so productivity will be slim. I keep thinking of a coffee table and wall cabinet that I really want to get done over the next month as well. Simple designs.

Ottoman

2010-03-10T21:23:00.000-08:00

The desk is finally finished and was photographed on Monday. I should have the pictures by Friday I am hoping so I will post them then.

In the meantime, I built this ottoman for that Jensen rocking chair I built a while ago. This will be upholstered in leather to match the rocker. I am finding this one funny as I spent so long getting my other stools lighter in weight and then this one comes along which is much more stout, to match the weight of the chair. Here the legs still have to shaped and thinned down a bit as well. I mocked it up for mass and went to where the chair now lives and it seems appropriate when they are together which makes more sense then building a skinny one that looks good by itself and crappy when beside the chair. Relative scale.

Tomorrow I am going to design some dining chairs which I am very excited about. I'll post some of the designs as they materialize.

Oily

2010-03-01T16:30:00.000-08:00

It has been a while,

Basically I am waiting on the oil finish to dry everyday before putting another coat on. I got all the hinges mortised, the trays routed and everything is done woodworking wise. For some reason the top is taking a while to build up. It is at about four coats and looks a bit dry still, but I'll only get worried if by eight it has not begun to glow. The colours are there but the luster is lacking. I am using Deft Danish Oil by the way, a product I quite like so far.

I hope to have it photographed this week with its stool and then ship it off to the Wood Co-op when they have space.

Next up, a stool for the rocking chair and some dining chairs.

Today

2010-02-17T18:09:00.000-08:00

I have the base ready for final sanding, pre-finishing and assembly.

The desk mounts to the base using slotted expansion washers I bought at Lee Valley which are designed by the ever amusing to look at Christian Becksvoort. They are not as classy as making your own "buttons" but these are quick and do the job very well. Plus they are hidden.

Remember I told you that I didn't enjoy routing the flap pockets on the desk top? Well if I said it, it usually means that I am going to have to do it twice. The first time around, the router jig flexed a bit and gave me pockets that were not perfectly flat. The flip up lids rocked around which was not what I wanted. So I had to set up and did it again with more success this time. It also meant re routing the little pull recesses a little deeper. I was sure I would screw up but all went well. I also started the little chamfer on the edges of the flaps. The edges of the pocket will receive the same profile tomorrow creating a nice shadow line letting people know that the lids can in fact flip up to reveal storage.

More to come.

Onward and Upward

2010-02-15T19:36:00.000-08:00

Thanks to everyone who helped with the hardware search. I went with the stainless Brusso's which I found to be a very pleasant company to deal with. Now I have catalogs and ideas from every other place people referred me to. There actually is some cool hardware out there that isn't brass! I'm shocked.

Well my start as a self employed furniture maker was delayed by about two weeks. I was called to duty at the Inside Passage School to substitute teach for a stint. It is always great to be around others as excited about woodworking as you are. The problem is that you get jealous because they get to build while you have to work. I am kidding of course.

On the desk front, I started back into it today and routed the rear lid panel recesses as well as the notches which will serve as pulls for those flaps. I still have to route little troughs in the flat parts for pencils and such. This idea I took from another desk I admire. I really like it so. I am hereby stating that I take no credit for the idea! It is stolen.

I have to say that I am not really fond of template routing using collars. There is so much set up and jig making that it makes me angry. The benefit of course is repeatability but man, do I hate slowing down for that stuff. That being said, I am almost done that aspect of the construction and have only the hinges to mortise for when they arrive. That and sanding. Always more sanding.

More later in the week.

Hardware

2010-02-01T21:39:00.000-08:00

I need your help! Does anyone out there know where I can find some decent stop hinges? I want stainless steel ones not brass. (don't get me started on brass hardware.) Brusso has a gorgeous, very clean set shown here but they are super thick. 3/16ths. I need not more than 1/8 of an inch. I love the radiused corners. Does a source for modern looking hinges exist or am I imagining that there would be a demand for such things? I also have absolutely no interest in making my own either so any leads would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Desk

2010-01-17T17:44:00.001-08:00

All the parts for the desk are basically made now. I need to shape the legs a bit, they're still flat. I decided to put through tenons on the table support stretchers. They will be pillowed and much lower profile. I am finally liking the weights of these pieces.

Walnut Stool

2010-01-16T13:52:00.000-08:00

Here is a picture of the walnut stool all corded up. It looks better then I thought it would. The walnut is really nice and dark. I buffed it with steal wool in this picture so it is a bit dull. I'll slap another coat of oil and probably some wax on it too.

The desk is getting there too. I have two parts to make then a lot of sanding and shaping to do. They don't look to bad together. I'll post more soon as the desk gets closer.

More Guitar Work

2010-01-11T21:37:00.000-08:00

This is where we are at. We've drilled the plates at the drill press after shaping the outside surfaces. With a simple dowel jig the drill press is set to leave about 1/4 of an inch thickness all around the plates. Then we take the violin plane and a larger wooden curved bottom plane to hog the waste out. It takes a lot of time but is really fun to do. I imagine after doing a few, switching to another method but for now it is great. Les commented on the fact a violin being the scale that it is would be a lot quicker.

Les is cutting some MDF on the bandsaw for the holding jig that holds the plates while they are sculpted. It's like trying to hold eggs otherwise.

Meanwhile I am working on that desk as well and almost have the top glued up. Being in the shop and not out in the rain is the best feeling in the world.

Rawk and or Roll

2010-01-09T16:15:00.000-08:00

My brother Les from Ontario has come out to BC to build an arch top guitar with me. He is a professional luthier who makes electric guitars and basses. We thought we would try to make a hollow body arch top guitar. These are usually used for Jazz but we will use it for rock. And rock it we shall, like it has never been rocked before!

The back and sides are made of figured Western Maple and the top Sitka Spruce. They seem to be built the same way a violin is made. I'm not going to pretend I know anything more than that about it. I'm just going along for the woodworking ride. It is a great way for me and my bro to catch up and share our obsession with woodworking.

Here are the back and top plates book matched and ready for carving.

This is Les starting to shape the Sitka Spruce top. It works like butter.

This is the Maple back plate with a lot of the external carving done. It is very close and tomorrow we'll begin carving out the backside of it making it pretty thin like a violin top.

These little IBEX violin planes are awesome. They work so well and are fun to use despite the blisters you get from them.

Fine Woodworking

2009-12-30T16:32:00.000-08:00

The mighty Nick Nelson sent me this link to FWW's online articles. If you look down the images you will see my Teak sideboard. I'm not really sure who these guys Maloof, Wegner, Juhl, Krenov, Nakashima are though. In all seriousness I was kind of shocked and honored at the same time.

http://www.finewoodworking.com/item/22482/is-danish-modern-the-furniture-style-of-our-time

Anorexia

2009-12-24T20:34:00.000-08:00

I think I have a problem. I look at all my older pieces and find everything way too heavy. Some people have described it as "light" but it all looks the opposite to me. More meat has to come off those bones.

I did a stripped down version of my corded stools a little while ago ( see June post ) and my wife and I like it the best. It has all of the pillowing, coving and woodworker stuff removed and it just seems to speak to us more than the other ones. I am not sure why that is. It seems more right than the others. We use it at our computer desk. This got me wanting to make a desk to match it.

So this design has basically the same shape as the stool. I designed it in a 3d program and mocked it up today. Marnie helped with the proportions. She has a good eye for them. I honestly just ask her and she says "drop the bottom stretcher by an inch, think thirds!" So I do it and it looks good.

The top is "inspired" by others I have seen. I am going to make it out of some walnut I have so it will be nice to see this as a dark shape. These pieces are every geometric as opposed to sculptural. I like the cleanliness of the design. I'll build a walnut and chord stool to go with it.

I have time over the holidays to get it done. I'll keep updating the blog as I now have the time to do so. It feels really good being back in my shop working on a new idea. I have so much I want to build. It has been a frustrating year for me in that respect but I hope to be more productive next year and further the branding and marketing of Lord Godfrey furniture.

Happy Holidays everyone.

The Brilliant Mind Of Carlo Mollino

2009-11-29T18:31:00.000-08:00

Work wise I have nothing new to post. I have been busy working on more Danish Cord Bench and Stools orders so I felt another post on these would be redundant. Instead I'll follow up with another on a designer I am really interested in these days.

Carlo Mollino

Carlo Mollino (1905-1973) was an Italian race car driver, designer, architect, engineer, and a photographic artist.

His furniture is crazy and unbelievably original. I am not even sure if I like all of it but it seems so uniquely his. In today's age of bent plywood, asymmetry and architectural attributes popping up in furniture, he did it all ages before anyone.

I think his work interests me because of its sculptural qualities. These things have personalities. He wasn't into boxes. He was an artist but still built completely functional pieces.

Check out these race cars he designed! Crazy!

He was probably best known for his erotic nude Polaroids of women. He was quite prolific in this medium with works in the hundreds. He even had the models pose on his pieces. Genius!

He was a student of the occult, and guided by the past, in particular, he was fascinated by the tomb of the egyptian royal architect ’kha’ (ca. 1390-1352 B.C.E).

Who isn't right?

There are a few books out on his life and work, photography, furniture and design. I can't suggest any as I don't own them yet but will be buying some very soon. If anyone can recommend any, send me an email. Many examples of his work can be found online so spend some time researching him. Also check out his house.

And if you are thinking that you might like one of his pieces in your living room, you are in for a shock. An oak and glass table built for Casa Orengo in 1949 sold for $3,824,000 in 2005 at Christie's in New York.

Yep.

Finn Juhl

2009-10-25T19:23:00.000-07:00

First let me state to those who have not seen these chairs before that they are not mine. I can only hope to one day design this well.

These were designed by famed Danish designer Finn Juhl. I would say that I am really hard pressed to pick my favourite between him and Hans Wegner. Mr. Juhl produced many , many designs many of which were not so great but when he stumbled upon on a great one, he nailed it. He was very playful with every component of his chairs and pretty daring sculpturally.

His chairs have the clarity and visual impact of a letter of the alphabet. He too was an architect which reinforces my belief that the best chair designers were and are architects. He was one of the first, if not the first to float his seats and back rests. Upholstered components were only placed where impact with the body would occur. It also freed him to have those pieces upholstered independent of the wooden frame and attached later. He is also responsible for carbide tooling which we all utilize today as he was the guy responsible for what became the Scandinavian trend of using teak for furniture.

This is but a fraction of the chairs he designed. He is also well known for his cabinets, tables and wooden bowls. He used to place little black "socks" on the bottom of many of his chair and table legs (as seen on the 48 settee in the picture at the top of the post), an element I fully intend to "borrow" on some of my future pieces.

If you like these I encourage you to take the time to explore more of his work.

A handsome gentleman wasn't he?

Danish Cord and Delivery

2009-10-13T14:38:00.000-07:00

Wow,

I have been working hard! The bench and stool order is now complete and delivered.

Ron Cromie, the fine proprietor of Kozai Designs in Vancouver has placed them for sale in his most excellent store. I met Ron a few years ago in my past life as an animator. I used to work upstairs from him and would come down to check out the modern Japanese furniture that he imported and sold in his shop. His tastes seemed to be right up my alley and while I was waiting to attend the Inside Passage School I'd go down and drool over the pieces. Over time, Ron and I kept in touch and he asked to see some of my work. I sent him an email and he liked the benches and stools and said he would place an order for some to sell. It was a huge deal for me and I am very grateful for him taking a chance on my work.

http://www.kozaidesigns.com/

They are now for sale at Kozai for what I think is a steal. There is so much more work in each of these than anything at the same price point. I just don't have a name yet. So if you like them, buy one! Buy all of them. His site is being updated and the new one will be up over the next few weeks. He took some great pictures of the benches and stools that will be posted then.

The whole ordeal was a huge learning experience for me. I had machines break mid run, stock check on me after making the joinery and the mother of all mess ups. I'm going to share this with you because you are friends and I know you won't laugh at me. I had completed all the benches and was on schedule getting ready for the glue up. While placing clamps on for the dry run, I noticed the arms looked a little low. It wasn't the arms but the seats that were in fact too high. I had mortised the seat stretchers all an inch too high at 19 inches. On all of them! This meant I had to start over, from scratch on the order. I was pretty crushed and embarrassed as I usually do not make mistakes when building. I did not have any more oak left so it meant ordering more and delaying the delivery. Ron was totally cool with it which meant a lot to me because here I was with my first order and I was going to be late delivering them. In the end it all worked out, and the 19" inch benches are spoken for so I end up on top from a situation where I could have lost it all. I'm pretty lucky.

Enough chatter, here is a shot of the Danish Cord weave pattern. I did not get any pictures of the process as I was scrambling to get all the pieces done and out the door. It is a hugely physical process and it takes time. It can be really frustrating as well. I do not recommend doing it hung over either. It will kill you. I used to do it without gloves thinking my hands were manly enough to handle it but with this many to do I knew that I had better invest in some. I did and they worked great. Everything you need to know about weaving this type of pattern is amazingly documented by Mark Edmunson on the FFW website and in issue #194 of the magazine. That guy writes the best articles in my opinion and does great work. The advantage of the cord is that you can do it yourself. The downside it that it takes a lot of time and being paper it can stain if people spill liquid on it. So tell your clients to be careful.

I'm onto a dining chair and bench commission for a friends next as well as a foot stool for the rocking chair I made last year. Steve who bought it wants a foot stool like these corded ones but in walnut and leather to match the chair. I am excited about seeing that combination. So I will be a busy guy for a while.

I am going to try to keep updating more frequently as I used to. I am glad to see everyone else joining the blog army. It is great to see all the amazing work being done by talented people who are as obsessed with furniture as I am.

Ciao.

Order, Order!

2009-09-10T19:03:00.000-07:00

I have been in part land for a while now, parts everywhere! It is a bit stressful seeing your shop shrewn thick with pieces but with time, furniture starts emerging. I have been sanding like a fiend and come into the house at night covered in white dust like Al Pachino in Scarface. Here are a few pictures I have taken along the way. Both the benches and stools are about ready for stretcher glue up, then I should be weaving the Danish Cord by the weekend and will post some pictures of that process.

Jason Klager now has a blog up. Next to Robert Van Norman, Jason is the best craftsman I know. Go check his work and the new piece he is working on and ask him what he thinks about min wax finishes and wenge.

www.jasonklager.blogspot.com

In other news, many of you have heard by now that James Krenov passed away. If anything his teachings provided the backbone of the techniques which I employ today. He brought traditional European woodworking techniques to a lazy, technically inept North American market and promoted everyone to do better work. One comment by him that I still get a laugh from was while commenting on some one's piece that he had seen that had a set of dovetailed drawers. He said they were these great big things with only like two dovetails on it. His comment was like "those are fine but come on, we aren't in kindergarten anymore, you can do better." I liked that.

Shameless Self Promotion

2009-08-21T17:46:00.000-07:00

It is quite possible that Cody Bradford and I are the two handsomest woodworkers in Canada right now. Ladies leave comments.

I am joking of course, the above picture is from a little ( I mean little ) interview the Wood Co-op did with me last week. It is their way of introducing the new artisans they have included into the Co-op. I am very appreciative of their little feature so go check it out if you have some time.

http://www.thewoodco-op.com/

In other news, I have been grinding away on the order I received and things are going well woodworking wise. I have suffered a few machine issues which have been solved but let me tell you all about them!

First my Sawstop went off on my brand new custom Forrest blade that I was bragging about a few posts ago. That really made me mad. The brake only broke one carbide tooth off the blade and did not destroy it like I thought it would. The sales guy at the now defunct House of Tools ( or Fools ) gave me the wring replacement cartridge so I ended up having to run into Vancouver to pick up the right one from another retailer. They cost about $100 bucks so I guess I'm out that for the old one.

Then my jointer motor failed on me twice. You can't do much with wood that isn't milled. My good friend Bruce fixed it for me me on both occasions which allowed me to get back on track. Old machines are the best but old motors are not.

I'll be done all the joinery work this weekend and will start gluing up the pieces next week.

Production

2009-08-04T18:32:00.000-07:00

After dreaming of production runs I got an order for 6 pieces from a retail outlet in Vancouver last week. These are pre-orders with others to follow as they are placed. I am super excited as the store is one I am quite fond of and the owner is a really cool guy.

Working on many pieces can get confusing and it is really easy to blow parts due to the repetitive nature of some of the work. Always have a fifth leg is all I can say!

The white oak has been very ornery this time around as it keeps moving every time I place it near a machine. I think it is because of the fact that they kiln dry it so fast it probably traps tonnes of tension in it. That along with the fact that it has been so hot here over the past few weeks can't be helping matters.

I quite enjoy moving at this speed. It goes to show that once you have a piece figured out you can cruise through it the second time around. With some brains you can make pieces in a realistic time frame that are just as good, if not better than ones that take 3 months and you can move onto other ideas, designs and be more creative and productive.

I'll keep you posted on the store details after the pieces are delivered and available for sale in early September. I'd buy one if I were you.

Newest Piece

2009-07-11T09:44:00.000-07:00

Here is the latest piece that I finished this week. It was took 10 months to complete and was pretty involved.

It is upholstered in a fleshy material with brown shag trim. The upholsterer did a pretty good job, I'm happy with it. I also played with very complicated joints on this one, ball and socket, hinge, saddle... I am proud to say that neither glue nor screws were used in their construction. They look great but I probably shouldn't sit on them yet.

I had an assistant on this one as well though she didn't do much except help assemble it and help with the delivery of the piece. It was all my vision.

Oh and sorry, it's not for sale.

Eames Rocker

2009-07-05T21:34:00.000-07:00

Well after 15 years of wanting one, I caved in and bought an Eames rocking chair.

I think of these things as the Volkswagen Beatles of chairs. They're everywhere and probably one of the most iconic chairs ever made. I opted for the the Modernica version as they are made of fiberglass. The Herman Miller ones are the "real" deal but they switched to plastic shells as they are supposedly a little more environmentally friendly. The Fiberglass is way better. I got the natural colour option instead of pure white as I have a kid and I am a filthy guy so I know it would be soiled in minutes. It also looks more like a vintage one that I could not afford.

It's actually pretty comfortable. I quite like it. Not everything has to be wood.

New Stool

2009-06-28T14:20:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of the new "refined" design of the Danish Corded stool. It's cleaner, has a slightly different splay to the legs and is more efficient to build as a production piece. I like this version better than the other one although the differences are subtle. The idea of constantly refining designs really appeals to me and is an advantage to building production pieces. With a one off, you are stuck with all of your design mistakes. If you have to look at the piece everyday it can be a bad thing. Especially if you are an obsessive freak like me. My wife can tell you all about it.

Tool Reviews

2009-06-21T20:59:00.000-07:00

In this week's episode I am reviewing two new acquisitions I have received and tested over the weekend.

The first is the Jessem Mite-R-Excel Miter fence. This thing was a bit pricey at about $250. I figured for chair parts, specifically compound angled cuts, this thing would be the bomb. While it is fairly well built I quickly came to the realization that I had no need for this specific model at all! Its angle scale is classically designed with little white paint lines indicating each degree. So to set your angle, you have to rely on guessing exactly where say 4 degrees is. If you switch the fence back to 90 to make a quick cut and need another part cut to the same 4 degree angle as your first piece, you are hooped. You are guessing. It has these little pins that let you fine tune your cut but it all seems moot to me. I need and want repeatability. So I am going to send this thing back as it is no better than the crappy fence that came with my saw. I looked at the Incra fences that they sell at Lee Valley and they look way better with positive stops at every angle thus ensuring repeatability and accuracy. And they are also cheaper at about $190. And they are made of solid gold. And they come with one of those mesh baseball hats with boobs on them.

The other thing I used this weekend was a custom saw blade that I had Forrest blades manufacture for me. It is a flat ground blade with a 3/16ths kerf for doing those bridal joints that I always do. In the past I had to make two cuts with my rip blade so I figured I would spend some cash and get something that cuts my time in half. I called Forrest up and got this funny old guy who was chewing his sand which over the phone. He seemed miffed that I was calling at first but came around once we started talking about how funny my Canadian accent was ( I was unaware that I had one ). He set me up with a 40 tooth blade. I currently use a 20 tooth rip so I was a bit worried that this wouldn't be able to cut the joint at full height. I might have to raise the blade over a few passes which would leave me no better off than my original blade. I put it in the saw ( it is really beafy!) and cut some joints and was blown away! It had no problem at all ripping through the white oak and it left the cleanest surface I had ever seen. Like a mirror. Both Forrest blades I own (the custom and the woodworker 1 cross cut) have exceeded all my expectations and have produced the cleanest cuts I have seen. The end grain looks hand planed they are that good. This blade was pricey though at about $300 when all was said and done. They are a good company owned by a handsome old guy whose picture you can see on their website.

So there you go, I also built another Danish cord stool on Saturday out of off cuts I had laying around the shop. I have streamlined the production considerably and slimmed everything down making the forms cleaner and simpler. I'll post some pictures over the next few days as it is gluing up right now. It will serve as a prototype for some dining chairs I am going to start for a commission. I am excited about these.

I hope you found this week's installment informative.

More...

2009-06-14T18:05:00.000-07:00

I got the chair base to the point that I can see its stance and weight now. For some reason the photos always make things look heavier. Now I need to do some refining and sculpting before going onto the seat frame. Its a pretty simple design. I actually took elements for it from a $10 Salvation Army chair my wife picked up no less!

Here I got smart and have been letting the router take most of the waste from sculpted joint areas. I learned this on the rocking chair. It's always great to figure out quick ways to do labourious, bone headed work.

I hope to be doing some glue ups by next weekend.

Arms

2009-06-07T20:45:00.000-07:00

I got the arms roughed on the band saw and one of them is pretty much done. Shaping is by far the most fun I have wood working. Any chump can punch mortise and tenons, it's technical, shaping is far more creative. It's funny because I don't think I push things enough but I'm sure that will come with time and confidence.

Here I'm using a gouge to remove the waste around the location of where the arms and legs will meet and blend. I leave this area over sized and do the final blend when everything is glued up. If I had a Dremel tool I would use it instead of the gouge but they do work well when they are sharp even on the oak.

Here the arm sits on the legs. They have not been touched shape wise so again they're big and bulky. In the next post they'll be nimble and shapley.

I promise.

To Chairs!

2009-05-24T22:09:00.000-07:00

I've completed the drawings for the new chair I am building. It's more sculpted than anything I have done before. I have the stock milled up and the joinery on this one is pretty straight ahead. It should be a really fun one to build.

On another note, Sam Maloof died last week. Without getting all sappy and emotional, I'll say outright that he is the reason I got into woodworking and his work set the tone for all other work I would respond to. I always wanted to meet the guy one day, not to show him my work or to thank him for inspiring me or anything like that. I really just wanted to spend 10 minutes around a guy who smiled all day doing what he did. He made it on so many levels and deserved every ounce of attention he received.

He was a good guy.

Rosewood

2009-05-18T16:30:00.000-07:00

Hi, my name is Ian and I am addicted to Rosewood.

I love the Rosewoods more than any other wood on the planet with Brazillian Rosewood on the top of that list. The fact that it is illegal to trade or extremely rare and endangered does not bother me in the least. I want all of it. But I can't have it especially in sizes large enough for a piece of furniture that I would build. Woods like Cocobolo and Kingwood are mind blowing as well, but I have been looking at Santos Rosewood and Pau Ferro as alternatives, neither of which are technically Rosewoods. I just bought some Santos veneers last week and this is a photoshoped book match of one set. The tones and grain blow my mind. I want to use these on the next sideboard I build but that looks like it will be fall before I get to it. You see this wood a lot on the Eames Lounge Chairs and Ottomans. It became a substitute for Brazilian Rosewood after all the greedy Danes used it all up making their stuff in the 60's.

On the woodworking front, I am waiting on some more Oak to come in that I ordered to build another chair. That last one is getting packed away. The new one I will build is way better. I have a commission to build a flat file cabinet for a couple here in Vancouver which looks to be a pretty fun piece to build and then onto a secretary/ laptop desk a designed last week. So in the meantime, I'll post a few pieces of other people's work that I like until I have photos of my own.

Until then..

Ruff Stuff

2009-04-26T21:53:00.000-07:00

I've had absolutely no time to work on anything these days. This week I managed to squeeze 6 hours in the shop and I did a little work on the chair.

The joinery for the arms proved to be the most challenging aspect so far. It is compound angled and requires an exact fit between the front spindle leg's turned tenon and the sculpted joint on the back legs. The clamping jig to punch the mortises in was interesting.

I had a few set backs because of mistakes. I had to correct some things and still do. That's what happens when you walk back into a project five minutes here and five there.

I got the arms very roughly sculpted (and I mean rough). They did not give me the flow I wanted in the design because I only had 8/4 stock. I am quickly learning that I am going to have to order 12 and 16/4 stock for the kind of arms I want to do. This 8/4 stuff is too limiting. So I did the best with what I had. Note that in these pictures the back legs are still in the square. They will be shaped liked the front legs.

All in all I have to say that I am not digging this design at all. I know the back legs being turned will change the look of things and I will decide then if I want to continue with this prototype.

Here are renders of the design to show what it'll look like when it's all done.

Weird Tenons

2009-04-03T21:37:00.000-07:00

It is a bit hard to tell what these parts are but it is the backside of the front stretcher. I am playing with having the side stretchers join into the front like Finn Juhl did on his Chieftain chair. It eliminates the complexity of having the side and front stretcher tenons all intersect at one point on the front legs. On a lot of chairs they just stagger these rails to eliminate this problem and ultimately achieve stronger joints. It is a detail I like and want to try and see if it ends up being a strong joint in the end.

Initially I assumed I would just have one long vertical tenon come into the front stretcher but after talking to Robert at the IP school, he suggested using a stack of tenons horizontally oriented kind of like dowels only with better gluing power. This makes more sense as the way I was going to do it actually yields a weak glue joint because the tenon's cheeks mate with end grain in the front stretcher's mortise. I know you are bored to death and sickened after reading that last little explanation so how about some pictures?

Here is are the stacked tenons being laid out on the angled end of the side stretchers.

Here are the stretchers with their floating tenons in place and the mortises on the front.

Next I'll get the back stretcher material prepped to bend on a form Adam made up for one of his chairs. Then I'll punch the joinery for it which leaves only the arms left with will be the hard part.

Adios muchachos and muchachas!

From the Dead

2009-03-29T17:07:00.000-07:00

I am feeling a bit better today so went into the shop and got a lot done today on one of my earlier chair designs. I wrapped my ahead around most of the joinery. It was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. Probably the trickiest thing when making chairs is designing them so that you can actually glue all the parts together without getting stuck in an impossible situation. This chair's arms present a challenge in the glue up. Arms usually do.

I used my lathe to shape the front legs and used that housed joinery technique I have been wanting to try out. I have to admit, it takes a lot of time and there are a lot of steps involved. I may explore another idea next chair.

Shown is the front leg joint.

Here the front stretcher is fit.

This is the back leg with its stretcher employing an angled joint. I have more joinery to punch on this leg before I try some off center turning with it on the lathe.

I'm going to slowly plug away on this this week in the evenings.

Steamin' Mad

2009-03-22T10:30:00.000-07:00

Oops!

Well, that didn't work. I blame Adam entirely for the breakage. He owes me a new piece of oak. That kid is just way too strong.

On a good note, I have chicken pox! I'll will be out of commission for the next week. This isn't a joke either.

I'm going to refine some designs I have on my mind in the meantime.

Easy Rider

2009-03-16T17:25:00.000-07:00

Here is a computer doodle of the chair I am now working on. It's another high back upholstered chair. I really like chairs with high backs that are low to the ground. This one's seat height is about 14" so about 4 inches lower than your average dining chair. I've got the stock milled up in white oak but have to steam bend what will be the arm material. The rough blanks are 2 inches thick so bending them should be interesting. I really needed 3 inch stock but don't have any so bending is necessary. I'll put up a post when I get to those. Because I'm using oak it should work but still, 2 inches seems crazy.

Portfolio

2009-03-02T18:02:00.000-08:00

Here are some pages from the portfolio I put together to apply to the Wood Co-op in Vancouver. There are no new pictures, just the same old ones placed on pages.

Stool Picture

2009-02-25T21:40:00.001-08:00

Here's a photo of the stool that I took myself.

I have been back at work doing some carpentry this week but have also been busy preparing a portfolio to send to the Wood Co-op gallery in Vancouver. I'll attach a page or two of that tomorrow night.

Bench Photos

2009-02-17T17:43:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of the bench taken by Ingeborg Suzanne.

I have also completed the stool but I still have to take a few pictures of it. It's funny, both of these pieces seem to gain about 10 pounds when photographed. They look a lot slimmer in person I find. Especially the stool. I'll have some shop pictures of it up probably tomorrow.

On an unrelated topic, I watched the film "Helvetica" the other night. It's about the history and reaction to the now ubiquitous font. It is a great film about design and I found it had a lot of parallels to furniture. This is probably because all I think about is furniture so I relate everything to it in an annoying way I am sure. It is a well directed little film and I recommend it.

SCHTOOL

2009-02-09T20:14:00.000-08:00

Hi there, remember me?

I am now officially unemployed from my carpentry job so I got to work this weekend and started on a stool version of the Danish Cord bench that I made. I had just enough scrap white oak left over to cover its construction. I will glue it up tomorrow and begin shaping it which will make it look a lot slimmer. It always looks so chunky in its glue up state.

You can not really tell from the picture but the legs splay from the side view and in the front as well. It made the joinery a little more challenging but the result is something I like. Like the bench it really pops once the seat is woven. Speaking of the bench, I am hoping to post some professional photos of it in the next few days.

In the meantime, the chair design has grown on me and I should begin milling stock for it while the stool is drying. I really wanted to get onto making a sideboard as well but my wood buying funds are a little dry right now.

I should have some more to post in a few days.

Still Designing.

2009-01-25T18:50:00.001-08:00

I have been slowly tweaking this design for the last week. It gets closer to what I had in mind every time. I guess there comes a point where you just have to build it to see it and make improvements with each successive attempt. Since the last post, I bent the back legs back a bit which solved a crest rail construction problem. It gives the back a more sculpted flow but means I cannot turn it and will have to make it a spindle by hand. It will be interesting to try. I ran out of white oak so I have to order some more which I should have by the middle of the week. Or I can maybe make it out of ash? I haven't decided yet.

In the meantime, I'm going to work on the shop drawings and figure out the angles of the joinery.

Sorry this update isn't that different than the last but it documents the way I design things. It always involves hours upon hours of staring and lots saying "what the hell was I thinking? It totally sucks." There is a little tweaking of a part and a feeling of satisfaction followed by "what the hell was I thinking?" all over again. It usually goes on and on for days until I am sick of doing this. Then I just go and build it with the hopes that someone, somewhere will like it.

New Chair

2009-01-20T15:51:00.000-08:00

Here's the design for the next chair I am going to make. It's influences are obvious but again it solves a few construction questions I have had kicking in my head. It also allows me to do some sculpting on the arms, something I hope to a lot more of. Chairs interest me because of their sculptural qualities and personalities you can give them. The more complicated ideas I have in my head are way more organic and I haven't figured out how to build them yet. So slowly I'll work my way through simpler designs like these building my skills and experience as I go. To get to this model, I screwed a bunch of 2 x 4's together in my shop to figure out the seat heights and angles, etc.. I have human scale data but wanted to feel what the chair would feel like. With this information I went to the computer to place all the members together in a balanced way. From this computer mock up, I'll draw up some shop drawings and figure out the joinery. I still haven't decided on wood yet. The seat and back pad will be upholstered in leather.

The arms are super low so the chair can be used at a desk or as a dining chair. They will allow you to slide it under a desk/table and allow you to lift yourself in and out of the seat.

It may need another back stretcher but this is one of the construction questions I want to answer for myself.

Finished

2009-01-18T21:21:00.000-08:00

It has been some time since my last post. I blame it entirely on my digital camera which finally died. I went out today and bought another one, a better one though you can't tell from these lousy photos.

I finished my bench finally. Since the last posting I added a lower stretcher like Mark Edmundson has on his. It really needed that stretcher especially after the Danish cord went on it. It's funny because everyone I know who had done it before warned me to wear gloves when weaving, but I only had thick ones that prevented me from using my nimble fingers so I thought I would be a man and go without. The next day my hands were beet red and looked like beef jerky. I hurt. Real bad. But hey, an artist has to suffer for his art!

A note about the finish of the white oak. I initially slathered the members in Danish oil before glue up (sounds erotic doesn't it?) and hated how it made the oak look so I had to strip it all down (erotic reference again) which took a whole day. That oil sure penetrated (gosh) into the wood! I then decided to apply beeswax to it. I read that Hans Wegner actually preferred no finish on white oak so I went with something as minimal as possible. It's a nice matte finish that hasn't effected the colour of the oak. Me likes!

On another note, I got a little lathe today off of Craigslist. It's a Rockwell/Beaver lathe made in Guelph Ontario I believe probably in the 70's. Given its vintage one can only hope it was made by a long haired burnout wearing a tight April Wine T Shirt dreaming of the Van rally he was going to crash that weekend. I hope his energy is transferred into my work. And yes, for those of you who were asking, I will be taking custom nunchaku orders.

I'm Back

2009-01-02T20:14:00.000-08:00

Hey it's 2009, the year I am going to try to make this furniture stuff a go. I got back from Ontario and while it was really great to see our families, I was itching to get back into my shop and get going on a bunch of new ideas. But before I can jump into them I want to finish this bench. I glued the side components up and started shaping them. I still need to refine everything and sand it out but it's basically all there. I am anxious to get to weaving the danish cord I got for it. I really like the combination of the cord and the white oak. I have to say I really love white oak. It works well and looks so clean and understated. I think by the end of the weekend I will be pre-finishing the parts and should be weaving by next week.

I am also looking at getting a lathe so I can turn some spindle legs for some chairs and maybe some 6 foot salad bowls. I'll let you know how that turns out.

Rocker

2008-12-13T17:57:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of updates. I am off to Ontario to visit family for Xmas. I'll be back in two weeks with pictures of the bench's progress (joinery is now all done). Until then, here are some photos of the rocking chair that were recently taken by photographer Chris Mortensen.

Happy holidays.

Tenons

2008-11-30T21:33:00.000-08:00

As it is Sunday, it is my one full day in the shop. I went to work on the stretcher tenons. As I said previously I wanted to use live tenons for increased strength though I honestly don't think well fit floating ones are any weaker. Any discussion on this is invited!

So the process is pretty simple. First cut the shoulder on the table saw.

Remove the waste on the band saw.

Clean the outside cheeks on the shaper until the tenons just start to fit the mortise.

Then go back to your bench and spend hours fine tuning the fit with files. I got almost all of them done but three of the twin tenoned stretchers. Man, these take a long time! Because of the stress on these joints I really have to get the fits perfect with absolutely no play in the tenons or it gives the piece the chance to fail. I like to imagine that my target market is the 800 pound robber baron set. Just to be safe.

Bench

2008-11-26T21:51:00.000-08:00

Wow I have been busy. With what, I have no idea but apparently busy enough that I haven't been working on my bench and updating this blog. I'm back at it now with the intent to finish this piece before Xmas.

I think I got an arm I like. It has a bit more shape than the old one and is a bit thicker in the overhang part. I realized that I really don't have to commit to the shaping of the arms until I have the stretchers in place and I can see the bench in a near complete state.

I have the joinery bored into the legs. Because of the design of the bench I have removed a stretcher that usually adds a lot of strength to these things. To me visually it is too much so I figured double tenons will help. But I also decided to make them live tenons instead of floating ones to give it a little less of an excuse to fail. As I said in an earlier post, I'm experimenting here to see what in fact one can get away with.

I have also started making a cross cut sled for my table saw. I would love a metal one that ran on bearings but for now, wooden ones work really well. I just don't want to have to make one.

Failure

2008-11-09T19:15:00.000-08:00

So after working today on the arms for the bench, I don't really like them. I'm not sure what it is but something just ain't right. So tonight I will sketch a few other designs and see what I can come up with. This is why it is best to mock things up before going straight into them.

Back to the Bench

2008-11-02T17:19:00.000-08:00

Today I got the main joinery done on the bench sides. I basically am repeating myself by doing the same thing as I did on the rocking chair. I'm now a one trick pony. I won't do it again, I promise. I just like the look and strength of this joint.

This time I used my router table to clean the joints up after using the table saw and bandsaw to ruff out the joinery. It actually worked out a lot better than I thought it would. I had never used a router table before, only shapers so I didn't expect much from it. I was surprised. I got a Kreg table and fence and couldn't use it for the rocking chair because I was waiting for my Whiteside router bits to arrive. Anyways I got it all together and like it for what it is. It's not a shaper but it can do some accurate work for cheap which is good by me.

For every project, there is usually one detail that gets me really excited and I can not wait to get to. On this bench it is the arms. I left the wood over sized and will route its shape in the next week if I can find a bit that will work. I'll post a picture as soon as I can.

Spindle Joint

2008-10-28T21:41:00.001-07:00

This was a picture I took for my buddy Kevin Kelly who called me this weekend about it. This was basically the joinery I used on that little stool I made. I was trying to figure out how to join a stretcher to a round cylindrical leg. I tried a lot of things but found this to be the best way for me to do it. It's really simple when you have 90 degree joinery. I mortise the joint housing into the leg while it is flat. I then punch the mortises in. Then I plug the housed portion with a plug and turn the leg on a lathe. I pull the plug and am left with the joint. What's good about this way of doing it is you don't have to leave a "barrelled" flat section on your leg shape, the construction doesn't have to limit your design. The stretcher can have a live tenon if you'd like but I was using floating tenons here. Make sure the stretcher is a little on the thick side and then hand plane it down until it fits into the housed section of the joint. I want to write a FWW article about this but want to have a chair to go with the article. That will be my next project.

Speaking of chairs, here's another picture of the completed rocker with oil.

New Bench

2008-10-27T20:56:00.000-07:00

Here are the white oak legs, arms and feet for the new bench that I am building. It will be woven in Danish cord. I am basing its design on Mark Edmundson's bench that appeared in FWW. For me it is an exercise in how thin I can make something before it looks too thin. It'll be pillowed in shape like the rocking chair and have some through, wedged tenons on it. I haven't done those in awhile. It'll help the simple design look a little bit more custom.

Here's a 3d mock-up I did of it. It's pretty simple as you can see.

The oak machines really nice though it keeps moving on me. I think it has finally stopped and is at final dimension except the arms which I will bring down to final size tomorrow.

I'm hoping to get onto joinery this week as well.

Design

2008-10-20T21:39:00.000-07:00

So I finally picked up the latest Fine Wood Working Furniture Issue which includes 102 Contemporary Designs. I have to admit it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. But that doesn't mean I liked much in it. The funny thing is that by far the best design in the book was Hans Wegner's PP68 chair. I opened the page on it and I got all excited even though I have seen the chair a thousand times before. It is in a section that is devoted to production pieces saying something to effect of "just because it isn't a one off doesn't make it boring." Damn right it doesn't. That chair is made by machines in large numbers and I still want one.

Wegner is one of those rare designers who had his feet in both the design and the woodworking worlds. Most of those Danes did and to me it was the best time in contemporary furniture design. Today's woodworkers just don't come from design backgrounds but they make really well built stuff and designers have no woodworking skills so their work, if built in wood, is usually executed with the skill of a high school shop student.

Wegner was the most playful of designers in his range and vocabulary of shapes. He built cabinets, tables, chairs etc. His chairs alone display some of the most unique shapes around that are far most interesting than anything I have seen any hand tool yielding cabinetmaker pull off.

The thing I like about this particular chair is that it looks like it could be hand made. There's not much there that got toned down for production purposes and that's why I think it's a successful piece.

Washers

2008-10-14T20:36:00.000-07:00

Wow what an exciting update. I made washers for the chair tonight by grinding down over sized ones. It is funny as I couldn't just buy washers with the correct inside/outside dimensions I wanted. I probably could if I ordered some online but I figured it wasn't worth it. Now I need to make the plugs for the holes. I am not thrilled about making washers in case you did not catch my sarcasm.

This weekend I began milling up some really nice white oak I had for a bench that I plan on making. It will be very simple and clean. I am actually really looking forward to making something straight forward without having to make a thousand jigs. It will be super minimalist.

I Want One

2008-10-06T20:21:00.000-07:00

For you machine geeks out there, feast your eyes on this!

A friend of mine named Daisuke spent a month this summer in Brian Newell's workshop and got to use his huge machines (and probably dull them all), one of which was this amazing double sliding table saw! It's like a shop made cross cut sled but way cooler. I asked Daisuke to find out how much one of these would run me. He said they are still being made which was music to my ears. The fact that they are about $10,000 bummed me out more than you'll ever know. If any of you out there were thinking of collectively getting me something for Xmas, this would be just the thing.

Oil

2008-10-05T20:19:00.000-07:00

After sanding to 1000 grit I slapped the first 2 coats of oil on the frame. I'll let them dry and keep applying at least 7 coats or more depending on how much it sucks it up.

All that is left is to make some washers for the screws that hold the seat and then some wooden plugs to hide those screws.

That post will come later this week.

Carving

2008-10-03T19:54:00.000-07:00

I had the day off of work today as it was raining heavily, so I got to spend the day in the shop instead.

I threw the clamps away and went to work on carving the joints. I always say that there is no art to waste removal. Although I like using hand tools for shaping surfaces, I'll use anything I can to rid a piece of extraneous wood be it a bandsaw, a chainsaw or my teeth! I don't care. I really get no satisfaction from removing material, I want it off fast so I can get to the good stuff. In this instance, a hand tool did the job the quickest and cleanest; the carving knife.

The walnut carved like butter and the process went fairly quickly. For areas with more waste I used a Nicholson #49 pattern maker's rasp. I love this tool. It is a must for anyone interested in sculpting wood. For the areas where the knives couldn't quite reach I used gouges which are also great tools. I then hit the area with sandpaper which actually tends to make the joints lumpy and squishy looking.

Here are some pictures of the joints roughly shaped and ready for further refinement. They are all close now, just little lumps to take care of.

This is the underside of the back stretcher. ( the chair is upside down )

I'll be back at it Sunday.

Final Glue Up

2008-10-02T21:45:00.000-07:00

I know there's nothing new in this picture for you, but for me it's a huge step. The final glue up! From here it's refined sculpting, sanding then finishing. I am really hoping to have it ready for finish by the end of Sunday, possibly even having a few coats on it but we'll see. I am one happy man.

Gluey Glue Ups

2008-10-01T21:57:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

I have the first of two final glue ups under my belt as of tonight. It went well for a one man job. I no longer ask my wife Marnie to help me. I had to fire her. The way she tells it, she quit. They always say that just look cool.

When gluing the tenons I experienced hydraulic lock for the first time. It was scary as the tenons would not seat all the way home even though I had scored them to allow excess glue to escape. Anyways it all worked out fine in the end but I may have soiled myself in the process, I should probably check on that.

Nope. All good.

Tomorrow night I'll finish the other glue up then it's blending the sculpted joinery and final sanding.

With the help of a friend named Bruce, I also mounted the bolts that hold the chair to the frame. That was quite an ordeal but again worked out splendidly. It entailed drilling holes in the leather seat and taping machine screws into the seat frame. If I had messed up the angles of these in any way the results would have been disastrous.

In closing I see there were a few comments in the last post. Keep the comments coming, even to make fun of me. I like it.

Good night.

Leather!

2008-09-21T17:38:00.000-07:00

I got the seat back from upholstery and here it is sitting in place. I have to figure out a way to drill some holes through the stretchers into the wooden seat frame. I then can tap the holes and use machine screws to mount it. I have to order some copper bushings to drill the holes so yet again I have to wait a bit until I can finish this chair up. Can you tell that I am of sick of it yet?

Seat Framing

2008-09-11T18:48:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of the seat frame that I sent of to be upholstered. In the first picture you see the curved framed members against the form I made them on. They are bent, tapered laminations. This was my first attempt at this technique so I figured if I failed they would be buried in leather. They ended up turning out well.

Here are a few shots of the frame from the front and rear. The curved stretchers were bent laminations (not tapered) with twin tenon joinery to make it bomb proof.

I am hoping that I will have the seat back soon so that I can finish the chair.

Update

2008-09-09T18:19:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of updates. I am back at my day job building a house on a local island. The upper portion of the chair is at the upholster's so there is not much that I can do until it comes back. The good news is that once I have it, it will only take a few nights to complete. I'll try to take a few more pictures of the frame as it is in the meantime and post those.

Refining

2008-08-30T12:55:00.000-07:00

Here is a close up detail of the front double bridal mitered joints. I have just begun to refine their shape a bit. The edges will be softened so that it isn't left as a sharp shape. A difficult joint to make, but it looks nice when you're done and adds to the design.

Shaping

2008-08-26T17:25:00.000-07:00

I'm hard at work shaping the rocker after the parts were glued up. I still have to shape the back stretcher which will be fun, probably the most fun thing to do on the project. Spokeshaves make this kind of shaping pretty easy. I like those things.

Here is the stool's seat made out of bent plywood ready to be cut. I laid out the shape from a paper template that I drew up.

Here is the stool with the seat on top. It will be upholstered in leather to make it oh so comfy for one's fat ass. Mine demands no less.

There is still much to do!

Glue Ups

2008-08-22T20:37:00.001-07:00

This week I have been busy prepping the inside shaping for gluing up. It's all bandsawn now and is nice and thin.

Here the first joints on each of the sides are being glued. I had to glue clamp blocks onto the chair to get the weird shapes to come together. When all four joints are glued, I'll bandsaw the blocks off and shape the outer surfaces of the chair. Again I am using Unibond 800 for this because of the extended open time and also because it is coloured. This means that if there are any gaps in the joints (of course there aren't any.... but if there where....hypothetically speaking of course) they would be rendered invisible with the dark brown coloured glue. At least that is what I am hoping for.

Here you get a glimpse of the sculpted joinery into the front stretcher. It is left over sized and will be blended after it is glued up. The lighting in this picture doesn't show the shape on the front leg very well. It looks a little flat here. It'll be more visible in later photos I am sure.

The joints will be assembled and dry over the next 2-3 days. I'll jump back onto the stool in the meantime.

Slowly...

2008-08-16T18:05:00.000-07:00

Look at the size of that thing! It needs to go on a serious diet. If it was Arts and Crafts it would be done, maybe too thin even. I'd have to glue more wood onto it. The joinery is all done and I will be bandsawing the excess meat off its bones tomorrow. It ends up being pretty thin in the end.

To chop the miters on the curved runners I made ramps that I clamped on to them to guide a chisel.

Joinery

2008-08-14T18:00:00.000-07:00

Today I actually got a lot done.

I planed the runners down to final dimension and cut them to length for joinery. They came out looking really nice, like a solid piece of wood.

The back stretcher comes out of a weird shape and ends up being the most sculptural piece on the chair. The mortises are compound angled which made it difficult enough but coupled with the weird shape it made clamping interesting. It took me a couple of tries at it but I came up with this simple holding jig. I had to be able to repeat the position when I placed shims under it for the second mortise pass. (Again I used twin tenons). Anyways it worked well and I'm glad it's done with.

I then cut the joinery in the runners.

Tonight I'll finish gluing up my router table base.

Forms, forms, forms...

2008-08-11T19:58:00.001-07:00

It seems like all I have been doing these past few days is making forms. While they greatly assist you in your work, they take a lot of time and totally kill momentum. This one is the form for the bent laminated runners on the rocking chair. The pre-steam bent piece is on top and all that thick chocolaty stuff spewing out is the Unibond 800 glue. It's great stuff, it dries rigid, which you want for curved pieces, and it gives you a 45 minute open time so glue ups aren't as stressful as with normal glue. The only bad thing about it is that it will kill you. It's formaldehyde based and I always manage to cover myself in it.

While those were drying I began work on the form for the bent plywood seat on the stool. I made it out of 2x6's because they are cheap. But all the knots killed the blades on my jointer and planer. I have learned my lesson. Here I was planing the curves to make them flat and fair.

I also got a router table this week and made a base for it today. This kind work makes me grumpy. I'll post a picture of it tomorrow.

Stool

2008-08-07T17:13:00.000-07:00

Here is a quick glimpse of the stool I am also working on. It is an experiment in many things for me such as how to join straight members to cylindrical parts and in bending plywood for seating. There are already many things I want to change on it but I'll finish it up and make another. It looks a lot better with the curved seat in place but for now this is the base with turned legs.

I am waiting on my steam bent parts to dry.

Steam Bendin'

2008-08-05T20:58:00.000-07:00

This is the contraption that steams the wood. Pretty crude isn't it? It looks like a hillbilly corn liquor still. Inside is the 5/8 inch top lamination. After cooking it for 45 minutes I took it out and bent it over a crude form. This form has a more severe curve than what I need to the piece to be. Steam bent components often spring back. I will let it dry for 24 hours then steam the laminate for the other runner. In the meantime I worked on a stool that I have on the go.

Here is a cool set of videos showing how they build Hans Wegner's "The Chair". The CNC machine in this is crazy. The video is broken up into two parts.

Tenons and Laminations

2008-08-04T19:45:00.000-07:00

I'm back from my road trip and got to work fitting the tenons for the front stretcher. I am using floating tenons as I mentioned earlier as they make angled joinery a lot easier. The only downside to these is that they often have to be stepped in order to fit the mortises in the members to be joined. The reason for this is that the end mill bits I use to bore the mortises tend to leave slightly different sized holes in end grain and long grain.

The tenons tend to fit the end grain mortises before they fit the ones punched into long grain. This means that these holes are slightly bigger. So to fit them we must sand the tenons at their half way point so that they fit both opening sizes. This difference is not usually very much and only takes a few passes on some sandpaper using a clamped block to maintain the half way point of the tenon. As with all tenons you are looking for a "pop" sound when removing them and there can be absolutely no play in the joints or over time it is sure to fail.

After I fit these I did a dry fit of the chair parts so far to make sure that I mortised at the correct angle. I then cut the back stretcher and fit it before mortising. This will get done over the next few days.

I got to work on the runners this afternoon as well and prepped all the laminations for bending. The top layer of the laminations is 5/8 of an inch thick while the remaining lams are only about 1/8th. I have to steam bend the thick top strip first to get it to conform to the curved rocker form. The reason for doing this extra step is so that when I join the bottom runners to the chair and shape the coves on the inside corner (see photos of the real chair) I won't cut through any laminations. They leave lines that don't look too great if you do. This step is a lot of work and no will ever know the pain you went through nor thank you for it. But you're not a chump and you do it anyways.

If you choose nice straight grained wood (again preferably rift sawn) you will never see the lamination lines in the curved piece. The end of the runner does reveal disrupted grain though as seen in the above photos. You really have to try to minimize the amount of wood taken off each lam when planing them and you must put them back together in the same way they come off the band saw to make it look like it did before you sliced and diced it. That's what the triangle (cabinet maker's mark) is there for.

Tomorrow I am going to steam bend the top laminations.

Mortising

2008-07-26T20:39:00.000-07:00

Today I got the mortises bored on the front legs. I use a Davis and Wells horizontal mortiser with a Felder XY table. This is a great set up but the XY table costs a lot. It is worth four times what I paid for the boring machine! It works incredibly though.

I'm using twin floating tenons for the joinery on both the front and back stretcher. Twin tenons yield twice the glue surface of a regular single tenon. Even though the tenons are thinner in width, it's the height that counts most in chair joinery. I'm using "floating" or "loose" tenons because these are angled joints and they make the process a lot easier than live ones. Here the front stretcher is propped up to the correct angle for boring. A block of wood works great for this.

Here are the twin mortises. This technique yields round mortises which means you need to radius your tenons as well. It's an extra step but yields much cleaner mortise walls than those lousy chisel mortisers leave behind. This makes a better glue joint.

Next up: the tenons. I'm off on a road trip with the family for a week and will be back to make those and prepare the bent laminations for the runners. Adios!

First Post

2008-07-24T16:46:00.000-07:00

I've begun work on a reproduction of Helge Vestergaard Jensen's 1961 upholstered rocking chair. While I have absolutely no interest in making copies of other people's work, I couldn't resist building this simply because it is such a bitchin' chair and I want it for myself.

I don't have much to go by except for these small images from Noritsugu Oda's book of Danish Chairs.

I have decided to make it out of walnut. Terry from A&M woods hooked me up with some nice, straight grained 12/4 stock.

Here I am laying out cut lines to get rift sawn parts from a quarter sawn plank. I prefer rift sawn stock for just about everything especially chairs. Nothing sucks more than seeing flat sawn faces against straight grained ones. (bush league)!

After milling up I begin work on the joinery. I work it all out on a very detailed shop drawing and pull all angles from it. I stick mailing labels on the parts so I can see my pencil lines on the dark wood. After the joints are cut I peel it off.

Here I am cutting the tenons for the legs on the table saw using a simple shop made jig and an F clamp that still has the $12.99 sticker on the handle.

The double, mitered, bridal joint dry fit. The over hang is to accommodate the sculpted joinery at the stretcher location.

Tomorrow: mortising for the stretchers.