Author Archives: handcraftedfurniture

The Toccata Chair

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Toccata Chair from J. Miller Handcrafted FurnitureToccata Chair from J. Miller Handcrafted FurnitureFinally! I’ve been working on the Toccata chair in fits and starts all year. I came up with the idea that started this whole journey about 15 years ago. As is often the case in design, though, this chair is nothing like what I had in mind then. But I’m pretty fond of where the process took me.

I’ll have the chair with me this coming weekend at Handworks, in Iowa. Then I ship it off to the Messler Gallery at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Maine, where it will be in the faculty show all summer.

HandWorks!

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If you’re at all into hand tools, the place to be next Friday and Saturday (May 24th – 26h) is HandWorks, taking place in Amana, Iowa. Many of the country’s major hand tool makers will be there, along with some prominent teachers, writers, and hand tool authorities. Check out the schedule on the Handworks web site!

Handworks Banner

Me?  I’m along for the ride to promote my school and my books, and to demo some cool hand-tool techniques. Mostly, I’m looking forward to great interactions you all, and with some of the finest proponents of hand tool woodworking anywhere.

I hope to see you there!

There are two types of woodworking classes…

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There are certainly more than just two types of classes, but the two most common are “project classes” (build a chair, table, etc.) , and “technique classes” (learn to cut dovetails, etc.). Many classes combine a bit of each, and you learn some techniques as you build your project.

I’m teaching a class at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking  (www.marcadams.com) this July 8-12 called “From Woodworker to Craftsman” that may fit into a different category. It’s a class I’m pretty excited about, although it may not be immediately obvious why. There’s a fun project to build (a tool tote), but that isn’t really the focus of the class. And it’s not really a techniques class, either, although it’s got plenty of that as well (we’ll hand cut dovetails and mortise and tenon joints, deal with some curves, and more.

So what’s different about this class? I wanted to design a class where there was a little more emphasis on really improving skills, and developing a better sense of how to get the most out of your tools (and your body). This is obviously something I’ve been working on for quite some time now, and my most recent book – The Foundations of Better Woodworking – was a close look at this topic. This class puts it all into practice.

If you’re looking for more of a project based class, I’m also teaching a Slat-Back Chair class at the Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking (www.schoolofwoodworking.com). This is a pretty intense week of building an exceptionally comfortable dining chair, and learning about chairs and how to make them. We’ll cover all kinds of chair related issues: curves, joinery with curves, angles and angled chair joinery, bent lamination, and much, much more.

Slat Back Chairs

Slat-Back Chairs

Flooding? What flooding?

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I’ve gotten a bunch of calls today from people wondering if this weekend’s Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event would be affected by the monumental rains in the Chicago area. Much to my relief, everything is fine at the shop, and we got everyone’s stuff in and set up on schedule. We’re ready.

One of the best parts of these events is the ability for everyone to play with the hand tools. For me, I get a chance to play with them on a much larger scale. We have to load in the crates of Lie-Nielsen tools, and the only way to do that in my shop is with a forklift.

loading in the Lie-Nielsen crates

That’s playing with hand tools in a big way. This is actually from a couple of years ago, but I did the same thing today (in the rain).

The Highland Woodworker

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I spent a really enjoyable couple of days in February with Chuck Brock and Stephen Price from The Highland Woodworker as they filmed a segment on me and my work for the online video show that will be released tomorrow. Chuck is bright, funny, and a delight to be around. He’s also a tireless worker, who runs more businesses (and runs them well!) than I could keep track of: as far as I recall, he’s a woodworker, writer, teacher, musician (I can relate this far), video star, video producer, and he runs his own finishing company.

We talked about my work, how I got started, and how some of my health issues played a factor in that. We also talked about the origins my latest chair design, which I”m just now (finally!) finishing up. I hope you’ll get a chance to take a look!

By the way, I’ve filled in my class schedule for the rest of the year on my web site. Of particular note is a new class on making Shoji, which will be taught by a former assistant of mine, Craig Klucina,  who is one of the foremost makers of Shoji screens and Tansu chests around.

Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event

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It’s time once again for the Lie-Nielsen Hand Tools Event at my shop. It’s taking place on Friday, April 19th (10 am – 6 pm) and Saturday, April 20th (10 am – 5 pm). No need to call; the event free and open to the public. In addition to the good folks from Lie-Nielsen and all of (and I mean all of them) their great tools, we’ll be joined by Kevin Glen-Drake from Glen-Drake tools (who promises to bring his new line of turning tools), Raney Nelson and his drool-worthy Daedworks planes, Tico Vogt and his extraordinary shooting boards, and Lost Art Press, and one or more of the tall guys who run the place. I look forward to seeing you there. If I can finally finish it, I’ll be showing off a new chair design, as well as demonstrating some great hand tool techniques.

This is big…

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I’ve got a lot of teaching and travel on my plate for this summer, but one of the things I”m most looking forward to is an event that’s been organized by the folks at Benchcrafted to build a series of benches based directly on Roubo’s plate 11 from L’Art du Menuisier.

Roubo's bench

Workbench fro Plate 11 in Roubo’s LArt du Menuisier

We’ll be using some huge old French Oak (5-6″ thick, up to 29″ wide), some of which is fro the grounds of Versailles. And the folks participating are an amazing group of bench and Roubo enthusiasts, including Jameel Abraham from Benchcrafted, Chris Schwarz (well, he’s Chris Schwarz), Don Williams (Senior Furniture Conservator at the Smithsonian, who is heading the current translation project of Roubo’s works), Ron Breese (Breese Planes), Raney Nelson (Daedworks Tools), and Jon Fiant (an Atlanta area cabinet and bench maker) are all participating (as am I). And there’s room (and wood) for 10 woodworkers to join us. It’s worth stressing that this is not a class, but a group build. There will certainly be help if you need it, but don’t expect the typical instruction. On the other hand, fun will be dished out it spades, along with insights, anecdotes, and given the crowd, bad jokes.

All of the drool-worthy details are here.

Crisscross – installed and in use

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I’ve got a Crisscross from Benchcrafted mounted on my newest bench and I must say, I never really liked adjusting the parallel guide pin, and now I don’t have to any more. The vise is still smooth as silk (if I spin the hand-wheel hard, it will rotate up to 15 times – I counted), and the grip is still as tenacious as ever. And no setting of the parallel guide pin!

Crisscross from Benchcrafted

The Crisscross mounted on my bench with Benchcrafted’s Glide Vise

Did I mention that I didn’t like setting the pin?

There’s another benefit as well; installation was easier than dealing with the parallel guide as well, and there’s less to go out of adjustment with seasonal changes to the wood (or clamping with the pin set incorrectly).

What’s different? Other than not having to set the pin (!), the vise has a slightly more nuanced grip. With the parallel guide, the vise would grab with a great deal of force right away. Now, there’s about a quarter-turn between first contact with the workpiece and fully tightened. That actually makes it easier to grip something lightly, not much harder to grab all the way. There’s a little bit of toe-in built into the mechanism, and that quarter turn seems to take the chop from toed-in to parallel with the leg. I haven’t had any issue with the bottom of the chop pulling in too far (I tried).

It did take a few days of use to get as smooth as it is now. That may have something to do with a little bit of breaking in on the threads, or perhaps it was a slight misalignment in how I set the acetyl bushing. In any event, the vise has gotten better as I’ve used it.

I’m going to retro-fit the Crisscross onto two other benches, but that may have to wait until over (or after) the holidays.

Bumping Up Against Your Limits

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sawing aluminum as practice

Dovetail Practice – to a point

How do you get better? By learning more and doing more. At first, things either come naturally, or they require a lot of work to master. Eventually, you start to bump up against stuff that’s harder to overcome. And sometimes, after lots and lots of work, it feels like you’re coming up against the true limits to your talent.

For an athlete, that might mean that your body just doesn’t have the capacity to go faster, or respond quicker, or to jump higher. For a musician, it may be the inability to play a certain piece perfectly no matter how much you practice. And for a woodworker, it may be the inability to shape, join, smooth, or finish a project just the way you would like.

I will not in any way deny that there are limits to your ability, but those limits of are significantly further along than you might realize, though. Having trained extensively to be a classical musician, and then later on with a coach as a cyclist and runner, I’ve come to realize now that you can almost always push farther and improve more than you would ever think possible.

But most of us have other limits that are far more constraining than ultimate ability; we have families, jobs, and all kinds of other obligations and passions that prevent taking our skills all the way to their maximum. And this can be frustrating.

So how can you improve as much as possible in the limited time and with the limited energy you have available to you?

1) Take a class. It’s one of the fastest ways to give yourself a boost A good teacher or coach will find ways to push you well beyond what you think is possible.

2) Stop reading quite so much (or watching so many videos) and start making stuff. Sure, the stuff you read is important, but actually making things is far more important. Stop reading this right now if it means that you’ll go to your shop and make something. You may feel like you don’t know the right way to do something. Try to figure it out on your own. There really isn’t a “right way” to do anything. But figuring something out on your own is infinitely more valuable.

3) Get comfortable making mistakes. If you shy away from mistakes, you’ll also avoid challenges, and you can’t possibly get better without challenging yourself. Switch to cheaper wood if you’re uncomfortable messing up the good stuff.

4) Work on your weaknesses. It’s really tempting to just play to your strengths, and you shouldn’t neglect them, but you’ve got much more room for improvement with your shortcomings.

5) Be sure to balance out hard work on things you need to work on with “play” – stuff that’s just plain fun and fast to do. It will keep you fresher and more engaged. Oh. And it’s more fun.

6) Have tools that are good enough. You don’t need tools that are perfect. In fact, you’ll hold yourself back more by fussing your tools or your shop to perfection than you would by actually getting to work with tools that are simply fine. I’m not saying don’t learn how to sharpen well. But avoid the temptation to have the perfect tools or to make everything perfect before you attempt to use it.

7) Find places to practice. Even hack-sawing an aluminum bar can improve your dovetails if you work on your saw technique while you cut the bar (at least for a little while, until you get frustrated and just want to actually hack through the rest of it). You don’t have years to mess around; get practice anywhere you can.

8) Concentrate on the fundamentals. They makes everything else easier. Oddly enough, I know a good place to go for this: my newly released book, The Foundations of Better Woodworking.

 

Roubo-style Workbench Classes

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I’ll be teaching two classes where we build the workbench I wrote about for the current issue of Fine Woodworking. Both classes will be held on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of two consecutive weekends (each class is six days long). The dates are April 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, and 14; and then on June 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, and 30. All class days are from 9 am to 5 pm. I’m keeping these classes small, which is better for me and better for you. You’ll need to bring your own vise hardware and wood (carefully milled). You can also purchase milled wood from me if you prefer. I’m working on shipping options as well, so benches can be shipped to you after class if necessary.

These are just about the best workbenches I’ve come across, after building eight of my own, helping a few other people make theirs, and working on dozens and dozens of benches of all types.

Click here for more information.