All Hands on Deck

I’m very excited to have my old friend Bern Chandley here for a couple of classes. I have a long history with this fellow, he took a couple of classes with me in Australia in 2011.

Here’s a throwback to 2011, we haven’t changed a bit ;)

After that, he went on to become a fantastic chair maker and designer. I’ve learned a great deal from Bern over the years and I believe it’s easy to see his influence on my designs. Not being steeped in the Americana version of Windsors, he was able to think differently and riff on old ideas without snapping back to the expected. Here is a link to his website, spend some time with his work and you might see things differently as well.

The Lowbow is the second of the classes Bern is teaching

Bern came up through the carpentry and joinery apprentice program in Australia. His workmanlike approach to making wood objects has a different flavor than folks who transition from hobbyist to professional. He is quick to see the most practical solutions to get results and his training makes it easy for him to do so. I also personally believe that his lack of attachment to specific techniques helps him prioritize design.

The #14 is the first class that we are preparing for this week

It’s especially fun comparing wood species and technology. I tease my Aussie students that they mine their trees over there instead of growing them. They are either light as air, dense as stone or basically sand. Bern was explaining to me that the Blackwood he normally works with is denser near the outside of the trees. Can you imagine making choices on part production based on this? Here, we are using ash and poplar. I’ve been helping him prep for his classes this week along with some other folks, Kelly Harris and Isaac Feuerman. Isaac is interning with me and you know Kelly for her wonderful Rounding Planes.

Here’s Bern cleaning up some ash parts.

And Isaac jointing some seats. I have a jointer, but I still use a handplane to join my seats, probably worth a post on it’s own. The seat joints are the only joints I make that rely 100% on glue, so that surface to surface flatness is critical.

We had Kelly’s dog in the shop for a visit and George wasn’t happy about it, so she was clinging to Bern while he turned legs.

Things are moving fast over at the new workshop, the excavators came in and dug out the soil and are laying in gravel as we speak. The trenches for the sewer and water are in and should be getting piping on Monday. I’m handling the stress of it pretty well, we’ve kinda made it over the hump and now it’s up to the contractors for the most part. In the picture below, you can see all the new footings. The barn went from floating to solid as a rock, thanks to the help of my friend Chris Kerr-Ayer.