More Walnut and Chair Work

and managing life in the shop

This week in the shop, I’ve been finishing up a Helix chair, processing the walnut I split out and getting the shop a bit more organized. I think it’s important set aside time to focus on the state of the shop. When something feels awkward in the shop, it slows me down in a way that makes me anxious. I don’t want to stop the work I’m doing, but I also feel the drag of inefficiency and want to fix it. By setting aside time every week to focus on the shop itself, I both relieve the anxiety of needing to address it while working and give my self time to address the need.

I did manage to get the Helix chair out of it’s “stone” phase and back into process. It’s fun to see it come together.

The seat is a single piece of butternut. I have a dwindling stock of this I bought over a decade ago and occasionally pull a seat out. I love this stuff, it’s the perfect balance of hard and soft. It can be a bit stringy, but sharp tools can tackle the issue. While turning white oak for the legs, I was reminded how wonderful it can be to turn.

Above is a leg I was skewing to finish. I stopped so you could see how lovely it finishes with the skew. I should get this chair together in the next day or so (this week) and some finish on it soon. I’ll be showing how I use a raw tung mix to get great color out of the white oak. The mix of white oak and butternut avoids any jarring mismatch in color. They even take on a similar color and value when fumed in ammonia.

Here is a fumed chair that shows the closeness of the color between the white oak and butternut.

I got the Helix chair through the joinery and now I just need to do a bunch of “make pretty” and glue it up. This is one of my favorite chairs to make and photograph. It changes in interesting ways depending on the viewpoint. I’m going to have a professional take some shots of this one before I ship it out.

I put some of the walnut I split out on the lathe, just to get a feel for it. I’ve never turned it dead green before. It turns great, as expected. It is strange to see the wood looking greenish rather than brown. It will change as it dries, which is good, because it’s a sickly green to start. I turned it about 1/4” large than the final dimension and tapered the ends to expose more end grain, which helps hasten the drying process. I put the parts in my kiln, with the heat off to create a micro climate to keep the wood from being shocked in the heated workshop. I’ll open the kiln a few times during the day to clear the moisture as it builds up. Here is a video of me rounding down the walnut.

You’ll see me adjust the blank after I start rounding it. I always check uneven blanks to make sure they are well centered. After a little rounding, I stop the lathe, take note of where the blank is getting cut more and then move it to make sure I get the most out of it. It just takes a few seconds but it’s easier than laboring to figure it out before starting and then having to check and being wrong anyway.

I glued the end grain to prevent any checking. I think you can see what I mean about the color.

It definitely feels like the depths of winter around here, rather peaceful and beautiful. I’m trying to appreciate it while it’s here.