Old and New

I’ve been wanting to show this since I started writing on Substack, it’s my first blog post ever. It’s usually hard to look at myself from 17 years ago and not just focus on all that I didn’t know, but I must admit, I’m surprised at how well I defined my shop experience and goals. It all rings true today.

I’ve been working to finish the Temple Chair video, hopefully I’ll get through it in the next couple of weeks. Here is a portion on cutting across a coved area on the side of the seat. I know it’s a challenging area for many carvers. It’s one of those tasks I became better at through teaching. I had to think deeply about a process that would give others a shot at success. My solution is to remove all the material from both sides of the transition area all the way to the lines. Instinctually, folks tend to focus on cutting in the deeped part of the cove, but that’s nearly impossible to do cleanly because each cut will end with tearing up the fibers that come in from the opposite direction. They end up digging themselves into a hole and then digging further in an attempt to get out. I hope you find this short demonstration helpful.