Alone in the Wilderness (with my family)

My three children, wife and I went to Vermont this weekend to my family's cabin.

The cabin was built by a logger in 1900. My grandfather purchased it in 1940.

A sawmill stood on the opposite end of the pond. 

This is an effort to take a picture of the bottom of the lake. You're looking at the pond's floor about 10 ft deep.

Note the difference of the floor where the sawmill stood. It is only about 12" deep. 

There is not much left of the sawmill. There are a couple of logs with a couple of joints. 

Nothing more.

If you've ever had the pleasure of seeing the documentary "Alone in the Wilderness" you may recognize the effort of the logger that built this camp.

The man in Alaska sawed much of the joint. The man that built this cabin did not.

 A long winter's hobby is evident in the main room's ceiling...

I Quit

I have known this day would come for a long time. I have prepared myself.

I hereby adopt the English spelling of 'Moulding' and will no longer write 'Molding'. The transition may be difficult. I may fall off the wagon from time to time. I will likely never change the spelling in my head.

Weekend Class

I taught a weekend class at Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking that ended today and I had a fantastic weekend.

The students were great. The school is great. I didn't have to help clean out the childhood bedrooms, closets and attic of my wife's family and that was great.

One of the students, Ben, made this frame profile completely by hand, excluding the rabbet on the bottom for the picture. (I imagine that Bob Van Dyke, the proprietor and one of the several teachers at  CVSW, nearly threw me out when he saw me cutting it on one of their several Sawstops. I don't know why. It's a Sawstop, right?)

I told Ben what order to cut the rabbets. He did the rest. To the best of my knowledge, he had not used hollows and rounds before. Total time: about 60 minutes. Total length: five feet. Total planes: 5. Total coats of finish: 0.

When introducing ourselves, Dan, another student, said that the prospect of making a tall case clock led him to the class. This, I can relate to. He came in with his own profile to stick. Consider it stuck...

Again, I don't think Dan had used hollows and rounds before. I cut the rabbets on my tablesaw this morning (where I don't need to have a gallery of people with mouths agape). I also took the first three passes with a side round to show the class how it is used. Dan did the rest by himself. I intended to help him. He didn't wait.

For the record, 8 people used 28 planes off and on for 14+ hours. I stropped 3 of the 8 rabbets, one round and no hollows.  One rabbet iron got damaged and has to go the the stones.

Lie-Nielsen 30th Anniversary

Congratulations Thomas Lie-Nielsen! 30 years...My knuckles ache just thinking about it.

I got back from a weekend in Warren, ME, home of Lie-Nielsen Toolworks. I had a great weekend with my family and The Toolworks'. I used new products by Daed Toolworks, Sauer & Steiner, Brese Planes, Benchcrafted, and Czeck Edge. I saw several familiar faces, but did not take any pictures. My apologies. I will get some in the coming days to post.

I did get to stick a new molding profile in front of a crowd.

The waist molding to a Federal tall case clock:

CVSW Class

I will be teaching a class at CVSW next week. The class is July 24th and 25th, Saturday and Sunday.

Here is the write up I did for the class:

"Stop making compromises with your router. Stop getting “close enough”. Learn how to use some of the most abundant molding planes of the past to get the exact edge you are after. Hollows and rounds do not make specific profiles. They make specific arcs. Learn to transform these few arcs into scores of various profiles. From layout to execution, this weekend class will focus on creating various moldings with these extraordinarily versatile planes.