The Market at Washingtonburg

This was the first year we attended The Market at Washingtonburg, located in Carlisle, PA.

The setting was 18th-century and living history sutlers selling their crafts lined the grassy fields of the U.S. Army Heritage & Education Center.

Military units marched in formation and shot their reproduction muskets for event-goers.

This was the setting for one of the supply stations that was built along a military road around 1759, during the French and Indian War, where troops could restock their food and munitions.

Reproduction Civil War cabins are permanent structures on the grounds and represent quarters for enlisted men, cooks, and officers. Some reenactors were actually staying in the buildings during the event—their period-correct belongings and bedding (albeit, 18th-century, not 19th) outfitting the rooms—which made it all the more realistic.

Even without the encampment and reenactors, the facility is worth visiting. Replica World War I trenches and a World War II concrete bunker are open to explore, military aircraft are on display, and the Education Center houses collections of military officers.

WIA Marketplace Coupon

Woodworking In America is just 2.5 weeks away. Even if the Conference sold out before you could register, you can still shop in the Marketplace, which will feature 70 vendors, many of whom are hand tool makers.

Admission to the Marketplace is $7, but a $2 coupon is available on the WIA site.

If you plan to attend and you'd like to say hi, you can find me here—bogarting the Sindelar Tool Museum.

Chip Carving Video

This video covers a few chip carving basics for beginners. To learn more, I highly recommend Wayne Barton's book, The Complete Guide to Chip Carving.*

I'm not sure if I made it clear enough in the video, but the primary knife is the one that should NOT have any bevels. You SHOULD have bevels on the stab knife, however. Do not remove those.

View the video in a larger format here.



*I do not benefit from the sale of Wayne's book. He wouldn't even know that I'm recommending it.

A few people asked where I bought my knives and stones--I bought them from Wayne Barton (available on his website).

Tips On Chip Carving

During the one day I spent in Jögge Sundqvist's class at Country Workshops, I started carving a small bowl using an axe, adze, knife, and gouges.

I finished the shape in my home workshop and decided to add a little chip carving for decoration. Jögge carves decorative elements into most of his work and he cautioned us in class to resist the urge to add too much. "Don't overdo it" he said.

So, I'm just chip carving the top edge of my bowl.

Like everything in woodworking, chip carving is a learning experience. One thing I've found to be beneficial is to do a practice run with a new design, especially one that has tricky parts (photo 1). Much like making a prototype before building a piece of furniture, carving a practice piece allows you to work out the trouble spots.

Second thing I learned—the hard way—is to start a new cut facing away from the nearest cut (photo 2). If you plunge your knife into a new cut facing a previously chip carved element, you might accidentally lift out a chip that was meant to remain.

Tight curves can be tough. You need to change your attack angle so that just the tip of the blade enters the workpiece (photo 3). This enables you to make tighter turns.

A few more things: make thin pencil lines and try to carve them away so you don't need to remove them after you're finished; work under a raking light so you can see hard shadows; turn your workpiece often to view it from different angles; strop your knife a lot!; don't try to flick/dig/pry loose a chip with your knife—you're liable to break the tip. You have to carve out the chip; try not to stop mid-cut. A smoother line is achieved if you carve in a continuous motion; thick and thin lines are more interesting than parallel ones; and smooth cuts are more important than symmetrical ones.

For The Woodworker Who Has Everything

I asked for and got two things for my birthday: a new wallet (mine was held together with a rubber band) and pocket tweezers.

There isn't a single thing I need, tool-wise, and it's not possible for me to care less about fashion, so my bday wish list is always on the meager side.

But I'm happy as a woodworker with a pile of pink ivory and pearwood.

I am not endorsing this product, but it is pretty cool. It's very sharp with one curved side so you don't stab yourself as you remove a splinter. It also folds closed for safety.

And if you're a lady woodworker, it's great for plucking eyebrows. Works a heck of a lot better than the chainsaw I had been using.

Country Workshops with Jögge Sundqvist

I made it down to Country Workshops for one day only before stomach problems chased me back home, but it was well worth the drive.

Jögge Sundqvist is an excellent instructor and extremely likable person. I learned a ton of things from him in a short period of time, such as: the correct way to use an axe and adze, and the details that must be considered in bowl design.

The finished thickness of the walls and floor of the bowl is about 5/16". The ends, however, need to be three times as thick to account for the endgrain. Bowls are canted on the ends so the endgrain fibers are increased in length. This prevents liquid from leaching out of the ends and makes it less likely to crack.

Wooden bowls were used for all manner of things including dough, meat, and milk. In Norway and Sweden, "ale geese" bowls were made to hold beer.

During class, logs were split (taking care to avoid the pith), bark was removed, insides were hollowed, and outsides were carved to shape.

There are several ways to dry a bowl at this point. If it's small enough, you can use a microwave. Larger bowls can be stored in paper bags with air holes (which may result in spalting, so be careful) or wrapped in cloth and stowed in the basement or other cool place. You can even bury it in a pile of shavings for a few weeks.

If you carve green wood, as we did, you'll have to wait until the bowl is dry to achieve a finished, smooth surface.

I missed the days spent on spoon carving and proper knife holds, unfortunately, but I have Jögge's video, Carving Swedish Woodenware, for reference.

There are still spaces available in Jögge's next class, which is September 6-11. The video below will give you some idea of the layout and class structure.

The owners, Drew and Louise Langsner, couldn't be more gracious. They are sweet, gentle people and Louise is a heck of a cook.

When you take a class at Country Workshops, you become part of the family. The informal, friendly atmosphere and rustic, remote setting can provide the perfect getaway from a hectic life.

The spoons above were carved by Jögge Sundqvist. The bowl was carved by Drew Langsner.




You can view the video in a larger format here.

Designs for the bowl dogs we used at Country Workshops can be found in their free online newsletter.

All Packed Up and Nowhere to Go

I should be on the road to Country Workshops as I write, but something is preventing it.

A stomach ulcer.

I've never had one before, so while I've battled increasingly worse burning nausea for the past five weeks and cut virtually every food item out of my diet (thinking some food product was the cause) except soda crackers and antacid pills (hey, I'm losing all kinds of weight), being doubled over in pain to the point of tears last night finally prompted me to call the doctor-on-call.

Ulcer. Great.

Wish me luck that I can get in to see him tomorrow so that maybe I can make it for the second half of the class.

I'm disappointed, to say the least.

On Packing And Practicality

A friend once told me, "Women always have aspirin in their purses."

By that, he didn't mean that we suffer from headaches all the time, but that women tend to be prepared for "just in case" scenarios.

Which is why we pack so much for trips.

I'm getting ready for my week-long class at Country Workshops and have made an ongoing list of things to take along. Items include clothes for temperatures ranging from 50º to 90º and from sunny to rainy (we'll be in the mountains), Ibuprofen (we'll be swinging axes for a week), band aids and flexible adhesive wrap (for nicked fingers), camera and camcorder, way more batteries than I'll ever need, a notebook, and three pens (in case one is lost and one runs out of ink)....you get the picture.

I'm also packing lots of tools, many of which needed to be sharpened, which is what I did yesterday. While laying out my tools, I realized that two did not have protective covers for transport. So I spent some of yesterday making very quick, down-and-dirty blade guards for my Mora knife and crosscut saw.

For the knife, I made a wooden sheath. For the saw, I sawed a kerf in a piece of wood, dropped the blade into it, and attached it with twine.

While sharpening my axes and adze, I found that my little saw bench is a helpful accessory. To check my progress, I turned the axe around, moved to the side (so the blade wasn't in line with my face) and wedged the handle between the split in the top and bench's leg so I could examine the cutting edge more closely and touch it up with stones.

When the handle slipped, I grabbed the nearest chisel and mallet and started vigorously and roughly chopping out a ledge in the leg on which the handle could be wedged more securely.

My partner walked through my shop at that moment, observed what I was doing, and asked with mild alarm, "Are you allowed to do that?"

"It's my bench." I answered.

"But, do people do that?" She asked with increasing concern.

"The bench is just a tool." I shrugged.

She walked away. I hadn't convinced her that I wouldn't be banished from the woodworking community for having damaged my bench.

I have no problem with altering tools to meet my needs. If it makes a tool fit more comfortably in my hand or work more efficiently, I'll reshape, regrind, or recreate it. The only tools I wouldn't touch are in the collectors' category, but I don't own any.

For the class, we were asked to bring branches for the spoons we'll carve. I discovered that the split in the top of the saw bench works great at supporting a branch—much like a V-block—when sawing to length.

The bench works so well at so many tasks, in fact, I'm thinking about packing it and taking it with me to class.

Just in case.