Queen Victoria

Would you believe that Queen Victoria was a woodturner? How cool is that? According to The Ornamental Turning Center (OTC), the Queen, and others of wealth and royalty, enjoyed turning decorative rosework and swashwork on a machine called an Ornamental Lathe (which is not the same as a regular lathe). According to the OTC website, the Ornamental Lathe was developed in Bavaria around 1525.

Paraphrased from Sandor Nagyszalancy's book "The Art of Fine Tools": In 1794, John Jacob Holtzapffel opened a lathe-making business in which he developed foot-powered lathes with an overhead drive system. A treadle-drive flywheel was coupled with a system of pulleys & drive belts which powered a revolving cutter. By fitting any of a wide variety of cutters, the user could create an unending profusion of surface decorations.

Beautiful, decorative pieces could be made with an ornamental lathe (of which only a few remain). No wonder it appealed to the Queen. Obviously, the creative spirit can be found in any group of people, including royalty.


Photos from "The Art of Fine Tools", Sandor Nagyszalanczy.

Shiplapped & Beaded

One of the best things about woodworking is that you have several choices of techniques and tools in making any given cut. And when you're a hobbyist, you have the luxury of choosing the technique that suits your safety needs and preference. My preference is to use hand tools, unless I'm in a hurry (which seems to be never). So in making the back for my partner's bookcase, I picked up one of my antique beading planes and my Stanley #78 antique rabbeting plane. Sharpened and honed, they are two very sweet tools.

Why use a beading plane when I could my router table? Several reasons: 1) sawdust makes me cough 2) by working with handtools, it seems more like you're shaping the wood rather than a power tool creating the shape 3) you don't waste wood making practice cuts 4) faster set up time 5) it's quiet 6) it's a great workout 7) it's safer 8) wood shaped with handtools seems to have more character (but my power tool buddies would beg to differ! : )

In fact, it took me only a little longer to bead the boards by hand than it would have taken me with a router. I averaged 2-3 minutes per each 7' long board with 11 passes with the molding plane.

Once the beaded edges were done, I started on the rabbets with the Stanley #78. The first board took 30 minutes to plane the rabbet to width and depth. I've got 12 boards to rabbet, front and back. That's 24 rabbets x 30 minutes. 12 hours!

Hmmmm....my table saw's looking pretty good right now....

The Queen of Half-Finished Projects

If you ever need advice on how to drag a project out as long as possible, I'm your Go-To Girl. I told LOML a year and a half ago that I would build a bookcase for her, and well...it's getting there. I still have to build the back, which will be ship-lapped & beaded walnut, and then build the crown molding. Good thing LOML is patient!

2 DP Dust Collecting System

Here is a photo of my 2DP (dog power) Dust Collecting System.
At 6-7 years old, it still collects sawdust remarkably well.
One time, Daisy (black) stuck her head in a pile of pine sawdust and emerged looking like a Nordic sailor.

Overzealous

I love to hand cut dovetails and I love boxes, so when I found a little piece of birds-eye maple in the basement (my former shop) I decided to make a miniature version of a box I made a few years ago, one with a sliding lid. The little one measures 4" long.

Fitting the lid in the grooves and obtaining a snug, but movable fit, is something I have yet to achieve. Not because I'm not careful or patient, but because I can't seem to stop myself once I start handplaning. I think it must mesmerize me to hear that swoosh swoosh and see those ribbons of shavings spill out of
the plane's mouth.

Once I realize that I should probably check the fit, it's too late. Both lids slide off way too easily. Guess it's just a reason to make another box...

Guest Bathroom

So, about 4 years ago, I decided to rip out the guest bathroom and rebuild the whole thing. The old design, and I regret not having taken a photo, was circa 1950, but without the cool kitschy look.

First I planned to replace the counter with laminated mdf. After laminating the wrong side and then laminating the correct side, I discovered that I had cut the hole too big for the sink. Sometimes, you just have to walk away....

...3 years later, I came back to the bathroom project. A friend said "Hey, you're a woodworker, you should make a wood counter." Good idea. So, I finished the bathroom and built a walnut counter, a walnut medicine cabinet, 4 frame & panel bead board cabinet doors, a little shelf, and installed bead board wainscoting. This being my first attempt at installing crown molding, I chose the widest crown molding I could find...and decided to cope the corners. (For those who do not know what coping is, it's sufficient to say that it is a really masochistic task to give oneself, given the width and complexity of this particular molding). By the last corner, I had finally figured out what I was doing. Of course, in order to view that corner, it requires a Linda Blairesque twist of the head.

First Female President?

Last night was the yearly business meeting for one of the woodworking clubs to which I belong, and of which I am the only woman. For three years, I created the club's newsletter and have been an active member since its beginning, about 6 years ago.

Last night, when no one offered to become the new president, the current VP chimed in with what was the [figurative] equivalent of "Tag, you're it!". My "buddies" threw me under the bus. But there will be retribution, oh yes, there will.

My first order of business will be to make the rule that all members will address me as "Her Most Excellent and Highly Revered Majesty."

Winterthur Museum

My partner and I, along with our friend, Scott, toured the Winterthur Museum in Delaware yesterday.

It was a tour sponsored by Olde Mill Cabinet Shoppe and featured a 2 hour lecture by Charles Hummel, a noted curator at the museum, expert on 18th c. furniture, and author of "With Hammer in Hand". The lecture was on 18th c. card tables and secretaries. Knowing nothing about this type of furniture or anything Chippendale and Queen Anne, I noted several terms of which I was not familiar: slip-tongued (another term for tongue and groove), turret-type corners, hairy ball & claw feet, Quaker lock (a simple, but ingenious wood "lock" located beneath drawer bottoms), broken pitch pediment, broken arch pediment, gadroon (a band of carved molding), and sebeku (the spelling is incorrect, but it is East African Mahogany). Following are photos of furniture similar to what we saw at the museum (I did not make this secretary):


I'm not a big fan of this type of furniture, but have enormous respect for the hours of work and talent that went into its construction.

After lunch we were taken in groups of 5 on a tour of the period rooms. More Chippendale and Queen Anne chairs, tables, and secretaries, and then one of the reasons I went on the tour....PA German furniture! I love the simple and sometimes crude joinery, the earthiness and imperfections, and the obvious marks of the craftsman. Tusk tenons, wedged dovetails, thick, heavy walnut and pine boards, and folksy painted surfaces are all things that I find inspirational. (I didn't make these, either):




The other reason I went on the tour was the promised behind-the-scenes inspection of the Dominy workshop. Crowded in the small shop with 12 other antique tool lovers, I saw up close some wonderful bench planes, a wooden saw set, 2 lathes, user-made frame saws and a user-made band saw (that worked off the pole lathe), molding planes, whale bone spokeshaves, and various jigs. One jointer plane, which was about 2' long, was in such good condition it was impossible to believe it was over 200 years old.