Class enrollment starts on Monday the 31st of August at 8 am, email me then to reserve your spots. I previously forgot to list the Pole Lathe and Dinnerware class with Eric Goodson, so check it out.

Vimeo on Demand is shuttering it’s doors, so if you purchased videos through them, be sure to download the series or make sure you sign up for emails so I can see your purchase and put you down as an owner when I transfer them to Kajabi. Sorry for the hassle, this is the world we made!

On to the Post

The other day I pulled out the router and made a very elaborate jig for making the recesses for the vises in the new workbench tops. I had lots of flashbacks to my life before chairs.

I spent the afternoon making lots of noise thinking of how much I must really like my students. In classic fashion, I grabbed the first piece of 1/2” ply I could find for the router base, in this case, it’s a pattern for a c arm bow.

The installs went great, nice and flush to the side of the benchtops.

I was so excited, I even got the tops up on the benches on my own. When I do things like mounting 200 lb benchtops, I can hear a clock ticking away the short time I have left to do such heaving. But for now, I’m still kicking.

I drilled the dog holes with a newly sharpened 3/4” bit in my drilling jig with an extended base (again, half ass rigged).

The exits were extremely gratifying.

That’s enough woodworking for me for a while, I’ll be getting back to chairs, or at least drill bits, for now.

Am I the only one who goes to sleep with images of drill bit geometry swimming in their head? I got the first shipment of tools in the other day and will start taking pre orders soon.

Jeff and I are working on the instructions and I’m shooting more videos. This is one tool where knowledge and process are going to be key. I’ve had such fun working with it. I’ve gotten to see deeper into the possibilities and process than ever. It’s meant hours of playing (my favorite kind of shop time) to nail down all the details so a new user can succeed quickly. Here’s a 5/8” bit I made to send off to Brian Boggs, he probably thinks about drill bits going to sleep too.

I’m always surprised by how much one can keep learning. Just this morning, I was thinking hard about the “large bit” problem. Large bits have bit flutes that can make them less stable in the v grooves. I’ve found that applying pressure at the end of the shank where the bit is left round is key. This morning I made a small wood block to make the pressure more even, and it worked great.

I’ll be making some up to include with the tool. It also protects your fingers from any heat built up. Simple is good.

I’ll spend the rest of the day getting the shop ready for Follansbee to teach this weekend. There is still room in his October Box class, it’s one of the coolest things to happen here, jump on it!

You can find Amy’s other work on her website Cambiumlostarts.com. I can wait to learn more about this work, I might even take the class myself.

I’m also happy to welcome Charles Thompson to teach making a Brettstuhl.

I’ve been watching Charles for years and appreciating his commitment and creativity. I think the Brettstuhl is a wonderful form for making a chair as well as expressive carving. You can see more of Charles’s work at www.charlesthompson.net. His work is so effortlessly expressive and beautiful, I can’t wait to see him in action. His combs knock my socks off, maybe there’s a class in there!

Amy and Charles fit the mold of the kind of instructor I want at my shop. They have a passion that drives them deep into the craft while expressing themselves in ways that push it forward. There is a thread connecting all the people I like to work with, each of them would keep doing what they do even if no one was watching. It’s that personal relationship and connection I want students to experience at my shop.

I want to share a bit more about the progress and happenings at the school. The construction is done, thank goodness, but we will continue to keep improving and updating the facility and tools to make the classes more seamless and functional. My goal with the school is to offer the instructors a place to share their craft while ensuring they receive meaningful compensation to support them well beyond the week they are teaching. Over the years, I’ve been able to offer this and the results have been fantastic. It’s a simple exchange, support the instructors in continuing their work and they share their achievement.

The only issue is that the system relies on me and I am a finite resource. I’m working on ways to invite folks to join me in supporting these fantastic artists so it can have a life beyond me… more on that soon. For now, I am happy to see my crazy scheme operating as planned and bringing in such talent.

You can see the new classes up here. Enrollment starts August 31st at 8 am.

There are a couple of notable changes to the policies and process. We’ve dropped the vaccination requirements, although we do recommend travel insurance in case of an issue, please visit here to learn more.

The classes are filled first come first serve (at the appointed time), full tuition is due to reserve a spot. Please wait until the 31st to reserve your class, but contact me anytime to ask questions.

I sent Jeff one of the tools so he could try it out and help me find the best ways to explain its use to folks. He only had the old posts with the wooden version and some text I sent him. So I made this video with him in mind to clarify the process.

Besides his design and process skills, Jeff is a great test case because he demands something totally different than me in the holes he makes. Jeff wants a level of perfection in his holes higher than most. No tearout at all on the endgrain and smooth unburnished walls. Unlike me, he doesn’t care about exit holes because he doesn’t make them. Jeff made a couple of brad points and a Bismarck. He noted some tearout on the endgrain in the hole with the brad point and said the Bismark was better. I gave him some tips that might make a better brad point, but it sent me back to the shop to think like Jeff.

Here are some results. The brad point you see above made a beautiful hole and a clean exit (Jeff doesn’t care), but it did leave a slightly rougher surface on the endgrain of the maple.

The Bismarck I made in the video left this surface on the endgrain. Much improved. I do think the Bismarck is a better bit, but the bradpoints (I’ll show how I make them soon) are easy to make and leave a great hole. I enjoy thinking like Jeff and then backing off a bit to my own standards.

I am very interested in other makers priorities and ideas, I have a feeling there are many bits that could be made with the Drillsharp and I’m curious to see what folks come up with.

The other big happening today is the arrival of the new bench tops I bought from Alexander brothers. They will add two feet to each of the class benches and a full inch and a half of thickness. I’ve very excited to be retiring the old benchtops.

These tops have seen lots of action in their day. Now I just have to craft my speech about not drilling into the new benchtops. I know it will happen, but I can’t help but try to come up with a protective spell (or more likely curse) to cast upon the users.

Good thing I have a bunch of razor sharp 3/4” bits to drill new dog holes…

Here is the finished tool with it’s predecessors. Taking a tool from concept to final product is a long, arduous and expensive process. If I could help myself, I would avoid it, but it’s too interesting and once I love using a tool, I want others to have the option to have one. I did a short run of 200 and will see how that goes. It’s hard anodized aluminum and stainless steel

.I posted here about the “fixed” version on the top of the photo, but I’ve been working with an adjustable model (in the middle) for a couple of years. My students did a good job keeping it under wraps so no knuckleheads with a 3-d printer and a penchant for pinching ideas could throw it up on Instagram with “inspired by” in the small print.

I worked with NTM out of Newport Pennsylvania for the manufacturing. It took a while, but the fit and finish is so good it made me rethink my whole approach to grinding bits. I was able to get a precision I couldn’t get before with my janky wooden model.

Here is the action on the movement. The fixed version can get the job done, but making very small controlled adjustments makes the geometry much easier to nail.

I’ll go into all the ins and outs of using the tool and tips on getting great results soon. Here are a bunch of test holes I drilled today, these are the exits of 5/8th and 1/2” bits. I hope you understand, I am not trying to sell you on this, I’m just so excited to see it come to fruition, I can’t help but nerd out.

Here is a close up of a freshly ground bit. This design is an evolution of my Bismarck bit. Patrick Brennan combined the geometry with that of another bit to make a very smooth drilling bit with clean exit holes. He produced them for a while then stopped. Neither Patrick or I want to be in the drill bit business, but helping you grind and maintain the bits you have…that I can do. You can make the bits I show in my book on the “DrillSharp”, but I use these modified Bismarck bits exclusively now.

I know this will seem like a stretch for lots of folks, I totally understand. Drill bits are like saws, making or maintaining them seems as though it would be too hard and it’s better left to the pros. But that leaves you with expensive tools that only get worse in your hands. I recall sharpening a saw for the first time. Yes, I did a crappy job, but it cut so much better I was shocked. It turns out each tooth doesn’t need to be perfect, it’s a bunch of teeth that produce a cut. The same goes for drill bits. They are spinning fast and if you can manage a few key properties of the shape, there’s lots of room for success.

Like most things, I went deep into this to understand and develop a tool and process, but my goal is always to come back up for air with an approachable solution. I’ve ground hundreds of bits and drilled thousands of test holes to get to a place where I am ready to share this tool. I’m still waiting on a few things to shake out before I can price the tool, but I hope to offer an introductory price below $250.

I’ll be shooting instructional videos on this and getting the tool up on the site for presale soon. I should have the tools in house in a few weeks. Thanks for sticking with me, I live for these days.

Soon, I will also be shooting the video I was supposed to make today, which will wrap up my drawknife sharpening series and show how I prefer to sharpen my drawknives. Yes it involves a tool I made, but the concept is simple and you have a 3-d printer, right?

The Jennie chair is of course a sign that Follansbee is back working his magic. I had a some leftover red oak for him and a white oak I need for other things, so I got another red oak just to be sure. Here, Nick Atwater is putting the final blows in on the first split. I never get tired of this sound.

Here’s Peter deep in the pile with his class.

I finished up the rocker from the last class and will be putting it up for sale soon. A check opened up on the seat so I had to completely strip the top of the seat, fill the check with CA glue, seal it with shellac and repaint it.

I am very happy with the black over red finish, but I counted how many times I had to go completely over the chair, it’s about 13. First you build the chair, then you build the finish. Yes, I’d love a magic a one coat wonder that can do this, but I haven’t found it.

I’ve been plugging away at Birdcage side chair project. I love this form, it’s the one that drew me into making chairs. In the image below, I am using a piece of copper tubing to help work out the crest bend. When designing something with this many curves, it’s an interplay between the parts. I have an idea of the angle the spindles go into the seat, but where they end up at the top is something I map out with the copper. The copper and the spindles are flexible enough that I can adjust the curve for comfort and aesthetics. By rotating the posts in their mortises, I can slightly adjust the tilt of the entire back. Once I’ve dialed in the curve I want, I measure a couple of key points to make the bending forms. I need the distance between the posts and the distance from a line connecting the tops of the post to the center spindle.

Below you can see in red the two post positions and the relationship of the center spindle to them. Then I can use the copper or the adjustable curve tool (link here) to draw the center line. From there, I can add the mass of the crest to get the final shape and the bending forms. I like to slightly over bend these and then finish drying them in the kiln on a less bent form. This makes for a very accurate bend.

The left half of the form pattern is for the overbend and ther right hand is the final curve. Here are the finished forms.

When working out a chair intended for use at a table, I always drag it up to the house so I can experience it in position. The focus at a table is different, you tend to look straight ahead and downward more and even use the table to add stability, it all shifts your body position.

I appreciate all the great suggestions for topics to cover here. Soon, I’ll be finishing talking about drawknife sharpening, drilling and positioning arms, rocking chair dynamics and packing chairs for shipping. Thanks for your support and encouragement, I hope summer is treating you well.

I’ve been working on revamping my Birdcage sidechair for a set I’m building and thought I’d share some of the progress. To bring the travisher sharpening full circle, I’ll start with a video of carving out the seat bowl of the prototype. I like using adzes and inshaves, but I am still not in love with what’s available on the market. There are lots of well made ones, but I am super picky about tool geometry (in case you didn’t notice) and I don’t love telling people to spend money on tools I wouldn’t buy.

So without adzes or inshaves to recommend, I’ve been using the travisher for all my carving, even the heavy work. Here is a video of carving the bowl and front of the seat, it just takes 6 minutes. The video shows the action sped up, then in real time, and then a few strokes in slow motion. The slow motion clearly shows the subtle move at the end of each cut where I lift the blade out of the cut. It’s too fast to see in the other speeds.

You’ll also notice I go across the grain almost exclusively. This is the easiest and fastest way to get the material out without risk of tearing out. The sound is just a tiny bit off timing with the video so it might seem like the tool is cutting on the pull stroke, it isn’t, every cut is a push. And yes, I hum nonsense while I work…

The rest of the chair is coming together nicely, here is a shot of a mock up of the legs, seat and back.

I bent the spindles and then set out to bend the crest so I could start the final assembly. I’m three broken crests in and am starting to think the kiln dried hard maple won’t make the curve, not without soaking it. But I don’t want to do that because of the large ends I need for the later carving. I’m going to try it in ash tomorrow.

The crest you see below is from a different chair, but you can see how large the ends are. If I soak them, it would be weeks before I could trust them not to check up.

The v notch detail in the turnings has little “nodes” on either side, giving a slightly more organic feel. These are fun to do and will look great under the black paint.

The felt I line my bending forms with makes a cool imprint of the detail and doesn’t flatten or distort it at all. You can order the 1/2” hard felt here.

I love woodworking, but I must say, I think writing is the coolest craft. It’s crazy to have a window into the thoughts of Marcus Aurelius, Oscar Wilde…and yes, Chris Schwarz. No, I’m not here to glaze Chris, but he keeps doing this thing where he takes observations, thoughts, even feelings that I’ve been unable to process, let alone put into words, and write them out so my addled, pattern seeking brain feels a deep sense of relief. I am pretty sure the venn diagram of our readers is a small circle (mine) inside of a large one, but I am going to point you towards these posts anyway.

First is this one,

The American Peasant

I Love to Hate Your Work

Band members: “And how was it (the music…

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2 months ago · 101 likes · 20 comments · Christopher Schwarz

It’s an honest view into the experience of viewing other peoples work. He’s so right in giving deep thought to the works that rattle his cage. There is so much you can learn from this state of being, it doesn’t mean the work becomes “good”, it’s just a valuable lens through which you can discover the rules you play by and the why some things give you the “ick”.

Then there is this one about the different paths you might take on your furniture making journey. In recent years, I’ve become more shy about advising anyone in this endeavor. First, each persons ability, experience, luck, work ethic, ethics, personality etc…are just too different to try offer a framework. Second, I don’t ever want to lure anyone into some sense that they should be able to succeed or they are a failure. That’s not at all true.

But Chris does a good job distilling a couple of paths. I recall Curtis Buchanan saying his goal was to make chairs in his back yard and he measured every career choice in that light, long after his back yard dreams were secure. It’s a great metric I think about all the time. I have some different ambitions, but that thought tempers me.

This post gave me a great sense of clarity, but I can’t stop thinking about the flavor of deodorant I’d prefer.

The American Peasant

Earlywood: Success Isn’t at the Bookstore or the Museum

Publisher’s note: Once again, it’s time for Earlywood, a weekly excerpt from the thousands of pieces I’ve worked on since 1996. Sometimes, it’s from a magazine article. Or a book. Or (in this case) a blog post from 2017. Many of these entries have been updated with modern context or a new perspective. Enjoy…

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a month ago · 96 likes · 29 comments · Christopher Schwarz

Finally, this one on commissions is spot on. Sometimes I love having someone in mind when I’m working but it can also feel invasive. I know I sound like a hothouse flower saying that, but I’ve made lots of sacrifices to work the way I do, so jealously guarding the experience seems reasonable.

The American Peasant

Why I Hate Commission Work

“The way to succeed, in bookbinding, was to get out of it…

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a month ago · 104 likes · 19 comments · Christopher Schwarz

Wish me luck with the ash crest, I should have this chair together soon if all goes well.

I had a visit from Jeff Lefkowitz the other day. Jeff took a couple of classes with me nearly 20 years ago when I lived in upstate New York. If you don’t know, besides being an accomplished chair maker himself, Jeff has created and incredible archive of chair plans from many current chair makers. It’s a resource that will live on and a real tribute to Jeff’s skill and generosity. Jeff and I talked at length about getting “split” wood from boards and rocking chair technology. At his request, I’m going to do a series on the rocking chair soon.

Below is a video on getting “split” parts from boards. I must confess, I have a hard time parsing what information I’ve put out there and what might be worth sharing. I know we live in the information age, and there is just too much of it flying about, but I still live in the stone (or paper) age in some ways. I find myself thinking, “Didn’t I say that already?”. The answer might be yes, but it was in an obscure blog post in 2012. Jeff mentioned that he still found my take on this topic a bit confusing, so I decided to show a bit more of it. I had a board with extreme twist that inspired me to dive back in.

Once I’ve located the twist of the board, I bandsaw the board into parts parallel to the new reference face. I hope this adds to your understanding of the relationship between a sawn board and a split log. This particular board is such a great example of the perils of simply sawing up a board from the edges established by the sawmill. The The parts sawn this way would lots of short grain and grain reversals, so shaving or turning the parts will lead to tear out and the parts will be weaker and more likely to break in the chair or when bending. The growth rings on this board look very much in alignment with the surfaces, which is why I bought it, but there is clearly more to the story.

Recently I auctioned off a chair and the winner of the auction was Sam Fritcher from Texas. Sam sent me this lovely video of his “unboxing”.

I must dispute one comment Sam made. He used the work “perfect” and I assure you, I’ve never made anything “perfect” in my life. While I am grateful for his assessment, like so many, I struggle with perfectionism in my work and never want to give the wrong impression. When I’m in class, I remind my students that it’s fine to shoot for perfection, but to be content once we hit beautiful. Thanks for taking the time to record the message Sam, I’m thrilled the chair has found such a great home.

It’s also time I remind you how much your support means to me and my small shop.

The last big projects are coming to a close in the house and workshop. I finally got the house painted and was shocked at what a great difference it makes.

As a reminder, this is the house as I found it. I still miss the rusty roof, but my insurance company insisted it go.

And tomorrow the Solar installation on the barn will be complete.

This should be enough to cover all the heating/ cooling and electric needs for the house and workshop. It was always part of my plan, but I got tired of huge investments, so I put it off. Then I started getting $900 electric bills, so here we go.

Here is a video on honing the travisher. I do think it’s helpful to have it ground to do this, mainly because it takes so much less time and effort. If you let the hollow grind disappear completely, you will have to abrade the entire bevel to sharpen and it’s far more likely to start rounding over. I make my tools with O-1 tool steel, which is very quick to sharpen to a razor edge, though it may not last as long as some other steels. There are tougher and harder steels out there, but they may take more effort to sharpen to the same high level as O-1.

I choose my materials and processes, as I often do, factoring in my laziness. I’m much more likely to actually stop and sharpen if it takes 2 minutes versus 10.

I’m working on the prototype for my new birdcage side chair and rockers this week, I’ll be showing a bit more about that process as I get further into it.

This is part of the way design manages and impacts use, and in the case of my time at the museum, emotion. If you are really interested in this stuff, this is the book. The author is even honored with the descriptive of a “Norman Door”, which is a door that’s unclear whether it’s meant to be pushed or pulled.

I put a lot of tools in peoples hands for the first time. “This is a “blank”, it’s used for “blank””… I try to make tools that meet the new user closer to their instinct. Most tools do take some instruction, but there are usually lots of hints. It’s always fascinating to watch folks try to interpret the tool and use it just by the design alone. Here is a video with some tips that may not be your first instinct, but once you use the tools this way, it will seem obvious.

Here’s a video on grinding the travisher blade. I know this is very far from an obvious activity for folks. I’ve been trying to slowly bring you along with the grinder as your new best friend, this is just one more play date worth having. As usual, the light touch and fluid motion wins the day.

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It’s been a long time since I had a small class, the chill vibe was pretty nice. I’ll be finishing the chair I built and posting it on the website for sale. Here is a fav photo from the week. Like I said, chill vibes.

At first, I thought, too bad Grace’s eyes are shut, then I realized it matched Georgia and made it a much better picture!

I sent out a bunch of new T2 travishers last week, so I thought I’d cover some tips on using them as well as how to sharpen them up. I’ve had a long relationship with the travisher, it’s one of the first tools I made and using it transformed how I think about shaping wood. I recall making a “Buckhorn Scraper” from a Fine Woodworking Article for seat carving and it was not fun to use. I love scraping, but after I made a travisher, my Buckhorn scraper became a paperweight.

Lots of travishers have some sort of adjuster, but I don’t include them on my tools. If the sole is shaped correctly, you can vary the depth of cut by tipping the tool a little. I want to be able to take a bunch of thick hogging cuts and then light finishing cuts without looking for my allen wrench. Don’t get me wrong, most tools can be adjusted somewhat by the way you ride on the sole (as I show in the video), even with the adjusters.

Here are some thoughts on using the tool, next I’ll cover sharpening.

These days, I have my students carve their seats without adzes or inshaves. Yes, the travisher will be a hair slower, but they gain control and confidence quickly and the results are great.

I’m about 20 years in as a tool maker and I can see it from both sides. Trust me, it’s a challenge for them too. Sourcing parts, doing the administrative work, the shipping, the communication and finally, actually making the tool, can be challenging in ways tough to anticipate. Often the market size doesn’t support scaling up to a level of large production. So folks do their best to meet demand with whatever means they can. For the last few years, I’ve been working with a fantastic machinist on my Caliper, but he just informed me this will be the last year, so I’m back to searching out a new source. These setbacks can be expensive and kill production, leaving no one happy.

Even with the headaches and frustration, I truly enjoy designing tools and making them available. One key lesson I’ve learned is to enlist makers better than me to fulfill the demand. Last year, I started working with Caleb James and Tim Manney to produce the T2. We use blades made by Paul Clark (who works with Jason Lonon). It’s a dream team of production. I’m not bragging or trying to sell you on the tool, I’m pointing out what it takes to make these things work. I’ve been working with all three to make the parts go together better, faster and easier so to the tool can be continuously produced. Here is a batch of tools available for purchase on my website.

Tim is doing the assembly, finish and tuning. He’s been diving deep into the process to make it as smooth as possible. It’s a sweet spot for his skill set. I’m definitely better at the development of the tools and sourcing. I’m so grateful Caleb stepped up to make the bodies. The first company I worked with sent us parts with huge variations in quality and shape. The parts took way too much work to finish. Caleb’s parts are as near perfect as I could ask for. Once this lot is sold, I’ll take down the button on the site until we have more, but I hope this is the beginning of a steady stream tools now that the bugs are out of the system.

Recently, I fixed a couple of broken links on the bottom of my student tool list page, but because most folks probably won’t make it that far into the website, I want to share one that I find super useful in the shop. It’s a white styrene plastic I use for making patterns.

Unlike poster board which frays and breaks down or thick material like masonite that’s hard to mark small holes through, this stuff is durable and easy to work with. Here is a pattern for an arm I recently made.

It comes in 4X8’ sheets rolled up for shipping. It’s the stuff “FOR SALE'‘ signs are made of. I have some that’s .020” thick and .030” thick. Here’s a link for the .020” stuff.

It cuts with a score and snap, so you don’t need to do much beyond a light razor cut of the shape you want

.

Then just snap the sheet along the line.

My favorite part is the way it spokeshaves beautifully, so fairing shapes is a snap.

To make holes for marking drilling locations, I poke it with an awl which pushes a small button of material out the opposite face, which I trim with a chisel.

I usually use this stuff for patterns I’m creating, but you can use spray adhesive to glue paper patterns to it as well. It’s not going to adhere as cleanly as it might with poster board, but the durability of the pattern is worth it. If anyone has better ideas for transferring paper patterns to it, I’d love to hear them. Every time I pull out a tattered old posterboard pattern, I promise myself I’ll replace it with this stuff before the next time I use it. But then I get distracted thinking about finding that new machinist for the Caliper and…

I wanted to get a very thin finish, so there are places you can see the undertones and wood slightly exposed. Of course, over the life of the chair, you will see more of this, it’s one of my favorite looks.

I like the sort of metallic glow of the paint with the wood grain clearly visible beneath.

Let me know if you have any questions before you bid.

It’s a silent auction, so just bid what you want and next Monday (June 15th), I’ll contact the winning bidder. The bid includes shipping in the lower 48 or you can pick up the chair at my shop in Maine and I’ll make you a cup of coffee!

Here is the Temple Chair I sold last month on it’s way to it’s new home. I am excited to be finishing chairs and moving them along, it feels wonderful after the last few years of not having time to see pieces all the way to completion.

A quick tip on shipping. I use pipe insulation on the feet to suspend the chair above the floor of the box prior to inserting and fastening the cardboard struts. This helps isolate the piece from the exterior surfaces so the piece is just floating on the inside of the box.

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Here is a drawknife I ground without the use of any jig or tool rest. The wavy line you see running down the center of the bevel is the lamination line where the high carbon steel is attached to the back of the blade.

I haven’t taught this technique in 20 years, so I had to think a bit about how to present it, but the real question I had in my mind was “Why?”. I know a much more controllable way to do this with a simple jig.

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I made a video about grinding one of these with the express purpose of showing techniques for grinding without heating up and then I demonstrate how to behave to ensure you do burn and ruin the edge.

For those who are unfamiliar, tools such as chisels are high carbon steel. To make a durable edge, high carbon steel is heated to a very high temperature and then quickly cooled to lock it in a very hard state. Then, it’s heated again to soften (temper) the steel to the desired hardness. If you heat it up too much while grinding, it will continue the softening process and “lose it’s temper”. Yes, that’s where that phrase comes from, easy to remember. Losing your temper means you are getting too “hot”.

This video isn’t about getting a perfect grind or straight edge, it’s about becoming familiar with the tools. Like driving in an empty parking lot before hitting the highway, I truly believe everyone should lower the stakes by buying some near dead tools and burning them up. You will learn tons.

I especially like this lesson to be well learned before jumping to grinding drawknives. They aren’t very different, but they are a bit unforgiving if you seize up like a cadaver once the sparks start flying. In the video, I do quench the tool in water during the process because I’m removing a lot of material on a very fine stone. I almost never find this necessary. During normal grinding operations, I am usually removing so little material the heat build up it isn’t a concern. Try not to rely too heavily on quenching, it’s a sign you might be applying too much pressure or removing material too fast. In the video, I show applying a lot of pressure to create the heat to burn the edge, but if you are letting the tool heat up too much during regular grinding, you might be close to burning without so much pressure, especially as the edge gets thin. Another reason to go slow and run cool.

Next I’ll show drawknife grinding. I learned to do it freehand from Dave Sawyer, maybe I’ll show that for fun. Luckily there’s an easier ways to get a good grind. I learned to do the grind freehand when drawknives were still $20, not quite $2, but the stress was definitely lower.

The beauty of the system is that the good ideas will live on and the bad ones will die out or be replaced. In making chairs, I found a lot of assumptions about tools and processes came from misappropriating tools. That reamer that surely proves 12 degrees is the best angle for leg tenons was a coopers tool someone found at a flea market… and so on.

It’s also an easy temptation to enshrine the things we were taught. Honestly, I learned some pretty bad ways of making chairs from some exceptional makers. Just because it works for them and is comfortable in their shop, doesn’t make a technique the best.

There are a bunch of ways to sharpen a drawknife. Yes, I designed a tool to help with this task and made it available because it’s proven itself in my hands and many others. But it’s hardly the only way. I want to guide you through a few different way to get results rehabilitating old knives or just maintaining and edge. Here I’ll start with the simplest, just using sandpaper to shape and polish the edge. If there’s not going to be any grinding, it helps to have an edge that is already well formed. If not, you might find using coarser sandpaper will certainly speed the process. In the video, I tune a Kimball drawknife belonging to Joel Paul using 600 grit silicon carbide sandpaper.

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Thanks to all the new supporters who have joined recently, you are making a huge difference for myself and all the folks who work with me.

Chris Schwarz is in the shop this week teaching his Comb Back Stick chair. I’m super excited to have him teaching here. I love his approach to making chairs accessible to folks, plus he’s a hoot to hang out with.

Here is the Temple Chair I painted recently. I’ve been talking to Chris about his use of drawings to sell the chairs he makes in class and I’m ready to give it a try. I’m linking the price of the class chair to the cost of the class, so this one is $2000. I build a chair along with each class and while the class is my first priority when teaching, I still end up with a chair I’m proud of and I want to send it off to be enjoyed.

I will hold a drawing to decide the purchaser on Thursday May 28th. If you are interested, please email peter@petergalbert.com with the subject line May2026Temple. The price includes shipping and crating within the lower 48 or you can pick up the piece at my shop in Berwick Maine.

The piece has a pine seat and everything else is hard maple. It’s finished with Milk Paint and 4 coats of a Boiled Linseed Oil and Spar Varnish mix. The seat height is 25”.

I am planning on shooting some videos delving a deeper into drawknives and sharpening once I have full run of the shop again, but until then, I’m working on the set of birdcages. I have rod back to use as a model that I made in the early 2000’s, but I am making some changes. I’m starting the process by changing the bends a bit and then I’m going to be mocking up a chair with the parts I’ve made to work out the new geometry.

Here are some old forms I’m updating. I want the bend to more closely follow the spindle bend I want to use, so I altered the shape.

When I started out, I made parts like this with a full tapered tenon and came up with all sorts of ways ways to ream in the parts to get them in position. Honestly, it was hit or miss. I had to make up for inconsistency in the bends and their relationship to the tenon, which is very challenging with curved parts. Three changes in my process made this much easier.

First, I started working with dried wood for these parts. They dry much faster and with less distortion, plus I can pre-dry the tenons easily. I leave the tenons outside of the steamer with a little trap door rig I made. If the tenons were to be in the steamer, it would swell and not fit in

the mortise incorporated in the bending form.

I steam air or kiln dried wood for 2 1/2 hours. The forms I use over bend these parts. I leave them to set for a day or so before putting them in a drying form that opens the bend up a hair. This sets the bend very accurately.

Secondly, I use a half tapered tenon. This joint has many benefits. It aligns beautifully with the hole I’ve already drilled when I ream with a pvc guide pipe on my reamer.

To make the pipe guide, I add a small piece of tubing over the end of the reamer, to keep the pvc, pipe (shown below) in line with the axis of the reamer. The pvc is a snug fit in the drilled hole but is loose enough to spin. Just a few turns of the reamer and the joint is set. When I wedge it from the bottom, the tenons forms and hourglass shape and locks from the top and bottom.

Finally, I incorporate a mortise on the form to set the relationship between the curve and the tenons. It takes the guesswork out of reaming the part into place, especially when I using the half tapered tenons on the end of the posts. Here is the block with the mortise incorporated into the bottom of the form.

I use the lower clamp block to keep the bending from stressing the joint at the bottom and the top one draws the part against the form.

I’ve always used two part forms, with a felt lined v shape where the part seats to keep it in a single plane. I unlocked a post I did a while back with more details on making the forms if you are interested.

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I will be getting enough parts in today to send out all the remaining drill extender orders, thanks for your patience!

There is still space in the upcoming Modern Rocker Class, check out the details here.

Back in 2020 (you remember that year, right?!) I found myself thrust into a form of unemployment and started shooting videos to make ends meet. I’d been meaning to do it for years, but nothing like a world wide pandemic to get the juices flowing. The technical learning curve was quite steep, and now when I look back, I cringe a bit at the look of things. That said, I think the content still stands up. I decided to start breaking up the Foundations series and offering it for free on Youtube. I’m going to make the segments digestible, about 10 minutes each. It’s going to take a bit of effort and time to upload them, if you subscribe to the channel, you can get notified when new ones post.

I am forever grateful to all those who purchased the videos throughout the years. If you want the whole series now, or downloadable in an easy format, visit Vimeo on Demand to purchase it, I’d appreciate your support. Here’s the first couple of entries.

Last week student of mine located a source for shrink wrap tubing that doesn’t require dealing with certain unappealing corporations, plus it’s cheaper. Here’s a link https://uspackagingandwrapping.com/shrink-tubing.html

Check out this tiny Helix chair made by Nick Atwater of Atwatervintage.com. Nick is a former student who made this for a recent art show.

It’s quite fitting to get this in the mail today, having wrapped up a Helix class yesterday.

Here are a couple of the big Helix chairs going together.

On to the actual post topic! During class we had a lively discussion around drawknives. Of course, Joel and I waxed poetic about the good ol’ days of getting $20 Witherby’s online, but alas, those days are largely gone. But I don’t think acquiring a reasonably priced old knife and getting it work great has to be too challenging. I’m going to go through some of what I look for in an old knife and how I tune it in the next post or two while I recover from class.

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First a few announcements. For those who ordered the chuck extension rods, I sent out a bunch and just got parts for 20 more. I should have enough parts for everyone who ordered in the next couple of weeks. Thanks for your patience, I didn’t expect them to be so popular.

Speaking of tools, the Galbert Caliper is back in stock and I am just about to the end of the T2 waitlist. Please let me know if I haven’t contacted you. Soon I will be able to have some for purchase as Tim Manney get’s them done. He’s doing an fantastic job on these.

On to the finish on the Temple chair I showed in process recently. I’m considering following Chris Schwarz’s model and doing a silent auction for this one, but I really like it and feel attached, so it might be a few weeks until I can let it go.

The grain popping on the seat is hugely gratifying.

Here’s a few more angles

As I mentioned, I have been doing some tests on the Helix bend. I made 8 bends, varying the thicknesses and even the location of some of the transitions in the shaping, but none of it seemed to make a difference. However, increasing the steam time to an hour and then another 20 minuted in the shrink wrap yielded the best results. I also used hard felt mounted on wood as clamp pads to give more support in the areas that seemed to need it, which made for more even distribution of pressure.

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While parts were steaming, I finished turning the legs for the class. Here is the lathe cam of the process.

It’s a simple leg, but while shooting the video, I thought of a few details worth pointing out. If you watch it again after reading this, you’ll notice these details.

• When I start, I turn the entire piece to round. I roughed out this materials when it was green, so it went a bit oval on me. I find that leaving any part out of round can create more vibration, so step one was to cut the entire surface.

• When I shape the top part next to the tenon, I cut a series of “stair steps” to create a shape and then I smooth them over. I do this all the time when making shapes.

• When I move to the lower half, I cut both directions in the relatively straight area, but I’m careful not to cut backwards in the area that tapers because the tool can climb out of control.

• I slow down the lathe to use the skew, which is my preference.

• I use my hand to steady the leg as I skew the final surface and shape, but I’m also getting lots of feedback on the shape and feeling for any lumpiness.

Besides all this, I busted up a lot of firewood, burned the scrap pile, tended to the trees I planted, glued up seats, did tons of administrative items I’ve been neglecting and a million little tasks that just needed to happen. I also took time to pay attention to the spring buds and beautiful light on the woodwork the horses did on my barn.

Don’t worry, not all the future posts will be this chaotic, but somehow, it really was one of the most “flow” state weeks I’ve had in a long time.

I’ve been doing some sample bends to test my material for the Helix Chair class next week. I’m also experimenting to get more consistent results. There are many variables in bending, most of the time, it’s relatively forgiving, but this bend pushes the envelope.

Here is a list of the variables that can affect the results.

• The heat and size of the steam box

• The time in the steamer

• The thickness of the part in relation to the radii of the bend

• Number of parts in the steamer

• The wood species

• The wood specimen

• The complexity of the bend (like a Continuous arm with two planes of bend)

• The variations in the shape of the part

• Time it takes to make the bend

The last one is often the source of stress. Time seems to dilate when a part comes out of the steamer. Staying calm and moving with purpose is important, but when the part is as complex as the Helix arm, a little help is in order. I use shrink wrap tubing to extend the working time and calm my nerves. I haven’t found a good source beyond Uline (a company I try to avoid). The wrap comes in a roll and I buy the 6 inch width. I’ve also had good luck using aluminum foil. The premise is simple, if the part is sealed, the moisture, and therefore the heat, can’t escape. It extends the working time to minutes. I know this doesn’t sound long, but most bends take less than a minute.

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