A Partnership is Born

I'm pleased to announce a partnership between my good friend and fellow craftsman, farrier by day and artist by night - Jonathon Porter of Doghouseforge.com. He is a master of metal and has allowed me to be the baron of sawdust. In simpler words, I get to make the wooden bits that complement his metal bits.

It's been fun working on these projects, and I'm excited to enter the world of online retail. Head on over to the shop and pick something out!

www.doghouseforge.com

The Wood and How We Work It

Recently at MenilFest, a group of poets could be found that would write poetry on the spot, dedicated to you and your chosen topic. It just so happened that my good friend and proprietor of  Houston's greatest watering hole, Mongoose vs. Cobra, Shafer Hall, had already conceived and put to paper a poem that I rather like and think you will too.

Without further ado, I give to you, the world, The Wood and How We Work It, by Shafer Hall.

For some folks, it's about
the sound of the spindle
sanding, and for some
it is the smooth curl
of white oak when
the chisel slides
along its geometric plane.

Some see the forms and faces
inside the fallen tree,
others seek the more material
high of shellac
in the poorly-ventilated garage.

Most of us are just looking
for a place to sit and drink
a beer; the best table
is not a table until
a few of us are sitting there.
That guy in the basement
is having the time of his life
so later we can have
the time of ours.

Flat(ter) Than a Pancake

A few months back, I was given a fairly large slab of "green" pecan wood. The piece had been chainsaw milled and was left sitting outside, leaning against a fence in the weather. Two things were fighting the original owner here, it was as wavy as the ocean in a storm and was not dry enough to work with. 

Have no fear, we can work with that.

"We Live Like Castaways" and the art of design

The majority of this topic is largely based upon the musings of David Pye, creator of the bowl at left and author of The nature and aesthetics of design. I'll pull some quotes from the book and just ramble on about what they mean to me; all while I wait anxiously to hear what they mean to you. Hopefully we won't go off the deep end!

I'm probably not the first nor the last to stand on Pye's shoulders and expand on his philosophy, but I'll do it anyways. I just hope you get as much of a good kick out of the book as I do.

Just a Shelf

Nothing too fancy here today, just a small shelf built out of some 18 gauge mild steel I had on hand. I needed a shelf to get my music player off of the workbench. This is one of those things that shows you don't need all of the fancy tools to get something done - it just might take you two hours instead of 20 minutes.

The Almost Cube - Nail it Down

Everything should be in place now to join the two pieces that you've labored over for hours and hours.. There's one problem, the top fits just inside the cube... If only we could weld some tabs in place to support the top and allow for seasonal wood movement at the same time....

An easy step by step and metal finishing techniques after the jump.

The Almost Cube - Topping it Off

Last but not least - finishing and installing the table top. The fat lady has sung, and now it's time to finish this. Literally, we need to apply the finish.

Don't despair, the clown striped wood on the left is the bottom. The light and dark contrasts are from the heartwood and sapwood variances. This is why it's on the bottom. I'll show you how to decipher all of this after the jump.