Wood 'n' Soul

While I was stripping the finish off of the bottom of the chair, I came across this. Looks like someone has run a belt sander over the bottom. Also, the front spindles, which are all of the way through the seat, were trimmed with a file it appears.
Fascinating what one finds when one refinishes furniture -one truly never knows - and one always wonders why someone would do something like that???

And lastly, I received a commission for a reception desk//kiosk to be made of leopard wood and mahogany today. It will sit in one of the high-line realty offices in Healdsburg. It will be a fun project to watch and, of course to build. Nice folks too. The partner who is my point of contact is one of the nicest and most straight forward people I’ve met in a long time.

I worked on the chair some more today - it finally stopped raining enough for me to set up my shaving horse outside [I can use it inside, but it is so much more enjoyable to use it outdoors!].

It is a 16th or 17th century, depending on who one reads, tool that has seem little improvement in the hundreds of years of it’s existence. Mine is built in the traditional way - no metal parts - though the bicycle tube on the holdfast may not be entirely traditional, it is easier for me to find than wet leather]. I will use it often as I rebuild this chair

I use it for many things whilst building a chair - this time I used it to shave down the leg tenons a bit so they fit the holes for them I the seat. Tim always leaves them a tad oversize, as he should, and the shaving horse, with a spokeshave is a fast and easy way to size them.

Well, it isn’t tomorrow, or even the day after, but I have a lot of stuff to post today - all good as they say.

I finished my wood rack on Sunday and loaded it up. It makes a difference in my compact Euroshop. I’m lovin’ it! It gives me enough room that I can now, if need be, work both sides of my cutting and assembly table. I have included 2 pix giving a different perspective. If you can’t tell, I’m really pleased to have it in - pleased too at the cost - less than $50. Not the fanciest perhaps, but it can store a lot of wood in a compact area. And it is free standing as well. The plan is to put it on some heavy duty [I mean really heavy duty] casters one of these days.

Hoozaah!

My new web site is live!

I realy like the clean, crisp look and feel.

And clients and prospective clients can see some of my recent projects.

There is a link just to the left or use http://www.clintholeman.com

Enjoy!

Tim brought the legs back today - I had him do them because he is faster and more experienced than me and, they look great! He did a very good job on them and quickly too! He is quite a good turner! He wants to make bottle stoppers from the ends when I cut them off - and so he shall. The legs and rungs still need fitting [including leveling], some sanding and, of course finishing - a lot of doing left for me.

I started removing the old finish in earnest today - with the bottom of course. It is not too bad, though it will require a good sanding. There are areas where there is a goodly amount of wear - we’ll have to see about those.

There is still a whole lot of work left to do before this chair can go home!

More tomorrow!

I have finished the single drawer duplicate. It is as close to being like the other as is humanly possible - which is what the client wanted - voila`! The Accuride drawers slides are very nice and, much faster to do than my usual hand crafted drawer slides of wood. Nice as they are, fast as they are to install - I still like my traditional wood ones - but I am a real tradionalist when it comes to such things and - the customer always gets what they want.

I refinished the front of the original so that both drawers would match well. They both have that really nice, deep glass luster.

Et fini!

On to rebuilding and refinishing the chairs and table! And also a dictionary stand. And some other projects waiting in the wings.

Well, the first picture shows a rarity in my shop - metal drawer slides. These are nice ones, they just seem a bit out of place to me. I much prefer hand made wooden slides and my guess is that they will last longer. But the client wanted one drawer duplicated - and it came with metal slides. So... we are doing metal slides. It will be delivered Monday or Tuesday.

The next image shows a broken Windsor style chair. It is #1 one of 4, plus a table to be refinished and repaired. I went to see this very nice lady, expecting to tell her to buy new stuff and, she has this really nice chair, plus three more in not quite as needing of repairs and, a terrific table made of 2’ think Alder it seems. Also she has several nice and unique antiques, including some children’s furniture such as a miniature roll top desk from France and, a beautiful chest of drawers with horizontal book-matched drawers with the teeniest pin-tails I’ve ever seen - WAY cool!

I sanded a bit on the chair to see how it would go and make sure the wood is oak - and it is - the chair is completely made of red oak it appears. Lots ‘o’ work on this one - just punching the broken stubs of legs out took some serious elbow grease - and a pretty good sized hammer. It will be a fun project to follow!

The closet frame and doors, sliding shelves, rolling hamper and, molding are all done. They are all here, laid out on my cutting/assembly table for final inspection by my QA person [my wife, who is one of the pickiest people I know, a really good thing - and they all passed!!].

The door and floor molding took a good bit longer than I anticipated, but will make a nice finishing touch for the bathroom.

The long sliding shelves work very well indeed. In my opinion, metal drawer sliders are highly over-rated! I like the rolling hamper for the bottom. I’m sure it will prove to be a convenient addition.

It has been a fun project for some really great people! They are out of town until next week, and I think they’ll have a nice homecoming present! I only wish the photographs did justice to the finish - it looks like the finish on a piano, only the wood is so much more vibrant. Everyone wants to touch it! And they can, the finish is very durable.

Time to clean up my shop and move on to the next project.

Here are some pix of the sliding shelves. The first one shows how I “adjust” the fit so that they all are as perfect as I can get them.

The others are of the sliders themselves. The one with all the clamps is. of course, during glue up.

All of the significant construction is now finished. There will be some adjustments as we go along, but the main work of constructing the closet is finished!! The doors must still be hung, wheels installed and, the final adjustments to the sliders will be made during installation. I will start the finishing process on everything tomorrow and hopefully be finished before the weekend!

Of course, there will be pix as we go.

I spent a goodly part of the day correcting an assumption I made.

I bought 12 mm baltic ply for the bottoms of the sliding shelves and... the piece is about 0.015 oversize.

So ----- after finiding that even with my trusty mallet and strong right arm, it wouldn't fit the 0.5 in [12.2 mm] dado, I put a small rabbet around the edge of the plywood and voila` it fits - perfectly.

A small set back, but problem solved, only added to the daily agro {ok, life is very good!!}. Next time I'll measure it with my calipers and make sure it is really 12 mm

I'll have some pix tomorrow, promise! I'm getting close! My client is ready to install the rest of the project!!

I finished the doors yesterday. I put a nice hand cut bevel on them and also on the molding for the main door and floor. I use two planes - my small smoother and a rounding bevel plane - they both cut very well with sharp blades and leave a pleasant and distinctive edge.

I cut all of the sliding drawer pieces today and routed the drawer runners and slots for the bottoms. Tomorrow I’ll do the dovetails and put them together - hopefully more pix then.

I finished the closet frame today, as well as rough cutting the doors [final for width - rough for length]. It is strong, but unwieldy [8 feet long].

One of the miters on the frame took a bit longer - sometimes they are fussy - so am I, and they must fit perfectly.

The picture shows the smaller door on the bottom where the laundry hamper will be. The upper door is standing up on the right. Sliding shelves will be in the upper section.

I’ll finish this part tomorrow, and then go to work on the sliding shelves and laundry hamper.

Well - Happy New Year to you all! I was going to do more over the holidays, but managed to get sick and spend almost all of the holiday in bed - sigh.

My client installed the cabinets [with a little help from the builder] and they look pretty spiffy!! The counter top looks really nice with the Leopard wood and mahogany. The picture still doesn’t do justice to the cabinets.

I’m working on finishing the closet - two big doors and some sliding shelves and, a clothes hamper of my own design that will fit in the bottom and be quite mobile for doing the laundry.

Also, I’m making some molding for the entry door and floor - all by hand. The bathroom is going to be a real showcase of the wood. The client said folks just have to pet the finish on them. It works!

I should have some pix of the doors and shelves later this week.