Wood 'n' Soul

Things are progressing right along on the cabinets.


The images here show the sides - top and bottom sides - in the clamps being glued together. The process is to make big pieces out of smaller pieces, them make them smaller [the right size].


I hand plane all of the joined pieces after glue up for a final finish. It gives a great, smooth look.


Here is the older “Son” of Holeman & Sons checking out the rough pieces, which will be the tops and bottoms, and the finished sides [he is one tough QA Inspector!!].

I have the tops and bottoms in the clamps tonight.

I went to Mt. Storm Friday to pick up some wood and was talking with my rep there. Woweee! Wood, especially Alder is going up and up in price. Apparently they are using it [Alder] back east for framing houses... it is the “new, hip wood”. It is nice to know we are on the cutting edge - I build furniture to last 100 years and it is now hip, trendy and cool too!

I’ll try to have some more images in a day or so. All of the pieces will start to take more shape soon, but first I'll have to do some finsih work on them.

I delivered the chair and forgot to take any more pix - a brain is a terrible thing to lose [or perhaps never to have had at all - sigh]. The table and four chairs all looked really nice back home! The owner said that they looked like the table and chairs he remembered as a kid - I guess it all came out OK.


Here is a rather poor shot, but the only one available right now, of the cabinets and mantel. The new paint job in the room really makes them pop! It is a beautiful room, warm and comfortable and inviting - a place where people want to be together.




Here are some shots of me planning the sides of the cabinets I’m making for a really nice lady in Healdsburg. She is celebrating her birthday this weekend - Happy Birthday!!!

The project is moving along nicely. We are discussing some changes to the top. Adding doors to one or perhaps both cabinets. We’ll see how that works out - it would make a very elegant cabinet!

The beginning of a project is always interesting to me - even the grandest projects start with modest beginnings. This cabinet side, one of four, looks quite pedestrian at this point. I have just glued up three pieces of Alder to make one side. As you can see from the end closest to the camera, the boards are a bit uneven at the ends and there are some serious knots and blems that will not be in the final piece.


I’ll leave these in the clamps for at least 4 hours - often overnight before breaking them out. I’ll then rough cut them for size [avoiding the blems] and them plane them for thickness. These will have dovetail joints at the top. The set of doors will be a custom frosted glass - a unique feature, and will really help to set off the piece.


You can see from the plans these [there are two identical cabinets] will be unique and beautiful pieces of furniture - very functional as well.

I’ll have some more pix later of the chair, which is in the clamps now and will be refinished tomorrow, and I have one image of the cabinets I built for the folks in Sebastopol.

Last Friday, "The Sons" [of Holeman & Sons a future woodworking powerhouse] and Holeman went to a really great Open House at one of our suppliers, Mt. Storm Forest Products. They put on an amazing feed and had lots of good information as well. A good time was had by all here!

This weekend, as I was driving the last leg home on the Windsor chairs I have rebuilt and refinished, the leg simply broke. The air was a bit blue for a while and “The Sons” may have learned some new vocabulary.

After a bit, I figured out it was actually a good thing that it broke while I was working it. It failed catastrophically, and would have been terrible if someone was sitting in it!!

I’ll get it done by late this week and it will join its brothers and the table at its real home.

I’m starting two new projects - one a hutch, a pretty good sized one - nearly 10’ wide and about 9’ tall. It will be a pretty one. I’ll post some plans tomorrow.

I’m also starting some cabinets for a really nice lady in Healdsburg. They will go in her office. I’ll have some plans for those up soon as well.

Both will be made of Alder and stained to a specific color. Both will have some nice glass work as well. More as we progress through the projects.

While I’m at a job site putting in some built-in cabinets, the “Sons” of Holeman & Sons, is taking care of business.

The Sons are sanding down a chair, part of a set plus table I’m [or should I say we] are refinishing. They did a great job. This is the second one they’ve done.

It is a bit early in the game, but one has hopes that some day Holeman & Sons may be a reality!