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For the last 2 years, I’ve been doing increasingly more woodcarving, anywhere from spoons and bowls taken from logs to Norwegian forms of carving. In response to my receiving a grant from the North Dakota Council on the Arts, I’ve been specializing in crafting original Norwegian inspired ale bowls. It led Barb and I to rethink our business ventures so we have renamed it Skanderna Wood Works. I’ll continue to make chairs so this blog will continue on furniture making topics.
Please check out https://skandernawoodworks.wordpress.com
I am planing to do most of the joinery by hand so it is authentic in appearance. I look forward to using hand planes to cut the ogee sided grooves that are distinctive on the stiles, rails, and muttins.
the DVD by Peter Follansbee many times on building oak boxes and also utilized his article in February 2018 issue of Popular Woodworking. I’ve benefitted too from the blogs that Follansbee regularly post. Even with great help like that there is still much more to know which only comes from your experience of doing it yourself.
Now I split pegs with a peg cleaver that was made by blacksmith Tom Latane, of Pepin, Wisconsin, which gives me improved control. It was somewhat awkward to use a large froe to split pegs as I recently did. Tom does beautiful work and the details on the handle are cool. If you haven’t looked at one, they a fairly hefty tool, and weight is a key aspect since they aren’t a cutting tool as Tom mentioned to me. I’ve watched Peter Follansbee use one on a DVD, and like a froe you can drive the cleaver with a club or mallet. You can also split stock by using the weight of the tool itself. I am clearly making the commitment to take on 17th Century furniture projects, probably because the carving really speaks to me.
I know that I’m one of many in saying this, but I am getting progressively more interested in the carving designs utilized in the 1600s. Perhaps in some way I’m feeling a connection with some of my dad’s Scandinavian family who arrived in Delaware in the 1656 timeframe. They were around English style oak furniture in the colonies and became more and more assimilated into English culture though political changes and intermarriage. Anyway, I finally acquired a copy of Living with Oak: Seventeenth Century English Furniture Then and Now by John Fiske and Lisa Freeman, 2005, and as I flipped the pages I was thrilled to learn more about English oak carving from that period. The Belmont Press out of Belmont, Vermont is the publisher. I’ve clearly got the bug to master this kind of carving. I like it enough to order the more recent book on the same subject, When Oak was New, again by Fiske (2013). I’m looking forward to scouring the many hundreds of photos in it. After looking at other sources, I purchased it through the Fiske and Freeman website and even spoke with John Fiske over the telephone.
When you don’t carve that often you can easily make more mistakes when you re-emerge yourself into it. I had a super busy week at church, and although I have watched the Follansbee DVD numerous times on oak desk boxes, it didn’t stop me from goofing on my v tool work. According to the original 17th Century oak desk box, the outside lines on the tulips are supposed to stop short of the point on the leaf design. My outside lines were carried too far and are curved somewhat. I was looking at the line drawing and forgetting that the chopped accents are what makes the curvature at the ends of the lines. Oh well, you can’t see both sides at the same time anyway.
As I said in my last post, I’ve been looking at different ways to make steel punches that I can use for carvings. So far my materials include O1 drill rod from Enco, hot rolled and cold rolled stock from Menards, an old screwdriver, and a 3″ cut nail. I feel like I’m either getting closer to the goal or expecting too much.
If you like 17th Century carving on oak boxes then you know about using a steel stamp on the backgrounds. I’m now a dabbler in making punches that can stamp a Maltese cross or add a decorative background on my carvings. So far I’ve made two punches for stamping a Maltese cross using some drill rod. However, those now seem oversized so I used smaller diameter materials to make two more. I also invested in a couple knife shaped files for cutting the rest of my steel stamps. My last two stamps were made using a worn out screwdriver and a large cut nail. It is harder than it looks to carefully file away the metal so it gives you the desired impression when struck with a hammer.
Do forgiving eyes help cheer us on when attempting new techniques? I worked on the front of the oak desk box project today. Personally, I will trust that human eyes will be forgiving on this first carved desk box. Thank you Jennie Alexander for reminding us though that our eyes tend to be forgiving of mistakes. Because it matters that we might not recognize artistic value which comes from things planned or unplanned in our furniture work.
Jim the Chairmaker's Blog 
