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I hope that this blog inspires and enables new and experienced woodworkers alike

Arrived in the US with purpose

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It’s almost 5am and with just four hours of sleep since I arrived home and my head hit the pillow I am wondering why I am so wide awake. My first flight yesterday was flawless, my second made up for it. Not only was it delayed for 5 ½ hours, the plane was bounced and tossed from pillar to post the whole trip. But then I asked myself if I had ever flown with United when the plane was on time and couldn’t really remember one.

Travelling to and from the US is always a 24 hour trip by the time you have changed and arrived at your final destination and delays and transfers are a part of it I am afraid. When I stand and watch the number of planes take off the runways of different airfields I am always amazed at the frequencies with just minutes and even seconds between each one. The security conveyor belts form ever greater circuitous routes at this time when tourism begins moving toward its peaks and the heightened issues surrounding travel and airports increases. Apart from the odd character failure in individuals I am amazed at how very controlled people are.

I always feel a sense of purpose travelling back and forth between the two continents. It’s as if as I grow older I feel an awareness that whatever I have learned and mastered in my life must be passed on as simply and as quickly as possible. The next generation and to my fellow woodworkers may well find it of value to them in their own personal growth. When I look at an old cottage in England and see details that inch by inch become lost, I want to draw it, photograph it and preserve it before it gets buried beneath modernity. That’s why the written works of people like Aldren Watson, John Seymour and Eric Sloane are so valuable to us now. They captured and froze what they knew—gleanings from their lives and of others long gone; whole phrases, simple terms and even single words that stop us and suspend us for a brief moment to encapsulate important issues of sustainability as enveloped spheres of creative artisanry. Artisanry now slipping from our memories in the present into forgotteness.

New Legacy woodworking, the schools and the written work I am involved with will hopefully stem some of the ebb and flow and allow enough swell to impact the lives of young woodworkers searching for answers. If we make things designed to last from skills passed on designed to last using tools and methods designed to last we might stem the tide of consumerism at least in woodworking that says change the screwgun (drill-driver UK)colour, we must sell more and more and more. Increase the battery power to strip out more screws and then change from Philips heads to square heads to torx heads and bit drivers to resolve the problems we only had because we needed more torque at faster rates so we could get out of the workshop faster when in actuality we quite liked being in the workshop before we made it so, well, industrial.

As long as we pursue machine-only woodworking, we eliminate children and young people from the workplace at home. Think about it.

Penrhyn Castle Tour Session #5

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This is the dressing room next to the bedroom in the previous post. I like spending time in here when I can. The atmosphere is most pleasing and I like the way the light filters in through the shuttered windows.

This fitted wardrobe is filled with drawers and shelves used for clothing and bed linen storage. The carvings are mixed geometric simpleness with complex freeform areas.  Moustached faces are repeated throughout each section, adding a sort of wood-spirit impression. This is a fairly large piece at 12’ long and 7’6” tall.

The large dress mirror continues some of the castle column theme, repeat arching and so on.

This Hopper desk seems out of place here and of course with the arched kneehole being so low, it was obviously not used in the common way. But there are aspects to the desk that I really like in that it’s a masculine desk and has a 1” thick slate work surface. The wallpaper in the background is by William Morris.

The chapel

The arched ceiling in the chapel is vaulted with segmented arching supported on typical columns that continue into graceful proportions that then culminate in central rosettes. Arched windows and doorways and recesses further define the arching.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This balustrade unites the entrance with the main chapel body via a small set of stairways and each column is independently carved in its own unique characteristic carving.

Stained glasswork forms the window panels, but just look at the vivid blues and yellows and purples.

Penrhyn Castle Tour Session #4

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A Bedroom Fit for a Queen

This bedroom is classic for Royalty and the nobility of the era. Nothing was too grand, expensive or considered wasteful if you could lure a queen to sleep in your house. The whole castle was built for just such a thing (such is the dynamic that affects us when we want to be accepted) and at the then cost of 150, 000 (450,000,000) for building such a creation. But it’s the workmanship I pursue in this and not the inequality of the haves and the have-nots. Hopper worked indefatigably to complete this room with just such royalty in mind. Though ending in disappointment, the bed, carved from solid slate, was a unique work of creative design and craftsmanship. Specifically designed and made for the then queen to sleep in, fear prevented her in that she felt in imminent danger with such weight looming at such lofty heights during her sleep.

Slate makes a good hard roof that outlasts all others in terms of longevity and the same might be said for it as a bed when I think that this one is 150 years old, but in terms of carving it, slate is fairly soft to carve, saw and polish. I think this bed is a more dramatic than many others by virtue of the fact that it is made from solid slate alone. The sweeping serpentine footboard replete with incised carving would make a stunning replication in oak or cherry, walnut or mesquite.

A Picture Frame

It should not go unnoticed that this picture frame too reflects the creative artisan at his best. I would like to replicate this in lime or basswood. This type of carving is not so much complex to carve as tediously geometric and repetitive. By knife or chisel, it’s still a lot of exacting and time-consuming work. There are some very fine carvers still producing high levels of design and craftsmanship in wood today that I so respect.

Another Hopper Piece

Again, Hopper introduces the Norman neo-classic he was determined to parallel throughout the Castle in the furnishings and the bedside cabinets reinforce the work with turned columns and triple arched work from stonework, woodwork, metalwork and plasterwork. Solid oak seems to be a common thread too, and though some quartersawn oak was evidently used, it was not a general theme in most of the work, so I think it was not important or integral at the design level or in the actual design of any of the workpieces so much as incidental to the working stock. This tabletop is marble, which doesn’t surprise me in that slate may wear well, but it marks and scratches badly.

Wardrobes for Dressing Nobility

Notice again the overall design repeated from the bedside table with columns and arches. I question the final location of this piece as I noticed the cornice return runs past the wall against which it stands. Perhaps there was some modification for practical reasons.

I liked the simplicity in this piece of work though. Turned work is very quick and not too skilful but creates stunning results and especially when combined with the carver’s skill as in this case. I also like the stepped front for the side columns to stand forward on. I used this feature in my design for the White House pieces I made in 2008/9 and liked the classic aspect it gave to the overall appearance of the credenzas. Also, notice too the main column to the right side of the wardrobe and the caps in both the column and the columns in the wardrobe.

The Queens Dressing Table

The dressing table and mirror stand further combine the theme of columns and spirals though you cannot see the legs for the bed cover here. It’s worth noting that the tops of the main columns are part of the dressing table design and you can see these cap-offs here. Also quite dominant is the triple herringbone feature, though uniquely different in that it’s produced in negative space and so very unusual.

Penrhyn Castle Tour Session #3

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Walking, looking, investigating, researching, kneeling, bending, measuring by tape, by rule and by eye, standing back, weighing up, weighing down are all aspects of establishing the work of another workman. Imagine that boat builders made some of these pieces. Not that they are a lesser trade, but that they do prove my reasoning that woodworking spins off into other woodworking crafts from time to time in the same way I made a playing cello with my son Joseph played by a world class principal cellist with the Dallas symphony who said it was “easy to play and hard to put it down.” His primary instrument at that time was a Guanari! That doesn’t make me a violinmaker any more than driving a fast car doesn’t make me a racing driver.

Bedside Night Stand

This night stand very much captures the intention of Thomas Hopper to produce furniture equal to the Norman style that seemed so important to the work of Penrhyn Castle. Notice the frieze of triple herringbone zigzagging here and then look back through previous blogs showing images of the outside of the castle where the same feature is carved over entrance ways and window frames from solid stone.

A Luminaire of Fumed Oak

 

 

 

Dogs in carved wood for a lamp stand. This is a luminaire with three dogs set in triangular pattern with each head facing out towards three upturned lights; as you might expect with candle lighting. This carving has much movement and imminence of mood in its simple gouge cuts. So many carvings I have seen look, well, wooden. This one doesn’t at all. A very important projection pending defence is captured and expressed by the artist who was never known as an artist in his day.

 

 

 

The Drawing Room

Now what of these oak columns either side of the fireplace that reach 18’ high, projecting through classical transitions into the extremely ornate plaster-ceiling work? United by 45-degree spiral cut carving, the columns are uniquely individual in design even though side by side and beautifully hand formed using only gouge and chisel work. I thought this such innovation for its day and, though perhaps striven for by others, seldom have I seen such harmony attained. Furthermore, try to imagine what it took to worked oak into such clean-cut hand work. We will see more of Hopper’s use of this style variance created in solid stone in a later Penrhyn Castle section where we look at some stonework carved by hand over a ten year span.

Escutcheons for Privacy

Escutcheon covers like this ensured no keyhole spying by staff, house guests and family members, especially in private settings such as bathrooms, bedrooms and so on. I liked the turned oak knob with its patination from 170 years of gripping hands, but I especially liked the turned oak escutcheons with their split-turned matching oak inserts framed by cast brass. Notice that the oversized base plate parallels the moving outer to form a stepped appearance. I think this a careful thought to add precise detail to the simple feature of a keyhole. Something very much missing in our present day.

Doorways with subtle complexity suspended in simplicity.

Try not to look solely at the door but the arched frame necessary to span two-foot thick, solid stone dividing walls. Now think about that first and then think about 2×4 stud walls with 3/8” sheetrock each side. This doorway exemplifies the fine skills of the joiner from an age when such quality defied the age of the machine. This joiner worked at a pine joiner’s workbench hand planing English or possibly Welsh oak in preparation for cutting and shaping joints with shoulder lines so perfect the arched joint-lines are barely discernible. The arched head of the door and the framed frame is replicated in the triple arches that are just lovely. The reason all of this is so lovely is because it was made by a man who loved his work.

The chair back is hand carved and presents something of a nautical theme almost like a seahorse. I don’t care for the carving itself, my opinion only, but the work is exemplary of the craftsman’s skill and no one can deny that it has quality. This carving is not complex at all.

In my next session we look at the bedroom where the slate bed developed for Queen Victoria to sleep in. This is a remarkable room

Penrhyn Castle Tour Section #2

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As I said, take time to listen to the tour guides in the castle. They are extremely knowledgeable, interesting and well trained to help you understand aspects that are not readily seen or understood.  Randy and I toured through the castle and were stunned by the magnificence we encountered both in the nature surrounding the castle and the work of men’s hands.

Even so, early on in our tour, walking through the inner entranceway corridor to the main great hall, is a veritable feast for furniture connoisseurs and crafting furniture makers alike. Randy and I peered inside and underneath cupboards, desks, chairs and dressing closets designed by Thomas Hopper, the Penrhyn Castle architect. Many of the pieces he designed reflected features of the castle itself; columns and pediments, arches and appliquéd features in classic sombre style that gives it that medieval fortress ambiance, even though it’s obvious that the castle itself is not and never was a protective structure in the classic sense of castles of old. Hopper designed all of the principal interiors in a rich yet restrained style and the classical plasterwork in the upper reaches around the cornices and ceilings is absolutely stunning to say nothing of the wood and stone carvings exemplified throughout the property.

I think that it is unusual to see Norman Style furniture and one of the very rarest pieces is this slate bed made especially for Queen Victoria when she visited in 1859. I can’t imagine ever seeing anything like this anywhere in the world. The workmanship is impeccable. I will post a feature on this bed with images in a later post.

I try to imagine how anyone can think a CNC router can replicate anything near this level of creativity. Or that we would be standing around admiring the results of a router bit in a cordless router. I look with amazement that these men from my past worked with such pristine care to capture three-dimensional decoration with this level of skill. Imagine for a moment, two hundred years hence, how our future generations will look at a CNC carved work and say to themselves such things. I wouldn’t be surprised if the smart phones are suspended there in some sphere of creative admiration and people say, “Imagine what skill they had to produce these archaic findings from the landfill.”

 

This entrance door is not a fancy door as in the main entrances, but less ornate it speaks of simple beauty. A timeless simplicity if you will that stands testament to Welsh craftsmanship. Even so, beyond even that, it’s three inches thick, eight feet tall and almost four feet wide from Welsh-grown solid oak from the woodlands of the Penrhyn estate. Such is the inheritance of British skill and yet, sad to say, it’s so easy to take for granted such a precious treasure. I am grateful for our National Trust Properties throughout Britain. What a wealth of history and culture!

 

 

 

 

 

Of course I am sad that opulence and the means by which it was attained exemplifies success we generally admire and exalt, but it’s not any of that that I admire so much as humble working man quietly shaping shaving and planing with a handful of wooden planes, chisels and saws and of course their own hands.

 

 

 

Read your book, Paul, what now?

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Paul,

 Really enjoyed your Foundational Course book. Kind of deflated now that I have read through it twice and it sounds like it is not going to be until 2013 when you release the next book. So, just wondering if you could recommend some other books to those looking to increase their skills with hand tools as well as getting a better understanding of furniture design and proportion.

Thanks,

Dave

Interesting reads are hard to come by in woodworking without tripping over a shop full of dull machine work. I have read the following books in my earlier days and though they are well known, I think not as well read as they could be. The first one I like is by an old friend Aldren Watson. He and I have had many conversations about his work as an illustrator. I would never be without his book on my bookshelf and close to hand. I never tire of reading it:

Aldren Watson’s Hand Tools Their Ways and their Workings. This is a most excellent, simple and informative book.

On more philosophical levels:

The Nature and Art of Workmanship by David Pye (ISBN 1-871569-76-1) and

The Nature & Aesthetics of Design by David Pye(ISBN 0-906969-27-1) Also I enjoy Jim Krenov’s books:

A Cabinetmaker’s Notebook. Studio Vista. ISBN 0-289-70754-4.

The Fine Art of Cabinetmaking. Studio Vista. ISBN 0-289-70797-8.

The Impractical Cabinetmaker. Van Norstrand Reinhold. ISBN 0-442-24558-0.

James Krenov: Worker in Wood. Van Norstrand Reinhold. ISBN 0-442-26336-8.

Krenov; Janofsky (2000). With Wakened Hands. ISBN 1-892836-06-8.

 

I think that will keep you going for a while. I have some other thoughts too, but for now, we should look at these men’s work and ethic and see what we can glean from them.

Tour Penrhyn Castle with Paul Sellers

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Believe this or not, but our New Legacy School of Woodworking is the lower right two window section of this picture

I walk by Penrhyn Castle and its surrounding countryside most days to reach the high mound to our New Legacy workshop. The workshop is actually in the physical Castle proper. I cannot go into the history of this 350-room Mansion too much because it would take just too long.

 

I want to show you what influences my work through my many walks in and around the region and within Penrhyn Castle because these walks so inspire my work and fuel my economic drive to re-establish craftsmanship into our culture.

As a woodworker I wanted to present some masterful woodworking by craftsmen from the past. Much of the work was carried out by boat building craftsmen and workmen from the region who worked building ships and boats and also making boat chandlery. Quarrymen too were responsible for hewing slate and timber mills sawyering scattered around the region, though now extinct, wrought locally sourced wood and other materials to create some of the furnishings, joinery and woodworking you will see over the next few posts on Penrhyn I will be posting.

Though formal gardens are not my favourite features of manorial living, I appreciate the work they took to create and maintain.

If you take time to listen, the tour guides in Penrhyn Castle are extremely knowledgeable and well trained. I can’t help but want to snuggle up in my mind’s armchair and listen to each one for an hour or so. But I want to start with a splash of colour from the spring display of the gardens and acknowledge the excellent work of these outdoor craftsmen gardeners and of course their many volunteers. There are hundreds of bushes of every hue, too many to see here, but stunning bee havens that host wild honeybees throughout the seasons yet to come.

 

My friend Randy Johnson from American Woodworker magazine toured with me and we were stunned by the magnificence we encountered both in the nature and the work of men’s hands. Standing on the huge stone balcony overlooking the mountains and the sea over to Llandudno is breathtaking on a warm Spring day. Farmland tumbles away below and you cannot help but wonder what kind of mind would conceive to build a castle for a home.

Where Randy is standing is near the entrance to the castle and and this was the key entrance to my films on foundational woodworking.

Before we arrived at this point we had already visited the famous Railway Museum next to the New Legacy School of Woodworking. These old steam locomotives were pivotal to the removal of slate from the slate quarries tis region is so notedly famous for. It’s nice the see them preserved this way. Children love seeing them even when they are in their sixties and seventies.

 

 

 

 

 

Inside the entrance the furniture makes a significant impact on everyone as they realise the craftsmanship was often from a pre-machine era. As Randy and I walked the corridor leading to the main Great Room we realised we were in for a woodworking treat par excellence.

 

 

 

 

 

Look at this serpentine fronted cabinet. In the surface imagery is the date “Ano 1746″. 

 

No one can deny the personal workmanship of this 18th century craftsman. I wonder how he fared  back then and what was he thinking as he shaped each piece of wood?

 

 

 

 

American Woodworker in the UK

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I spent an all-too-brief couple of days with my friend, editor and co-woodworker Randy Johnson from American Woodworker over the Friday and Saturday and we caught up on a wide range of woodworking issues of concern to us both. Sharing anecdotes and discussing the future of woodworking in the US. Europe, Australia, Africa, the UK and other parts of the world is one thing, being the solution to its future is another. Our concerns paralleled in many areas and issues we discussed at length are actually within our grasp to steer and guide into a positive future. Woodworking as we know it is a distant cry from what it was even fifty years ago and yet there is enough momentum still going to swing it in a positive thrust toward revitalizing the parts we have lost. Understanding the problems is critical to this recovery and one issue I feel very strongly about is a strategy designed to get young people back into working wood through a Real Woodworking Campaign offensive by giving them a safe place to work wood, a knowledge on how to work wood that’s not dangerous yet still very productive and the right tools and equipment to do it.  Randy understands my objectives and values and has always been a forthright contributor to what I have to say.

Last week Robert renewed his acquaintance with woodworking after a 45-year hiatus. On the second day he brought an inspiring section from a project he made at just 15 years old. It was a drawer, very nicely made, which I regret not photographing. This drawer had lovely, well-proportioned dovetails in both common and half-lap type in oak. They were his first dovetails and exemplified exceptional quality for the age at which he made them. Now, as a sheep farmer in Cheshire , he was at last realising his dream that started over four decades ago and he is joining thousands upon thousands of others who are discovering the art of hand tool woodworking. How brilliant is that?

Perhaps in future years, as New Legacy grows in regions around the world, we will see the kind of revival that will spark new home businesses, localised support purchasing and a revival of cottage businesses whereby young people can find their productive roots again instead of being pure consumers. I would love to see young workmen again in working clothes, working shoes and with the self-discipline of a good work ethic, wouldn’t you.

Randy, my son Joseph and I spent a great deal of productive time covering issues just like this. We walked the walls of castles, ate lunch within Conwy castle walls and enjoyed our common interest in woodworking. Key to everything as always is a willingness to consider different aspects of any problem not to see so much of what’s wrong but to see what the issues are and the find out how they can be resolved. The climax of the day was a second walking tour of Penrhyn Castle, which I will post on later.

Questions Answered – Diamond sharpening plates

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Q

Hi Paul

I had a question on sharping for you. I want to buy diamond stones and know you recommend them over Japanese water stones but which ones do I buy? There are several out there to choose from, DMT, EZE Lap? And what about grits too?

JL

A

Firstly, I find little if any difference between EZE Lap and DMT in terms of abrasive quality. Both cut steel fast and both are good quality products I can recommend any day. They are both dead flat and I have used both for extended periods. EZE Lap seem less expensive and last well, as well as DMT. I do not have the ability to scientifically test either product so my testing is limited. That said, I think that a set of plates by either maker will last any individual woodworker for a lifetime.

One thing to remember is that even though they last, the surfaces do lose aggression through use. Therefore, I recommend EZE Lap Coarse plates because the diamond particulate is larger at 250. The other plates are the same as DMT. I have not noticed any difference in longevity, flatness or failure. The DMT Coarse plate seems too fine for restoration of damaged edges and first-level abrasion. After a few weeks of use they do change to a finer level, so you could be using something around 450-500 grit to try to achieve that fast result you want initially. Whereas, on the same basis for EZE Lap, that would translate to 350-400. As I said, this is not scientific testing at all and I can recommend both makers. I do like to restore my bevels effectively and so I think the coarser plate more valid.

DMT Extra Fine sharpening stones are 1200, Fine are 600 and Coarse 325 grit.

EZE Lap are Superfine 1200, Fine 600 and Coarse 250.

Bluesky cafe

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When I really need to focus and concentrate my writing efforts I do it in cafes best. Distractions somehow seem immaterial and of course once you have eaten and drunk a cup of tea you are ready to work.

Tuning out sounds is an amazing capacity we all have. Sitting in a crowd, you can tune in and out of conversations and focus or not. That’s ow it is when you work in a workshop and you are listening to the saw or the planer the spokeshave and scraper. Sound is as critical as sight when you work with hand tools and so too the sense of smell and touch. I tune in and out of one sense into another for confirmation and exchange of informations that then helps me to evaluate action and determine outcome.

“Scones and tea are an English thing I still enjoy from time to time” I wrote in my journal. It’s a simple ritual we Brits do.