Last week I hosted a workshop that reflected my peculiarities as a craftsman, a woodworker who loves metal work. Four skilled craftsmen, Dave, John, Len, and Pete joined me for three terrific days of fellowship and making. In this case making a nested set of Roubo-esque solid brass squares a la Plate 308, Figure 2.
The starting point for the three days was a 9″x12″x1/8″ brass plate.
Using my puny table saw and sled with a waste block to reduce the shrapnel, everyone cut a series of descending size squares.
After the table saw cuts, stopped to avoid over-cutting at the intersection of the inner edges, the cuts were finished with deep-throat fret saws and #6 jeweler’s blades which I provided. Pete had his wondrous Knew Concepts coping saw that worked like a charm.
And then the filing began. To protect the inner corner of the squares we ground off one edge of the mill files that everyone brought, starting with the disc sander followed by a diamond stone. This allowed for pretty aggressive work in the corners.
The filing was done on both inside corners of the cut squares and the outside corners of the remaining rectangles in preparation for cutting out the next smaller square, followed by truing on sandpaper over a granite block. (You can see the sublime Vesper square that was our “final word” truing reference for the workshop.)
This scene pretty much sums up the whole day. I was working right alongside the students making another set of the squares. I find this approach works best for the students to see me working on the same exact project, several times they came to look over my shoulder at some point in the day.
Before long everyone had their four rough squares ready for the next step, which was to trace and cut the offset/stepped ogees on each end. The small rectangle of brass remaining from the first four squares could be used later for a petite pair of squares and a couple of 30-60-90 triangles.
These were roughed out on the bandsaw, ready for filing the rest of the way.
A few weeks ago my friend B came for a couple days to test drive the shoulder knife making workshop that will be at The Barn later this summer (August 23/24). We had a great time of visiting while he was working on a natural branch from a fallen tree, cleaning it up an fitting it to his torso for use as a marqueteur’s shoulder knife.
He made great progress and we are anxious for the real event in a couple months. If you would like to come and make a shoulder knife for yourself, just drop me a line.
As for my current activities I have been busying myself getting ready for the students arriving for the Make A Set of Roubo Squaresworkshop later this week.
The upper piece is straight off the table saw, and the lower piece has been prepped with a file and abrasive paper.
Once the main body of the square is cut out and the ends shaped it is time to “true” the outside edges. There will be several opportunities to fine tune the squareness as we go along, but the first thing is to get those outer edges true. This provides a couple of functions. First it establishes the square-ness of the tool overall, and prepares the edge for the soldering of the shoe.
The main tools for this process are a clean, new-ish mill file and a granite block festooned with an abrasive belt. The objective is to both stablish one surface (the beam) amenable to soldering and one (the bade) that is perfectly square to the first one. Truing the inside edges comes later.
For this task my reference is one of Chris Vesper’s incomparable squares. I had let him know what I was needing and he prepared one for me with a run-out of only 0.0002″ over the length of the blade. If you need something more square than that, you are not a woodworker. You are a jet engine mechanic.
Every participant will begin with a slab of brass which we will cut on the table saw to yield the preferred number of graduated squares.
Once these have been cut and the corners cleaned up, they will be laid out for the graduated nesting sizes.
Ogees are cut and filed into the ends, and all the detailing is finished in preparation for the silver soldering of the shoe on the outside of the beam.
If this workshop interests you, drop me a line via the Comments or Contact functions of the site. It will be June 20-22, and the tuition + materials is $425. You will leave with a completed set of squares.
One of the more pleasant aspects of creating the English-version of the Roubo books has been to integrate the images of tools and the descriptive text of their use in the atelier. Roubo had a particular take on a range of measuring devices to be used in the fabrication and assembly of furniture, and I was especially taken with his cabinetmaker’s squares. I have made a variety of them in wood, brass and ivory and find them a delight to use.
In the upcoming workshop on Making A Nested Set of Roubo Squares each student will make a series of stepped squares, in other words each one will be a step up or step down in size from the next. These will be fashioned from solid brass stock with the base/shoe silver soldered to the beam of the square as illustrated by Roubo (his squares were welded steel, I believe. The text is ambiguous if I recall correctly). We will use one of Chris Vesper’s sublime squares as the reference for all the tools made this week. Chris told me that the square I bought from him has an accuracy of no worse than least 0.0005″ per foot of blade length. If that is not good enough for you it is time to check into an asylum.
The class will be June 20-22, and the cost including materials is $425. You can contact me here to get more information.
Recently I was called by a nearby acquaintance asking me for a lesson on carving egg-and-dart molding. Sam is a talented restoration carpenter who is a whiz at saving houses old and new, but this project required him to flex a bit and branch out into carving some moldings needed for a fireplace mantle. I said sure and we scheduled a couple of times for him to work in the studio.
Most egg-and-dart molding involves a very limited number of carving gouges, and the sample he needed to match fit that description. Fortunately for him I had exactly the sweep and size he needed. I sat down and showed him the steps of the procedure then turned the sample piece over to him to, well, practice. I used to carve quite a bit, and there was a period 45 years ago I though about becoming a carver. Not becoming someone who could carve, but someone who was a carver. Big difference. But the lure of the finishing room soon won out, and ever since I’ve only really undertaken carving to replicate missing pieces from my projects.
After a couple of sessions in the Barn, Sam was ready to execute the moldings for real. The initial struggles he had with the fairly coarse-grained workpiece was alleviated the second time around, and the results were gratifying.
By the third and final day everyone was charging ahead, in the groove, and making great progress on the second exercise, a three-part composition of tordonshell, pewter sheet, and brass sheet.
Again, the critical thing given the assembly of our packets was to begin sawing in the center of the design and working you way out systematically. As things progressed it was very exciting to see the composition(s) taking shape.
Honestly there is not a lot to say verbally, so I’ll just let the pictures do the talking.
Day 2 was a time to really get down to business with sawing the first exercise, a two-part tarsia a incastro composition with each person doing a decorative rendition of their own initial (in reverse).
Soon everyone was adopting their preferred sawing posture.
Unfortunately we got Gwen’s initial relationship to her sawing station wrong, and before too long an old neck injury reared its ugly head. Even after adjusting her posture and sawing height, the damage was already done, limiting her experience considerably.
Before long the compositions of the mirror representations for their initial were taking shape.
By the end of the day we were all moving on to our second exercises, a three-part composition requiring three layers of media, pewter, brass, and tordonshell, and two supporting bookends of 1/8″ plywood.
Drilling a tiny hole near the center of the pattern for feeding the saw blade through, And we were off and running with the new project.
I have settled on the topics and approximate schedule for next summer’s classes here in the hinterlands, with three of the four classes emphasizing toolmaking. I will post about them in greater detail in the near future. One minor change I’ll be instituting next year is that three-day workshops will now be Thursday-Friday-Saturday rather than Friday-Saturday-Sunday as before.
June’s class will be a metalworking event, Making A Nested Set of Roubo’s Squares. The objective will be for each attendee to create a set of four or five solid brass footed squares, the sort illustrated in Roubo’s Plate 308, Figure 2. The special emphasis will be on silver soldering, a transforming skill for the toolmaker’s shop. The tentative dates for this are June 6-8 or 20-22, $375 + $25 for materials.
July’s class will be my annual offering of Historic Wood Finishing. Each participant will complete a series of exercises I have devised for the most efficient learning experience to overcome finishing fears and difficulties. Of particular importance are the aspects of surface preparation and the use and application of wax and spirit varnish finishes using the techniques of the 1700s. Probably July 11-13, $375.
In August we will continue the pursuit of Roubo’s tool kit, this time Making and Using Roubo’s Shoulder Knife. I have no way to know exactly how prevalent was this tool’s use in ancient days, but I suspect more than I can imagine. Each participant will fabricate a shoulder knife to fit their own torso, so its use can be both the most comfortable and the most effective. Probably August 15-17, $375.
The final class for the year will be a week-long Build A Ripple Molding Cutter. As I have been pursuing this topic and blogging about it, fellow ripple-ista John Hurn and I have settled on a compact design we think can be built by every attendee in a five-day session. Together we will be teaching the process of ripple moldings and fabricating the machines that make them. September 23-27, $750 plus $200 materials fee.
Save the dates and drop me a line for more information.
Every three or four years I teach my approach to Boullework, a branch of marquetry technically known by its original Italian title of tarsia a incastro (literally “interlocking inlay”) that was so prominent in the 17th and 18th Centuries . This identifier probably comes from the fact that all the elements of the composition — positive, negative, and sometimes additional accents — are cut simultaneously and do in fact “interlock” with each other. I always cut my marquetry vertically by free-form rather than horizontally on the chevalet, due to the fact that I have almost fifty years of muscle memory doing it the way I do it. This approach also has the advantage of allowing newcomers to begin work with only a flat board as a sawing platform, a frame saw, and some tiny saw blades, investing very little resources to begin.
My approach also has the component of using a persuasive imitation tortoiseshell (nicknamed “tordonshell) I invented several years ago to compensate for the fact that true sea turtle shell is a proscribed material as a result of the world-wide adoption of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species adopted in 1975, essentially forbidding any commerce or other transactions involving the two species of turtle shells integral to Boullework.
That is where the three-day workshop begins, with a brief chemistry/materials science lesson on protein macro-molecules and their polymerization and the morphology of tortoiseshell.
Using materials I prepared in advance, and the addition of ingredients at the moment, the attendees begin the lengthy process of making their own to take home with them afterward (this recounting of that is condensed from work over the three days).
First they cast out a film that would become tordonshell, then created the pattern endemic to the material.
After watching me make a piece they set about to making their own. The results were gratifying.
The process took them the three days to get finished, in part because the chemistry was fighting me. In all the times I’ve made tordonshell I had not wrestled with the fundamental exothermic nature of the polymerization, but it was sure rearing its ugly head this time.
We then assembled 4″ x 4″ packets to saw (I was working alongside the attendees, I find they like me to be working on the same type project so they can peek over my should if necessary), consisting of a 1/32″ annealed brass sheet, a piece of tordonshell, and a 1/8″ plywood support. All of this was wrapped with veneer tape and the mirror-pattern of their initial was glued on to the surface with stick glue.
This approach requires beginning the sawing at the center of the composition, so a tiny hole had to be drilled with my ancient mini-eggbeater drill.
Once that was completed the saw frame was set-up and a 0000 blade was fed through the hole and the frame tightened down. this can be a frustrating task the first time, requiring four hands until you get the hang of it.. After that, no problem.
After waxing the backside of the blade the sawing (and blade breaking) began in earnest. There is a real “touch” to sawing like this, so indeed the blades were snapping right and left. Not a problem, I was expecting it. I provided the tools and blades for the most part, but John had recently purchased a new Knew Concepts saw and was giving it its first road test.
Joe had an intriguing saw from Green Lion, I only wish I’d had a chance to test drive it myself but Joe kept it busy. I think I may have to get one, just to round out my inventory. For the most part the others used Knew Concepts saws from my collection.
The sawing continued apace until Mrs. Barn called us to supper.
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