One of the beauties of parquetry, aside from its, well, beauty, is that it is a decidedly simple process requiring only a few tools to get started.
When we gather for the workshop at The Barn in less than a fortnight each student will need only a few tools, none of them exotic or impossible to find or purchase or even make.
These are not presented in any order of importance.
1. Small back saw
The first tool needed is a small dovetail-type saw, used to cut the already fashioned veneer strips into equilateral parallelograms. Almost any kind of small back saw that cuts cleanly will do.
2. 30-60-90 triangle
Since this type of parquetry is based on the 60-120 degree equilateral parallelogram, a 30-60-90 triangle is required. A decent quality plastic one from the big box store works just fine. Or you could do what I do and just pick them up at yards sales for a quarter apiece. That does sorta explain why I have a whole drawer full of them…
3. Bevel Gauge
To both prepare the sawing jig and the layout of the veneer panel, a bevel gauge is needed. In the preparation of the sawing guide it is the fence against which you ride the back saw for establishing the initial kerf. As long as the blade of the gauge is straight and the locking nut locks, you are good to go.
4. Straightedge/ruler
In order to assemble the parquetry pattern properly you have to establish the greater and lesser axes so you know how to assemble the pieces on the kraft paper backing. The straight edge makes this an easy task, especially if it is a ruled bar used in concert with the aforementioned triangle.
5. Utility knife
Many times in the course of a project you need to cut or trim something, so some sort of utility knife is called for. Equally applicable would be a straight ship carving knife.
6. Cutting gauge
If you are including banded inlay into your composition, a cutting gauge (pictured next to the blue utility knife) is useful for establishing the edges of the channels into which the banding will be glued.
7. Veneer saw
For finishing the edges edges of the marquetry panel, or establishing the channels for the banded inlay, and marquetry saw is a godsend. I show three different iterations; on the left is an “English” style, the center one is I believe of German heritage — both of these saws cut on both the push and pull stroke — and the one on the right is Japanese, hence cuts only on the pull stroke. I have tried but do not yet own the new design from Gramercy Tools, but it is superb. Since much of my future work will be parquetry, I will order one.
8. Small bench chisel
To clean out the channels for the banded inlay.
9. Toothing plane or analogue
When the parquetry panel is assembled and applied to the substrate, it will be neither flat nor smooth. A toothing plane will accomplish the former. I have about ten, but if you don’t have one you can make either a low-tech block toother or a squeegee-style toother, both of which employ hack saw blades.
10. Block plane or similar
Often the parallelogram lozenges need just a touch along an edge to make it fit perfectly, and the sharp block plane is just the tool. Later on, you will need the block plane to follow the toother in the finishing.
11. Scraper
The final step of smoothing is done with a scraper. Whether you use a card scraper or a block scraper is immaterial, all that counts is that it be cutting nicely and leaves a perfect surface.
12. Miscellaneous tools
I always like to have a pair of tweezers laying in the vicinity, and a bunch of metal-headed thumb pins, to tack down the banding while the glue set.
That’s pretty much all you need tool-wise to get started. Next time I’ll talk about making and using the sawing and planing jigs.
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If spending a weekend in Virginia’s Little Switzerland making a parquetry panel sounds like fun, drop me a line and sign up for the class. It is a week from Friday-Sunday.
Don Williams has a new DVD with us. I caught up with him last week to learn as much as I could about the topic – creating historic (and stunning) furniture finishes. We ended up talking even more about Don’s wealth of experience in both building and instructing.
Dan:
The first thing most of us notice when we look at a true historic finish is the sheer beauty of it. Where does that beauty come from? What is it we are actually looking at on the face of the wood?
Don:
I have read a number of studies about brain physiology and the connection between our vision and our psychology. There are certain kinds of images we almost all identify as beautiful. I’m not an expert on that whole topic, but what I have found in finishing is that there is an almost universally accepted definition of beauty. It translates to a finish with low molecular weight, high gloss and high sheen. Think about a traditional French polish versus an epoxied bar top. The French polish has low molecular weight and high gloss and sheen. The bar top finish is too heavy.
This can be a chicken and egg debate. Did we develop the tools to create what we already considered beautiful, or did the definition of beauty come after using the tools for many years? It doesn’t matter very much. Historic finishes are beautiful, and we have all the tools we need to do the work.
Dan:
At what point in your career did you develop your own finishing vision and technique?
Don:
In about 1974 I went to work for a father and son crew – Pop and Fred Schindler. Pop had more or less retired when I arrived, but he still puttered around the shop. He was Swiss, very traditionally trained in Europe and seen as kind of funny here in the U.S. I was the victim of a good upbringing, and did not see Pop as odd, but rather treated him with a lot of respect.
When it came to finishing, we were all just sitting at the bench and doing the work. We were not following aesthetic theory or anything like that. I worked in the Schindler shop for 4 years, and that was when I developed my technique.
Dan:
After 45 years of finishing and teaching, you have boiled the technique down to 6 concise rules that you share with students and woodworkers everywhere. Tell us more about where this list comes from.
Don:
To the extent that I have any native gifts at all, my gift is the ability to organize ideas. I taught off and on for 25 years at the National Institute for Wood Finishing, and throughout that time I was always seeking a more concise way to explain the craft. That’s where the 6 rules came from.
Dan:
One of my favorite moments in the new video is when you show viewers the Japanese rasp that has become one of your favorite tools for flattening veneered surfaces. Are there any other modern or non-traditional tools you like to use in your historic finishing process?
Don:
I probably own over 500 brushes, and have used everything from the traditional badger brush to goat hair and even boar bristle. But I use modern synthetic nylon brushes most of all. They work really well.
Dan:
Thanks, Don! Readers – be sure to check out that new DVD. It’s a gem.
Now that the multitudes from Groopstock have departed, I am facing a fortnight of mostly uninterrupted time spent on actually setting up my workshop space. Between the hustle of moving over the past many months and the frenzied preparations for Groopstock, my shop, not overly organized at any point in time, had devolved into a chaotic storeroom full of boxes and bins of tools from the other house.
Even after the first day of shoveling, the place was still not a furniture-making and restoration shop. One of the fundamental problems is that the tools cannot be “put away” until there is a place to put them away to.
One of the first things I did was reorganize and enhance my clamp storage. They were all a-jumble sorta in the same place, but I still found myself tripping over them at every turn.
Less than an hour’s uninterrupted work and the problem was solved.
As I reflect on the declaration of an astounding experiment in governance 238 years ago — in my opinion the most elegant and virtuous secular document in human history — I cannot help but also contemplate the end result of the struggles and bloodshed in the following years, and the culmination of the effort in the formation of a new nation almost a decade later.
I am not much of a John Adams fan, but his observations at the birth of the nation in the guise of the US Constitution are indeed sobering.
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Indeed, he was correct.
Nevertheless, I will once again reread and meditate on the sublime ideals first brought forth on July 4, 1776. It remains as timely as tomorrow’s headlines, in fact it reads like tomorrow’s headlines, and serves as a guuiding beacon to all who seek the flourishing of humanity.
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IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
(think the scene from “Wizard of Oz”…)
It’s the first day “after” Groopstock but still the crowds are here. The impulse for continued fellowship is so strong that we continued through the morning as folks were packing, parting, and moving out.
While I had so many sturdy bodies at the ready, I asked them to move the mondo SYP hand hewn timber from the first floor (basement) up to the second floor. Six of the men jumped in to volunteer, and they got the job done in about 45 seconds. This timber will soon become a 13-foot-long planing beam in the center space of the main floor, and that transformation will provide me with an excuse to blog about planing beams in general and this beam in particular.
By lunch time we were down to a half-dozen exit stragglers, and by supper only one overnighter was left.
The next phase of the summer would be finally (!) getting my own workshop space in order. Saturday and Sunday were still decompressing time, but by Monday I was back in the shop all day. Tales of that start tomorrow.
Stay tuned.
The final day of Groopstock has, in the past at least, been capped off by a gargantuan meatfest for dinner. We did it again this year, but first the highlights of the day.
photo courtesy of Joshua Klein
Bill Robillard and I built the folding portable workbench in real time to start the day. I will build another one in a month or so in order to blog in detail, and then compile those blogs into a downloadable PDF.
photo courtesy of Joshua Klein
He then left to present a monumental project of restoring the dais and rostrum for the US House of Representatives. I was still working downstairs, but I got to hear it at least.
After lunch Dave Reeves, Bill, and I began the ritual of meat grilling. I grilled up ten racks of ribs while they worked on 85(?) bratwurst, cooking them first in beer and onions before cooking them over real wood charcoal, as I was doing a dozen yards away. I had heard of Tennis Elbow, but this was the first time I’d ever been afflicted with Barbeque Shoulder. Flipping those dozens of pounds of meat really got tiring, and I was pretty sore by the time it was all over.
photo courtesy of Joshua Klein
While this was going on in the yard, up the hill at the Barn there were presentations by Jon Szalay on molding and casting (I think they did cast some bronze), Brian Webster on Building a Website, and finally Jim Young and Bruce Hamilton on Pricing and Estimating.
photo courtesy of Joshua Klein
Those who were still mobile and non-catatonic after gorging on meat traipsed back up the the barn for Martin O’Brien’s discussion of historical varnish recipes recorded in the archives of the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, which I still maintain is about as close to perfection as a museum can be.
Following that, a bunch of the crowd wanted to watch the rough cut of my upcoming video Historic Transparent Finishes, but by midnight I pulled the plug and told everybody to go to bed. They did not necessarily obey, but I was asleep and did not care.
As the glorious sunrise was fading into broad daylight, the crowd started arriving.. By 9AM we were up in the barn, on the new fourth floor and its wide open meeting space. And holy cow, what a crowd it was. At points in the day, counting spouses and others, we had well over fifty folks on hand.
Fred McLean was our Master of Ceremonies for the week, and Groopstock Coordinator and former Refinisher’s Group forum moderator Ben Myre assembled not only an excellent team to work with him on the planning and execution, but put together a pretty boffo schedule of wide-ranging presentations, demonstrations, and fellowship. 
We began with a brief round of introductions around the room, then quickly moved on to the presentation A Meaningful Life: Thoughts on Life, Craft and Brown & Shiny by Dave Reeves (who also served as Food Coordinator for the week, no small task with this herd of carnivores.) Dave’s talk was universally lauded as a fantastic rumination on the nature of our craft and of life itself. We were all ready to charge out the door to battle in the aftermath.
photo courtesy of Joshua Klein
Immediately after that my friend Bill Robillard and I presented an introduction to a folding portable workbench he had commissioned me to make for him. It is a problem I have been working on for many years, having to this point worked my way through three prototype generations.
photo courtesy of Joshua Klein
We discussed his needs and our response to these needs, including my “butterfly” which will be covered in the upcoming issue of Popular Woodworking, in preparation for our hands-on fabrication demo on Day 3. I will be blogging about this project at length, and posting a finished and detailed PDF for you to download ex poste. 
Right after lunch Sharon Que talked about fitting new replacement parts during restoration using the technique of “chalk fitting” with both a lecture presentation and a detailed and impressive demonstration down on the main floor. Her skill left us agog, and folks were literally hanging off the balconies.
photo courtesy of Joshua Klein
The middle session of the afternoon was by Jon Szalay, “Jersey Jon” from the “Pickers” television show, introducing a topic near and dear to my heart — Foundry 101.
photo courtesy of Joshua Klein
Jon’s presentation took everyone outside to his setup there, and the interest was sky-high.
The afternoon wrapped up with Brian Webster, addressing the needs and strategies for web based marketing. Unfortunately my host duties took me elsewhere on the homestead for these last two presentations, but the conversations were abuzz during dinner so I know they were great.
photo courtesy of Joshua Klein
After a fabulous dinner catered by the local Botkin sisters, we reconvened up on the fourth floor for my Powerpoint presentation Transition from Handwork to Machine Made Furniture based in research I did quite a while ago. 
As if that wasn’t enough for one day, the evening lecture was followed by a bonfire and a metal casting demonstration.
Over 16 hours after the day started, I barely remembered tumbling into bed. Those silly folks stayed up gabbing for several more hours.
Last weekend was the maelstrom before the cyclone that is Groopstock, a periodic gathering of members from the Professional Refinisher’s Group. This was the third time we have hosted them at the Barn. For a month I had been readying the homestead, and now was the time to get as much done as possible.
Saturday and Sunday were frantic efforts to finish getting the place clean(er), an endeavor that was not entirely successful. Yes, I got the mountain of planer shavings relocated, and yes I got the meeting spaces more orderly, but I had no time to get my own work space in order and it remained untouched for the week.
The big accomplishment for the weekend was to build a pair of nine-foot-tall screen doors for the main entrance to the barn, with 1/4″ hardware cloth on the outside and standard window screen on the inside. Thanks to my friend David Blanchard’s mortiser it was a snap.
My long time friend and colleague Bruce Hamilton helped get the solid doors moved to the inside of the jamb and swinging in, while the screen doors went where the solid doors were. I have wanted to do this for six years, and now they are done! It provided for excellent ventilation while keeping out the birds I had been shooing out on an hourly basis.
As folks arrived I had little tasks for them, helping with the cleaning and some final floor work and railings for the fourth floor meeting room.
By dinner time they had arrived. By the dozens.
Tomorrow, the report from Day 1.
One of the frustrating things about my documentation of Studley’s tools, but still useful in projecting future observations, is the ambiguity about how his tool collection was assembled, and in many cases modified or fabricated. My notes on the subject during the examinations are not glib — they are in fact quite thorough — but neither are they as complete as possible. Or to paraphrase another project, my written and photographic notes, while extensive, are not “as perfectly as possible.” In fact there is no doubt that much about the tools and the man that is un-knowable at this point in time.
These lacunae come into clear focus as I continue writing the manuscript for VIRTUOSO: The Henry O. Studley Tool Cabinet and Workbench. “Yes,” I mutter to myself, “I can see that this was modified, you dope.” My conversations with myself are at best self deprecating. More usually they are caustic and cruel.
The really good news is that I am compiling an extensive and detailed list of “things to check out” during the final visit, and I have have grafted on a few extra days to work alone, with just a bright light and a microscope to examine everything at a new scale, with new questions.
I will spend a lot of time looking microscopic details of things like the moldings along the handle of the mallet along with any further fabrication details (cast? machine from solid stock? brazed from plate stock?), the domed coin-knurled knobs that are everywhere…
While I won’t be able to provide a microscope for you to observe the cabinet or tools in the May 2015 exhibit, I hope to squeeze every bit of information I can out of the collection for you to enjoy along with me.
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For information about the once-in-a-lifetime three-day-only exhibit of the Studley ensemble, you can find out more here.
In addition to beefy workbenches, I like robust floors. Floors that “wiggle when you walk” irritate me even if I know they are not unsafe. I like stout floors so much that the main span of the main floor of the barn is constructed with 12″ joists 12″ o.c. with 3/4″ CDX plywood topped with 5/4″ SYP flooring. No motion there.
But the floors for the third floor balconies were a little different story. Those joists were recycled tulip poplar timbers at 24″ o.c. with a double layer of 5/4″ SYP flooring. Given the non-standard nature of the poplar beams, including the fact that some were a little compromised, there was a fair bit of bounce to some of them. Again not unsafe, but bouncy. And irritating.
To compensate for that, given the impending arrival of four dozen folks, about a dozen of whom would be sleeping there, I decided to add some additional strength to selected joists by sistering in some stock. For the most part I used clear-ish 2x4s that I planed down to 5/4; using them full thickness made it look like I was grafting on bratwurst to the timbers, and thinner was a nicer proportion.
So, I spent parts of two days running them through my trusty DeWalt planer, resulting in a mountainous pile of shavings. Following that I put a little Roman ogee on the edge, just because I could.
I had already impregnated all the tulip poplar with borate preservative (more about that next week when I blog about the Refinisher’s Group proceedings), so attaching the sisters took some noodling. I could not apply the PVA adhesive to both gluing surfaces since the borate would immediately gel the PVA, so I applied and extra heaping helping of PVA to the new stock, then screwed it is place with 3″ decking screws after crowning the joist a bit with a bottle jack.
The bounce, she is gone.
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