Norwegian Wood

We finally made a trip to the Vesterheim Museum in Decorah, IA. Wow! What a treat for woodworkers.

I've long known about the museum, and even dropped in on an acanthus carving class some 20 years ago, but have not returned since. The museum is the dedicated to the Norwegian immigrant experience, and as one of the museum staff told us, Norwegian culture is about wood, wood, and wood.

The range of woodwork was impressive, from simple carved spoons and ale bowls, all the way to elaborately carved high-style furniture. What stood out however was the quality and refinement of the carving. What we saw was simply stunning in design and technical execution.

One particularly impressive piece was a life-size carving by Fred Cogelow. The mix of superbly refined surfaces (the delicate eyelids) with retained gouge marks was perfectly executed.

The basement was full of chests, simple, carved, and painted.

This chair struck me. Looks like something out of the mid 20th century. It was made in 1800.

Then I turned the corner and saw this ensemble. Exquisite carving.

Even the entry to the gift shop was fully carved.

If you're in the area, we highly recommend a stop in Decorah. The museum is not too huge, a good 2 hours and you can see the whole thing leisurely. There are also several outdoor buildings on site that you can access on a guided tour (we didn't have time for this.) Other things to do in Decorah are Dunning Springs Park, the Ice Cave, plus your typical antiquing and outdoor activities. Decorah is in the heart of the Driftless region, so there is also beautiful landscapes, sightseeing, and some good trout fishing if you're into that.

For the full set of pics, click here.

Buy This Poster

If you like old-looking woodworking stuff, go buy the "Hammer and Hand" poster now offered by Lost Art Press. I got myself one a few weeks ago via carrier pigeon (that's how all vintage posters ship) and used some hand-wrought screws to install it in my nail cabinet. It fits right in with my Cracker Barrel wall. It is my favorite novelty item yet from the Lost (Art Press) Boys. It's printed on heavy paper, and the printing really does look old and hand made.

Get your poster here: http://lostartpress.com/collections/apparel/products/by-hammer-hand-letterpress-poster

William Ng Cranks Out Some Roubo

William Ng (http://wnwoodworkingschool.com/) has been building some benches. Roubo-style benches completely outfitted with Benchcrafted vises. We're quite proud to see another woodworking school outfitting their facilities with our products. William has long been known to us as a ridiculously meticulous joiner, and the skills he's bringing to this build are something to behold.

William has been making regular posts to his Instagram page documenting he and his fellow joiners' progress. Take a look here: https://instagram.com/wnwoodworks/ for some great pics and videos.

Meet Dr. Ray Fleck, Roubo's Personal Physician

French Oak legs, tapped for Plate 11-style leg vises by Lake Erie Toolworks. Pics by Nick D.

Watch for more as we get closer to the build. And if you use Instagram, the special code is: #frenchoakroubo (or so we're told.)

Incidentally, we have opened an Instagram account, specifically for sharing pics from the FORP (since we have little time to blog during the build.) But don't expect much after that. No vignetted pics of frothy pints, no Kodachrome-esque images of our neighboor's cat, no desaturated shots of our oatmeal. We can only handle so much of the digital world before we feel like programs under the heel of the MCP.

FORP II Nears

As the FORP II approaches, we're getting excited to share another epic bench build. Which reminded us of the FORP I video we posted a couple years ago. What fun (mingled with not a small bit of agony) to reminisce the FORP I.

 

What Matt Makes With Our Vises

There are moments here at Benchcrafted that make all our shortcomings and errors melt away like the morning dew. We're about to share with you one of those moments.

A few weeks ago we were contacted by a long time local customer Matt Sullenbrand asking if we'd like to stop by and see some of his handiwork.We knew Matt from several years ago when we delivered a set of vises to his shop, located at that time in the attic space of an old coach house attached to a Victorian-era brick Bed and Breakfast his in-laws were operating. Matt was working exclusively with hand tools, and had nearly finished a Roubo-style bench and was also putting the finishing touches on a very well-detailed treadle lathe. I was shocked that someone in this area was following the lead of Underhill and Follansbee. Iowa is the home of the Kreg Jig after all. (I do use my Kreg Jig, by the way!)

We knew from sporadic email contact that Matt had been dabbling in making keyboard instruments, but that was a few years ago, and most of our conversations were about tools and old machinery.

What we saw at Matt's simply stunned us. In just a few years, Matt had become a full-fledged Harpsichord maker.

This particular example was jaw dropping. We have a soft spot for musical instruments, and this one didn't disappoint.

The lower keys are made from boxwood, topped with gabon ebony, with bone caps on the upper keys. Hand printed paper decorates the key well.

The main case is made from poplar, and is pinned together with oak pegs. The underside is plainly finished, as is the outside of the rest of the instrument, which is finished with a traditional process using gesso and natural pigments. The outside is not finished to a high level of refinement, but possesses a more "working" look. It balances nicely with the highly refined key well and area of the soundboard, which is made of spruce.

Matt makes every aspect of the instrument except the jacks (the parts that hold the plectra) which are made by specialists using pear and holly wood. Traditionally, the plectra were made of horn, but nowadays acetal plastic (Delrin) is used. Unlike a piano, which uses felt-covered hammers to strike the strings, on a  Harpsichord depressing a key plucks the string, much like a lute or guitar. There is no dynamic control on a Harpsichord, you get one volume level from each key. So playing more keys sounds louder (since more strings are getting plucked.) Complex pieces generate a cacophonous, yet ordered sound from the instrument. It's a sounds that will put a smile on anyone's face.

Regrettably, I didn't take notes during our visit, so I don't remember a lot of the construction details. But if you have questions, ask them below and I'm sure Matt would be happy to answer.

Hopefully we'll make it back to see Matt's shop sometime in the future. The craft of luthiery is always a fascinating one, and there are many workholding lessons us furniture makers can learn from those who practice the craft.

Thanks Matt for the wonderful opportunity to see your work.

www.sullenbrandharpsichords.com

We're changing our name to Benchcrafted's House of Suede

Judging by the number of orders over night we're in the wrong business.  The coveted Box O' Suede is long ago sold out.  We're afraid to report most of you will be getting prompt refunds later today.

Who knew.

Bag O' Suede is BACK but bigger as Box O' Suede

We get fairly frequent requests for extra suede.  We don't sell the suede that comes with our vises unless you've bunged yours somehow.

In the past that's left us with a fair amount of "scrap".  We used to sell it, stuffed into a Flat Rate Padded Envelope, it typically ran 1-1.5 lbs. worth, which is more than you might think.  We stopped doing that because it was just too fussy and we have better things to do.

Well the scrap pile is getting near it's end and we want it out of here.  So we've added suede scraps back to the Store page, and the price is the same as before, $20.00 shipped in the US, only now it gets stuffed into a Medium Flat Rate box.  The Medium box holds a fair share more.  You'll get all sizes, totally random.  Some small scraps some large.

Once it's gone, that will be it...........we think.

Video and Pics: The Chest Lid Article

Last week the October issue of Popular Woodworking landed in my mailbox. Inside (among many other great articles, like Jeff Miller's slat back chair) is my article on how I made the marquetry-encrusted lid for my joint tool chest project with Chris Schwarz from earlier this year. Watch this video for a tour of the chest with Chris.

I've got a few articles under my belt now, but this one was by far and away the most difficult. The chest lid itself require many techniques, all of which I tried to cover in a thorough but succinct way. It's not easy to cram three months of work into five pages. (I made many many passes over the final draft to get to my required word count.) It is after all, a woodworking magazine, not my personal blog.

But because of the internet, I can share further details about the lid that one just can't fit into a magazine article.

I managed to take a bit of video during the construction process, all quite impromptu and rough, since I was working on a deadline, but it edited down to some interesting moments during the lid's creation.


I took 833 photos during the construction of the lid. I weeded out the bad ones and still ended up with close to 500, including some renderings and mockups of how the design developed.

I've uploaded these into a public gallery here. There's no captions or text. You'll have to read the article.

The first pics show the early stages of the design. At first I was going to do a painted medallion, but that got replaced by the tool montage. At one point Chris and I changed the dimensions of the lid, so the early pics and renderings of the sunburst show the lid a full 12" longer than the final product. I glued up the rays that size, then later cut 6" off each end before veneering the lid.

If you don't subscribe (and you should, it's an inexpensive subscription) you can pick up the issue at your local bookstore/newsstand (not sure when those are scheduled to arrive) or you can order the issue online through the PWM website.

Sweet Bench: Small Shop Roubo by Frank Strazza

We received a quick note from Frank last week about a bench he's recently finished and is now up for sale. Outfitted with C-Series vises (for that vintage look) the bench is 66" long, 24" wide and 36" high. Frank reports the top is Euro beech, and the base is drawbored m&t eastern hard maple, built from solid 16/4 legs.

Frank's work is well known around here. It can described in one word: perfect. To see more pics of this particular bench, see Frank's blog and for more of Frank's work, see our blog post from a couple months ago.

In case you're wondering, the amount of work that goes into a shorter bench like this is no different than a longer bench. This is a bench your great grandchildren could easily be using.

Full disclosure: We don't have any special arrangement with Frank. When we catch wind of any professional bench maker doing outstanding work with our vises, we're more than happy to spread the word.