A Learning Adventure in the Workshop

Switching to Veneer for the Greene and Greene desk tops

Merry Christmas! I cleaned the shop yesterday to get ready to begin working on the Greene and Greene desks again.   I have decided to switch from the solid wood breadboard tops that I had planned to veneer tops so that I can do the cloud-lift details on the solid wood breadboard ends without fear of future cracking when the wood top expands and contracts.  This is the way that the original was made (I think)...so I guess I don't feel too badly about switching to Mahogany veneer.  I really wanted to do the cloud-lift detail.  I bought the veneer sheet yesterday at Woodcraft, and will try and pick up the substrate material today.

I also preordered Darrell Peart's new Greene and Greene woodworking book from Amazon.   Amazon says that it won't ship till April. I can't wait!  I have based my desk design on one of Darrell's originals.  Too bad this book won't be ready in time to help with this project.

"Pirolette"

This website has a really cool idea for something called a “Pirolette”!

I'm going to put this on my list on things to make someday....looks like a fun challenge for the lathe.

If you aren't going to make one yourself, order one from Tom Beshara at his website.

 

"Woodshop" becomes "Workshop"

For those (few) of you that have been reading this blog for a while, you may notice that I've changed the title of the blog to say "Workshop" rather than "Woodshop." I think that this better represents the variety of projects, gizmos and contraptions that I seem to get involved with.  Not all of them involve wood.  Hence the change.

"Memories of a Sheffield Tool Maker" by Ashley Iles

I just read "Memories of a Sheffield Tool Maker" by Ashley Iles on the recommendation of Chris Schwatz on his "Woodworking Magazine" blog.  Great book.

It is only available from the Tools for Working Wood website as it is now out of print.

I love history, woodworking and tools and this book weaves all three together into a fascinating portrait of life in Sheffield England in the first half of the twentieth-century.  Ashley Iles started his tool business in what was the cradle of the tool world at that time, and the names of his associates and competitors have become legendary tool-makers and companies that you will still recognize today.  As a Pittsburgher I have seen this city in the U.S. lose its steel-working industry much as Sheffield lost the majority of its tool making industry as the century moved on. 

The environment in Pittsburgh may be cleaner, but we have also lost a lot of skill and knowledge as a society that these people knew better than could ever be preserved in print.

We need more books like this one to keep this history of the skilled trades alive.