Going with the grain

There has been a lack of posting here as the past few weeks have been busy around the workshop.
Bec a Kyneton local, came to make a birthday present for her husband Simon's birthday. A birthday which has not come around yet so I can't show too much of what she made ( or say too much ) but suffice to say part of it was the most spectacular piece of Huon Pine I've seen in a long time. I've had the Huon sitting around for a long while now, and this was the ideal project for a slice off the end.

On average Huon Pine trees grow 1mm per year, but as you can see with this pic of the end grain, there are areas where there must be two or three ( or more ) growth rings per mm. Yep, that's one old tree.

And here is Bec putting the finishing touches to that piece of Huon, with 'said item' seriously cropped from the image! The finished product was brilliant and it was great couple of days. When the birthday boy gets his present I'll post some more pics.

Then this week I had Soren from Melbourne come up to make a Perch. I met Soren while demonstrating at the Wood Steam and Steel Festival in Wandin a few months back and it was good to see him arrive with his tools ready to go. With a good few years of turning experience behind him, short work was made of the Pin Oak legs and stretchers and they came up a treat.

After lunch we started with the seat, and had the whole lot drilled reamed and ready for carving the next morning.

And that's when another beautiful grain pattern showed itself. No, they aren't a quarter of a millimetre thick but what a great symmetrical seat. You couldn't have drawn it better!

And here is Soren paring the wedges and legs flush. Given Soren's height, we added a good 34mm
( 1 1/4" ) to the legs to put the seat at exactly the right height. That's another very enjoyable aspect of making chairs by hand, being able to truly make a bespoke piece of furniture, tailored to the individual.

I was pleased that he also decided to take my advice and paint his perch with milk paint. Originally we were going to do the whole thing, but with that grain in the seat, Soren decided to oil that and paint the Pin Oak legs with Barn Red.

Here's Soren's Perch with the first coat of oil on the seat and milk paint on the legs. I'm looking forward to seeing the legs with a few more coats of barn red and a top coat of oil or two. Great result Soren.

But that's not where the grain runs out, as this weekend I have Erin and Tim arriving to make two more perches, again with different timbers and maybe different finishes too. Looking forward to seeing what that grain has in stall for us too.

A step closer

As the cold weather begins to set in, up here in the central highlands I can see what the locals ( I was told recently that I won't be a local until my Grandmother is buried here- that may be a little hard now ) mean when they say "the weather is turning." And with that onset of cold wind and colder nights it's obvious just how important keeping warm is.

 

For this reason Lisa and I have been stuffing every last square inch of the cottage with insulation. When we first stripped back the old layers of this house, there was not a single batt, piece of sisalation or anything else for that matter,  between the outside wall layer and the internal plaster. I don't know how anyone kept warm in there. 

It's Autumn and we have already had several frosts, so winter should be a doozy. So with every part of the frame jammed with insulation we have hung the plaster ( with Dad's help too ) and will finish off the wall linings with solid lining boards in the main living area. This has really put some definition back into what was the skeleton of the frame.

And today a little more progress was had with a past chair making student and friend Peter Page coming up with his brickies tools and re-facing the chimney in the living area. Peter did a great job and the fireplace now looks a treat. I forgot the camera today though so there will be some photos to come. Another step closer to the little place being finished. Thanks Pete!

Connectivity

The past few weeks have been an interesting time from a chair making perspective. Two separate tree species that I have been experimenting with as chair timbers have both rewarded me with exceptional results which I previously believed, or was led to believe we could not achieve with native species here in Southern Australia.

                                                                   Red Oak End Grain

 In the U.S. particularly with red and white oak, chair parts are easily riven to close tolerances with wedges and froe without issue. Similarly when shaving the same parts with the drawknife, the same qualities that ensure even and straight splitting, then clearly define runs of grain, both in the radial and tangental planes, that make dimensioning spindles and the like a breeze. Now while there is not an Australian timber that I know of that has the same ring porous qualities as American Oak, I figured that if I focused instead on the other factors that make timber split well, then surely I would give myself the best possible chance of success. To tick as many boxes as possible, so to speak. 

I had been focussing on a trip to East Gippsland where I know of a particularly good stand of straight, Narrow Leaf Peppermint ( Eucalyptus Radiata ) which I wanted to experiment with, when I received a phone call from a friend, Pete McCurly.

Pete is well known amongst Australia's musical instrument makers as a source for highly figured native timbers, namely our sought after desert species such as Ringed Gidgee and Coobah. You can reach Pete on 0438 082 984, if you are chasing that extra special flitch or slice of wood.  Above is a piece of his Ringed Gidgee ( Acacia family - there's lots of 'em.) I put into a mirror for a friend. It's pretty awesome stuff. Pete was in the process of working amongst a nice stand of Blackwood ( Acacia Melanoxylon ) and rang to tell me that there were some smaller trees among them that may be of interest. 

The following day I found myself standing in front of a Blackwood log in the middle of swamp out the back of Daylesford. The tree, which was really on it's last legs, had a central heart, first tick. It was not figured, which meant the grain ran straight, as opposed to say 'fiddleback/curly' grain, where the grain can go in all manner of directions, second tick. From a quick assessment of the bark, there was no visible twist to the trees trunk, or 'wind' that I could see, meaning that the wood should by all accounts want to split reasonably straight, third tick. The fourth? Well I've seen enough colonial chairs made of Blackwood over the years to know that there was some reason as to why those clever old chair and furniture makers used it for chairs. Strength and workability being the first things that come to mind. I had actually started making Windsors here with some Blackwood parts, but the Blackwood that was sourced for me for the job was wrong from the outset and it never lived up to it's potential.

The other factors that would assist me would be following accepted principals of splitting timber evenly. So with the log docked to just over 1600mm ( over 5' ) I grabbed the wedges and sledge hammer and had at it. First split in half was promising. There was a slight wavering half way down, but I split it again in half to see if it worked it's way out. It did and so with that I took the long piece and put it into the 'break' to see if I could split it with the froe, evenly again and closer to the 30+mm thickness I needed for a Continuous Arm blank. 

One minute later I had the two pieces in front of me, the wave or shake had disappeared and I was left with two fine blanks, ready for the shave horse. I showed Pete, who I think was equally as impressed. I've been splitting off spindles and crests now for over a week, pretty much when ever I walk past, as I just can't help myself. 

The spindles shave beautifully as they are a perfect run of straight grain, one end to the other. And the large wedge left on the side was perfectly split on the quarter, so that will be a fan back crest for a chair that I have on order. 

The first crest I shaped in the horse, steam bent about as easily as I have experienced. Here it is out of the kiln today, nicely set and ready for a little cleaning up before being put into another Blackwood chair I'm making.

I've been teaching and making Windsors for a few years now, but it always felt like I was 'cheating' to a degree, by bandsawing chair parts. Leg stock is one thing, as there is not the same strength issues as with a finely shaved spindle, so sawing is not really an issue. But there is nothing like watching the parts split off with the froe, especially in the radial plane where with the Blackwood, they literally 'pop' apart. It's almost a sense of coming full circle with my connectivity to my chosen trade, like the missing piece has been found and put squarely into place. That can only be a good thing.

A different view.

It's not a baluster leg or a steam bent crest but I couldn't resist taking a few photos of our future home's garden. These little guys are about as sweet a tomato as I've ever tasted.

                                 

                                                                Artichoke

In amongst renovating the cottage we had been going through the motions with our local council about building a new shop and residence here in Piper Street. The amazing plans which my Uncle Geoff had drawn had been shown to a few builders too and the resounding responses were estimates and timelines that would choke a chook and curl your toes.... both at the same time. So some serious rethinking was in order. Around the time of us contemplating our respective navels, a little place just two doors down happened to become available. Star Anise restaurant.

So the plans are on hold just for the moment and the future home of Rundell & Rundell is assured. There's a pretty overwhelming sense of excitement in the household at the moment, with plans of the shop setup coursing though our minds. Stay tuned for more on that soon, but when looking out the back at the organic garden that supplied this Chef's Hat awarded restaurant, I couldn't resist getting the camera out and capturing the amazing fruit and vegetables growing there.

Tomatoes galore, so many that you could make pasta sauce for a month. Black currents, Tahitian limes, lemons. Artichokes, pumpkins and peas. Mint, rosemary, thyme... the list goes on. So it looks like we will be well catered for when we move in. A great resource too for lunches for people coming to take a chair course here.

And the view across the fence isn't bad either. It sort of reminds me of the little towns and villages we stayed in on our trip to England and Scotland last year, deciduous trees and stone buildings. We've got a great feeling about the place already are counting the days now until we can make it our own.

Something about cake.....

I really meant to post about the first chair class I've run in Kyneton earlier than this, but moving house sort of got in the way. Then a nasty bug decided he would take up residence in my stomach for bit and see if he could cause a little bit of unrest. Well mission accomplished bug, nice work.

Anyway, back to that happy day, being last Friday, when my first clients finished their two Continuous Arm Windsors. And what a great pair of chairs they were. Both Mark and Tony were suitably impressed with the finished product and well they should be, they both turned out a great chair. I was glad they chose to have baluster turnings in the chairs too. I don't know, maybe it's because the first Windsor I made had balusters, but I really feel the Continuous Arm shines with that extra detail that the balusters afford over the Bamboo/Double Bobbin.

There was a third fella who was just as happy as the guys and that fella was me. There was a good deal of satisfaction had in the knowledge that this chair making stuff had merit!

Seeing the course come to fruition over the last week was very satisfying indeed. The week flowed very nicely too and I was able to tweak and structure the days to suit the guys as their progress unfolded.

The result was a very laid back last day, with no pressure, no hurried work or mistakes and both chairs being finished and spindle tips trimmed in time for a celebratory beer or three afterwards. Tom bought around his box bacon flavoured Cheesels too, as you can see in the background.

The icing on the cake was both Tony and Mark discussing throughout the week, building their own shave horses and their plans for making more chairs in the future. That was always a big part in my interest in teaching others to make chairs.  Inspiring people to continue to make chairs and windsor style seating after taking a class with me. To have it happen already assures me it was the right choice, kind of like having the cake and eating it too.

Quality

In 2009 when I travelled to Tennessee to learn how to make windsor chairs with Curtis Buchanan, I recall being excited just at the prospect of learning how to make a chair. I had travelled a long way to do so, sold my beloved motorbike to finance the trip and left my wife and then 2 year old boy behind at home to find what I hoped to be a new future for us.

In a way I didn't have any expectations of how the course should be, look or pan out. I was just as excited about the experience, as having a chair at the end.

You could probably imagine how the excitement grew when I first laid eyes on Curtis' workshop tucked away next to the organic raspberry patch at the bottom of his garden. The next week was the greatest learning experience of my time to that date. Thankfully I've had another since with Pete in Massachusetts in his original 1790's chair makers house.

So what made both classes special? Quality. When I say that, I mean not only the level of expertise of both my teachers. But the materials provided, tools used and definitely the depth of the experience had whilst learning. The experience itself is as important as the final product, being the chair. The purpose built workshop in Tennessee overlooking the valley of Jonesborough or Pete's workshop looking out to the ruins of the Rocky Brook Chair makers workshop across the way, both were inspirational places to experience making windsor chairs

Today when I began to teach my first Windsor Chair making class here in Kyneton with Mark and Tony from Melbourne, I knew that I wanted them to be just as inspired as I was ...... and still am! I also know that they should expect to have as close to my U.S. experiences as I can provide and so that is just what I have set out to achieve.

Crisp Maple baluster turnings. U.S. Yellow Pine seat blanks and best yet, green spindle and crest rail stock which has been split straight from the log. In fact the 5 foot long crests that I split out of the log a few days back for the class were as close to the white oak ones from Tennessee as I could hope for.

Here's a snap of one of the splits about half way through. I finished with six good crests out of the quarter of the log that I split.

These are the two crests from the split above. Beautiful, split straight grain. I'm almost tempted to do away with the strap to bend them!

And here are the guys on the horses, shaving spindles in the fresh country air and warm Autumn sun under the skillion of the workshop. No, it's not an 18th century chair makers workshop, but it's as close as you can get here without jumping a plane half way round the globe. Before the next class at the end of the month, the rest of the fruit trees and the veggie gardens will be planted and the cottage in the background should be a good deal further along too. A quality view to finish the package.

A Sterling Rocker

Going through my photos last night in preparation for the class this weekend I came across some photos of a rocking chair that I had seen in the Sterling Historical Society House in Massachusetts. The curator of the Society had heard that Pete Galbert had moved into Newton Burpee's original chair makers house and had approached Pete while I was there and offered for us to come by and be shown their collection of chairs.

It was an amazing collection of chairs all made by local chair makers stretching back to the late 1700's, ( there were apparently nearly 40 chair makers in that little region alone ) including a couple of original Burpee chairs too. But in amongst it all was something that I had never seen in person.

This little rocking chair. Interesting design and some very finely applied line details too. But the one hint that all was not as it seemed was the secondary round mortise hole just right of the left arm stump. Surely a chair maker of this calibre wouldn't be that far out with his drilling, or send out a chair with a big hole in the seat.

But 30 seconds later all became apparent as the curator had 'transformed' it into this, a rocking babies cradle. Very impressive. Quite simply the right side of the chair extended out from a sliding rabbet joint. The crest rail then lifted out and was fitted into two round tapered mortises, including the strange hole in the seat, becoming the front 'fence.' Don't know if this would pass government safety tests these days. You might have more of your baby out of the thing than in it!

It was a very cleverly thought out piece with all of his joins hidden amongst gouged details in the seat or turning details in the stiles. Above all else though, would have been the time and effort that would have gone into making such a piece as opposed to a standard rocker. A chair like this would surely have been a special order as making pieces like this regularly would not have been economical. It was a great thing to see and all of these chairs were good food for thought in firming up my design for a new chair. More on that soon.

Mont De Lancey - Part 2

The weekend before last Lisa, Tom and I packed up the car and my ute with half the workshop and made the journey across to Mont De Lancey in Wandin for the Wood Steel and Steam Festival. It was a great little country style fair, with steam engines chugging away all day, the sound of Blacksmiths hammering at the anvil and brilliant wood turners demonstrating their skills at the lathe. In amongst it I set up my bench and shavehorse and talked all things Windsor until I was blue in the face. 

 Also on board was Dad with his Timberking Sawmill, which drew a huge crowd every time he fired it up. He milled a stack of logs for some of the locals.

There was face painting for the kids, great food and coffee and of course the spectacular Mont De Lancey homestead and out buildings too, which is just like the original owners walked out the door over a hundred years ago. Read about it here - http://www.montdelancey.org.au/

We had some great feedback over the course of the weekend and Tom entertained as only he knows how, sitting confidently at the shavehorse and wielding a spokeshave like it grew out of his arm! He even had a good little dialogue going, describing how the spokeshave was cutting his spindle. He's got a bit of size to him, so a few people were very surprised when they learnt he was only 4. With a couple of courses booked and an order for a chair, perhaps I'll put him on the payroll!

Since returning from the U.S. last year I've been trying to get a copy of Pete Galbert's chair makers adze made up by a blacksmith, as I don't have a forge of my own. I'd contacted a few smiths but had trouble even getting a response half the time. I had an old rabbit trap setter, which was the ideal blank. With this in hand, I took it over to Dietmar Fleckhammer ( great blacksmiths name hey? ) in the blacksmiths shop, with some scale patterns I took while in Pete's workshop. No problem said Dietmar and before I knew it he was back with the modified setter now in the form of a adze.

 Brilliant. Over the course of the weekend Dietmar also whipped up a couple of sets of hold downs too, again in the blink of an eye. 

We couldn't help ourselves and end up buying a set of his fireplace tools too, knowing that the little house we are about to move into, has open fires. Deitmar is a very skilled and competent Blacksmith and has his shop set up at Mont De Lancey. It's well worth a visit. 

Keep an eye out for the Festival next year, it's a great weekend and good to support the small groups and communities that run them. I often get asked how to sharpen edge tools with curved blades so next entry I'll be showing how I sharpened and turned and fitted a handle to the adze.

Windsors around the world

There's been a lot of movement around the station the last few weeks and this past one has been no exception. Work on the cottage, demonstrating chair making at The Wood Steel and Steam Festival at Mont De Lancey, preparing for an up coming double chair course and working on some new chair designs in between!

Then late last week, at the same time as collecting Mr Goostrays tool chest and tools, I collected the box containing the Crested Rocker I made with Pete in Massachusetts last year.

Here it is being taken out of the box it's lived in for over 4 months. Millie watched on with interest. This is hopefully the only time I will ever flat pack one of my chairs!

And here it is dry fitted, it was great to see it again after it's long journey from Sterling MA, half way around the world.

And just across the pond from Massachusetts, a friend Leigh, who has made a couple of very fine chairs with me in the past, sent me this photo of some balloon backs and another fan back style chair, he spotted while on tour, in a little cafe in Warwick, England.

While the balloon backs are a little on the heavy side for my liking, I was interested to see the resemblance of the end chair to our 'Kangaroo Chairs' here in Australia. Being the most well known 'windsor style' chair in Australia, these were made in droves with decorated crests. The very first of these were carved, with everything from native flora to kangaroos and emus. In later years these decorations were pressed into the crests as the chairs became mass produced.

By far the most famous Windsor chair maker in Australia's history has to be George Peddle of Tasmania. A Peddle chair is now quite the collectors item and worth quite a good deal of money too.

Peddle's chairs were made usually of blackwood, with square-ish seat shapes, turned legs with multiple beads and a shaped crest rail. Very much like the chair sitting at the end of this table in Warwick. Which is not surprising given that Mr. Peddle was from the heart of Windsor chair making in the UK, High Wycombe...... just an hour away from where Leigh took the photo. Great stuff. Thanks Leigh.

Cottage Update....

Here's a few photos of the cottage as I've been promising for the last few weeks. There's a way to go yet but it's sure changed from the bland and sagging little place it used to be ( see blog post - 'Behind the Scenes' 19/11/11 )

Here you can see the new roof that Jim Carew ( the Master Plumber I did my apprenticeship with ) his son Brendan and I put on a few weeks back. Traditional galvanised iron, with returned spouting and return stop ends, which will turn a dull gunmetal grey with age. Also the new verandah and divided windows.

And a view of the new back of the house with the french doors and deck. We look forward to spending a few relaxing afternoons here in the sun in the coming months. Then in the future, this will be a B & B for those attending my Windsor chair making classes in historic Kyneton. I think it will be a reflection of the ethos of our business, the products we intend to make and sell and the classes we will teach. It's taking time, but all good things do.

Joseph Goostray's Pattern Makers Chest - Part 2

Late last year I posted that I had been fortunate enough to visit Patrick Leaches 'Inner Sanctum' whilst taking a class with Peter Galbert in Massachusetts. Whilst there I bought an original pattern makers tool chest, which I was later to find out was owned and made around 1910, by a man by the name of Joseph Goostray. From the moment I clapped eyes on this chest I was mesmerised. But my time with it was fleeting.

It was delivered on a Saturday to Pete's place, where I had a quick look, took some photos then got back to finishing my chair. I then had to remove all the tools from the chest and pack them individually ready for shipping the next day. That was back in late October and I haven't seen it since.

Well yesterday I got the call I've been waiting for, for some months. Customs had inspected the boxes and they were cleared for collection. I couldn't get down to Dandenong quick enough, collected them and bought them straight home.

So this is nearly all the tools layed out on Kath's outdoor table. I ran out of room, with still a drawer full to go. I then had to go back to the original photos I took so I could replace all of the tools into the chest, just the way I found them.

I like to think I know what most hand tools are or have been used for, but I've got to admit that there are a number of tools in Joseph's chest that have me stumped. Great cooincidence is that my new neighbour just happens to have a father who was a pattern maker. So I reckon I'll be asking him a few questions soon.

It's great to have this little treasure back home with me and very soon it will take pride of place in our new shop in Kyneton. Please drop in to see it when we open in the near future....

Wood and Steam Festival - Mont De Lancey

Just a quick post this morning to let you know that I will be demonstrating Windsor Chair making at the Mont De Lancey Historic Homestead, 71 Wellington Road, Wandin, this coming weekend, the 24th & 25th. This festival celebrating all things wood, steel and steam has been going for a number of years now and I'm happy to be invited this year to demonstrate chair making. There are all manner of great displays so if you have time, make a day of it, come up and breath in some country air and take in some traditional hand craft. There are antique tool sales too for those of you, like me, who can't get enough of these great old quality tools.

I'll be doing a number of demo's throughout the weekend from spindle and crest rail shaving, shaping seats, drilling and reaming, steam bending and assembly of a few different chairs. If I get time in amongst it all, I'll try to make a perch too which will be available for sale. Should be a great weekend. Hope to see you there.

Kyneton Windsor Chairs

A great day at the office? Yep, I guess that sums it up in a nutshell.

Over the past few weeks, as any one on the East Coast of Australia would know, we have experienced immense rains and 'hundred year floods.' The effect has been devastating and not escaping the carnage have been our trees. Over the worst of the rains here in Kyneton we apparently had nearly 200mm, which is an immense amount of rain in anyones language.

So how has the rain damaged the trees here? Well, after more than ten years of drought the root structure of trees have been pretty severely compromised, especially the deciduous species . Then we have immense rains which these trees take every advantage of, drawing up vast amounts of water ( and weight ) through what's left of their roots, into trunks and finally into the canopies of these large and very old trees. The top heavy trees are then dangerously precarious, with little holding them. Add to the mix the howling winds that we experienced here at the same time and we have what occurred on the banks of the Campaspe River, below our magnificent Botanical Gardens.

Three Elm trees fallen amongst the other spectacular exotic species that surround them. Giant Sequoia, European Oaks, Douglas Fir and Blue Spruce to name but a few. Those familiar with our parks and gardens, both Melbourne and rural would have heard of Sir Ferdinand Jakob Heinrich Von Mueller, or Baron Von Mueller as he was commonly known, (read about him here if you haven't - http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mueller-sir-ferdinand-jakob-heinrich-von-4266 )

the brilliant Government Botanist. As well as being responsible for supplying Melbourne's Botanical Gardens with exotic species from around the globe, he did the same for these gardens in Kyneton, supplying plants and seeds from around the 1870's.

Now I haven't had a chance to count the growth rings on the largest of the Elm's properly yet, but I did count to 80 before I gave up and there was a way to go yet before I reached the bark! While I can't say when it was planted yet and by whom, I'll get the ball rolling by trying to get as much info as I can from the Kyneton Friends of the Botanical Gardens group. It would be great to have some further provenance of the planting of these trees. Here is the largest of them, being lifted onto the back of the the crane truck. It was the cleanest Elm log I have collected in years, ( If not ever ) perfectly centred heart and not a trace of any rot or other defect.

Here's my 660 Magnum next to it. Yep, that's a 3 foot bar on the saw. Standing next to it the log came up about 50mm ( 2" ) above my hip. From the 3 fallen Elms I salvaged 20 logs. They were remarkably tall and straight trees. This morning ( Kyneton Market day ) when I placed the logs onto my block in the main street, passers by stopped in droves to see these amazing logs find a temporary home before being milled. Our friend Mara at the cafe across the road ( Inner Biscuit - Best coffee in town! ) spent her morning explaining that they were to be used to make Windsor Chairs, which resonated very well with her customers.

Amongst the onlookers I spoke with a well known fella who's been in the town for a long time and has probably forgotten more about all things tree related than I'll ever know! A short conversation later and I'd met his mate of 40 years and was driving down the road to view the farm where I've been offered a virtually permanent place to mill as many logs as I need.

A good day at the office? Absolutely. In fact pretty much any day here now is great. Kyneton Elm for Kyneton Windsor chairs. Beautiful. I'll be trying to post some more updates on the cottage over the next few days, it's been taking up every hour I have at the moment, but the transformation over the past week has been immense and worth all the effort. I hope you'll agree.

Generosity

A simple word. The act of giving, without really expecting anything in return. It's a simple concept too, but not altogether common today. But today I was treated to a big helping of it and I have to say that being on the receiving end, it was a pleasant and humbling experience.

A while back I met Tim while demonstrating Windsor Chair making techniques over the course of a weekend. Then just recently he came to spend an evening with Pete Galbert and 50 or so others watching Pete describe and demonstrate his amazing chair making techniques. In fact Tim also had the foresight to commission Pete to make him a 'Perch' from Fijian Mahogany while he was here.

So when Tim emailed me last week asking if I would like a volunteer to help me with my renovations at the cottage, well I was a bit taken aback. Of course I said yes, then went through in my head what I thought were a list of things that may be of interest to someone offering some help. Tim promptly emailed back, pretty much just saying that he'd be happy to help with whatever needed to be done.

And so today he did. I shot down to the hardware store yesterday and bought a ute full of sleepers and cypress posts and today we put it all together in the form of a 2 level wood rack at the back of the new workshop. Nothing flimsy here, with 200 x 50 ( 8"x2" ) sleepers every 400mm (16") it should support all the wood I can fit in it, without a problem.

Next week I'll take a trip down the farm and pick up a pile of Stone Pine ( Pinus Pinea ) that I milled up about a year back. That will see out the roof of the rack, with a few sheets of iron on top.

Hot and dusty work, with the temp hitting 35c (95F) in the shade, but we broke the back of it and had a good chat about all things wood, chairs, growing up on the farm and a few things in between! We've even tee'd up a impromptu chair-making class in the very near future, where hopefully I can re-pay the favour.

It was a real pleasure to have Tim here and reaffirms that despite the ups and downs of life,

there are still some truly decent and generous people out there. Thanks Tim!

Continuous Arm Bending Strap

This morning I received a request from Tim in the U.S. regarding the bending strap I use to bend the crest or bow for the continuous arm windsor. This new and improved strap is result of using the original, which was essentially knocked together to get us through the first class we taught on the chair and then went on to serve us faithfully for another four full classes, bending countless dozens of crests.

That strap, a bit of packing strap welded to some square tube cut in half and with a few screws here and there to add grip was the result of a good friend Pete Mc Curly giving some good advice and suggesting the strap to control the breakages and delaminations that were occurring.

At that point I had hand shaved 23 crest rails to shape in one day and steamed them, only to lose all 23 to some form of breakage. Demoralising to say the least. With the new strap we had immediate success and went on have a 95% success rate.

What was also immediately apparent from that day was that "we weren't in Kansas any more Toto" or Tennessee, where we had steam bent white oak crest rails with Curtis Buchanan with spectacular ease, not even the slightest hint of failure and certainly no strap.

So while we don't have the beautiful ring porous hardwoods of the Americas' ideally suited for bending, we do have beautiful timber in it's own right and we just have to learn how to tame it.

As is widely known the strap essentially changes the point of neutrality in the piece from the centre, where there is expansion of the timber on the external side and compression of the timber in the internal side, to the very back of the external face, forcing the entire piece to compress instead. Now while this is nothing new, the issue with the continuous arm crest is bending the piece in two differing planes whilst maintaining that compression. This must also occur in good time so as not to allow the piece to cool.

So this is what we came up with. A 2 piece strap that contains the primary bend of the back and then allows the secondary bend to occur whilst maintaining the overall compression of the piece. To achieve this the shaped piece or blank is fitted into the main body of the strap.

The secondary straps are then placed into the clamping portion of the strap at the point where the taper occurs from the thicker back to the thin hand hold. The bolts are then tightened into locating holes, clamping the secondary straps into that curve. The serrations on the underside of the clamping pad grip the piece and limit slippage ( See below ). This has now taken care of the compression of the first bend of the back.

To contain the expansion of the handholds the secondary straps have stop-ends attached which simply house on the end of the blank. Pressure is maintained on the strap when the secondary bend is being performed to ensure that the stop-end remains in place and contains the expansion.

The reason for stainless steel? The strap is fitted to the piece before steam bending and is put into the steam box. There is simply not enough time to fit the strap to the hot piece after steaming and it would cool too quickly. The stainless has eliminated the staining from the original packing strap metal, leaving a blank which requires less cleanup afterwards.

Having said all that, there is still no substitute for clean riven or sawn, green, straight grained stock. The bending strap is a great aid, but it is not a cure-all. Unsuitable species, grain run out, branch inclusions or other defects will almost certainly result in a failure of some sort, strap or not.

As for dimensions, the strap should be fitted to the bending form you make. Mine is setup for an overall crest rail blank length of 1490mm ( a fraction over 58.5 inches ). The over all length of the main strap is 860mm ( 33.85" ). The secondary straps should be custom fitted to the length of your handhold. The bolt down clamps should just be large enough to accept the blank and the clamping pad.

My bending form is sitting at the bottom of a large pile of stuff while I set up my new shop, but when I get to it, I'll post the dimensions for those of you who'd like to make one.Any other questions or dimensions, please ask! Hope this is of some help. Here's Pete Galbert's thoughts on the strap.

http://www.chairnotes.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/hardy-lot.html