Ahhh Brimfield

Just over an hour West of Boston is the smallish town of Brimfield. It's the usual quiet New England style of place, with a big white weatherboard church and the like....... except on the day Pete and I arrived. Where the place is transformed into the biggest antique market in the US, with over 5000 dealers spread over a mile and about 80 acres of field. And they run it 3 times a year.

I've been to a lot of garage sales, flea markets, car boot sales and antique fairs back home, but really, this was crazy. By the time we had walked around for a few hours and had to sit down to the best pulled pork roll I've ever eaten, I reckon we would have been lucky to have perhaps seen 5% of it. If that.

 It was insane. In fact I had sort of given up by then too. In the sense that the more cool stuff I saw the more it frustrated me that I was in no position to get it home! .... But here's a snapshot or two.

I can see me riding to work on this....

Or paddling down the Campaspe River in this.....

Yes this is really the only Harley Davidson I've ever really wanted....

Nice old tredleys, barn fresh as they say...…

Cast Iron Sir? How many ton would you like?

This guy had the pick of the tool selling tents we saw... and the highest prices too, but the range and quality were astonishing…. this was one of 3 isles.

By far one of the highlights and there were many, was this dovetailed chest with a coopered lid.

 As clearly painted on the front it was made around 1838, dovetailed, beautifully painted and had a handmade lock and key. Stunning piece.

So did I pick anything up? Silly question really.

Quite early on I saw this little 1880's Gerstendorfers Gold Paint container. On opening the lid the instructions, 2 piece paint brush and original bottle with golden contents sealed by a cork were all there. Snapped that up. 

Then there was an old 1940's Mallard decoy, which although not hand carved, has a great patina. 

An H.F Osborne round leather knife, HF was CS Osbornes brother, who CS bought out around 1905, which means that any HF Osborne tool has definitely had a long and interesting life.

A Barton Hoop driver for the bucket courses back home.... Get a load of that George!

Plus a couple of other bits and pieces. Moral to the story, if your in Massachusetts when this show is on, get yourself there and make sure you've had your vitamins for the day, it's incredible.

Where do you go?

It's an interesting prospect making Windsor chairs for a living in Australia. On one hand your a relatively good sized fish in a small pond, demographically speaking. On the other, there's none too many other chair makers just hanging around for you to chew the preverbial fat with. And so, with the exception of good mate Bern, I tend to spend time searching for inspiration, as opposed to perhaps being inspired by others plying the same craft.

So you can imagine what it is like for me to be fairly and squarely in the workshop of one of the States best Windsor chair makers and a house full of his creations. Suffice to say it gives you food for thought.

Playing with the Tim Manney made Adze…. amazing fun

The time to actually be present in a workshop that is not yours and doesn't have all the limitations and boundaries of your own, is an interesting place to find yourself in. To have time to carve or steam bend a part that is not earmarked for a commissioned piece, but to you is an exercise purely in honing skill or understanding a technique in a greater sense, can be very rewarding. To have no time limitations is a bonus too. To work green and dry timber alike, that is of text book quality as opposed to scrounging for a log of that species, let alone one that is straight enough to fashion a spindle from.

 It seems a lot like a dream at present. Pete put it well just the other day when Charlie expressed concern to him about me being out in the heat splitting maple. "Don't worry about him, he's just having fun experiencing what it's like to be a chair maker here."

Oh Well, I guess I'll make another few spindles outta this horrible wood...

But there's also a more confronting aspect to the picture. It begs the question, are you becoming staid? Are you at the forefront of your craft or is isolation from or lack of interaction with other makers meaning that you are treading water? I've asked and answered that questions of myself a few times since I've been here. ( No, I'm not audibly talking to myself in a  corner  somewhere ).

 There's been no real resolution and I think I'll have to see through the end of the trip before I'm quite assured of the answer, but I am content that the process of asking those questions is valid given my circumstances. And hell, even if the ultimate answer is not what I want it to be, then more reason to work towards changing that, and achieving the right end goal. Win win eh?

But while on the subject, I feel very fortunate to have been a guinea pig of sorts for a while in Pete's workshop. As you would all be aware Pete is currently in the process of writing his book on Windsor chair making. He has also kindly given me access to parts of the draft copy to read. 

One part was in reference to a technique for fitting a part of one of the chairs featured in the book. Pete asked me to read it and then based on that, complete the physical task on that particular chair part 

( sorry I can't give away any more detail for obvious reasons ) But what I can say, is based on Pete's text and illustrations alone I completed the task and it worked about as perfectly as you could ever want. I was supremely impressed.

So how good do I think this book will be? Well lets just say that I will strongly recommend that anyone taking one of my classes in the future reads Pete's book first. Despite the fact that in doing so they probably won't need to take a class with me at all.......?? Hmmm might have to rethink that one…. 

But seriously, I honestly believe it will be the 'go to' book of our time for anyone wanting to make Windsor chairs. It truly is that comprehensive. And it is beautifully illustrated by Pete too. He is a rare talent.

The Leach Factor

A trip to Massachusetts for me now is not going to be complete without visiting the home of Patrick Leach. You may know Patrick from his monthly tool lists which contain a plethora of quality tools, including a couple of special categories for wooden and Stanley planes and the like.

Or possibly from his reproduction of the famous Stanley No.1 under the guise of the The Superior Works.

Then there's Patrick's Blood and Gore, his famous information overload regarding Stanley planes. Or perhaps you just remember the post I wrote about him the last time I was here in 2011. Here it is - Patternmakers Chest.

But which ever is the case, a visit sure makes for a fun afternoon and Patrick did not disappoint this time round either.

I had purchased a few tools here and there from previous tool lists and had asked Patrick to hang on to them rather than send them, as I knew that I would be here to collect them in person and what better excuse for a visit.

On arrival we were greeted with the view of a 'barn fresh' 1922 Buick sitting outside the garage. According to Mr. Leach, he is the second owner and from memory I think he said that it had done less than 25,000 miles. Pretty sweet eh?

The original green paint was terrific. What a great colour.

Got to love that tail light.

So down to business and I had a look over the things Patrick had put aside for me. A hatchet and set of number stencils made from copper sheet, a Millers Falls sharpening jig and a nice old Slick- cranked too!

A quick look around the rest of the tools and Pete asked if Patrick would mind showing Charlie the 'Inner Sanctum' to which Patrick readily obliged.  ( see above post for some insight ) While we were all collectively drooling at the museum quality pieces jammed in like sardines I spied something I hadn't seen last time. A canon.

in situ

Yup, you read it right. A canon. Sitting there, plane as day under the work bench. "What's the go with the canon Patrick?" "Oh that's just a Winchester canon, they made a ton of those things, drag it out."

Although only smallish in size, the little canon was a beautiful bit of work. Apparently they were made primarily as a starters canon to fire blanks and operate with a 10g shotgun shell blank.

" Oh what the hell, we didn't let off any crackers for the 4th, let's go and fire off that little b*#%@d!"

                                      

Need I say more :)

It's a Chinook Salmon!

The East coast of the United States, for those of you who haven't ventured there, is a pretty green sort of place. Sterling Massachusetts is no different. Sure we have 'green' at home, but a more drab eucalyptus sort of green. Here it's lush, vivid green, made up of a dense canopy and undergrowth of Maple, Oak, Hickory, Pine, Birch and a whole stack of other stuff. And it's no wonder when you experience the humidity from heavy showers and healthy sun like we have the past few days here.  It's  a recipe for growing trees. Good straight ones.

So on the first day out of the blocks at Pete's I weighed in for an hour or so…….splitting blocks. Or logs really, with Charlie in the front yard of Pete's place. Charlie is one of a talented pair ( Claire being the other ) of young furniture makers currently staying with Pete.

Under a tarp in the front yard is a pile of Oak and Maple logs. "30 bucks a log for the maple," said Pete with a grin, as I muttered something under my breath. I don't think the White Oak was any more expensive. Now a couple of the logs had a bit of wind to them, but compared to our White Oak and Hard Maple logs back home……..oh yeah, that's right, we don't have them do we.

So as Charlie busted open the Oak log I measured out 2 foot lengths around knots and the like on the maple flitches, then docked them to length with the chainsaw.

I then started to break those respective quarters down with the wedges and froe into 2 1/4" slabs, then
2 1/4 " square blanks.

Said slab.

And Leg blanks

But as I began to split those parts out, I noticed one big problem. The rotten things were all figured. Damn, talk about all the bad luck eh?

You can see it more readily in the bottom block.

And here in the ones I rounded down and the double bobbin leg I turned. Bummer eh?

So of course when you have such bad luck with rubbish maple, then what's there left to do but split Oak. The following day, amongst other stuff, I went down, cut a another couple of lengths off the Oak flitches Charlie had split out, marked them and started splitting some spindle stock.

Well that's a bit more like it. Nice even growth rings and straight long grain

Well, I guess you might call that split 'ok?' You know, if that's as good as you can get it. So I started splitting a bit more out.

Mmmm, not bad. 1 inch square and straight for about 2 foot ( 600mm )…..

Now that's a fairly good pile. enough for a couple of side chairs. And so about that time I showed Pete. "Oh, that's kinda curly which is not ideal for spindles, I'll go and ring the guy I get my logs from and see if I can't get another log."

It immediately took me back to those 1980's John West salmon and tuna adds. You know where the Aussie guy is in Canada and is blown away by a big Salmon a Canadian fisherman is holding. The Canadian proceeds to tell him it's rubbish. "it's a Chinook! Chinook salmon, flesh is too course, colour's all over the place, not enough oil. John West buy all our best salmon." "Ahhh" says the Aussie. "So this is fish John West reject?" "Riiiight." says the Canadian. Then blazed on the screen. It's the fish John West reject that make them the best……..

And so, the figured spindle stock was rejected……And that's why Pete is making the best chairs going around.

 But to hell with that!  So I made them into spindles :) I'm comfortable being that other guy, when it comes to that wood. Chinook or not.

And I have to say, curl or no curl, they were pretty damn fine to shave down. I even made a few spares. I think a little bow back side chair when I get home might just be the place for those horrible curly spindles.

Amongst other things it's just been nice to have the time to chat with Pete about all things chair related and his latest work. And to delve in deeper about green wood to.

Here's the blanks I rounded down, turned by Pete into Baluster legs. (yup, there's that nasty fiddleback again) These things are that green that not only are the tools wet afterwards, but look at the moisture contained below those bulbous sections. Makes you want to grab them and wring them dry.

Pete's workshop, no matter what is going on in there, is a great inspiration for anyone being there, whether taking a workshop or not. Stay tuned for more….and less about salmon.

Just across the pond

1st July - 5.00AM, Eastern Standard Time -Kyneton. Bags packed, passport, tickets, camera.  

                 etc - Check

                 6.30AM Melbourne Airport. Kiss and hug Tom and Lisa, say goodbyes, check-in,  

                 sit in airline lounge - Check

 9.00AM Board plane, find seat - isle…..excellent, smile at person next to me and 

                 quickly understand he's not in the mood for conversation. Place headphones on 

                 head start watching movie. - Check

11.00AM Watch movie

 1.00PM  Watch movie

 2.00PM Eat meal out of plastic tray, drink coffee.....Watch rest of movie

 3.00PM Watch movie

 5.00PM Lose track of Eastern Standard Time... and movies. Fade to sleep for 

                 3.5minutes until 6'4" man behind me wrenches seat backward again to annoy staff 

                 for more bourbon, as he has done for past 5 hours or so......Watch movie

 Something AM - Pacific Time Zone stretch legs, drink coffee.....watch movie

  6.30AM- 14.5hrs after take off, arrive LAX, descending through a few hundred 

                   metres of smog to tarmac.

  7.30AM - Clear customs and search for airport lounge. Into long queue for security

                  screening prior to gate.

  8.00AM - replace jacket, shoes, watch and patience, collect bags and head for 

                  sanctuary of lounge.

  8.05AM - Reliably informed by lounge staff that I have been directed to wrong 

                  terminal and forbidden entry to said lounge.

  8.25AM - Walk to 'Terminal 4' enter second queue for security screening at 

                  'Terminal 4,'

  9.00AM - replace jacket, shoes, watch and patience, collect bags and head for

                  sanctuary of lounge

                  9.10AM - arrive at lounge, grab paper cup of coffee and sticky danish thingy and 

                  sit down.

  11.30AM - leave lounge and company of disgruntled English man yelling at his 4 

                  children throwing sticky danish thingy's at each other and head to gate. Grab 

                  airport hamburger….. surprisingly good.

  12.00PM - Board American Airlines plane and take seat. Place headphones on 

                  head, start watching movie.

  12.10PM - Reliably informed by Captain that our flight will be delayed due to being 

                  re-routed by air traffic control due to bad weather patterns around Chicago. Flight

                  due to take extra hour.

  1.30PM - Ask airline hostess with extremely happy disposition and beaming smile

                   for a cup of coffee. How do you have it? She asks....Beaming. White please, no 

                   sugar.

  2.00PM - Ask airline hostess with extremely happy disposition and beaming smile 

                  for a cup of coffee. Oh Sir I'm sorry I forgot, I'll get right on that…..

  2.40PM - Smile at  airline hostess with extremely happy disposition and beaming 

                  smile, thinking it may jog her memory of the coffee thing..... Oh my, how you take it 

                  again Sir? She says. Anyway I can get it at the moment, I think of replying. "White 

                  please."

   3.00PM - Airline hostess with extremely happy disposition and beaming smile

                   arrives with cup of coffee. Black. Mmmm, thanks. 

   Sometime? - Lose track of timezone again.

                   9.15PM - Eastern Time Zone - Fly over New York heading for Boston. 

   9.30PMish - begin circling Boston waiting for permission to land.

   9.55PM - Land Boston. Exit plane, through gate and down to collect bag. 26 odd 

                   hours of travel………..

1st July 10.00PM, Eastern Time Zone - See Pete Galbert's familiar and smiling face staring 

                   back at me. Collect bags and jump into Pete's pickup.  Head for the hills of 

                   Sterling. Arrive at Pete's and have a couple of well earned beers. Let the journey 

                   begin.......

A bucket load of fun.

On a wet Saturday just gone, the familiar sight of George Smithwick's green Landrover came wheeling into the driveway, signalling the beginning of another Coopered Wooden Bucket Course. With a full house of 6, plus me as the gopher, George again skilfully took the guys from a pile of 18 staves, a head and a pile of hoop iron, to 6 fully functional great looking wooden buckets with spliced rope handles. Again there was not a single leak amongst them!

And just like the chair class, we had a great cross section of people taking part. From an amateur woodworker to a plumber and even a farrier, to name a few. We also had Doug and Craig as return customers from a Perch and Barstool course respectively. Great to have you back guys.

As with the chair courses, when you have a group of people on board who want to learn, it makes for an enjoyable time. When you add George into the mix it makes for an unforgettable day. He's just that sort of personality and such a natural teacher. Which brings me to my day in the workshop with him.

A few months back I was out on the usual early Saturday morning garage sale hunt with good mate Dave - Master garage sale purveyor. We had hit a small farm out on the Springhill Road and in amongst a largish pile of tat and other plastic landfill was a hefty looking little port barrel. 

Before

Not the usual mass produced suspect with tinny hoops and lacquered staves. This one had wide hand beaten hoops, thick, well formed staves and a host of other tool marks and indications that a coopers hand had made it, not a machine. Cash exchanged and the barrel was mine. Not all rosy though, as when I got it home and knocked the bung out, a wonderfully vinegar-y smell smacked me right in the face. Putrid. After a brief chat with George on the phone, I bought some citric acid and Metabisulfite steriliser to try and kill the smell and bring it back to usable condition. No such luck.

So when George arrived he used the little barrel as the sample to show the guys how each of the coopering tools are used, knocking the head out of it. A look inside showed that all of the staves were quite badly delaminated and there was a fine layer of mildew on everything. So the staves were numbered and I knocked the whole thing apart into a pile. Being such a small barrel, Georges inshaves wouldn't quite fit to shave the inner side of the stave, but James Mursell's travisher was perfect and in about 15 minutes I had them all shaved back to clean quarter sawn oak with a lovely purple tinge to them. 

After 'standing them up' in the hoops to reassemble, I looked at the outside of the staves and the black iron marks and years of grot and decided that I probably should give them a quick shave too. Not so fast though as I ended up dulling four spokeshave blades in no time, such was the hardness and depth of the residue on the outside. But at least the barrel looked the part.

So the class had finished on record time and I looked to George to help me get the barrel back together. "You'll need a creset full of shavings to toast the barrel before we get it back together," he said. 

"A whats-it?" I replied with a dumb look on my face. You know, like a dog looking at the radio. With no 'creset' handy, I ran around the workshop looking for something about the size of a 4 litre paint tin. No luck. In desperation I looked outside and straight through the door of our outside toilet. 

There it was, a tall made in China shiny metal toilet roll holder! Bingo. A few holes drilled up the side of it and presto. Instant creset! 

So picture this. We have the open ended barrel propped up on some oak sticks on the hearth of the fireplace. Toilet roll holder creset in the middle and a shavings filled fire flaming out the top of it, inside the workshop! Tom was there running around, squealing and giggling in disbelief, " I can't believe we've got a fire inside the workshop!" EEEEHHHH HEEEE. Lisa pulls up out the front and walks inside, greeted by her elated giggling 6 year old, a thick haze of smoke at eye level and George and Glen toasting a barrel on the floor. Having fun are we? I merely grinned in reply. In fact so much fun that I completely forgot to snap an picture….

After a good while the steam started to seep from the staves and the inside of the barrel had a good deal of heat in it. I then watched as George coaxed the first head into place, followed by the other with the tap still in place. 

The hoops driven back into position, a quantity of boiling water was then poured inside. "Quiet now," said George as he stood the barrel on end and put his ear to the head. At that stage I didn't know if he'd watched a few too many Western movies and was listening for a stampede.... But in all seriousness, he was listening for air, bubbles that is. And he heard one too, then another. He motioned me to do the same and a second or two after putting my ear to the head, there it was. A bubble audibly bubbling to the surface and popping. On checking the head there was a small weep. 

As quick as you like, George knocked off the chime hoop, and loosened the quarter hoop and manipulated a sliver of Kabungi reed between the head and stave where the leak was, then drove the hoops back into place. Leak fixed.

It was terrific to watch and now my next job is to get myself a barrel full of Old Madeira and enjoy over the next few years! Thanks George and well done guys.

Not hungry any more?

It's been another couple of weeks of terrorising termites at Tylden and we now have all of the floors in nearly all rooms except the hallway removed. On removing plaster from the walls, then floorboards a similar pattern appears. 

A bit of bottom plate chewed here, a section of top plate destroyed there and usually a couple of studs completely eaten. 
But when you think there's rhyme and reason to their eating habits, you'll find a stud that has only been eaten half a metre from the floor or that they have carved a path through the centre of a 12mm thick weatherboard for 3 or 4 metres, ignoring all other timber that it attached too. 

And just when we though we would have to rebuild every single wall and floor in the place, the last room in the house, on the North West corner, was left largely untouched. Just a small amount of damage on two of the corner posts. Perhaps it was due to the Northern aspect meaning the walls were drier and warmer than the others? 

The 'uneaten' room? To hot for you eh?

Whatever the reason it was a great relief not to have to pull up another floor, joists and bearers and either burn them on the bonfire or cut them up for firewood.

In amongst the insect action, Bern and I also ran a Continuous Arm Chair class with 5 great people on board. Peter who had come down from Sydney for the week, Sue from just down the road and Hew from just out of town. Don from Melbourne and Dan from Ballarat. Again we ended up with 5 great looking chairs at the end of the week and five happy people with a better understanding of the just what is involved in making a Windsor chair.

A terrific group of chairs and people. Cheers!

It's amazing what you find when you look

Stripping plaster of the wall in the hallway of the old house in Tylden. …..

This wallpaper was actually stuck on backwards to the hessian on a wall as a base for the actual wallpaper being used.

This is the hallway. We removed the plaster board to reveal hand painted faux stone block-work with a hand painted decorative frieze above. The detail is amazing.

Hand painted frieze.

Ups and Downs

Much to the collective surprise of a good few of my readers, I have not dropped off the face of the earth, I've just been a tad busy is all. But thanks for your emails anyway.

Trying to re-build our old farm house, teaching, making furniture/chairs, liaising with some incredibly talented artisans and tradespeople takes up a large swag of my time. Especially trying to do all of the above prior to us taking a well deserved family holiday for a short while. 

And just when I thought that I was at maximum coping capacity, we had the pleasure of having our factory burgled and losing over $12,000 of equipment, power tools and my chainsaw. Those wonderfully thoughtful individuals even had the good grace to steal 7 of our marquees we had only just purchased for our Lost Trades Fair. Violated pretty much sums it up.

Despite the above setback, the show must go on and so here's a little of the goings on of the past month.

We've run 6 courses since the Lost Trades Fair and as per usual, all of the people coming along to those classes are great value. It helps when you are teaching people who are actively seeking your instruction and who want to learn. That goes for Doug, Dean and Peter above.

The farm house, or just plain old 'Tylden' as Lise and I refer to it, is going along great guns too, albeit slowly. It's not by choice, but more so due to the amount of time that we get to devote to it. I'd love to spend every waking moment there, re-building our 'new' home but that just doesn't pay the bills. 

We have always said this renovation was going to be a ten year project after all, so I guess we're right on track. 

Although it looks brilliant with it's wooden shingles exposed to the sun again after 100 or so years, they're not exactly what you'd call weatherproof!

Weather boards are finished on the kitchen/laundry and the day we shot through for our holiday, the regions best roofer, Tony Franklin and his crew were putting the last of the ridge caps and flashing on the roof above them. 

So on our return, work can continue in earnest on the inside, now that we are weather tight. 

In between work on the kitchen/laundry, we ( Pete Murphy and I ) have made some great progress inside the original part of the main house too. I'll save that for a post shortly.

Back to the Lost Trades Fair and it seems that the energy created on that single weekend is still resonating both locally and further afield. A few weeks back Lisa was contacted by a member of the Artisans Guild. It seems that she had heard about the Fair and asked if we would come down and visit with them during one of their general meetings at the historic Ravenswood Mansion in Ivanhoe. 

So on the evening in question I headed down and met with some incredibly talented people indeed. It's not possible to mention them all here during this post, but here's a snippet of one individuals astounding work. 

Some of the most brilliant decorative painting I've ever seen….

The great news is that they are just as excited to work with us for our next Lost Trades Fair as we are with them in their future endeavours. Again, more on that to come.

But for now...... back to this….