A close up view of one of the turned quarter columns glued and clamped in position

 

As I stated in an earlier post, one of the aspects of case construction I wanted to explore was making and fitting fluted quarter columns to a clock case. Following Franklyn Gottschall's plans, I glued up a 2-1/4 inch square turning billet from four smaller 1-1/8 inch square lengths of cherry. The laminated squares were seperated by strips of brown paper. Gottschall's drawings show the columns turned in one piece with the column's base and top sections turned at the same time as the center shaft. I followed this procedure. The flutes were cut using a 1/4 inch diameter grooving router bit. This created three grooves down the length of each quater column. Frankly, Franklyn, the result looked clunky. Most of the antique clock cases I have examined have much more delicate and numerous flutes on each quarter column. I decided that the columns as made were junk. I glued up a new laminated turning billet. The column base and capitals turned out OK on the first rejected column stock. I  carefully trimmed these elements off the duds and glued them in place in the case. I then re-routed the flutes in the new turning using a 1/8 inch diameter grooving router bit, with the grooves cut on 1/4 inch intervals. This spacing created 1../8 inch wide flutes. I think this looks infinitly richer than the first effort. The completed fluted shaft quarters were carefully trimmed to length and glued in place. Not bad for a couple of days work.

 

I am already thinking about turning several examples of column profiles based on photographs of clock caes featured in Antiques Magazine. A great thought, but given my time constraints maybe something for the next life time.

 

Thanks for stopping by. STB

 

Another quick comment. Based on Google reports exactly four people visited this site last month. Those four visits probably recorded my own views of the site as I checked on the site. If this number is valid, this is really depressing. Bummer

A tall-case clock case based on a design published by Franklyn Gottschall

 

I thought I would take a break from working on hand planes. So for something completely different I decided to built the lower clock case for the Gottschall hood I built several years ago. When I started out looking for an apprentice position years ago, I visited the Irion shop in Paoli, PA. At the time I did not know of that shop's reputation for creating reproductions of classic Philadelphia Chippendale furniture. While there I saw eight tall-case clocks, all the same, all presold for $12,000.00 each not including the clock works or the painted dial faces, under construction. What I saw blew me away. The show room had a display of the different styles of tall-case clock hoods mounted like art on the walls around the room. That visit has stayed in my mind ever since.

 

With the economic down turn of 2008-2009 I was lucky to have a back log of orders which carried me along for several years. Building Windsor chairs is the core of my business, but the slow down in new orders made me think long and hard about other market niches to explore. Unfortunately, the entire antique business and interest in reproduction clocks hit the skids as the economy cratered. Why buy a reproduction clock case from me for $12,000.00, when you could walk into an antique store and buy a real 1770 turban top tall-case clock made in London for $5,000.00. And even then no one would touch it dispite the give away price. Not a good time to start building tall-case clocks. Which of course was what I did.

 

I built several clock hoods to display in the shop to include one based on a Franklyn Gottschall design. Long story, but I have had this beautiful hood hanging in the shop. It lacked the rest of the lower cabinet. I will post pictures as this project progresses.

 

Thanks for stopping by. STB

My latest design of a chair-makers plane with a tote

 

I am listing one of my new chair-makers planes with tote on ebay. I am currently finishing up work on a batch of ten, but have not yet heat treated nor tempered the blades for that group of planes. Several are ready to go so I am interested in putting them up for sale to see what reactions to this latest design will be.

 

I have been working off and on for a number of years, is it six or eight?, to arrive at a design which I am satisfied with. I have a box full of earlier prototypes filled with rejects which I keep around to document the journey. I arrived at a workable design about three years ago, and used that plane at the Common Ground Country Fair, where I demonstrated Windsor chair making for three days. That particular variant lacked a front knob. I used it like some of the European design hand planes which lack a front knob. Three days saddling seat blanks left me with several impressions. The tote worked well, as well as the smaller plane I have used for years. But, the lack of a front knob meant that my hand partially obscured the plane's throat when I was bearing down on the front end of the plane. Adding a front knob to the design meant either lengthening the body of the plane, or reducing the throat opening. Neither option really appealed to me. On the other hand, using that plane made me realize that in use the plane iron could be taken in and out of the plane without the tote being in the way. This meant that I could shorten the length of the stock, allowing for the addition of a front knob, move the tote's forward, and still reduce the overall length by a good inch.

 

With this experience in hand, I made another prototype resulting in the design pictured above. The finished plane is 7-1/4 inches long, 2-1/8 inches in width, and 6 inches in hieght with the tote. The tote is secured to the stock of the plane with a sliding dovetail joint. This batch of planes uses a plane body laminated using cherry and maple.

I am asking $225.00 plus $17 and change for priority mail.

 

Thanks for dropping by. STB

Two of three Tracy Fan-back side chairs I am making for a customer

 

Thank you to those of you who stopped by my demonstration at the Common Ground Country Fair. It was a pleasure to talk with you all. I think I ended up talking more about woodworking in general than Windsor chair-making. By the end of the day Sunday I had completely lost my voice.

 

Last week I was browsing through the college library looking for something interesting to read. I found a book "Preserved in the Peat" written by Andy M. Jones which describes the  archaeological excavation of a Bronze Age burial on Whitehorse Hill, in Dartmoor. "The dig revealed an unexpected intact burial with with an unparalled range of artifacts. The cremated remains had been placed with in a bearskin pelt and provided with a basketry container.... Within the container were beads of shale, amber, clay and tin, two pairs of turned wooden studs.

 

The wooden studs were radiocarbon dated to 3,709 +/- 33 BP (Before Present Era) No one seems to be able to say Before Christ anymore. This discovery of lathe turned wood is the earliest evidence of wood turning in Bronze Age Britian. Pretty cool and something I think is of interest to the those of us who are wood turners.

 

Thanks for stopping by. STB