stevenbunn Tue, 04/14/2015 - 07:26
An Ebeneezer Tracy Sack-back Windsor chair
 
I mentioned in an earlier post that I am going to start posting parts of my book about building an Ebeneezer Tracy Sack-back Windsor chair on this blog. Getting ready to do so forced me to draw up a set of plans that serve as the foundation for what follows. So far I've created ten pages of drawings and will probably have to do several more pages before I am done. The photo above shows most of the construction details which make Tracy Sack-backs so interesting, I love the turning profiles and the large knuckles of the hand-rests. Obviously, a project like this one isn't suitable for a first time effort. However, if you have made one or more Windsor chairs and have basic turning skills on a lathe this is a chair you can make. As a start to the book publication, I am going to offer the complete set of plans as a package for sale through my website.
 
I spent the past weekend working on the baptismal font, which I am building for a local church. I ran out of time and didn't get any pictures. Watching the Masters golf tournement got in the way. I will post a few in-process pictures in the next couple of days. Have a good day.
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stevenbunn Sat, 04/04/2015 - 12:48
The assembled communion table
 
The bulk of the work is done. Some sanding still needs to be done, the top and the outer faces of the lower square sections of the legs, hence the darker tone of the wood. Other-wise a blustery day in Maine. Happy Easter to everyone.
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stevenbunn Sun, 03/29/2015 - 14:44
Installing astragal molding on the communion table's shirts
 
A surfit of posts today, highlighting the carving skill of Mark Donovan, done for the communion table and baptismal font.
This picture is almost ho-hum in comparision to the two photos of Mark's carvings posted in the following two posts. The molding does a nice job of dressing up the table.
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stevenbunn Sun, 03/29/2015 - 14:32
Mark Donovan's carving of a peapod and fisherman/lobsterman for the font
 
Look at this! An incredible amount of detail packed in a small image. I am starting to sweat just thinking about cross-cutting the panals to size. What if I screw this up? Ahhhhhhhh! I can't get over the planking on the boat. This carving is only a little over four inches in width. Boy, oh boy, oh boy.
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stevenbunn Sun, 03/29/2015 - 14:21
Carving of the tree for a font panal
 
At the time the UCC church in Phippsburg was founded a linden tree was planted on the site of the church in celebration. Two-hundred and fifty years later the linden tree is still living and has become an enduring symbol of the church. The tree's signature shape has been captured in a number of paintings of the church. The commissioning committee of the church was particularly interested in some how incorporating the linden tree on both the table and baptismal font. Mark Donovan's carving of the linden tree on one of the four carved panels he created for the font is superb.
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stevenbunn Sat, 03/28/2015 - 20:35
Top bow on miniature mounted on spindles, ready for wedging
 
A very busy couple days just flew past. The communion table's base is glued up. I will try and get some good photos tomorrow. Sunday I need to sand the astragal molding then start gluing it on to the shirts. In addition to everything else, one of my nieghbors came over and spent the last two days cutting down and cutting up two dead elm trees that were waiting to fall in a stiff breeze. I've been lucky on that at least. Now my wife is in a hurry to get the new wood stacked. One more job on the family "to do' list. In other news, Mark brought over the four carved upper panels of the baptismal font. His work is amazing. I will try to get detail shots of these as I know some of you will like them. One panel features a carved linden tree who minute detailing is beyond words. Another, the chuch is part of a historical fishing and boat building community, shows a man rowing a dory with a pine tree covered rocky shore in the background. I'm still trying to figure out how Mark carved the planking in the dory. Consider that each of the panals that make up the fonts octogonal top section are no more than six inches wide and ten inches high. This makes each of the carving no more than 3-1/2 to four inches wide. The finished font is going to be stunning in no small part due to Mark's craftsmanship.
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stevenbunn Thu, 03/26/2015 - 13:27
Assembly of the communion table's base
 
After sanding the parts, I started gluing together the legs, skirts and stretchers of the table's longer two sides. I will let these sub-assemblies stay clamped up until sometime tomorrow, when I will finish gluing up the base. Not rocket science, but gluing up sub-assemblies rather than trying to assemble all four sides at the same time reduces the struggle involved in trying to fit everything together.
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stevenbunn Sun, 03/22/2015 - 19:30
Skirt and bracket carving on communion table
Another view of the foliage pattern that extends from the table legs and wraps the table skirts. Carving done by Mark Donovan, Bowdoinham, Maine.
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stevenbunn Sun, 03/22/2015 - 19:22
 
Carved foliage on the upper part of the legs
 
The design of the table is based on measured drawings published in Spirit of New England, one of the books in the series "The Architectural Treasures of Early America." The original table is from Kings Chapel, in Boston. According to the drawings the table dates from 1686. One of the design changes requested by the church was that I incorporate the turning profile of the existing altar railing, in place of the earlier baluster turning. The photo is a little washed out, sorry. The carving on the legs extends across the table skirts on all sides of the table. The outer faces of the square sections of the legs was left unsanded until after the table base is glued up. This accounts for the difference in tone between the darker square faces on the legs and the turned portion of the legs. An applied astrgal molding wraps the table at the bottom of the skirts The dados cut in the upper square sections at the top of the leg allow the molding to pass across and around the legs.
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stevenbunn Sun, 03/22/2015 - 08:57

Good Morning,

I plan on posting several photos of Mark Donovan's incredible carving on the legs and skirts of the communion table I am making for a local Maine church. I have to admit being uneasy with the scope of carving agreed to by the church committee overseeing the project. The table looked great without any carving. What if the church hates the carving when the table is presented later this summer? Mark's work has elieviated my worries on that score. Well mostly...

I am writing this morning to ask for feed-back from those folks reading my blog posts. To start with, I have been working on the draft of a book about building Windsor chairs. I have worked on the book of and on for well over ten years. During that time I have found no one interested in publishing the book. The tenor of comments I've received is that the subject is over subscribed and that there is no market for another book on building Windsors.One reviewer told me that I had three books incorporated in the manuscript. Another really wanted me to concentrate on the history of Windsor chair-making in Maine. However, I know that Ed Churchill, former conservator at the Maine State Museum is working on exactly that book. Without some hope of publication it is hard to sit down and knock out another page, or reach into my pocket for cash to pay an artist for the graphic art I would like to include in the book. Naturally, my fury with the publishing world was stoked even higher this last summer when in a chance conversation with Chris Schwarz, he told me that his publishing company, Lost Arts Press, was publishing Galbert's book, on you guessed it, Making a Windsor Chair!

I am seriously thinking of publishing my book online, and in fact, on this blog. E-books are an interesting idea, but don't appeal to me. Even if my writing shows up only one page at a time it will in fact get out of the file drawer and see the light of day. The subject I am writing about is building a Tracy pattern Sack-back Windsor chair. Viewers can see several Tracy pattern chairs in my chair gallery. The basic concept is a step by step photo essay similiar to those posted on the mini-vise and miniature Windsor chairs. There is an upper limit to how much can be loaded on to the blog in a single post, so I am not thinking of putting entire chapters on line. That's the idea as I write this post today.

My question to you is less about your enthusiasm for the subject, than your thoughts on the quality of the writing you have already read on my blog? Turgid? Interesting? Clear or not clear? What do you think? Good or ill, let me know.

Thanks, have a good day. STB

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