OT: Furniture Making

[Tom Watson]

I hate to interrupt the learned discourse of the political scientologists but I came across a worthwhile article in the February edition of Antiques (The Magazine).

article is about the case furniture of Eliphalet Chapin (1741 -

1807), who did most of his work in the area of East Windsor, Connecticut. Gorgeous photographs of Chapin's work, as well as that of others who were influenced by him.

There are detail shots, including one of the underside of a chest of drawers, the caption of which I have excerpted here:

"...The front feet are blind dovetailed together and supported with a rabbeted quarter-round horizontal block inserted in a groove in the top of the ogee foot. The shaped bracket supporting the rear foot is attached with a row of small exposed dovetails. The feet splay out at an angle of about seven degrees, measured from the rear..."

Hot damn! Makes a man want to turn off Norm, Roy and David (the father, son and holy ghost) and high off to the shop for some plain and fancy wood butchering. Turn on a little Bach or Mozart and tune up that dovetail saw until you can get to within a gnat's noogie of the scribe line.

There is a point to this:

Sometimes the best wooddorking magazines ain't wooddorking magazines at all.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled drooling contest of the witless bombastardi.

Thomas J. Watson - WoodDorker

tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)

(webpage)

[George]

Certainly is. Given the poor quality of glues available to him, he had to rely heavily on mechanical joinery.

Probably donkeyed out by an apprentice while the master carved or marketed....

[Wes Stewart]

Tom,

[interesting stuff snipped]

I'm probably one of the guilty. But you realize that by making your post OT, a lot of the (non)reading audience didn't see it.

Pity they let a machine instead of a brain do the filtering for them.

Regards,

Wes

[Will]

[Ba r r y]

Barry

[Robatoy]

[schnipfert]

I find Bach more suitable for heavy post and beam. I do understand the Mozart/dovetail thing though. I will try Mozart next time I cut a dove-tail.. The Who just isn't working for me.

[Conan the Librarian]

I think of heavy post and beam as being Wagner's area. :-)

Yeah, especially if you find yourself doing a windmill with a sharp tool in your hand.

Chuck Vance (who is very careful when playing air-guitar in the shop)

[patrick conroy]

So, I got this friend, see. It ain't me.

But he picks up a Wummen House Magazine of SomeSortOrAnother whilst on the Throne. Starts paging through it and notices all sorts of nice furniture, albeit in a modern style.

Inspirationally speaking, paging through "Home" magazines might just pay off too.

[Tom Watson]

Some of them have nice pictures, but the antiques magazines will go into a bit of depth about finishes and joinery.

Another area that can bear fruit is the auction house catalogues that are printed when significant collections go up for bid.

Thomas J. Watson - WoodDorker

tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)

(webpage)

[Tom Watson]

Nah, Beethoven for the heavy stuff, Bach for clarity, and Mozart for Saturday night.

When the workshop radio went on the fritz, I fixed it so that only the classical station would play.

What I say is, If It Ain't Baroque, Don't Fix It.

Thomas J. Watson - WoodDorker

tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)

(webpage)

[Robatoy]

...visions of a Daltry microphone toss with a running jig-saw

[patrick conroy]

So I'm the only one listening to Metallica in there?

[Renata]

Personally, I prefer Pink Floyd.

Renata

[B a r r y]

No you're not, I like 'em!

I like Squizz and other heavy stuff on XM.

If I've got a CD in, it's often Godsmack, Rammstein (which scares my wife ), Korn, White Zombie, Papa Roach, Saliva, and Zac's BLS for new stuff, or Metallica, Accept (The original angry Germans!), Ozzy, Priest, Maiden, etc... for classics.

Other times, I'm in a Little Feat, Allman Bros., or even Zydeco mood...

I can't imagine working without music. Varying the tune to the tasks keeps the whole thing flowing.

Barry

[Tom Watson]

"Careful with that axe, Renata."

Thomas J. Watson - WoodDorker

tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)

(webpage)

[Conan the Librarian]

Yep. :-)

I'm more likely to have old rock (late 60's to early 70's) or some jazz (mostly guitar-oriented "fusion") on when I'm working. Plus some Texana/Americana stuff like James McMurtry, Townes Van Zandt, Robert Earl Keen, etc.

Chuck Vance (heavy metal makes me jumpy ... not a good thing when working with sharp tools)

[max]

I like Floyd when I am designing furniture, Dylan when I am assembling, Stones, The Band, Van Morrison when I am cleaning and organizing the shop and the radio when I am in a rush to meet deadlines. max

[Will]

[George]

Stay away from Wagner, especially at the lathe.

[patrick conroy]

Aren't they all? :)

Randy Rhoads... Dammit, dammit, dammit.