A Cottage of Asbestos

During our last trek in the Tablelands area of Kahurangi National Park Aimee and I spent two nights (Rained out) in the Asbestos Cottage. The Cottage was built Circa. 1900 and is a standing history of the area. Once inside the woodworking history of the cottage really showed it self. All of the timber in the entire building was all pit-sawn native timber. Pit-sawn meaning each board was ripped by hand out of a log, no saw mill here. Basically two carpenters would take a log and straddle it over a dug pit. One carpenter would jump in the pit and the other on top of the log and they would start to saw the log lengthwise with a large two man rip saw. As I looked around the cottage I was surrounded by what seemed to have taken thousands of man hours to make. That will make you appreciate s4s timber.

Saw marks on floor boards.

Note the Log Dog used to hold the logs during the pit-sawing process.

Organic Brews With Chippies?

(Another day in the books at CFW and this is how we wrapped up the day.)

While traveling in NZ I found that the locals not only call their fries chips but their carpenters chippies.

Counsel of His Own.

A picture from inside the Centre for Fine Woodworking, NZ.

Today was a good day. I was fortunate enough to pay a visit to the Centre for Fine Woodworking in Nelson, NZ. I had originally planned to take a short class at the school while on holiday, but time did not cooperate. Instead I just stopped in to have a look over the place. As I stepped into the benchroom it was a breath of fresh air. Benches, planes, timber, shavings, and workers of wood abound. (Note good day!) The Centre was started by David Haig and John Shaw, both pronounced woodworkers in New Zealand and have taught in the States as well. (Check out http://www.centre-for-fine-woodworking.co.nz/ for further info.) My intent was to just have a short visit and head out, but I was invited to stay the whole day. To start off John invited me over to his bench, pulled out some native timbers and a Veritas Low Angle Smoother, and let me play. The species I was working were Matai and Totara, which took the iron remarkably well. I had this vision that New Zealand timbers would be dense and hard like the horror stories I have heard about Australian hardwoods. I was surprised to find that most NZ timber is quite soft. As I planned away in bliss John brought over a wooden Krenov style plane for me to test drive. Come to find out later that plane I was using was an ORIGINAL James Krenov plane. James gave it to John during a visit to NZ before John spent a year with James at the College of the Redwoods. I asked John and Dave a lot of questions throughout the day about woodworking and their backgrounds. David revealed he is mostly self taught, learning the "hard way". While talking with David in passing he muttered a paraphrased quote that I later found from Hunter Thompson. "No man is so foolish but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and no man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master." - Hunter S. Thompson (1939) What David was trying to say really stuck with me. It showed me the importance of woodworking instruction and the need for me to sit under the tutelage of other woodworkers. Not that self teaching is inadequate but I think instruction can take some of the frustration out of learning a craft and it passes on generations of knowledge learned the "hard way". I think we can all learn from each other and not just rely on the counsel of our own.

An original James Krenov plane.

Some old Stanleys.

Rob Cosman's Scraping Wood

During the latest visit back to the Wild and Wonderful West Virginia I was fortunate to have the pleasure to hang out with family and old friends. One of those friends was not in West Virginia though. Rob Cosman hails from New Brunswick, Canada and I paid him a visit through his new DVD Scraping Wood. This 9o minute DVD shot in High Def was Rob's latest addition to the instructional line of DVD's that have helped me hone my woodworking skills. To be honest I was a little skeptical of this DVD only because I had previously purchased and watched Christopher Schwarz's excellent Handscraper: Understanding, Preparing and Using the Ultimate Finishing Tool. Chris's DVD really set the bar high with excellent information and easy to use techniques. Scraping Wood was very much a review of how to prepare a card scraper although Rob's techniques differ from those of Chris's. Scraping Wood goes on to review the #80 cabinet scraper and three scraping planes, the #85, 212, & 112. Rob really emphasizes the importance of the burnisher and its level of polish. He also advocates the use of a flat burnisher over a round burnisher to spread out the pressure. I am eager to try this in the future to see if I can tell a difference. Overall, Scraping wood is some of the best video quality that I have ever seen in any woodworking video. It is very well organized and full of excellent advice. I am glad I own the DVD and can’t wait to watch it again.

P.S. And congratulations to Cody, Wyoming for hiring one of the best Paramedics in the lower 48...As a faithful Cor Woodworks Blog Reader you can borrow Scraping Wood any time!

A Tale of Two Tops

The latest project at COR woodworks was a Pipe Box for Zach Lysdahl. This was the last project for the 2008 season in Grand Teton National Park. The shop is all packed away and ready to rest in Denver for the winter while Aimee and I explore south of the equator. The wood that I constructed the box with was Black Cherry and Curly Maple. The carcass was assembled with mitered through dovetails and the lid is a sliding lid allowing the contents to be easily accessed. I originally used curly maple as the top with a finder pull bored out and holly inlay set into the bottom of the pull. When fitting the top the resulting fit was disappointing. Needless to say I created a second top, this time out of cherry. I also decided to change up the look and design of the second lid. I accented the cherry with a strip of holly and ebony inlay and used a maple dovetail key as the finger pull. The fit on the second lid was spot on and I was very pleased with its piston fit. The over all dimensions of the box are 6X9X3. I would have to say that the color contrast of maple and cherry with a coat of Danish oil is one of my favorite wood combos.

COR Woodworks

“The highest reward for a man’s toil is not what he gets for it, but what he becomes by it.” -John Ruskin
In 2006 I started COR Woodworking to use my passion, woodworking, to better peoples lives. My hope is to bless people that I have come in contact with. Through certain pieces I desire to meet a need and use my work to sharpen a fellow individual.
The symbol of the Hand Plane is a metaphor of Proverbs 27:19 “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another”. Iron will only take a sharp, long lasting edge if it has been properly tempered. This tempering process is fulfilled by supporting each other, allowing the iron to be prepared to receive an edge thus enabling the plane to do its job successfully. The word cor is Latin for more at heart. The word courage was derived from the Latin cor. I try in every piece I construct to present not just a piece of furniture but an element of encouragement. -Cheers

You Know This!

Living the transient lifestyle has its perks, but it also comes with its challenges. Loving to woodwork but never having a "Shop" can be one of those challenges. I can be seen in the picture above working last week in a random snow squall in the Beaver Creek Housing area. Fervently trying to finish a box for a friend here before we move everything we own and become homeless for the next six months. (Note the sheet used to block the winds!) Am I crazy? As Mark Lobsinger would say "You know this". I enjoy woodworking because it is a constant challenge, a test of skill. There is always a new way to accomplish a task and a new skill set to be learned. I am fascinated with working by means of my hands and building something I can be proud of. Woodworking is a life long education. I hope I can only afford the tuition. "The woodworker is slow, but the wood is patient." –Chinese Proverb