Our students often ask how to finish their projects, be it a rocking chair or table. Often times we have just enough time to complete the piece, and don’t have time to apply a finish. Although applying the finish is not hard it requires a step by step methodic approach which I have outlined here […]
10 students left Saturday evening, tired but satisfied, having finished a fine heirloom Craftsman Style Rocking Chair. It’s always a great experience when after you have worked so long cutting joints and shaping wood it all finally comes together. Getting the shoulders to fit tightly on the rockers is one of the more challenging elements […]
This week we have 10 students hard at work, each one making a fine craftsman rocking chair! Here is Jonathan helping John glue up the back of his cherry chair.We have a father and daughter taking the course as well as another father and son duo. I think this is a great way to spend […]
Our first spoon carving class opened up Saturday with 6 students and what a great day! This is just one of the many new classes that we are offering this year. I started out by teaching tool sharpening. This is often overlooked when working with hand tools. Folks often wonder why they are not getting […]
I took the foundational class on a little field trip to go split a red oak log. I am working on making some carved boxes and maybe a chest made in the 17th century style, right from the log. This project is actually worthy of another post, so I will keep you updated on the […]
We had a full and exciting foundational course this past week, with folks from all over the country. Students traveled from California, Georgia, Louisiana and Tennessee, with the rest from the Lone Star State! Here are a couple of pictures of the students during the week. For those that are not familiar with our Foundational […]
As the 3 students from the Brazos rocker class finished up their chairs on Saturday evening, there are many words that describe the feeling: fulfillment, satisfaction, camaraderie, and exhaustion! Every one of the students completed their chairs and they all turned out beautiful. It took a total of 12 class days with some of the […]
Well the first week has come and gone for the students in the Brazos Rocker course. As some of you may know, this chair is a complex rocking chair with many hand cut mortise and tenons and lots of shaping done with the spokeshave. This past week was spent cutting many mortises by hand, as […]
Welcome everybody! It’s great to be able to get the new blog up and running. There is so much to write about and catch you up on, but I won’t do it all in one post. I would like to briefly mention that we have several new classes up for 2011. I will be writing […]