SAPFM-ORV 2021 Fall Meeting on Sept 18-19 at Little Miami Handworks

David Conley

Well-known member
SAPFM-ORV Spring Meeting September 18 &19, 20021 at Little Miami Handworks SAPFM – ORV Chapter,

1)  The hotel reservation is at the Home2 Suites in Centerville, OH.  The cutoff date for the hotel is August 15, 2021.  HOWEVER, THERE IS SOMETHING ELSE IN TOWN.  DO NOT DELAY MAKING YOUR RESERVATIONS!!!  You should be able to make your reservations starting sometime tomorrow morning.
2)  Will do City Barbeque again.  About $10 each.
3)  Don’t forget to send me a RSVP email.


Cheers,
David



Society of American Period Furniture Makers
Ohio River Valley Chapter
Proposed AGENDASATURDAY, September 18, 2021

1. Open doors at 10:00am
Arrive, relax, have some coffee

2. Introductions and Show & Tell, 11:00am – 12:00pm
The “show and tell” is an ice breaker.  Please bring anything you would like to show off.  If you have a special piece, a project or even a jig, please bring them.  For those who haven’t attended a previous meeting, this is a quick introduction, a display of your skills, interests, projects both past and present, jig, etc. It can even be a request for help in a particular area. After we go around the room, we will break for 30 min. During this break, you can seek out the other members who have similar interest and/or have already built a project/jig you want to build. This break will give you the opportunity to meet and establish a new friendship, pick their brains, and continue communicating with them after the meeting. This is extremely helpful for highly specialized niches, like inlays, marquetry, carving, Bombay chest, etc.
  2a) Introductions and Show & Tell, 11:00 - 11:30am
    Name, where you live, your past and present projects, classes, and/or your particular interest and your Show & Tell item if you brought one. …
  2b) Break to discuss Show & Tell one-on-one, 11:30am-12:00pm  Also, we will have another swap meet.  If you've got something to sell or trade, please bring it. 

3. Lunch, 12:00 – 1:00pm 
4. Demonstrations 1:00pm to 5:00pm
 
Finishing - Group discussions   
   
4a. Color Paste and Shellac as a Wood Filler – Larry Bilderback and Dave Upperman   

    4b. Pore filling with wax and shellac finishes; use of the pollisoir; Don Williams methods – Paul Sanow
    4c. Dyes
-      Pickle Lime – Rob Millard
-      Walnut & Mahogany – Dave Boeff   


SUNDAY, September 19, 2021
Breakfast (on your own)
5.
Demonstrations 8:30am – 12:00pm
   
5a.  Popping the Grain – Charles Murray
    5b. Shellac Spray – Dave Boeff
    5c. Finishing on Carvings
-      Water Base Spray Lacquer – Dick Reese

-      Single Part Safe Finish – Dwight Bartlett
6. Wrap-up, 12:00 - 12:30pm
Little Miami Handworks Address: 
26 East Franklin St.
Bellbrook, Ohio 45305
937-307-6634

HOTEL ARRANGEMENTS (
10 minutes from shop): 
  Home2 Suites By Hilton Dayton, Centerville, Ohio    5161 Cornerstone North Boulevard, Centerville, Ohio 45440
 
Group Name:  SAPFM   Rate: $ 149.00 + tax (13.5 %)
Toll Free # to call to reserve: 1-937-988-0050Cut-off date to reserve 08/15/2021 DO NOT DELAY!!!Cancellation Policy:  48hrs advance notice



 

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Society of American Period Furniture Makers
Ohio River Valley Chapter
2021 Fall Meeting

Miami Handworks in Bellbrook, Ohio

(As reported by Dale Ausherman)


The Ohio River Valley (ORV) chapter held their fall 2021 meeting 18-19 September at Little Miami Handworks in Bellbrook, Ohio, a suburb of Dayton. The meeting was planned and coordinated by Chapter lead David Conley. There were over 25 members in attendance at the 1 1/2 day meeting. We owe special thanks to Dwight Bartlett for hosting the meeting in his shop and for his assistance in meeting set up and refreshments. This was the chapter’s first meeting since the beginning of the Covid Pandemic in early 2020, having cancelled or postponed three meetings. It was wonderful to once again see and visit in person the many talented members of the chapter.


The meeting began on Saturday morning with meet and greet followed by show and tell of member projects. David Boeff kicked off the show and tell by relating a project to complete a Townsend/Goddard six shell secretary which had been started by an elderly Cleveland area gentleman decades ago, the craftsman now feeling he was no longer able to finish the piece. David did not want to take on the entire project, so he enlisted a young and talented area woodworker to take it on, with David mentoring, carving, and making some specific elements such as the ogee bracket feet. The young craftsman was a very quick learner, and soon had the skills to complete the project, including some of the carving. David obtained drawings of the piece from the Leslie P. and George H. Hume American Furniture Study Center at Yale. The project was complicated by the fact that the original owner’s design to fit the tall piece into his house had “squashed” some of the elements vertically, rather than scaling the entire piece dimensionally.

Charles Murray brought an octagonal lidded tea caddy he had made with hand tools a couple of decades ago. The eight sides were pieces of deep Walnut moldings joined with splined miters. Finish was boiled linseed oil.

Paul Sanow followed Charles with display of his incredible Lumbard/Howard-inspired tilt-top candlestand. This three-legged table has extravagant inlay of an urn anchored in the center of the top with interlaced vines radiating outward with flowers and teardrop-shape leaves sprouted randomly along the stems. The stems are tapered stringing! This is a featured piece in the book Crafting Excellence, The Furniture of Nathan Lumbard and His Circle, by Jackson, Jobe, and Pearce.

Next, Dave Knuth exhibited a Philadelphia Chippendale side chair he completed in 2019. He measured this chair at Winterthur (Plate 137 in Joseph Downs’ American Furniture, Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods) and while there took many photos. For his design Dave substituted a front apron and legs from another chair in the Yale collection. He finished the chair in a mixture of hot beeswax and boiled linseed oil.

Dave was followed by Larry Bilderback presenting a shieldback chair thought to have been originally made by John Townsend. The original chair, sans Larry’s added leg stretchers, is shown as a photo in John Townsend Newport Cabinetmaker by Heckscher. Larry obtained representative measurements from a similar chair in Gottshall’s Making Furniture Masterpieces: 30 Projects with Measured Drawings. He used a Waterlox Original Formula satin finish.

Dave Feola described the fun process of making the Roubo one-board bookstand, a project he undertook just the week prior to the meeting. He made the stand from a single Walnut board. This project has been on Roy Underhill’s Woodwright Shop, and some members saw this made by Roy at one of the Williamsburg’s Working Wood in the 18th Century symposiums.

New member John Kelly displayed a “trial” Queen Anne lowboy made entirely of Pine. The project started with John making a trial cabriole leg, then making a second, third and fourth for practice. He also wanted to make and fit his first hand cut dovetailed drawers, so he assembled the legs with other parts to prepare a representative case for receiving the drawers. Before he knew it, John had a full Pine lowboy, including added apron drops and other decorative elements. John now plans to make the actual lowboy from Curly Maple, while painting the Pine version.

An impressive custom-designed Walnut desk was presented by Charlie Watson. The desk was largely copied from the George Washington Desk in the NYC City Hall’s Governor Room, with its two side galleys designed by Washington, and original drawer layout. But Charlie chose cabriole legs with ball and claw feet in place of the original Sheraton-style legs. And he added a tall sculptured back in the style of the cyma-curved aprons of the classic Goddard tea table. Charlie added the back to enable use of the desk in the middle of a room with 360 deg. viewing.

Following show and tell, the Saturday session continued with presentation of the finishing processes of pore filling and wood dyeing. Larry Bilderback presented his method of using color paste fillers. His favorite is Bartley Paste Wood Filler, a classic oil based grain filler. He reports Bartley is out of business but believes Behlen has a similar product. Larry explained how he applied the filler with a rag cross grain, then once the sheen is gone scrapes with a credit card cross grain. He then rubs with burlap cross grain. When dry he sands with 220 along the grain. He goes through this process twice, then finishes with three coats of Waterlox, wet sanding at 400, and then Liberon #0000 steel wool application of Renaissance wax.


For those who feel the filler-Waterlox process is too slow due to drying time between coats, Larry and Dave Boeff reviewed a faster method of filling with shellac. This involves many coats of shellac (dries very fast), with wet sanding after every 2-3 coats, leaving the dry powder residue on the surface to work into pores on the next set of coats, etc. Then Paul Sanow related his rewarding experience of attending a Don Williams finishing group retreat, where he learned the use of beeswax and shellac finishes for pore filling, including the use of polissoirs of various designs for burnishing wood and polishing the finish. Paul spoke highly of the Williams event, and the resulting effectiveness and beauty of the processes.

The Saturday meeting moved on to discussion of wood dyes, starting with a demonstration by Rob Millard of darkening Mahogany and other tannic acid-containing woods (e.g. Oak, Walnut, Cherry) by use of pickling lime, which is food-grade lime or calcium hydroxide. Pickling lime can be obtained at Walmart in the canning section. After raising the grain and sanding to 320 Rob sprays a mixture of one heaping tablespoon of lime to one quart of water. Rob’s lime finishing process is described in detail at:  https://rlmillard.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/05/200-years-in-a.html

Dave Boeff followed with a presentation of his methods and materials for use of aniline dyes, specifically for Walnut & Mahogany. He usually fills with shellac, or seals Cherry or Maple with ½ lb. Shellac, then sprays a Lockwood dye with alcohol solvent, which does not raise grain. Dave described his entire process, including mixing a stock solution, diluting, and application. Dave has used a variety of finishes over the dye, including shellac, Waterlox, and others.

Charles Murray started the Sunday session with a discussion of dyeing specifically to “pop” the figure of woods such as Tiger Maple. He uses water based Lockwood dyes, mixed full strength then diluted “to taste.” After the dye dries and some limited sanding, he applies a couple of coats of boiled linseed oil to seal in the dyes, then General Finishes’ sealer followed by a final coat of General Finishes’ Armor Seal as a final coat.

Next Dave Boeff presented the art of spraying shellac. He has also sprayed pre-catalyzed (pre-cat) lacquer, and even thinned latex finishes. His source for dry shellac flakes is Homestead Finishing. As solvent he uses low-water-content alcohol such as Everclear 190 proof grain alcohol or JASCO green label stove fuel, available from Home Depot. He sprays with a Fuji Spray Mini-Mite3 sprayer kit with gun and other accessories, also from Homestead Finishing (about $800 plus a gun). He applies at least three coats of shellac over the stain before wet dry sanding. He applies many such triple coats, then rubs out the finish with sandpaper and/or steel wool using mineral spirits as a lubricant if on shellac, or soapy water if on a Waterlox finish. Final coat is Minwax Special Dark Paste Finishing Wax, which does not leave a visible residue in seams and carvings.

A discussion of water-based spray lacquer was then presented by Dick Reese. He sprayed Emtech EM6000 water-based acrylic production lacquer from TargetCoatings, apparently the only source for a water-based sprayable lacquer. The product comes in four different sheens. Dick supplied samples of the results on filled and unfilled Cherry and Mahogany test boards. The surfaces, right off of the gun without sanding, looked really great and would make an excellent finish for tops. For filling he used a new product called AquaCoat which is now carried by Woodcraft and other outlets. Aqua Coat Clear Grain Filler is an easy-to-use, quick-drying gel with a smooth glass-like finish. Dick reports that it is environmentally friendly and very easy to apply and does an excellent job of filling.

The Sunday meeting closed out with a presentation by Dwight Bartlett on low VOC finishes, those with volatile organic compounds that are not harmful to the environment and humans. The first was OSMO Polyx-oil, made from natural oils (sunflower, soya, linseed and thistle) and carnauba and candelilla waxes. This finish just brushes or wipes on like oil, with two coats 8 hours apart. The second was Rubio Monocoat Oil Plus 2C, a hardwax oil wood protector that colors and protects in a single coat. Color can be added, and there are over 55 colors available. While this product is very expensive, Dwight says a small amount goes a very very long way. The product takes 28 days to fully dry (!) but there is an available Rubio Monocoat accelerator which can be added to reduce drying time to three days.
We are grateful to David Conley for heading the chapter, Dwight Bartlett for his generous hosting, and all presenter for sharing their knowledge. And thanks to all attendees who brought projects to share and/or travelled to the meeting.


- Dale Ausherman

P.S.  We are grateful to Dale Ausherman for taking such wonderful notes for us.  - David Conley
 
Photographs from the meeting.
 

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  • Paul Sanow - Tilt-top Candlestand.jpg
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  • Dave Knuth - Philadelphia Chippendale side chair .jpg
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  • Larry Bilderback - Shieldback Chair.jpg
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  • Dave Feola - Roubo one-board bookstand.jpg
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  • John Kelly - Trial Queen Anne Lowboy.jpg
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  • Charlie Watson - George Washington Desk .jpg
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  • Larry Bilderback - color paste fillers.jpg
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  • Dave Boeff - Spraying Shellac.jpg
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  • Paul Sanow - using a Don Williams Finish.jpg
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  • Rob Millard - darkening woods with  pickling lime.jpg
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  • Dave Boeff - Aniline dyes.jpg
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  • Dwight Bartlett - Low VOC Finishes.jpg
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More photographs
 

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