Bill Minnick
Well-known member
Society of American Period Furniture Makers
Ohio River Valley Chapter
2011 Spring Meeting in March
Brian Neeley's Farm, Lancaster, OH
Ohio River Valley Chapter
2011 Spring Meeting in March
Brian Neeley's Farm, Lancaster, OH
On March 26 and 27, the Ohio River Valley Chapter held a very enjoyable and informative 2-day meeting in Lancaster, Ohio. Approximately 48 SAPFM members from OH, MI, WV, KY, IN and PA attended. The chapter thanks Brian "Dude" Neeley and his family for hosting the meeting and allowing the chapter to use their shop.
As usual, the meeting started with the customary Show & Tell. During this session, everyone learned at least one new woodworking tip or technique.
After attending a Mary May carving class, Bob Compton put to use his newly acquired ball & claw carving skills when he built a mahogany footstool. Based on an 18th century Philadelphia-style stool that was used as a seat, Bob redesigned the stool by scaling it back, so it would function as a footstool between his two high-back chairs.
Tod Jervey explained how he built a band saw resawing fence. Two turnbuckles precisely control the vertical melamine fence and can adjust it to compensate for blade drift.
David Boeff displayed a Philadelphia Chippendale style dressing table that he built out of cherry. David had also taken a Mary May ball & claw carving class, and he wanted to apply his new skills. Another lesson that David quickly learned when carving the cherry ball and claw legs was why so many 18th and 19th century masters used mahogany.
After studying 18th century chairs attributed to famous Newport cabinet shops, Charlie Watson designed and built an armchair that incorporated his favorite features. Foremost, he wanted the chair to have simple flowing lines. While showing the group the walnut chair, Charlie discussed its construction features.
After spending four years designing and building a highboy, Dan Reahard brought in photos of his recently completed masterpiece. After studying numerous museum pieces, Dan incorporated the features and details that he liked best into his highboy. He also scaled it down to 95 percent of its original size so that it would fit inside his house.
Glen Jewell informed the group that he had put together a 10-page instruction booklet on building a Federal shelf clock. Included in the instructions are an exploded view and a full size drawing.
In December 2010 the ORV Chapter held a Windsor chair making class that was conducted by SAPFM member David Wright. Allan McNeel brought in the Windsor chair that he worked on during the class. At home after the class, Allan completed the final assembly and finished the chair with red and black milk paint.
Greg Brunk brought in a photo album and discussed how he built a new workbench for his shop. Greg spent 1-1/2 years building the bench. Comprised of eight separate sections for easy disassemble, the workbench features an impressive tool chest underneath its top. Each drawer holds over thirty tools. For irregularly shaped tools, Greg lined several of the drawer bottoms with foam core and used an Exacto knife to cut out the tool shape. This is an excellent way to keep tools from sliding around in drawers.
On Sunday morning, the club continued the Show & Tell with two more presentations. Geoffrey Hiler explained how he built a portable, double-screw bench vise that clamps to the top of his stationary bench. Two pipe clamps apply pressure to the vise's front face. Having a bad back, Geoffrey wanted a device that reduced the amount of time he had to spend leaning over his work. This portable bench allows him to cut dovetails and tenons while standing or sitting on a high shop stool.
Geoffrey also brought in a portable shave horse that he uses for chair making in his small shop. After clamping it in his bench vise, Geoffrey can sit on a regular shop stool and shave chair parts.
Jim Myers brought in a tall clock case. The clock movement, which he did not bring, was made in England. The group gathered around the clock and discussed its construction details. Since oak was used as the primary wood for the case, the group felt the case was probably made in England.
On Saturday afternoon, Mark Arnold and Brooke Smith, SAPFM members and professional furniture makers, presented a very interesting program on the importance of preparing drawings when building furniture. Although both use drawings in their work, Mark and Brooke approach the process in different ways.
Mark starts the process by doing freehand sketches. He then proceeds to axonometric technical drawings. Unlike a perspective drawing, the lines in an axonometric drawing do not converge. The drawing's projections are vertical and either 30 degrees left and right or 45 degrees left and right. One drawback with an axonometric drawing is it's difficult to pull dimensions. So Mark prepares an orthographic drawing. A complete orthographic drawing has six projection views, but in furniture making only three views are needed {front, right side, and plan (top) view}. Using these views, the furniture maker establishes the critical dimensions. However, when compound angles are involved, like those found on chairs with canted legs and arched backs, the furniture designer must be careful. Often these dimensions will appear shorter than what they should be and must be adjusted.
When producing a technical drawing, Mark uses an architectural ruler and normally works in 1/8-inch scale. Mark doesn't have a drafting table, so he tapes 18 x 24-inch Vellum paper to a sheet of MDF and uses traditional drafting tools. Only when building a chair, does Mark make a full-size drawing. When finished, Mark shows the drawings to the prospective customer for approval.
Brooke likes to draw and considers sketching and drawing part of the total process of making furniture. He believes that it's important to get ideas out of the mind and down on paper. Drawing is an excellent way to work out furniture details and to address construction problems. Brooke makes progressive drawings and revises them until he's satisfied that they look and feel right. When doing Federal pieces with contrasting veneer, Brooke likes to help the customer visualize the end product. He makes copies of his drawings and simulates different species of wood by painting the drawing with watercolors and indicating grain with colored pencils.
On Saturday afternoon, Larry Bilderback presented a program on sharpening carving tools. According to Larry, one of the main reasons to have a sharp tool is because it's safer than a dull tool. Larry recommends that the bevel angle on a carving gouge be between 15 to 20 degrees. He also adds an inner bevel to his gouges, which acts like a chip breaker on a hand plane and makes the cutting edge stronger. An inner bevel also allows the gouge to be used upside down. He recommends a 5-degree inner bevel that extends inward 1/16 in. on gouges with fairly flat profiles and slightly less on the high numbered gouges.
When changing the bevel angle on a gouge or removed a lot of metal, Larry suggests using a bench grinder. He recommends a course stone and suggests frequently dipping the gouge into water to cool the steel. Unlike grinding a chisel or plane iron, the gouge is held by the handle to the side of the grinding wheel with the bevel held flat against the grinding wheel while it is rotated from one end to the other.
To sharpen his gouges, Larry uses Arkansas translucent hard stones. He believes the secret to the sharpening process is to eliminate the white line (reflected light) on the edge of the gouge. To sharpen a gouge, you start by checking to make sure the edge is square to the axis. If it isn't you stand the gouge straight up (perpendicular to the stone surface) and pull the gouge back and forth across the stone until you get a white line from corner to corner. Next make the white line consistent and parallel across the gouge's curve. You do this by addressing the sharpening stone at the same angle as the bevel angle (15 to 20 degrees) and by working the gouge from edge to edge on the stone. Look at the edge and make adjustments until the line is consistent. Then work the line down to the point where it eventually disappears. You then will feel a wire burr, which must be removed. Larry draws a ceramic rod up the channel to remove the wire burr. Then using a finer stone, repeat the process.
To create the inner bevel, Larry uses an oil slip stone that matches the inside curve. If you don't have a slip stone that perfectly fits the inner radius, use a smaller slip stone and methodically move it around the curve. Move the slip stone back and forth while holding it at the appropriate angle usually 5 degrees.
The heel of the gouge is responsible for polishing the wood. The last part of the sharpening process is eliminating any crisp corner or rough surface on the heel.
Larry instructed the group on how to sharpen a V-Parting Tool, the most difficult carving tool to sharpen. Using a drawing, Larry presented step-by-step procedures to sharpen the V-Parting Tool and its many different surfaces.
Larry and other carvers believe that a gouge can be stropped between five to ten times before it has to be resharpened with stones. The best strops are made from tight grain leather. Wood shaped in different radiuses and wooden dowels both charged with sharpening compound are excellent for stropping inner bevels. First strop the outside bevel, then the inner bevel. Be sure to strop the total bevel and not just the tip or you will change the angle or roll over the edge.
Although he was kind enough to host the meeting, Brian "Dude" Neeley was forced to work during his day off. The Ohio River Valley Chapter asked him to demonstrate his technique for spraying shellac on furniture, and once again, he was more than willing to help the group. Using Zinssers amber shellac mixed with denatured alcohol, Dude generally sprays a one-pound cut. First he sprays lengthwise, then crosswise. He normally puts on six or seven light coats. Between coats, he smoothes flat surfaces with sandpaper and uses 0000 steel wool on curved surfaces.
For the final presentation, the chapter was very fortunate to have Ron Herman in attendance to discuss handsaw sharpening and saw identification. Ron, a master housewright who runs Antiquity Builders of Ohio in Columbus, is an expert on using traditional woodworking hand tools. Ron and his employees use hand tools on their jobs in new construction and restoring buildings that are registered with the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Ron started the presentation by explained that a saw tooth is basically a chisel and each tooth should be sharp like a chisel. Ron covered the following steps in sharpening a saw:
1. Jointing the teeth.
2. Cutting the teeth to give them the same shape. This is only necessary if the saw was damaged in use or if it is in bad condition when you acquire it. Ron uses saws that the teeth haven't been recut in twenty years.
3. Tensioning the saw. There should be no tension in the center of a saw. Only the area of the blade within the first 1-1/2 inch of the teeth should have tension. To check for tension, tap the saw blade with your finger and listen for tone. The tone near the teeth should sound higher than near the center of the blade because of the tension. Use a flat-faced hammer to tension the saw. Never use a ball peen hammer.
4. Sharpening the saw and testing the cut.
The run of a saw is how straight it cuts and whether it holds a line. Ron suggests taking a board and marking three lines on it. After sharpening the saw, close your eyes and test how the saw cuts by letting it go where it wants to go. If it goes to the left, you need to remove set from the left side of the blade. According to Ron, most used saws have too much set.
If your saw blade feels warm when cutting, it is generating friction. This means your saw is dull and needs sharpened. When starting to use handsaws, Ron recommends a 5-1/2 pt. rip saw and an 8 or 10 pt. crosscut saw.
Once again the Ohio River Valley Chapter had another outstanding meeting. Most notable was everyone's willingness to share his or her knowledge and experience. Special thanks go out to the presenters for preparing very interesting and educational programs.