“I was talking with Dave Sawyer last week and I asked him if you could go work with him. He said ‘yes.’” I was standing in Curtis Buchanan’s garden, helping him pick vegetables. I had been apprenticing with Curtis for…
Blog Archives
Rare Treadle Lathes for Sale
My blacksmith friend Peter Ross called last week. “I bought a couple lathes in an auction. Could you help me move them this afternoon?” This can be a fearsome request, for Peter has a habit of buying machinist lathes weighing…
Posted in Classes
German Rakemaker
Morgan and I got back from a west-coast vacation a couple weeks ago and I’ve been carving seats and gluing up chairs ever since. I’ve got 18 undercarriages together and 22 to go. I might switch to putting backs…
Posted in Craft Films
Choosing a Lathe
I’ve been turning a lot lately. Five weeks ago I got an order for 40 chairs (28 loop backs and 12 Continuous Arm chairs) for a Michigan hunting camp’s dining hall. I’ve turned 250 legs, arm stumps and center stretchers…
Posted in Chairmaking Tools and Supplies
The Dominy Lathe is Done (almost)
A few days ago I picked up the spikes for my new lathe from blacksmith Peter Ross. He seemed to enjoy making them: “People don’t want work this rough very often, but I was trained to make reproductions like this.”…
Posted in Built for Speed Book Project, Sprinpole Lathe
Building a Dominy Springpole Lathe
Last fall I had the joy of spending a couple hours in the Dominy shop at Winturtur to measure their Springpole Lathe. I’ve finally started building a copy of it, for use in the book on early 19th Century chairmaking…
Posted in Built for Speed Book Project, Sprinpole Lathe
