by Elia Bizzarri | May 10, 2017 | Craft Films, Finishing | 0 Comments
This video was made by the fellow I buy my shellac flakes from. Who knew it took so much effort by insect and man to make a pound of shellac? Or that different trees make different kinds of shellac? Now I feel bad for spilling the stuff.
by Elia Bizzarri | Apr 2, 2017 | Chair Stories, Chairmaking Tools and Supplies, Craft Films | 0 Comments
I first met Curtis Buchanan 15 years ago this month. My father drove the five hours to Jonesborough, TN and dropped me, a 17-year-old homesick boy, off for a week. Curtis had a student that week. I split logs and listened in on the class. I couldn't imagine I would...
by Elia Bizzarri | Feb 25, 2017 | Craft Films | 0 Comments
"Not a lot of money in that is there?" "No, not a lot of money.... Still we've always done it... Money's not everything." Bodgers were wood turners who worked in the beech woods around the furniture-making town of High Wycombe in England. They would cut, split...
by Elia Bizzarri | Feb 9, 2017 | Chairmaking Tools and Supplies, Classes, Craft Films, How-To | 0 Comments
Over a decade ago, a customer told me he used a dowel plate to cut the tenons on his spindles. "That won't work," I...
by Elia Bizzarri | Jan 15, 2017 | Craft Films | 0 Comments
I just stumbled upon this old Folkstreams video for the second time - it's well worth watching. A poplar or basswood log and five tools: scribe, ax, adz, drawknife and a knife. No work-holding devices, but a neat way to hold the shovel using his feet...
by Elia Bizzarri | Aug 7, 2016 | Craft Films | 0 Comments
I thought you all might like to see a fun, short video Roy Underhill and I did after we filmed a TV show last week: Bentwood Firewood Carrier FailHappy Woodwright Wednesday! Who's ready for some fresh video? It's blazing hot out there, so why not get a jump on winter...
by Elia Bizzarri | Jul 6, 2016 | Craft Films | 0 Comments
Sunday in Portland, biking back from the farmer's market with a backpack full of berries, I stumbled upon an Estate Sale. A turn-of-the-century house in a nice neighborhood, full of nice things. Dozens of copper pots, hundreds of beautiful drawings, closets of wool...
by Elia Bizzarri | Apr 21, 2016 | Craft Films | 0 Comments
Filmed in 1954, this video shows a large cooperage in full swing. At this time the cooper's trade had been going uninterrupted for hundreds of years and we are watching the result. These guys move! I suspect chairmaking was once this efficient, but our trade died out...
by Elia Bizzarri | Dec 16, 2015 | Chair Stories, Classes, Craft Films | 0 Comments
Last week I delivered a set of two Birdcage Side Chairs and two Birdcage Arm Chairs to Cara in Chapel Hill, NC. Here's a story about her chairs: I wiped a spot of spilled hide glue off the workbench as I glued up the last in a set of four birdcage chairs. Reveling in...
by Elia Bizzarri | Dec 13, 2015 | Craft Films | 0 Comments
My friend Bill Anderson just found this incredible film. A fellow and his wife are working outdoors making a chest using an axe, drawkife, hook knife and a few nifty brakes. They split a log into planks and work them down on the shaving horse - I wonder what's the...
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