Web site back online

Well,  it's been about 8 months since I shut down the website but I'm proud to say I am now back in bid-ness. I have a much, much cheaper website that will be online for the next two years at least. I've just stuck with windsor chairs which is was my main seller before anyhow. I'm hoping good times will pick up, but at least I haven't thrown in the towel for good and I'm still able to make chairs.

 There's always hope !!!


http://m.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinehillprimitives.com%2F&h=2AQE8fzRw&enc=AZPEw0sPV1BHeo9RnNShi8v6L8TA9j3iXMw71Qakf45tDXkJvBmFZfq6eunQMYQYG0IsV91UN_j9PXr-BaZ8FVt5jfcMZw5MkM2CGzmXYk9EWeGP_XA5NxvvFM-XnJZcMeJJpyfMAz5NZynaN96kQBUX&s=1

www.pinehillprimitives.com

Benchmade Windsor Chairs

Time to dust off the ol' pen!

   Wow!! I can't believe its been almost a year since my last post. 2012 wasn't real good for furniture in my shop. I shut down the website and pretty much stopped even going out to the shop for this entire time. Due to business being so slow I had to go back to my old type of work...Construction!

   While I've been working building houses and such, all I have thought about is making chairs again. I've wanted to get back to it so bad and just haven't been able to. The worm is turning though. I am starting up a web site once again and getting back to the shop on a somewhat more regular basis now. It feels good to just create something again in the realm of woodworking.

   I've got a few chairs to make and thought I better get back to writing on the blog, if for nothing more than to get my head back into chair making like it use to be. Man, its sad when you have such a passion for something and the thing that keeps you from that passion is money alone, but I guess that's everyones issue. Who wouldn't love to do something they absolutely love and get paid to do it. I'm one lucky bozo that I at least had the "good life" for a few years.

    I've been working on my new website and I'm going to stick primarily to Windsor Chair Making. The hand tool aspect is what drives me and gets the creative juices flowing for me.

I expect to write about ideas and techniques I use in chair making plus bring anyone who wants to follow, along for the ride. I'm hoping to get some videos and pictures of the process as I do them so you can visulize what I ramble about on here.


Here's to a better 2013!!!

Matt

Update on Split Rail Fence

After my better half got home and after a little debating, we decided the spilt rail fence just didn't look quite right around the garden. It just didn't fit the look I was going for. I think making it into a round-ish shape threw it out of proportion and that Civil War era look, so, after taking it all down we decided we'd try it at the front of our drive and that came closer to the overall look we liked. I still need to split out another log or two to have the fence on the other side of the drive and a little more going down the front of our yard. With that said here is how it looks with just one side up. This is one whole log. It seems kinda bare when you think that's an entire log and it only made 4 high and 6 sections. I guess the logs that were used in the 1860's were either huge, or they just split a ton of em. What do you think?

Making a Split Rail Fence

Well it's been almost a month since my last post and that about sums up how furniture making has been going. Pretty dead right now, but it was time for me to get back on the horse and write about something hand work related. This time I'm splitting out rails for the split rail or snake rail fence I'm putting around my better halves garden. I only had one log today but plan on getting a couple more to complete a 5 rail high fence.

 Here is the first log. About 15" dia. at the small end and its 9 foot long or so. I go through the splitting process like that on any other for the most part.

      I begin by first splitting the log in half. One thing I've noticed is it's way more difficult to split long pieces. I usually split out 5 foot long sections at the max, and at just over 9 foot, this log took some muscle and quite a bit more gusto from me than it normally does.

After the initial split, I split each half again making quarters.

  Then each quarter is split into half again making 1/8ths. The smaller the log gets the easier it is to split. I used a wedge to get the split started then turn to the trusty ol' froe to help the rest of the way. By using the wedge to hold the split open as I move along, I can then remove the froe and hop over the wedge and continue the split. Out of each 1/8th of a section I split out two more pieces.

                                                   This is the rails ready for use in the fence.

Checking the look and finding out that I need 2 more logs.

                                      

     After about 2 hours of splitting I had the whole log split up into about 23 rails and was ready to get the fence started. Here you can see the fence in it's "Civil War-ish" look. Hopefully after 6-8 months it will grey up to that Civil War fence grey and look pretty good.        

                               

The garden with a partial fence. I plan to cut an opening for a gate but want to get all the rails split out and in place to see where the best location for it will be. I'm planning on driving 2 split posts into the ground and running the rails into mortises in the posts. Now on to get a couple more logs and complete the whole fence, or maybe after a little nap.

Painting/Aging a Windsor Chair

For several years, I did a very (extremely) labor intensive paint finish using latex paint and lacquer to get a chipped paint effect and age, I have to say it looked good but the time spent was way to much and sometimes took longer to paint than to make the project. Once I began using Real Milk Paint, it cut way down on the labor portion of my finishing. While it's not what most would consider an easy to apply method I use, it's still much easier than the lacquer method and I can have a 3 color paint finish done in 3 days per chair. Here's how I go about it...
   

.

         First I use a base coat, in this case Mustard. This first coat basically serves as a primer and gives the foundation of this process.

         Once the first coat completely dries in 1-2 hours, I use a scotch brite pad to burnish the entire chair. All the turnings, spindles, seat, and bows, get burnished. It takes elbow grease but you get this shiny appearance letting you know you've done it right.

         Here you can see the difference between the unburnished chair (left) and the burnished one (right). That shine helps the next coats go on much smoother and silkier and results in a completely smooth and inviting finish.

The legs show the same, left side unburnished, and right side burnished.  

After this burnished coat, I'll apply a second color in this case Terra Cotta Red
following the same steps. If you strain your paint you can skip the burnishing step and apply the black over the red, otherwise you'll have to burnish the red as well.

 I thin down the top color (black) to make it easier to burnish and get the wear I'm looking for. After the paint dries, use a subtle approach to add age and wear.

 I'll use a dull card scarper to simulate the chips a dings, worn out 400 grit wet/dry paper to do the blending, and if it's not blending fast enough, I use worn out 180 grit to get where I want to go.

 I try to focus on wear normal areas the get natural and the most common looking wear. The front legs, the seat edge and saddled area, the hand holds a little on the bows and spindles etc. You can go to far quick, it's better to do a little and step back to see how it looks. You can use Denatured Alcohol to simulate what it'll look like with a finish on. It will show more than you think once the finish is applied. So be cautious.

 Work thoughtfully, make up a story as you do this and imagine what this chair was mostly used for. I sometimes want a heavy wear and think a chair might have been used at a tavern and got used heavily, such as Bar brawls, spilled tankards of ale and the like. Other chairs were in a home at a table and over a 225 year period got used, but nothing like that in a tavern, these kind of made up stories sound corny, but they work and make you think about the finish more than just going randomly. Once you make these stories up tone it back a little because if you make it too worn, in 30 or 40 years it'll just look like it needs to be refinished. You want to give an aged appearance now but let the chair develop it's own character in time.

After I'm happy with the amount of aging, it's ready for the finish, I use an oil/varnish mix 1:1:1 ratio of Boiled Linseed Oil, Spar Varnish, and turpentine. The oil penetrates into the wood, the spar varnish builds up and produces a faster shine and the turpentine is simply a thinner that speeds the dry time. After usually 2 or 3 coats, the chair is ready for use. I usually like it to set for a few days before any use. The picture above shows a chair with one coat of oil next to an un-oiled one. After another  coat or two, the chair starts taking on a nice dull satiny sheen. The more coats you put on the more shine you'll get. If you don't like the artificial age on your pieces, this process is still a good way to go, just don't do the scraping and sanding and you'll get a great paint job and finish that will last longer than you may want.

Thie pics below are with only 2 coats of finish on. The shine is a little dull but I made these for a client and want to make sure it doesn't go to shiny till they give their approval. Getting that balance between what you think is the age and shine someone wants and what they think is right, is one of the hardest parts in furniture making. I look at it as I can always fix it either way and make it to their taste, which is the important thing.