Mary standing by the upper gate while Dale is plowing us out.

The Shop

Me standing outside the upper gate with the road out behind me. "Nice Hair Chuck"

"The Big Curl"

"The Bobsled Run"

So maybe this will be melted in a couple of weeks cause it’s too deep to plow with the ATV.

Meanwhile I have been doing some woodworking believe it or not and I will be posting some pictures soon.  Bye for now!

For my show I made my second Whale Tail Stool based it on a technique originated by Kintaro Yazawa, a Japanese furniture maker whose work was featured in Fine Woodworking magazine #191. I choose Cherry for this stool knowing how it will age to a warm tone but right now it looks a bit light in color.

The process starts by planing the edges of the plank to get a nice finished edge.

Next I lay out and cut the dovetails. In this case I cut the tails first.

Then after leaving about a 1/4″ of material on the top I saw out the whale tail part of the dovetail that will protrude through the top.

Then I cut the pins and trace the whale tail onto the pins.

After tracing out the patterns I use a router and free hand cut the waste away as close as I can.

Next I check the fit and do any final fitting.

Once I get the pins all the way in I can start shaping the whale’s tail.

Until they look like this.

Now they look like this together.

I went to a friend’s shop to use his 17″ band saw to cut the curve in the seat and the legs then I used my compass plane, spoke shave and sander to clean up everything.

Some more sanding and oiling and I’m done…

We sold one box and got orders for 2 more as well as a commission for a carved sign and got one person to sign up for a class I am going to do for my step son and daughter in law so we will have three for that class. So now on with the pictures……

The tools, wood, joints, and mirrors

The boxes

Me standing by the mirrors

This is the second Whale Tail Stool out of Cherry

I did a little bit of a demo cutting a half lap dovetail joint so I did use the tools I brought and had a good time talking about my work with all the folks that came in.

If you are curious about the Whale Tail Stool I’ll be posting more pictures of the stool and how I made it. There is a video of me making the first WTS on my web site.

Walnut box #4

Handle

This is the first of these series of boxes I am making. It’s actually the fourth box I have made so that’s why the number 4. This box is actually sold but I couldn’t help wanting to show it. On any of the boxes I can make something similar in a different wood so if you see something you like just let me know. You can e-mail me from my web site.

Mahogany Box#5

This box has a Crotch Mahogany top with a different Mahogany for the sides and East Indian Rosewood keys to hold the miters together. Instead of a handle this time I made the top slide out and because of the grain of the wood the top is almost completely invisible.  SOLD!I’m not sure what wood this is but I think it may be another type of Mahogany. Don’t even remember where it came from and I can just about tell you where every piece of wood I have came from over the last 30 years. The handle is spalted elm, pins bamboo, bottom Koa and East Indian Rosewood for the standoff.

Price $165

Close up of handle

This is a box is made from locally grown Walnut that I got from one of my students. So far I’ve made two boxes and I still have enough for 5 0r 6 more I’m sure. It’s all crotch with a lot of color as You can see. The bottom is American Walnut that I’ve had around for years and isn’t nearly the wood the local wood is. The handle is spalted elm again (I love that stuff) and the stand off East Indian Rosewood and the splines are maple. $140

Local Walnut box #7

Top and handle

What is unusual about this top is the book match is end grain to end grain. Because that doesn’t make for a very good glue joint I reinforced it with biscuits and did notice that it wanted to warp when I first made it but now it has flattened out.  The top has once again warped so I will be replacing it. More pictures to come.

Box #11 is made of spalted elm with and ebony handle and East Indian Rosewood keys. Price $155

Side view

Spalted Elm box #11

Top & Bottom

Ebony Handle

Box # 12 is a spalted elm box with a elm burl top and a lignum vitae handle and East Indian Rosewood keys and Ebony standoff for the handle, Price $155

Elm Burl Box #12

Lignum vitae handle

Top and Bottom

End view

Sheri planing the end grain on her piece so the layout will show up.

La Von and Sheri working away. You get an idea why I only have 3 students at a time.

La Von, Don and Sheri with their finished joints. So this was the Saturday class.

On Sunday it was just Dan and me so there was a little more room. Here’s Dan doing his layout,

Dan paring out his mortise.

Ripping the tenon.

Cross cutting the shoulder. Pretty shinny saw there Dan.

Dan using his grand new Lie-Nielsen bevel up plane to clean up the joint.

There it is all finished. Good job Dan.

Wish I had some pictures but alas I didn’t take any pictures in the first two classes Feb. 27th and March 6th. We made a half-lap dovetail joint and we had 5 students over two weekends and everyone’s joints fit great. Next class is the mortise & tenon and I will have pictures of that class.

I don’t like posts without pictures so here’s a picture of the two I cut (one for each class.)

On to other news…. Last Saturday was my first in the series that will span at least 6 continuing classes here at the ranch. For a complete list look here and scroll down and look on the left side. On the right side there is news about the week long class here at the ranch with free lodging in our guest room. So take a look!

Here’s a little snippet from the class on Sat. I taped the whole class and someday I’ll figure out what I’m going to do with it all.

Yes this is my first post of 2010 and yes I am a bit tardy in getting any new news out to all of you but I have been quite busy with Christmas and creating my new web site and getting ready for my first classes in February.

I loved my old site and Todd Moy did a wonderful job but I needed something I could update and change content on my own so Mary got a copy of Expressions and off I went. There are still some problems I am aware of and I will fix as soon as I have time but I thought it was important to get this out there as soon as I could so there is now current information about my classes here in Lewiston and I can keep it updated monthly as new classes start.

Take a look at the “Class Special” for all of you out of staters. Free lodging here at the ranch if you sign up for a week long class. I will be posting more pictures of the ranch and there is a link to Mary’s site here at the ranch.

So take a look and e-mail me @ info@mastrowoodworking.com and let me know what you think of the new site.

Happy Surfing!!!

Charlie

http://mastrowoodworking.com/