Farmhouse Table

I haven’t posted anything in a long time so I thought I would show a picture of a country farmhouse table I made for a benefit for my kids' school.

The table is 72” x 48” with 3.5” tapered legs. The table and benches are built from construction grade lumber. Since the wood found at my local box store is complete trash I only used wood purchased from there to build the aprons and legs of the table and benches. I laminated the legs to make them more stable and sturdy.  After giving up trying to find usable lumber at my local box store, I happened upon a small contractor supply business in my town that had great quality pine lumber. Lumber from there cost a bit more but I was able to get nice straight boards with no wane to construct the top of the table and benches.  

This was a fun project and I hope to make more tables to sell.

Wooden Grindstone Frame

Finally finished my grindstone setup for my blacksmithing demonstrations. I loosely copied the design from the one built by the Dominy’s (see attached picture).

The frame is white oak with drawbore mortice and tenon joinery. The frame is really solid and I’m surprised how easily the wheel rotates on the wooden bearings. The weight of the stone creates quite a bit of centrifugal force so once the stone is turning very little effort is needed to keep it going.

The handle is detachable and like the Dominy’s it is held on with a wooden thumb screw. The only part left to make is the water trough. I had a lot of overly complicated ideas for this, but I think I will keep it simple and just hollow out a log.       

Timber Frame Workshop Build on Youtube

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon a great channel on YouTube called Mr. Chickadee. Mr. Chickadee is chronicling the building of a timber frame work shop using period hand tools. This guy is a great craftsman and I recommend watching his videos. You won’t be disappointed!

Rope Bed

Sorry, I haven't posted anything in awhile, but life has kept me quite busy. My latest project is a rope bed for the Dederman Cabin in Norfolk, Nebraska. The cabin already had a rope bed, but this bed will be used to let visitors experience what it’s like to lie down in one.

I wanted to make a bed that was similar to what an early settler could have made with materials available on the frontier. I was going to copy the bed from the attached 1888 Solomon Butcher photo, but I settled on a slightly updated design using mortice and tenons instead of nails to hold it together. I also used only the bare basic tool that any pioneering family would have had. I used a crosscut saw, brace and bit, ax, foreplane, some chisels, and some basic layout tools like a square and some marking gauges. I did use a mortise chisel, I doubt most people would have had one, but I did so I used it.

The bed came out really nice and is plenty sturdy. It has to be to stand up to the use it will get from kids plopping in and out of it. My wife liked it a little too much and placed a quilt on it that she had made. Now she wants one for in the house. 

Shrink Pots and Birch Bark Containers

Some random projects of this summer.

The shrink pot is made out of Chinese Elm and to my surprise is watertight. The spoon is carved out of apple wood.

Of course, all of this had to be approved by
my dog who is in charge of all snacks containing meats and gravies as well as anything photographed in her yard. She also loves to have her picture taken.

Dovetail Hinge with Peter Ross

Recently I purchased a DVD from Popular Woodworking featuring Peter Ross forging a dovetail hinge. As with other Peter Ross DVD’s, it was well done and very informative. Someday I would love to take a class with him, but as North Carolina is a long way from Nebraska, I will have to settle for watching videos. I do hope there will be more in the future.

I got into blacksmithing so I could fabricate my own hardware for the furniture and tools I make. This video was informative enough so someone with a beginner skill level like myself could actually turn out a working period correct hinge. Besides a basic blacksmithing setup, all I needed to make the hinge was a jig to bend the sheet metal around. This was difficult because I don’t have a modern welder, but I was able to cobble together something out of angle iron and bolts. It did work just not that great so I will have to find someone to weld me a jig like Ross’s.

The hinge itself is formed by forge welding 16 gauge sheet metal to itself. The blanks are shown on the top of the door panel. From there it’s all about filling and fitting. My hinge is not as nice as Ross’s, but I’m pleased with it.

If you want to make a working period hinge, but don’t have a blacksmith shop try making a snipe/gimmal hinge like the set below the dovetail hinge. I made these by taking the thickest clothes hanger I could find, heating it with a torch, and bending the loop around a 16 penny nail. Hammer or file flat and you have a very durable hinge.

See Peter Follansbee webpage for more information on gimmals and how to install them. I have used them on a tool chest I made and they have worked great. Keep in mind modern mild steel is more durable than the old wrought iron used in antique gimmal hinges.

This Week in My Forge

Finally, the weather is getting nice so I've been able to get back into my forge for some tinkering around.

The first project I made was a trivet. This was a lot harder than I thought it would be, but I am happy with the results. Getting the circle shape is harder than it looks, but by trial and error, I got the circle close enough to round. This made me really want to get a blacksmith cone. The other fun thing with this project was the forge welding of the circle. This was the best weld I have done to date and after filing the edge I could see I got good fusing.

The next project was a trammel and grease lamp. In use, the lamp has a wick in each corner so it puts out a lot of light. The traditional fuel for the lamp is tallow, but I use olive oil. I burned the lamp for two hours on a filling of olive oil with all four wicks going and I still had a little oil left to go.

My dog is my chief engineer and security consultant with all my projects and today was no exception. She would not get out of the way until I took her picture.