Stave Church and Norwegian Woodenware

Over the weekend my family and I vacationed as we always do in the Black Hills. My wife was looking for things for us to do that we hadn't done before when she ran across an advertisement for a replica Stave church in Rapid City. I was a bit skeptical at first thinking that this must be some kind of tourist trap. Boy was I wrong! It is a full-scale model of the Borgund stave church built around 1150 in Norway. It is simply a wonderfully built reproduction. It was finished in 1969, but you would think it was only a few years old by looking at it. Besides the stave church, there is a small museum located in an original log cabin showcasing some outstanding antique Norwegian made woodenware and furniture.  

Check out the link and go see it you won’t be disappointed. http://www.chapel-in-the-hills.org

Spiral Candlestick

A few months ago I forged out a spiral candlestick common to the eighteenth century. While this is obviously no great feat in the realm of blacksmithing, I’m still happy with the way it turned out. I've heard these spiral candlesticks referred to as “courting candles”. The idea being that parents would adjust out a section of candle and when it burned down to the frame of the candlestick the date was over. I believe this is more folklore than fact. 

In the 18th and well into the mid 19^th century, people were using tallow candles. They were cheap and could be made on the frontier using locally available resources. The problem with tallow candles is they tend to be soft and prone to flopping over if unsupported. It’s my belief that these candlesticks were used to support the tallow candle within the spiral frame. Unlike my picture which shows the candle all the way up, the proper use would be to have the candle down inside the frame. The user would    then turn the handle like the one seen on the right of my candlestick. This would work like a screw and follow the spirals of the candlestick thereby lifting the candle. 

Next to the candlestick are candles I made the other night. They're made with a 50/50 mix of beeswax and beef tallow. I mixed the candles with beeswax to make them harder and cleaner burning. I've read that this was done in the past to stretch-out the more expensive beeswax. Beeswax is expensive even by today’s standards.

For some historical background, an advertisement in the Nebraska City News, dated February 27 1858,  list the prices of goods sold at a local store. The going rate is as follows: “Candles Star 35cts”, “Tallow Candles 15-20cts”. It doesn't state what quantity the candles were sold in, but obviously tallow candles were much cheaper. I don't know if "Star" is a brand of candle or a type of candle. 

To the right is a picture of a box of Star Candles recovered from the Steamship Bertrand that sunk in the Missouri River north of Omaha Nebraska on August 1^st, 1865. It was located in 1968 and contained a sizable quantity of candles and candle molds.

If you’re wondering, tallow is nothing more than rendered down animal fat. It can be from deer, beef cow, or just about any other type of animal. Pork fat; however, tends to stay soft and doesn’t burn as well as beef fat in my opinion, so I would avoid it. If you’re interested in making tallow I suggest watching Keith Burgess’s videos at https://www.youtube.com/user/historicaltrekking

More Work on the Dutch Tool Chest

Just thought I’d post an update on where I’m at on my Dutch style tool chest.

I've got the chest together and I think I’m really going to like it. I put my shaving horse in the picture so viewers could get an idea of its size, it big! 40 inches long by 16 inches deep. The small middle shelf is for my bow saw, panel gauge, and large wooden square. Just below the main box will be a thin shelf for my large slick and framing chisels, you can see the runners for the drawer in the picture. One thing I’m doing different is that I am making my battens for the removable front panel slotted to hold my locking runners. That way I don’t need separate brackets.

The only real problem I've had has been the warped side panels. This caused the dadoes for the shelves to be cut uneven which cause a gap between the shelves and the side panels when they were assembled. Not sure what I’m going to do about it. I will either leave it as is or I might make metal reinforcement brackets to hide and reinforce it like in campaign furniture.

Well more woodworking and painting, then its off to the forge to make my hinges and handles. When I get it done I will take it outside and take better and more detailed pictures.  

Dutch Style Tool Chest

I've wanted to make a better toolbox to store my eighteenth century tools in, but I couldn't decide on the design until the other day when I saw the one Christopher Schwarz posted on his blog. It’s a Dutch style chest that I've seen before in Jim Tolpin’s Toolbox Book.

I wanted a design that looked like it belonged in the time period I’m interested in and could hold all the tools that theoretically a person would need to build a house with in the eighteenth century, less of course my larger timber framing tools like axes and other odds and ends.  I also wanted it to be a little different and have its own unique character. I think the Dutch style chest fits the bill. A big plus is the lids steep slope which will prevent junk from accumulating on it like a traditional flat top tool chest.   

My chest is going to be larger than Schwarz as he stated his is for travel. My toolbox is 42 inches high by 16 inches deep and it will measure 40 inches long. I can still move it when I go to events I will just need to take some of the tools out which I normally do anyway with my small traveling toolbox that I use now. The box will contain saws on the inside lid, a tool well, a drawer for my slick and framing chisels, two shelves for planes and a shelf for my bow saw and panel gauge. My long planes will fit in front of the molding planes lengthwise. 

Here are a few pictures of the sides as well as my dovetail guide (it came in real handy with this build). Notice the benefits of the long vise of my bench. I really like being able to put pieces in it when I dovetail. I will post more as I progress.

By the way happy New Year!!

Utah Bound

I’m on my way to visit my son stationed in Utah for Thanksgiving. Last year when I was there we went to the Golden Spike National Monument. You can see in the picture how exited he was to be standing at the place where the two railroads joined (ya not really). He did like the trains though. This year I have more excitement for him as I brought my rock hammer and geological maps. Utah by the way Rocks!..... I didn’t mean that as a pun.

I forgot to take detailed pictures of my forge as Cincinnatus requested, but I did include a photo of the fire box and clinker breaker. I purchased it from Kayne and Son Blacksmithing Supplies out of North Carolina. Yes it was expensive, and yes I could have welded one up, but it was easier to buy one and in the end it will outlast and work better than anything I could have cobbled together.     

The clinker breaker is the three sided iron item in the photo. The metal rod next to it is the lever to turn it back and forth. The clinker breaker is held in place between the fire box and cast iron elbow. In use the flat part is oriented to the top creating a gap around the side. The gap is small enough to prevent coal from fall though, but big enough to allow air from the bellow to pass unrestricted. When it gets clogged with ash and clinkers the handle is rotated back and forth breaking up and cleaned out the obstruction. By 
the way the disk with the handle is the ash dump that goes on the bottom.

Happy Days the Forge is Running

Happy days! I finally got my forge shed up and running. I’d been using a small rivet forge in the past and it was a real pain. It was tough to get metal up to heat and it always clogged. Weather was a problem as well as I forged outside and always had to fight the wind.  Now I don’t have to worry about the ever changing weather in Nebraska and I will have something to do all winter.

My bigger forge works great. It was given to me by a friend free of charge. All I had to do to was put in a new fire box and line it with heat resistant concrete to give it more heat retention. The best thing about it is that it has a clinker breaker. This is a device for breaking up slag and gunk that builds up in the air hole. No more clogged air holes. The blower is also way bigger than I had before and requires very little effort in cranking and it puts out a large volume of air.

For today I made a new holdfast for my bench, a part for an 18^th century candle holder, and a hook for a door. I got carried away with putting bees wax on everything for finish and coated my hold fast. Now it doesn't  "hold fast” so I will have to burn off the bees wax in the forge to get it to work. My other hold fasts (you can see them on my previous work bench post) worked fine, but would get in the way when I used my plow plane as the arms of the fence would run into the bent arms of the hold fast. I wanted a new one that had a very low profile like the one used by the Dominy’s.  

Lots to learn as I know little about blacksmith, but boy I sure like it!  I intend to learn how to make hinges and other hardware for my furniture and tool projects. One thing I am getting better at is making nails and I plan on making a lot of them this winter. 

19th Century Meets Circa 1976 House Repair

It just occurred to me today that I’ve reached a tipping point with concerns to power and hand tools. This afternoon I was replacing some water damaged fascia board on the roof. I needed to cut a 5 foot section of 1x8 and cut a ½ inch dado about a ½ inch from the bottom.  The old me would have taken the board to the table saw and did it all there. The current me is somewhat lazy and uses his table saw as an expensive storage devise.

So I would not need to spend time and effort cleaning off the table saw, I grabbed my panel saw and plow plane and performed the job in about 15 minutes. All joking aside it really made think about the fact that in this case hand tools were way quicker than power tools.

I don’t see me getting rid of my power tools any time soon, but I’m finding that I’m becoming a better woodworker by incorporating hand tools and power tools. Another side effect of hand tool use is that the more I use hand tools the better I get at using power tools. I think it has to do with learning to work with the properties of wood which you really don’t get a feel for with power tools.