A New Year, A New City, An Old House

2014 is over and so is my time at Rosewood Studio.  I started as a student at Rosewood in January of 2013.  For three months, Ron Barter the owner and full time instructor, showed me the ropes of building wood furniture.  After finishing the 12 Week Craftsmen Program I was shocked and honored to be asked to stay on at the school as the Resident Craftsmen, a position previously held by the talented maker and (now) great personal friend Nick Moore.

In the twenty one months after completing my program I was able to: build many wonderful pieces of  furniture which you can see here, help teach new students along side Ron, acquire commissions, attend exhibitions and conferences, meet amazing teachers (Garret Hack, Adrian Ferrazzutti, Michael Fortune, Chris Shwarz just to name a few) and continue my own education.

Thank you to everyone I meet during my time in Perth, you all helped make this beautiful small town my home for two years.

Now I begin a new phase of my life and it is a big step.  I am moving to Kingston Ontario where I have bought a house.  I will be renovating the house while simultaneously trying to make my business H3 Design & Construction my full time employment.

I hope that you my readers new and old will continue to follow along as I do the renovations.

Just before Christmas I completed a hall bench for a new costumer.  I would have posted during the actual construction of the piece except the piece was a surprise.  Now that is has been delivered to a very excited customer I will be posting about the build in the next couple of weeks.

Finally you can now follow H3 Design & Construction on Facebook click here to get to the page.  I am new to Facebook so be patient as I get started using the page.

Best wishes to everyone in 2015.

Cheers
Hans Christopher Mueller

Photos, Counters, and Noise

Nothing exciting occurred this week at all.  Work on all my projects continues, some much slower than others.

In the shop this week students learnt about cutting all types of joinery commonly used in furniture making; half blind and sliding dovetails, through mortise and tenon joints and even dowel joinery.  Big shout out to the students at Rosewood this week for making me laugh, you guys rock and best of luck to all of you in your woodworking futures.

After this week I have concluded that the extra bench in the machine room is a nice addition (so that I always have a bench to work at), but it means I work in an environment that is very loud and full of vibration (when any of the machines are being run) and after a short while in that setting all I want to do is find a quiet place to escape to, I look forward to getting back into the bench room next week, where the natural light and quiet environment are much more comfortable to work in.

To avoid the noise and calamity of a full wood shop I worked from the office a lot this past week.  I reviewed the designs for the kitchen and found a mistake I had made.  Luckily I caught the mistake before any material or time was wasted and I am now working on a solution to fix said mistake.  Wednesday I drove around speaking with suppliers to get price estimates for granite and quartz counters.  Four stops and four seemingly identical conversations later I found a company I liked and will hope to do business with on the kitchen renovation.

I also spent a fair amount of time at my drafting table designing small wooden objects that I could possibly do in small batch productions this year.  Items such as mirror frames, book ends and boxes of various shapes and sizes.  I will begin prototyping these ideas so and hope to be selling them in the next few months.

Wooden coasters I made this week

I did get some work on the hall table done as well.  After a trip to KJP Select Hardwoods to purchase some walnut, I broke down all the stock in to rough pieces.  The pieces are now going to sit for a few days to acclimate before I begin milling them to final size.

Breaking down all the components for the table except for the top

And Finally I have spent a few hours today re shooting some of my past pieces.  The hall bench and the walnut box I have shoot on a brand new backdrop that I will use for all my portfolio shoots in the future.  A big thanks to my clients for allowing me to come back and re shoot these pieces in their home.

Re shooting the bench and walnut box

Cheers

Hans Christopher

Kitchen Table Re Build

The first week, of Rosewood's winter 12 week craftsmen program, has just ended.  Lucky for me I still had a bench space this week, only 7 students, so I began repairing my kitchen table.  When I got the table as payment for helping a friend clean out his garage (so practically free) it was in very rough shape.  The finish was faded and scratched, the table was wobbly and coming apart and the whole thing needed a good cleaning, and after living with it in this state for roughly a year I figured it was time for some fixing.

I removed the top from the base, scraped and sanded it down, to remove scratches and blemishes.  I was surprised to learn that the top is made of walnut, not surprisingly the top is made up of many thin strips and little to no care was taken to achieve good grain matches, so I will be staining the top to unify the colour of the heart and sap wood before I put a finish on.

Blue tape to keep the epoxy off the wood surrounding the joints

The base of the table was assembled with dowels and glue, and all of the joints on the stretcher had failed.  I separated the joints the best I could and glued everything back together with epoxy.  Epoxy will stick to just about anything so I did not have to remove the old glue.  A few hours later and I had a solid base again, no more fear of my table collapsing in the middle of a nice Sunday dinner.

The repaired table base

Next step will be to stain and finish the table top.  I am not going to stain and finish the base of the table.  The table is not worth the time it would take to protect it with finish and the base will not be seen much so there is no need to make it look any better than it does.  The top will be seen and abused much more so it is worth the time to add protection and improve its appearance.  This will also give me a chance to try a new finishing product.  I am constantly looking for sustainable solutions in my woodworking, so for this table top I will try using a waterborne stain and finish.  Better to practice on a piece for myself then on a client's piece if I like the result and it is easy enough to work with I will use it on other jobs.

Next week is the mastering machinery class at Rosewood, and it is fully booked, so normally I would have no space to work in.  Ron however moved a small work bench into a corner of the machine room and I will be able to work there for the next two weeks.

My other bench space.

Once the table is finished I will be posting photo's here as well as my website http://www.h3designconstruction.com/

Cheers

Hans Christopher

New Semester

The Fall semester has just gotten under way at Rosewood Studio here in Perth.  The students for the six and twelve week classes settled in this week and right away began learning about handplanes and sharpening.  While I, at the back of the room, began work on my next piece of furniture.  Still in the design process, I am hoping to receive a commission for a hall bench (should know by next week if I have a go ahead).

Last week I delivered my latest build, a painted blanket chest.  The new owner is thrilled with the piece and while it is not being put where it was initially intended to go it has found a good home non the less.  The chest its self was a great build and rather fun, a much simpler build compared to the coffee table I recently finished.

I wanted the build to be simple and a relatively quick process so I choose not to dovetail the corners of the chest and instead used a locking rabbet.  Much faster then cutting dovetails, and the piece still feels plenty strong enough and should last for years.

The finish is (obviously seen in the photo) latex paint and while I am fairly happy with the final look (the colour is perfect) the paint was a pain to apply.  For my next painted project I am going to try another type of paint and maybe spray instead of brush it on.

My hope is to be able to sell more of these chests, as the are quick to build and can be adjusted in size fairly easily I can build them to order in a short turn around.  And once my official website goes live there will be a way for people to contact me and place an order.  Which brings me to the other project I have on the go right now, a website.  I am still just getting under way with the site, but I hope to launch the site the end of this month, so check back regularly for a link to the new site, and do not worry the blog is staying.

Cheers
Hans Christopher

Horses In The Shop

This week I am taking a break from my coffee table project to help out at Rosewood to build two sets of sawhorses for the school.  Yesterday I managed to get all the rough maple milled to final dimension, and prepared to have all the joinery cut.

The saw horses are around 32 inches tall, 26 inches wide and 16 inches deep, and everything gets held to get with mortise and tenon and half lap joints.  Nothing revolutionary.

While I am building these saw horses Ron is in the bench room this week teaching a new group of eight woodworkers the basic of hand tools.

This is the first week of a two week basics in fine woodworking class.  The class will be running again in August and right now there are still spots available, so if you ever wanted a comprehensive introduction to woodworking this is a great value and a fun time.  Bonus Perth is lovely in August.

Cheers
Hans Christopher

Catching Up

Alright so it has been a while.  An Internet fubar and a whole lot of building has kept me off the Internet theses last few weeks.  Since my last post I have completed three more week long classes and finished off two more projects.

Week 6 was all about the joinery that is used in furniture making.  The week didn't yield a finished piece of furniture but there were numerous lessons learnt in the poplar sample joints we constructed.

Week 7 began and due to lower then normal enrolment I am working alone in the school.  I began working on a Small cabinet.  With no one else in the shop work went fairly quickly and I made a lot of progress.

The following week saw a great woodworker come in, Adrian Ferrazzutti, to teach studio veneering.  This week was incredible; Adrian is a great teacher and an all around nice guy.  Veneering is something I hadn't done before and it was a great technique to learn.  There are similar skills to working with veneer as working with solid wood.  I really enjoyed this type of work and can see myself doing more veneer work in the future.

After Adrian left it was back to working on my small cabinet.  I fit in some tool making and built myself a scratch stock.  A very simple tool but incredibly useful and versatile.

I have now finished the Small cabinet.  It is constructed from solid cherry with basswood back panels.  The dental molding below the crown in made of ebony and holly and was a fun detail to construct.  The entire cabinet is finished with shellac.

I have now begun a bow front cabinet.  Usually built to hang on the wall I plan to build a base for it in the future, a very Krenovian detail.  This project is a combination of solid wood construction as well as shop sawn veneer construction.

Also over the last few weeks I made a trip out to KJP Hardwoods.  It is a place were wood dreams are born, I have never seen so much beautiful wood in one place.

And finally I finished off my desktop drawer this week as well.

All and all a very exciting couple of weeks and looking forward to many more.

Cheers
Hans Christopher

Topping It All Off

Week five is now complete at Rosewood and with it my first piece of furniture at the school as well.  This small table is not the first piece of furniture I have built, but I would say this is the first piece of fine furniture I have built.

The table is built out of walnut, maple and basswood.  The top is finished with 13 coats of shellac and all other surfaces have 5 coats.  The pull on the drawer front is maple dyed black.

Cheers
Hans Christopher

All the Fittings

Week four is over and done with and it was a bit of a whirlwind, and not just because of the weather.  This week was about building and fitting drawers the traditional way, hand cut dovetails and a drawer pocket.  I made two (almost) drawers this week.

I started the week by preparing all the pieces for my drawers.  Two sides a front and a back for each drawer. Then it was onto cutting the dovetails for the drawers.  Half blinds on the front and through dovetails on the back.  For the desk top drawer the drawer fits right into carcass, but for the table drawer the drawer rides on runners and is held from above with kickers.

The kickers also serve as a point to secure the table top.  Screws pass up through the kickers and into the top.

After the drawers are assembled it is time to fit them to there opening.  This requires planning them on four sides.  To make planning all sides possible a hanger board is used to hold the drawer.

The finished desk drawer

Not bad for my second set of half blinds.

I have decide to work on getting my dovetails to fit right off the saw.  This has been going well but there are some gaps in some places that I will fix later.  Practise makes perfect.

Cheers

Hans Christopher

Table Week

Week three at Rosewood finished and I have almost two full projects to show for it.  The main project for the week was a shaker night stand.

The first step was to rough cut all the parts and mill them to thickness and cut them to final size.

Each leg has two mortises one on each of the inside faces that will accept the aprons.  After using machines to cut the mortises and tenons the parts come to the bench and I use hand tools to tweak all the joints to get a perfect fit.

After fitting all the joints I go back to the bandsaw and cut the taper on the legs, and after that I use hand planes to clean off all the machine marks.

After all the pieces are handplaned to remove the machine marks I tried a dry assembly to make sure everything fit together.

Once all the parts fit well together everything comes a part and I start to prefinish all the parts.  I used shellac that Ron provided.  This was my first time using shellac and I loved it.  It went on easy, dried quickly and looks great.

With all the parts prefinished I can start to preassemble parts of the table.  Glue goes in the mortises and on the tenons and then two clamps with minimal pressure brings the assemblies together.

After the sub assemblies are finished the whole table can be glued up.  The most important thing I learnt from Ron about glue ups is that a trial run is important before any glue hits the joints.

Once the table was assembled the next step was to cut the runners and kickers that are necessary for fitting the drawer (to be built next week).

I managed to finish the table before the end of the week so I started a second project to keep myself busy.

Stayed tuned for draw making one o one.

Cheers

Hans Christopher

Week Two Closing

Week two is now finished at Rosewood and I have finished my first project.  These Krenov sawhorses are incredibly light weight, rigid and strong.

The sawhorses are built of maple and joined with mortise and tenon joints.  The tenons in the feet are drawbored and the tenons in the up rights.

The sawhorses are finished with about 5 coats of shellac.  These sawhorses are going to be an invaluable during school and invaluable when they finally make it back to my shop.

Here rest my horses holding up the ugly duckling holding my tools.

Cheers
Hans Christopher

Gauging My Progress

Progress is continuing at Rosewood this week, learning to use various machines in the shop.  My saw horses are coming along, but more on that in my next post.

A down side to working in a class of six is that there are not enough machines for everyone all at the same time, so in my spare time I have been using the open tools and some spare wood to build a panel gauge.

A panel gauge is a simple tool, a fence and an arm with a pencil is used to mark out large widths, like a large marking gauge.

Cheers
Hans Christopher

From The Classroom

My Rosewood Bench

Sorry for the delay in this post, I meant for this to come out last week but getting settled and adjusted to the new routine threw me for somewhat of a loop.

I have now completed the first week of the Rosewoood 12 week program.  Week one was all about hand work, specifically hand planes and cutting dovetails.  The first exercise involved making a perfect six square board of poplar, a fun and easy project.

After the board was perfect it was ripped in half to be used as practise for hand cutting dovetails.  Dovetails are a tricky thing to learn by reading a book.  There are so many different ways to cut dovetails that reading about all the different ways can confuse many people.  Cutting dovetails is something I have tried myself to little success, after seeing Ron cut the dovetails and then trying them myself I made huge improvements in my dovetailing.

Up next on the schedule is a pair of Krenov sawhorses.  Stay tuned.

Cheers

Hans Christopher