Blog Woods

Just like any art and science activities, landscaping is also using technical symbols. These landscape symbols are usually easily understood by those that are in the same career or business circle. Through these graphics or signs, landscape designers are able to understand and read a landscape layout without further explanations and texts. Usually, these design symbols are also classified into types. And to ensure that everything gets covered, even bricks and pavements are assigned with a relative drawing or graphics. Among the most relevant and prevalent in the landscaping business and designing are as follows:

- Deciduous shrubs. These can be in a single irregular circular plant-like graphic as well as in a continuous one to show whether the plant to be implanted is lone or in also continuous.

- Evergreen shrubs. These are drawn in the same irregular circular graphic, but this time with lines to close the circle or all lines having a focal point at the very middle of the drawing. It can also be just the same picture as the deciduous shrub but with a paralleling lines inside to emphasis it as an evergreen plant.

- Large deciduous trees. These are drawn n the choice a tree may appear when you look at it at top view. Simple ones appear in irregular circular forms with a bold dot in the middle while more emphasized ones are in an irregular circular graphic with leaves-looking drawings inside it as well as a branching drawing in the middle.

- Large evergreen trees. These are drawn like the evergreen shrubs but this time, bigger and with a point in the middle.

- Ornamental trees. These looks like the big trees symbol but with inner the-same drawing as the outer bold irregular circle.

- Ground covers. These is probably the simplest because you just have to make sketches in a down-up stroke that looks like the penmanship of a learning child, or you can also make it more interesting by drawing a leaf-oriented graphic.

- Accent or specimen plant. Drawn n such a choice that it will look like a plant’s top view, only that it looks like a cartoon version.

- Decks and patios. There are different drawings for a particular material of decks or patios. Brick are drawn just how brick will appear. Stone will be drawn with a bold line covering its area and within are stone looking drawings. Exposed are the same as the stone, but this time with smaller stone looking drawing to illustrate irregular aggregate materials. The wooden deck is characterized with slanting lines all over the identified area.

All these symbols though are in plain view. The next concern in laying out a landscape design is the elevation. But this is the easiest part as all you have to do is draw a symbol in a standing position when you mean that it is elevated, while draw it in plain view when otherwise. Also, the bolder the ink, the bigger the plant or object is supposed to be placed in the landscape.

There are also other landscape designs that involve other design objects, drawing it on its top view will depict it in a specified area. With these symbols, there will definitely be lesser remarks to come with a design. In turn, it will make the lives of designer and layout artists easy.

Well, not much has been happening in the shop lately; my whole family has been sick. Yuck.

But I did run across a couple of interesting Roy Underhill interviews on the net. Both are from Mother Earth News.

This one is from October 2008:

Woodworking with Hand Tools:
Author Roy Underhill takes us from forest to furniture with historical woodworking techniques.

And this one is much older, from November 1985:

Have Broadax-Will Time Travel:
Conversation with the host of PBS The Woodrights Shop television show.

I enjoyed reading them both (despite the somewhat awkward site layout) and thought others might as well.

Ive recieved some pictures from the owner of the project in Northville! If you recall, the arched trim on the Wall of Troy was to have mirrors installed inside. Well, it is complete, and here are the pics!

I could do another picture of a sunset here and say something about how now I like to write, (like I said on anniversary one and two), but a couple things have come together in the last two months that make me want to go a little deeper ... While we were making the recent shop video, I went through our scrapbooks to get images of our first shop, and, scattered around there, were pictures of some of my early work ... my first table; my first chairs from scratch; my first sideboard (still have it); and, like David Byrne once famously wondered "How did I get here???. Is this my beautiful house??? ". Well, the days have gone by and I have now been making stuff from wood for over half of my 63 year old life. I didnt set out to do this; there was no grand plan, and as Anne Beattie so gracefully points out in the passage below, things happen ...

In looking back through the stuff I have written and photographed in the last three years, its easy to see we can now make a lot of different stuff, but, really, it wasnt always like this ... Like most other folks I know, progress is incremental; we do not know instantly what to do. We work from one recovery to the next. In one of Malcolm Gladwells latest books, Outliers, he notes that interest and coincidence often combine to produce surprising careers. I was interested and was fortunate enough to encounter the coincidences I encountered and rise to the good fortune that arrived at my door.

I cant do the whole 38 years in one shot, but Ill briefly touch on the first 10 or so years and hopefully come back to finish up as the spirit moves me ... If youve gotten this far, this will be a long one ... Thanks for sticking with me. Click the photos to enlarge them ...
Thank you Ann Beattie for writing this passage and thanks to my friend Tom Peters, who passed it on to me as an important piece of child rearing and general life information. Its been on my various bulletin boards for about 10 years ... See also the related quote at the end of this post from Jim Harrison .... ready and attentive ... be there ...

My first (or second?) table, my brothers stereo cabinet, my first chairs from scratch ...
Images 1973-81 ... the Welsh Cabinet I built in 1973 using F.E. Hoard and A.W. Marlows book Good Furniture You Can Make Yourself .. page 150 and 151 ... a corner cupboard lower right from our house ...Some later Windsor chairs and a cabinet for a friends daughter ... Bottom left is a table I still have in my dining room ... made in early 1981.
Before we got to furniture, we first needed a house ... which is part of the story ... In the top photo with the mustache and long hair, I am working on a project in the basement of the apartment I rented when I first came to Vermont. Kit joined me there shortly after I moved in and I later went on to work as a carpenter for my landlord, even though I knew absolutely nothing about carpentry at the time ... It was interesting work though and I enjoyed it so much I wanted to build my own house ... By 1974, the economy was in the tank and my landlord/contractor was now running a logging business, and I was working in the woods, sawing, skidding and Prentice loading. The schedule was, start at 5:30 ... out of the woods at 2:30, back to town by 3:30 ... It was summer and that gave me 5 hours or so of daylight after my real job to work on my house. Home to bed... up and at it again the next day. We moved in in November ... I was young and energetic and in great shape from logging (3 coincidences there) and we were on our way ...
We borrowed and cheated, (a little) to get a piece of land; we somehow got a mortgage, (the bank presidents mother was Kits fifth grade teacher). We bought books and lumber ... We worked hard. We built a house in our spare time!!!! By that time, it was the gas crisis, my landlord was out of business, I got another job with a real carpenter, Mark Breen, with whom I still do projects, like right now ...
We built a shop/garage in 1976 ... I did a few things on the side until December of 1979, when, after about 40 houses, Mark and I went our own ways ... I was on my own as a furniture maker ... I often say I then attended the "checkbook" school of woodworking ... Checkbook needs money ... go figure it out .... One of Marks first jobs after I left in 1980 was a house for some people who had come to town from California. Mark hired me to build some French doors ... Well, were all still friends today. Cook Neilsen, the husband and famous motorcycle guy, and his wife Stepper, went on to become our longtime friends and photographers for the next 20 years. Stepper called me two weeks ago to adjust the latch on one of the 30 year old doors I built below... It just needed a little tuning and lubing .... Proper lubrication is, after all, the key to life. I had a nice visit with their stuff and it all still looks good. A truly nice feeling.
One of the 4 french doors in the original project ... The cat shelf, bolted to the fireplace corner...
And a pine cabinet from, I think 1982.
Its 1982 now and kids (Sam and Kit are in the lower left corner) happen ... This photo was taken by Cook, Labor Day 1983 ... Thats Stepper in the middle along with cousins, friends, friendss kids, neighbors ... were all still here today,
And I thank my wife Kit for her constant and unending support through the last 39 years. As the official sees all, knows all, arbiter of taste branch of my work, she is and always will be truly indispensable. Photo above is from the windowsill in our kitchen 1971. And finally, below, we have some wisdom from one of my favorite writers, Jim Harrison. I am now in the rowing mode, approaching life backwards, looking at the past, wondering indeed, How Did I Get Here? More later ... 1982- 1996, when we moved and built our current shop, would be the next logical chunk. Stay tuned ...

I spent this Saturday working on designs. Not the usual furniture or building designs that I would normally speak of here or even the Sawdust Chronicles 2010 Build Challenge design that I should be working on. Instead I was working on branding. In preparation for Woodworking in America I want to design and produce a Penultimate WoodShop T-Shirt and Business Card.

The Penultimate Bench

Saturday started with a quick and dirty SketchUp model of the basic workbench design I have kicking around in my head. Itll have two bench top slabs (probably OSB or LVL) with a row of tool trays down the middle (similar to the Veritas bench or Bob Langs 21 Century Workbench). The legs will be flush with the edge of the top to provide a vertical clamping surface (similar to most bench designs to come out of the Popular Woodworking crew).The initial vises will both be Veritas. The twin screw I have sitting in its box on the floor under my current bench will get the face vise position, while the new Quick Release Tail Vise I plan to pick up at WIA will go at the tail. Ill probably add a plaineing stop and maybe even a quick release face vise to the opposite tail, but time restraints, lack of SketchUp expertise and a lack of confirmed design meant that I left them off this model.

Once the kids went to bed on Saturday night my good friend Aristotle Dreher came over and we got down to serious business. I kept SketchUp going and turned my one bench into four. I colored in the penultimate bench, left the others in black and white. I emailed the image to Aris laptop across the table from mine and he kicked his Adobe Illustrator skills into high gear.

We added the logo in the same color as my current blog header and in a similar font. The web address was added to the bottom and at Aris suggestion, "fancification" lines were added to the upper left and lower right corners. Viola, we had the front of the new T-shirt.

For the back, I made a big QR code in the same color as the logo and added the web address below it. Im hoping that for those who see the shirt and dont know to snap a quick photo of the QR code with their smart phone, they will at least ask me what the hell it is and start a conversation.

Finally, as late Saturday turned into early Sunday morning we made a draft business card. Last year (during the 3 hours I was at WIA) I ran into Tom Iovino. Even if I hadnt known who he was, it would have been easy for me to keep track of his contact info with the business card he gave me. Mines got a bunch more stuff crammed onto it, but I like it just the same. Lets hope it gets the job done.

During the week I should get both the shirt and cards ordered. Then its time to buckle down and get my Sawdust Chronicles Build Challenge design done.

So the question for this week, what are you doing to prepare for Woodworking in America?

invariably, after the question how much does a slab top table cost?, the next question is, are there other kinds of table bases i should consider?  there are.  the legs shown above are our most popular style.  based on a shaker design, below, they are cut (wastefully, i admit), from a slab of 1.5" thick steel on a waterjet, at a local steel fabricators shop.  the process is extremely accurate, but slow going through the thick, solid steel, so the individual cut pieces are expensive even before we grind, polish, drill, tap and assemble them.  they are beautiful though, and extremely rigid, and give the heavy slabs a lighter, sort of floating, familiar, yet contemporary look.  click the photos to enlarge them. 
each section consists of the main vertical, a 10" wing for stability and a 2.375 x .375 bar  to tie the whole thing together.  we offer natural, top and below, rainbow, a dark browny, bronzy, patina, and black.  these finishes are then top coated to stabilize them.


we also offer fabricated metal bases in a variety of styles.  above and below are our trapezoid bases.  also offered in various finishes, they can be fabricated in any size and can accommodate a design change to allow for a drawer.







with the square or rectangular tubing, we can offer a variety of shapes, including squares and xs, shown below.  these bases can be polished and patinated, or left more or less as is, like above, for a sort of industrial look.

the restaurant tables below we re fun.  randomly space 5/8ths rebar was welded between two steel plates, randomly painted and randomly rusted.  given that these were 42" high, tghey were bolted to the wood floor, but shortened to traditional dining table height, im sure they would make for an interesting look.




we also use plasma cut tapered legs on some of our dining and console tables.
or, our bridges base could also be adapted somehow to a larger, taller scale table.









and your imagination .. were open and happy to discuss your designs, either for a slab top you already own, or for a whole table we can design and build for you.  in general, prices for custom steel bases start around $1000. for the welded tubing designs and go up to $3500. to $4000. for the waterjet cut, thick, patinated steel bases.

Beautiful old Disston from about 1900. When I get to Heaven, Im going to give "KCR" a piece of my mind for making his mark on this tool so badly. I will, that is, if those in charge of admissions forgave him for what he did to this saw.

Placing those two pieces of 1 x 2 on top of the wall at right angles to the 6 x 6, I then placed the 2 x 2 in the "Vs", which held it on the bias. My new portable hold-down is unique, in that it is voice activated, so I tapped the 2 x 2 at a point between the two 1 x 2s and stated, "Hold wood here". Impressively, the hold-down kicked into action and positioned itself at the point I had indicated and held the stock down firmly. It was quite amazing, as you can see for yourself if you click on the thread of the image below.

Modifying and adapting one tool to do something it wasnt designed to do is not only fun, it is quite rewarding.

While I did a great job modifying this piece of equipment, if I do say so myself, if I had to do it again, I would start with the more basic model that doesnt have voice communication. Talking to it to give it directions is fine, but sometimes it gets a glitch in its programming, and it talks back way too much and becomes irritating. While this particular hold-down looks great, I would start with the cheaper model next time as this one is way to pricy for what it does. (and with that, Im sleeping on the couch for the next month)
As the slope in the land dropped off away from the wall, the stock was way too high to cut with traditional body placement, so invoking the French sawing position that Chis Schwarz reintroduced a while ago, only this time standing up. I positioned myself beside the stock, developed a slightly different hand-hold on the saw that Chris demonstrated, as shown below, and went to town, ripping the 8-foot 2 x 2 in about a half hour, give or take due to having to take the odd break.

A modified "French" grip made easier by Disstons addition of a second hole.

The breaks, by the way, were due to the hold-down pads inability to maintain pressure on the corner of the stock for long periods of time. Frustratingly, it would release itself without warning, and to make matters worse, its voice abilities would kick in. The one thing I wasnt able to figure out is how to add an "off" switch to this unit. When it would let go like this, it would run on wildly and there was nothing I could do but let it run its course and once it exhausted itself, reset it and start again. (add a second month on the couch)
Even though the day was overcast, those breaks did allow me to appreciate the time and effort I spent French Polishing the handle on this saw. Many thanks to Stephen Shephard at the Full Chisel Blog for his instructions as, after viewing the results with the sunlight kicking it up, it put a smile on my face for hours afterwards.

You cannot beat French Polishing for finishing a tools handle. In the shop, its beautiful. In the sunlight - wow!

Peace,
Mitchell
Images taken with an iPhone