Newsletters
Newsletter - April 2009
Hello from us all here at the Centre for Fine Woodworking
The workshop is busy and buzzing at the moment - we are well into Module 1 with the Frame & Panel course just started. It has been very satisfying for us to see that the ten students involved in this course are a mixture of the new intake of full time students and 'old' students who have returned after completing a previous Beginning Cabinet Making Course to upskill themselves further. The mix of students has worked very well so far, and we are seeing that the full time students have buddied up with the other students and the interaction has been rewarding and beneficial to all.
This year we have seen our loyal supporter, friend and student, Thorkild Hansen take up a permanent bench space here, adding another dimension to the students' experience to see a practicing furniture maker in action. Thorkild has become an informal 'tutor' and with the combination of his and John's humour, their eclectic taste in music, there is never a dull moment here! We are even thinking of having a timetable for the use of the computer as it's very popular for the football results or an hourly update on the latest potential tool purchase on TradeMe.
Kenji Suda, a renowned Japanese woodworker, will conduct classes here at the end of April in the tuning and use of Japanese woodworking tools and in the application of urushi (Japanese lacquer). These classes will be held from 9:00 to 12:00 from Monday, April 20 to Friday, April 24. The cost of these classes is $300. The class size will be limited. Please contact us to indicate your interest.
We heard this week the sad news of the death of a well known Nelsonian, Dick Roberts, who has been a generous supporter of the Centre for Fine Woodworking. Dick was one of the first people to convert a gorse covered hillside in Nelson to a beautiful organic sustainable farm, and is known to have accommodated the first WWOOFers (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) in New Zealand. John has been asked to create a wooden box for Dick's ashes - farewell to you Dick from us all here.
For anyone who has already expressed an interest in attending the Bending Solid Wood course with David Haig which runs from 25th May - 5th June, please do let us know if you are intending to come as places are filling up. We also have limited spaces available on Classical Chair Making, Furniture Making for a Client, and there is an opportunity for anyone who wants to work on a more ambitious project of their own under the supervision of tutors, to attend the Internship later on in the year.
We had some short courses recently - Mike Davies return for a three day carving workshop, as well as toolmaking and router weekends.g It's been nice to see some old faces returning and meeting some new faces too. We mentioned in the January newsletter that we had run for the first time a three day workshop on outdoor furniture. We recently received from one of our students Johann, who attended this course, a photo of his finished creation - a handsome bench named by his recent bride 'love bench for two'. The full time course started in early February with the Beginning Cabinet Making - a very lively bunch of six full time students and a further six students attending the two week course only - funnily enough we had a kind of family theme happening as we had a mother and daughter, and a father and son combination (not all related to each other).
This course has been altered slightly since last year, with David Haig now being the regular tutor (giving John some time to have a life outside of the Centre for Fine Woodworking). The course now has a set project of a small but very stylish side table which can be flat packed for ease of transport. There are limited places available in the May Beginning Cabinet Making course, but more space in the August/September course - contact us if you are interested in enrolling in either of these. The student feedback we have had from the course has been very positive, and we thought it might be interesting for you to have a student's view of it. Thanks to Ian and Sam Blackman for agreeing to write it, and we lift a glass of Founders in your honour.
Since my Dad wrote this whole thing and then sent it to me to add my bits, I think I'll do my bits in between his bits, but in italics. So any bits in italics are me (Sam) and everything else is Ian.
I am a 56 year old solicitor from Rotorua, specialising in the rural sector. My son Sam is 22, a recent philosophy graduate now working at the University of Auckland.
Jeez. Seeing it in print, that is, the fact that Dad is 56, is a shock! man he’'s getting old!
I had been woodworking for over 30 years in both New Zealand and the US and had recently had our house renovated to include a large double garage, which is now full of woodworking machinery.
I suppose on some sort of metaphysical level, I have been woodworking for thirty years, too. You know, because before I was born I was a sparkle in his eye, so when he was woodworking, I was woodworking. And then after I was born, I was always hanging around with him and my grandparents in the various woodworking shops around the world.
I had been looking for some time to attend classes on fine woodworking or cabinetmaking to hone my already considerable experience in this field (more on this later). And anyway, as Sam had shown an inclination to work with wood, I saw the trip away to Nelson as a perfect opportunity for some special father/son time.
I won't make any allusions here to the Catholic Church after that reference to 'special father/son timer'. (Oops, I think I just did... sorry!) As for said inclination to work with wood, it's true. As I said above I have always been interested in making stuff but didn't really make any of my own stuff until I was into my teenage years. I remember the first real fine woodworking project I undertook was making a small (15x25cm-ish in size) jewellery box. I would have been 15 years old and I was spending the summer in the States with my mother's parents. My maternal grandfather Fred (or BrmBrm as we call him) picked out the plan (probably from Fine Woodworking or some other such publication) and we went and got the wood from a lumberyard down the road. Maple with purple heart legs and accents were the woods I used and I think BrmBrm used maple and walnut. It's a satisfying feeling building something beautiful AND useful out of wood.
Sam and I decided to travel down from Auckland and Rotorua by car and arrived in Nelson on Sunday. We arrived at the school (some ten minutes from Nelson CBD) on Monday morning and tentatively walked into a large woodworking mecca with European benches and an array of woodworking tools and machinery.
I think part of the reason to drive down was to continue our father/son bonding tradition of a late summer road trip to the South Island: a journey we have made a couple of times in summers past. And yes! WHAT A WORKSHOP! Jealousy abounds from us Rotoruians in our double garage with concrete floors and plasterboard walls!
The following 14 days of full-on woodworking was of epic proportions and an experience never to be forgotten. The so-called experienced woodworker (I think Dad is talking about himself here! -Sam) was humbled by the experience and the realization that the essence of fine woodworking lies in the understanding of how to use hand tools. But it is something you have to experience. Although woodworking machinery has its place, the craftsman's ability to create a work of art lies in understanding the centuries-old skills of the true artisan.
And true Artisans we had teaching us, indeed. The experience and knowledge that David, Ryo and John imparted to us, even over that two week period, was astounding.
Using a sharp chisel (and we really learnt how to sharpen a chisel) came with its problems. I nicked myself on more than one occasion and found the best way to protect myself was to cover the whole of one index finger with about seven band-aids. It stopped the bleeding and protected me from future accidents.
I remember on about the fifth day, I had band-aids on the tips of both my thumb and index finger, and also on the knuckles of my thumb and index finger. As Dad says, it stopped the bleeding and protected the skin, but woodworking with band-aids on, it was like performing heart surgery with chainmail gloves on! After a day of full-finger bandaging, I opted to take them off - preferring the precision and 'feel' of skin on steel on wood.
It is amazing to me that these age-old skills are available in New Zealand from the now renowned expertise of John Shaw and David Haig. David spent two patient weeks showing each of us, in his quiet and unassuming manner, the skills of sharpening and using a plane, a chisel and a hand router. The result was a trestle table in Shaker design of which each and every one of us (nine students) is justifiably proud. All of the wood joints were handmade and we learnt, as a result of our hard work (Sam and I worked Saturdays and Sundays as well as all the week days, as did most of the other students) to follow the time honoured tradition of building fine furniture by hand without regard to cost or time.
You can say that again! I was always lagging behind the pace because I was taking the tortoise approach. I don't know if I 'won the race' in the end, but I was happy to go slowly-and-surely so as to have more chance to pick up the nuances of woodworking with hand tools. Not only are David's woodworking skills outstanding, he has an excellent command of the English language and ability to communicate clearly to his students. I suppose a degree from Oxford doesn't hurt?
Although John was not directly involved (he was working in the workshop on a commissioned piece) his commitment to the ideals of the school and his enthusiasm to pass on his knowledge resulted in his providing assistance and input to meet and exceed the needs and expectations of all the students.
What a long bloody sentence. Can you tell he's a lawyer? To paraphrase: John wasn't supposed to be helping, but he always was. And he's awesome.
Our learning was not limited to the American/European style. David was ably assisted by Ryo from Japan whose father is a temple builder. There was healthy debate about the relative benefits of the European style compared to the Japanese style of woodworking that provided an interesting contrast and added real value to the learning experience.
The input from Ryo was refreshing. When demonstrating (European) techniques while we students were huddled around David's desk, he would often ask Ryo if it was done the same way in Japan. The answer was often 'No. Opposite.'. This raised all sorts of interesting questions and watching the two woodworkers (David and Ryo) complete a certain task in two completely different ways was an eye opening experience.
We left to go back home on the Friday afternoon, headed to the ferry, with a heavy heart and envious of the students who remained, who were undertaking further training, this time from John.
We're still jealous!
We arrived safely home with our disassembled trestle coffee tables undamaged and ready for assembly. You see, they even thought about how we might get our woodworking projects home after the course, regardless of the mode of transport, such was their attention to detail.
In relation to this point, I have designed/am designing a collapsible bookcase in the spirit of our trestle table so I can build it with Dad in Rotorua, fold it down, pop it in the car and reconstruct it back in Auckland.
I have fond memories of the friends we made, great admiration for the tutors and their commitment to excellence, but most of all a deeper understanding of the art of woodworking and the physical and mental benefits it offers all of us.
I'd like to send out a huge 'thank you' to all of the tutors, the other CFW crew, and to our fellow students for making those two weeks such a memorable experience. It is something that will stick with me for life and I am grateful that I learnt the skills so (relatively) early in life. Cheers guys!
Benchmaking has been taking up some of our time and space here recently. John has been asked by The Shed magazine to write an article on creating your own cabinet makers' bench. We had also been approached by a couple of people who commissioned us to make one for them. This article will be in the next edition, and it was a good exercise for us as we very quickly realised that there is no way we can make benches to order whilst classes are running. They are big, they take up a lot of space, and they take up the machines.
However, we resolved this very quickly and now have two of our graduates from the first full time course in 2007 who will make benches for us.g If you are interested in ordering a bench please get in touch with us for more details. We are currently working on the 2010 course programme as we have already had a number of enquiries and enrolments for next year's courses, and this will be available soon.
TO MILL OR NOT TO MILL?
Full time students' tales of milling timber......
Ever found it hard to get figured wood or beautiful native heart wood? It's either impossible or costs a fortune. Whilst recently at the Centre for Fine Woodworking three students - (Glen, Tony & Lachlan) had a trip to the West Coast on an adventure to getting their own timber using a portable chainsaw mill. Through TradeMe they recently purchased a Totara log that had been recovered from a riverbed and travelled to Reefton some three hours drive from Nelson. In a little under one hour milling we had sawn six flitches and loaded it onto the trailer, and we're off to Reefton for refreshments. A great adventure and a good day out except for the fact that the wood was Lawson Cypress and not Totara - you win some you lose some!!
Why mill your own timber?
The cons of milling your own timber
To continue with the milling experience, we were quite surprised recently to see a very large truck turn up at the school with a huge load of lime logs on the back. Someone sarcastically said 'Oh John's been buying timber again'. It transpired that many months before someone had said - do you ever use lime, to which John had said it was great for carving, and that yes maybe we could use some. So one evening this week the students set about milling it up - we can't show you any photos as by the time someone remembered to take photos it was almost dark. If you are interested in any lime for carving then get in touch - we've got lots!
That's about all from us here
All the best John, Dave, Larry, Ryo & Helen
Centre for Fine Woodworking Trust
Previous Newsletters
January 2009 Newsletter 8.6kb .html document
November 2008 Newsletter 1.4Mb .pdf document
September 2008 Newsletter 272kb .pdf document
August 2008 Newsletter 220kb .pdf document
June 2008 Newsletter 118kb .pdf document
May 2008 Newsletter 260kb .pdf document
March 2008 Newsletter 1.24Mb .pdf document
January 2008 Newsletter 93Kb .pdf document
Centre for Fine Woodworking
PO Box 1452
Nelson, New Zealand
e-mail: info@cfw.co.nz
phone: +64 3 545 2674
