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“If you think dogs can’t count, try putting three dog biscuits in your pocket and then give him only two of them.” — Phil Pastoret
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First Things First Department…
Our web hosting provider upgraded our site to a new server last Friday which caused our site to go down over the weekend. Today we learned that all orders from Friday through Monday may be corrupt. So, please bear with us as we fix this mess.
The last three weeks I have been completely obsessed with the new fence system for the JMP. Just when I think I am done, I wake up in the middle of the night from an imaginary conversation with this faceless woodworker who always starts each conversation about the JMP with; “Well it won’t do….”. This is guaranteed to keep me up the rest of the night. Next day? Deja vu. I hope to give the Drivel Starved Nation a sneek peek this week.
I Miss the Old Me Dept…
I used to be able to call myself a woodworker–today I am a measly Tool Potentate. I just received an email from one of my past clients regarding one of the last pieces I built–it was delivered in 1983. You will be pleased to know that without the aid of a calculator I have determined this was 28 years ago…
Because I knew my furniture making days were over, along with the painful act of refunding the deposits from my 3 year backlog, I never had this particular piece photographed.
Included in the email were a couple of recent pics he took (in his back yard) that I am sharing, with you, the DSN, for the very first time. As in EVER. Silly me aside, I am sharing them to talk about the design, the construction details are obvious.
This table was designed for a library room in a beautiful home in SE Portland. It was to serve as a coffee table when needed, or, to display documents/books/etc.–the top pivots upward.
I knew the space constraints and as I sat in this room for inspiration, surrounded by three walls of floor to ceiling books, I clearly recall pondering what my theme would be for this piece. (Establishing a theme is the most important aspect of design and can sometimes equate to an “ah ha!” moment.) Themes are important to share for several reasons, they offer insights as to how others think, but more important, a piece without a theme is rarely successful. FYI: the battle cry for harmony is “All Hatfields, no McCoys!” (If your last name is McCoy, reverse the two.)
Then it hit me–I was surrounded by book spines–every single one of them curved. And although the bookcases were rectilinear, the repetitious “gathering of the spines” added a softness, and pattern, to help balance the linearity of the room. I had my theme.
The table pictured below (this is not how you shoot your own work!) is rectilinear with all exposed outside edges crowned. The crown theme was repeated on the vertical side members (stylized book elements) and these tie the shelf stretchers (beneath the top) together. The negative space at the top of these members contribute to the theme and add depth. These pics leave much to be desired, but are sufficient to support my theme…theme. The frame was Indian rosewood and the top Brazilian Kingwood. Whether you like or hate this piece, at the very least it has a theme.
I REALLY miss not being able to call myself a woodworker. There is just something so pretentious about being your “Tool Potentate”.
–John
This customer wanted a space just wide enough for a coffee cup when the top was tilted…
This last picture is not very good, but look how the light dances off the stretchers. This is
the beauty of crowned edges–and they feel oh so sexy…
JMP fence system: Will there be a way positively index miter cuts so the toe of the miter doesn’t slip under the stop and the fence?
And great second part of the blog. Just yesterday I emailed a woman I’m making a cabinet for because I wanted to do a big change in design. I titled the email “Fog Layers beneath Cherry Blossoms” because that is how I thought of the redesign. I think you need a concept to support the design, without it it’s just a piece of furniture.
Paul-
A big YES to the miter stop. I HATE it when a miter noses under the stop. And to help combat that, you will be able to cut a significant percentage of miters with the blade at 90 degrees… When the blade is tilted it gets a bit more complex if the long side of the miter is down–always UP if possible.
“… without it it’s just a piece of furniture.” Or worse.
–John
Bummer about your site going down, John. In case it got lost in the ether, you might recall that I had ordered all the tools that you presently have in production, and you were going to send them to me to test. And keep, just because of all the effort I would put into testing.
Remember?
Also, I was using the name “Fred West” for a lot of my orders. I think I got the shipping address wrong, though.
Thanks for the thoughts on theme, and sharing the pictures of your last piece. How did you ever crown all those surfaces without a BCTW crowning plane?
Your table appears to have really withstood the tests of time. It’s a beautiful piece. I think that one of the keys to a beautiful piece must be to have a theme, but to incorporate it so that the viewer doesn’t immediately say, “Oh look! He’s crowned all the edges.” Instead you’d hope that the theme would stimulate that deep, reptilian part of the brain that makes you say, “I like this a lot, but I don’t know why.”
I, of course, have not got there yet. Maybe never will. But it sure is fun to keep trying. With the pieces I build for our house, I am working against a strong constraint: my wife. While I would love to have floor-to-ceiling shelves covered in books, she refers to them as “dust catchers”. While I’d love to put details like your scalloped uprights on my furniture, she refers to them as “dust catchers”. While I’d love to have a sequence of vertical elements sticking out from a piece, they would be … you’ve guessed it: dust catchers. So everything’s smooth and easy to dust in my house.
Which is ironic, as my wife doesn’t dust…
– Peter
Peter- Sounds to me like you and Sharon are ready for your own reality series; San Diego Dust Bunnies.
I think you would look quite charming in a leisure suit with a nice feather pattern. Sounds like you would not be able to get Sharon into a maid outfit–which is too bad, outside of cheerleading outfits, maid outfits are quite popular in the fantasy world department.–or so I hear.
-John
John, I’m guessing there would be a death in the family (me) before Sharon would ever put on a maid outfit. Our fantasy lives seem to revolve more around Gillian getting her homework done without help – and correct, having a particularly nice dinner and wine, or (for me) affording a BCTW tool.
Wally is a significant help in the dust-bunny formation department. He sheds about a Pomeranian per week.
So how did you do all those crowns on your table? I’ve seen some nice old wooden crowning planes for sale. Nothing as pretty as the CT-9 or the HP-6…
– Peter
Crowns on that piece were done on a spindle shaper–made a pattern for the side pieces for the ball bearing collar to follow. I love spindle shapers if one is working for money.
–John
JMP fence: Will it be adjustable in a full 90 degree arc?
Paul
Ok, that didn’t come out right. I mean will be the fence be able to be parallel with the blade to being at right angles to it?
Paul-
Yes. If your blade is 90 degrees to the table, you will be able to make 90 degree cross-cuts. This arm pivots so you can use it to cut a tenon at any angle. All of this comes with the ability for one to adjust cuts in .001″ increments–in a second or two.
–John
Very cool. Can’t wait to see what you came up with.
That’s a beautiful piece of furniture, John. I’m sure it would look even more remarkable in its “native habitat” – among all the books.
While I know you miss it, your hypersensitivity to wood dust is our gain because you’ve turned your creativity and drive for perfection to metal. I love the beauty of wood but your works in annodized aluminum and steel are just as pleasing to my eye.
And Peter, given your wife’s aversion to dust and the little details that catch it, I guess there’s always IKEA. But they don’t sell maid outfits there either.
When can we see the fence? I can’t wait. Very interested to see what it can do.
The JMP fence will be revealed this week– there is a reason I can’t find time to post on this totally awesome and worthless blog!
-John
Rob, you’ll be pleased to know that we have a lot of IKEA furniture in our house. I’m gradually replacing it with stuff I build, but “gradual” is on geologic time scales.
Thanks for the thoughts though. There’s a Party City right near IKEA – I bet they have maid outfits. 🙂
— Peter
P.S. I completely agree about John turning from furniture to tools. Heck – if he’d stuck with furniture, I’d never have heard of him!
Hey John,
Is the library table client left-handed? The design is rather Danish in appearance. What is the mechanism for supporting the top at an angle?
Gary
Gary: Why do you ask such hard questions– I am old…? 1) Hans Wagner is on my hero list. 2) Pivoting brass bar stopped by a thumb screw, all hidden by the top front to back stretcher.
BTW, there is not a single good designer on this planet that I could not list as an influence.
John
Because there’s a coffee cup’s width to the left of the book launcher but not on the right. Didn’t Hans do “Flight of the Valkyries”? or was that Porter? Hmm, brass and rosewood…
This seems an appropriate place to put this. John, I just went back and re-read the piece you wrote for Popular Woodworking Magazine following the death of Sam Maloof. For everyone else, you can find it here: http://www.popularwoodworking.com/interviews/sam_maloof
I remembered how inspired I was when I first read this. It is no less so now.
Rob
Thanks for posting that link, Rob. I don’t know how I missed that tribute.
That was a beautifully written, and very inspirational piece, John. I can see that I have a long way to go in my woodworking. Still, it’s the journey that’s the fun part. Knowing I’ll never get there is just icing on the cake.
And I’d like you to know that you’ve had the same effect on some of us as Sam had on you. It’s a good legacy.
– Peter
Peter,
Thanks. I just re-read this and realize I could/should have said much more. Regardless, I am one lucky dude to have spent as much time with Sam as I did. And pity the poor soul who asks me about scooped seats…I truly have a gift from Sam that is worth sharing!
-John
Hmmm – I’m going to have to get you alone and ask you about scooped seats. I’ve done a few, but I’m always eager to learn better methods.
– Peter