Popular Woodworking 2005-11 № 151, страница 69
trian in such company. By outward appearance, I saw very few indications of what I euphemistically call "hand craftsmanship." The tear-out and loose joints that particularly characterize my work are not to be seen here. Surfaces have the uniformity of machined surfaces. Finishes are as perfect as those from any spray booth. If you have any reservations about the capabilities of hand tools, then this room will allay them. The wareroom leads to the workshop. The workshop is a large airy space with high ceilings and large windows. Its whitewashed walls disguise the lack of electric light. At the end of the room is a cozy fireplace. Nothing in the room particularly suggests its use. There are no ugly hanging fluorescent shop lights, no dust collection system and no orange extension cords anywhere to be seen. Were the room not positively cluttered with workbenches, it would seem a very suitable living space. Get ready to hit me in the face with a pie: The Hay shop has a certain indescribable, almost spiritual feel to it. I don't know about Colonial Williamsburg's cabinet shop features a spacious-feeling workshop with high ceilings, large windows and no electricity. And it's all in the space of a two-car garage. you, but I enjoy working wood in part because I like the material. Everything, and I mean everything, in the Hay shop is wood. The window frames are wood, the walls, the ceiling and the floor are all wood. Contrast that with the average cement-floor shop filled with metal machinery. That's not the kind of space I want to be creative in. It's the kind of space I expect to be paid in. The majority of woodshops with which I am familiar have Cabinetmaker David Salisbury secures a piece of work in one of the traditional vises, which tend to wrack. The benches are copies of examples shown in Peter Nicholson's 1812 "Mechanical Exercises." a coating of Medium-density Fiberboard (MDF) dust in them. It coats the flickering fluorescent lights and gives a nasty brown haze to everything. The overall effect is like that of a bad black-and-white movie about Soviet Russia made during the Cold War. Everything is bleak and gray and hopeless. The light in the Hay shop is strong, but without the harshness that usually accompanies artificial light. I don't know whether it's the large windows or white walls. I asked Mack Headley, the shop's current master, how he manages in a shop devoid of electric light. "I don't know that I miss it much ... electric lighting," Head-ley says. "Directional light is very good. The shadow allows you to read depth and dimension on a surface much better. Fluorescents flooding in from two directions illuminate things, but the shadow is gone, and it's actually very hard to read the (surface). You can't actually carve decently with flu-orescents coming in from several directions .. It actually is easier and better to work in natural light. That's really the best of all. Not having electric light at all." I've always been of the belief that more is better. And that's certainly always been my feeling LEARNING AT WILLIAMSBURG I attended the "Working Wood in the Eighteenth Century" conference at Colonial Williamsburg last January. Each year, 400 or so woodworkers attend one of the two back-to-back sessions to learn more about 18th-century woodworking from the resident master craftsmen, conservators and several other experts. This year's topic was "Making Case Furniture - Desks and Bookcases." On the stage in the museum's auditorium, craftsmen performed the difficult aspects of making secretaries, including octagonal 13-panel doors, decoratively carved raised panels and the tiny drawers and secret compartments that characterize secretaries from this period. The skill of these craftsmen is overwhelming. They shape wood into complex shapes with little more than a chisel or rabbet plane. Each year Colonial Williamsburg's craftsmen and conservators cast their eyes toward a different topic. So far they've examined chairs and tables, tall case clocks and secretaries. But it doesn't matter what the topic is. For me, the conference elucidates possibilities. Regardless of your taste in furniture, I recommend attending at least once. For details on the next conference, see history.org/ institute/ or contact Deborah Chapman at 800-603-0948 or dchapman@cwf.org. —AC about workshop lighting. I guess I always looked at not having artificial light as a huge disadvantage to be overcome. When I asked the question, I suspected that the craftsmen in the Hay shop have found some tricks to getting around not having electric light. But I was surprised to hear Master popularwoodworking.com 67 |
