stay-at-home-dad

Comfort Zone: Part Deux

August 4, 2012 By Steve Kubien Leave a Comment

When we last spoke, I was near completing my chair for my trip to Pennsic. My chair is finished and, as you can tell, it is fully functional.

I still need to create and install the headrest piece. There is no great rush for this so I will take my time and make it how I want it to be. The chair is finished with 3 coats of water-based varnish-finish-stuff. It would have been great too use an oil-based finish and take advantage of the ambering effect but there was not time for it to cure before coming to war. Compromises had to be made in appearance for the sake of functionality.

So, welcome to Pennsic! As I write this, it is the 2nd Saturday of the 2 week event (August 4th). Over yesterday and today, a lot of people are moving in and setting up their camps. As of 9:15pm on Friday, there were 7,575 people in site. It is staggering to me how vast Pennsic is.

I am currently planted in a shady spot enjoying a wonderful breeze. Before me, a lady is embroidering a tunic. My friend Bjorn is completely wiped out from being on the battle field most of the day. Behind me is the Middle Eastern pavilion and they are working on some drumming and singing. Off in the distance, from multiple directions, I hear more drums and some form of string instrument. I can honestly say, I have never experienced anything like this. It is strangely soothing and delightful.

Earlier today I was taken on a tour of the market place. There you jcould buy, well, anything really. Leather work, hand forged iron goods, weapons, armor, tunics, dresses, clocks, footwear and all of the materials and tools to make anything related to life, war and craft of the middle ages. Myself, I bought a belt and a knife for spoon carving (it’s a basic Mora Knife. I believe it is a #1). There is a distinct possibility that a bow and quiver of arrows may follow me home. I have wanted to get into archery for a looooong time and today I learned that there is a shoot not far from my home every Sunday. My friend Kristie will be starting to attend regularly with her son plus my girls are interested as well so… Yeah, it is meant to be.

Tonight, our resident Bard/Herald/Laurel, Hector, is hosting a feast. There are 70lbs of lamb roasting over flames in camp so methinks we will be eating well tonight. I will write more later.

Filed Under: chairmaker, stay-at-home-dad, Steve Kubien, woodworking

Outside my comfort zone

July 30, 2012 By Steve Kubien Leave a Comment

In my last post I mentioned that I was going to war. I’ve never been to an overnight medieval reenactment so this is itself is pretty far outside of my comfort zone.

Then, I was politely told that my orange Roots lawn chair could be frowned upon at campfire because it wasn’t “period”. Nobody would’ve tried to take my head or anything but I have no interest in offending anyone’s sensibilities so…I am making a wooden chair.

Here are the structural members. The cross pieces are walnut and the leggy/uprighty things are ash. You may notice the lack of round wooden bits. Yeah, there is not a single element of woodturning in this chair.

Obviously this chair does not fit the style of any medieval realm but it’s wood and that’s good enough for most people.

Here you can see the seat has been glued in place and the back starting to form. My original intent was to use old-fashioned cut nails to secure all it the cross pieces. Cut nails are far superior to the wire nails of today. Their wedging action against end-grain fibers makes them far more secure. Plus, they look pretty cool and would have added a “period” feel to the piece. Unfortunately, they were too much of a pain to hammer in as so much of the wood is unsupported. So, I pegged the slats down with dowels.

Aaaaannnnd it’s done. Well, sort of. At this point it doesn’t have a finish on it and I still need to do the top piece for the back. It will have some kind of design pyro’d in but I’m not sure exactly what yet. We’ll see.

Once it is done in its entirety, I will be posting pictures.

Thanks for stopping by.

Filed Under: chairmaker, Green Leaf wood Studio, stay-at-home-dad, Steve Kubien, woodworking

Regroup

July 27, 2012 By Steve Kubien Leave a Comment

It is amazing how little woodturning I have done recently. After a show, I typically step away from the lathe, regroup and have some “me” time. After this year’s Momiji Show, I have taken this time to meet new people (who have nothing to do with woodturning or kid-soccer), be social, to share and learn from others. I suppose this is called being human and living.

My friend Wil has needed some help with a couple of woodworking projects and while he would never ask for any help, I forced my assistance upon him. Now, come closer. Lean into the screen a bit. The secret and scandal of this? -whispering voice- These projects are in the realm of FLAT woodworking!

Yikes!!!

Let me be clear about my stance of flat woodworking… People who do it well can create work of immense beauty and functionality, and I am insanely jealous of their skill and execution. I possess a wealth of knowledge regarding tool usage, and wood selection. The problem for me lies in the process. The are so many steps involved and if you miss one or fail to execute a step well, every following step/process is going to fail in some way, leading to a failed project. The biggest step that I tended to mess up revolved around measuring things accurately, dimensionally and in terms of angles. Joinery gets messed up and sloppy, and things lean and slope in bizarre ways.

Measuring sucks and I am bad at it.

In the woodturning I do, I don’t measure very much at all. I measure the relative thickness of a bowls sides and bottom so I don’t make it too thick or thin and I measure a piece before putting it on the lathe so I know it will fit. That’s about it and I’m ok with this. If you want to involve actual numbers that are dependent on other numbers…yeah, I many not be your guy.

Having said all of that, I have been convinced of my need to make a wooden chair for an event I’m attending late next week. Seriously, I won’t be permitted a spot around the campfire in a modern, mundane lawn chair. Now don’t get your knickers in a twist. The event is a medieval rennasaince fair and they want the fire to maintain a period feel to it. I didn’t create this event and I don’t make the rules, but I am happy to try to comply with them.

Oh yeah, this event is called the Pennsic War. It is a yearly event of massive proportions. Attendees come from around the world for it and I am going for the first time. At last check, there were 11,600 people registered for Pennsic and just so you know, that is waaaay outside my comfort zone. I will be sure to update things as I can once I’m there. I will be taking a couple of classes in medieval craft which I think I’ll be able to incorporate into my woodturning.

Filed Under: stay-at-home-dad Tagged With: Pennsic, Steve Kubien, Woodturning