Mahl stick, homemade version

Now that I am occasionally drawing and painting larger, and using an upright easel, I can see the advantages of using a mahl stick. I looked at them in the store and they are ridiculously expensive!!! As has many times been the case I thought "I can make that!"

This whole project took about 10 minutes, including sanding the dowel. OK, it was 15 if you count the time I spent gathering materials. The cost was less than $2 (I picked up the dowel at an estate sale for $1). Way better than the nearly $30 the store wanted for a mahl stick.  Sheesh!

My version of the mahl stick cannot be disassembled for easy transport, but I do not care. I took a four foot long, 3/8" oak dowel I happened to have lying around for the stick. If you don't have one lying around your house you can go to the store and get one. Even places like Michael's and Home Depot sell these, maybe not in oak though. Or you could go crazy and use walnut! Just make sure it is not all crooked and wonky. I then took a scrap of old t-shirt from my rag bag and wadded it up for the filling. I traced a circle in a scrap of leather I had lying around, cut it out, and tied it around the end using some silk fingerloop braid I wove years ago.

I thought about staining and finishing the oak, maybe putting a handle on it, and also a loop at the end so I can hang it up. Maybe I'll do those things later, or on another version. This one is fancy enough for now.

The scrap leather came from the bargain scrap bin at Tandy's. If you don't have that available there are suede-like fabrics at the fabric store, or use a scrap of cloth or something. Also it can be tied with plain twine. I just got all fancy 'cause I could, and because I like it.

Thinking about Spanish style furniture

I have a house whose architectural style is called "Spanish Eclectic", and this house needs furniture that fits it. A while back in the library I found a pamphlet published by the New Mexico Department of Vocational Education in 1933 called "Spanish Colonial Furniture Bulletin", a book of line drawings of extant furniture from the Spanish Colonial era. In the brief text the pamphlet states that New Mexico was settled by colonists early in the period (end of 16th century) and had minimal contact with outside influences after colonization, due to the discovery of limited exploitable resources. Thus, much of the furniture design is influenced by Spanish medieval and Renaissance design.

Note the mortise and tenon joinery and the spline that joins the boards that make up the seat of the chair on the right.

This will be one of the sources for designs for the dining table and chairs I eventually plan to build and which are just in the earliest design phase.



Another example of something Spanish I like is this table from either the 16th or 17th century, I'm not sure and the book (Great Styles of Furniture) isn't very informative either.

A medieval waxed tablet

With much gratitude to the waxed tablet links on Larsdatter.com I conducted some research into making a waxed tablet. There are variations in the number of leaves in the tablets; I chose to use the fewest number, two, because the end result would be less bulky and also easier to construct.

I chose quarter sawn white oak as it is the most similar to European oak commonly used in the period, has pretty grain, and because it is quarter sawn is more stable and less likely to warp.

Different colors were used to mix with the beeswax in extant tablets including black, red, and yellow. I decided on red because I had a large amount of the pigment, thought it would look good, and work well enough when written upon.



The linseed oil and wax finish is a period appropriate finish and looks very good. This was my first time using linseed oil and I was extremely pleased with the result. The oil really brought out the beauty of the wood grain. I am now completely sold on using it in a finish and looking forward to trying it under shellac. Here's what it looks like in full sunlight:



Here is a little photo essay showing my process and progress to date:

Oak bench finished (well, just about)

Here is my new bench in all its glory. It is patterned after numerous 16th century examples of benches. It is made from flatsawn white oak (because I couldn't find quartersawn of sufficient width where I live), fumed with ammonia, shellacked with 3 coats blonde and 3 coats orange shellac. I may put a final coat of varnish, or just wax it, I haven't decided.

The color isn't what my original goal was, but I like it well enough. I didn't think to use linseed oil before shellac, but tried it after on another project and it really made a difference. I think all future projects will have linseed oil before shellac. The shellac went on so smoothly and beautifully, it hardly needed any smoothing when I was done. I enjoyed using the shellac and the easy cleanup, I can see myself using this almost exclusively in the future.

The use of shellac is not period so it is not a true medieval finish, but I will be using this piece in my house and I wanted something that didn't have much upkeep. Also I am a novice woodworker and finisher and every project I plan is to build up my skill set so I can make furniture for my home.

Oak bench, one coat shellac

It was with great anticipation that I started my first shellac finish with the first coat, shown here. I applied as much as possible with a rubber, which I really enjoyed as it laid down a nice smooth thin coat. For the areas not accessible with the rubber I used a soft flat paintbrush. The brushed areas were not as smooth and will require light sanding after the first coat, unlike the areas where I used the rubber. The wood already has a lovely soft sheen after the first coat.t

Some articles I read advised putting a small amount of boiled linseed oil as a first coating before the shellac to bring out the figure of the wood, but I forgot about it until too late. That'll be added to the list of things to try next time.



My shellac mixture was 4 oz denatured alcohol with 2 oz dewaxed blonde shellac flakes. I put them in an old glass jelly jar (I have started saving all empty glass jars, they come in handy for so many things) and gave it about three days to mix, agitating daily. Three days was not a calculated choice, it just worked out to be how long it took for me to have enough free time on a non-rainy day to apply the shellac.

I made the rubber out of cheesecloth (for the inside) and a piece of cotton (for the outside). I keep the rubber in another glass jar to keep it from drying out and getting hard so I can reuse it. I cleaned the brush in denatured alcohol although it is still stiff with residual shellac. However one of the articles I read assures me that once I wet it with shellac again it will be usable (another article suggested using household ammonia to clean shellac out of brushes, but I only have 28% ammonia at home - perhaps I will buy some 5% {household} ammonia and try it). Fortunately I chose a brush for which I had no other use planned.



The shellaced wood is a nice mellow aged color, although not yet as deep as I would like. My plan is to put a few more coats of shellac, experimenting with orange as well as blonde (as soon as the orange shellac I ordered arrives). To compare my results to what I started with, here is a picture I took showing the three stages of wood thus far:



Lessons Learned

1. Mix shellac flakes with denatured (ethyl) alcohol, not 91% isopropyl alcohol. Shellac + isopropyl = goop, even 9% water is apparently too much.

2. Cheesecloth is much better for the inside of the rubber than plain cotton. It holds the right amount of shellac and makes a nice and firm, unwrinkled rubber surface. I tried plain cotton first and was much better satisfied with the cheesecloth. I also read about using flannel or an old athletic sock, but I didn't try those methods.

3. Next time I would like to try putting on the finish before assembly. This piece has a lot of inside corners that were challenging to get an even coat of shellac. It would have been easier to tape the joints and shellac before assembly (I think). Next time I'll try that to compare.

4. Use shellac in a well-ventilated area. I don't have a shop to work in, so when it became too dark to work outside but I was almost finished, I took my work into the kitchen. I neglected to open the windows and ended up setting off the carbon monoxide detector. Now I make sure I can do all the work outside, then bring the piece inside and place it next to an open window.

I have never seen shellac applied in person or spoken about it to anyone. All my research came from the internet. Fine Woodworking.com had a couple really good, helpful articles. I went to their website and searched for "shellac". I also read a nice article by finishing expert Jeff Jewitt. Or read his book, The Complete Illustrated Guide to Finishing.

The following are available on the Fine Woodworking website, but I don't know if you may view them unless you are a member:

"Padding on Shellac" from FW #112
"Versatile Shellac" from FW #166
"Sealing and Coloring with Shellac", FW video (online)

Ammonia fuming progress

So far my ammonia fuming experiment seems to be a success. I placed my bench in a cardboard box with a glass pie plate that had a few ounces of aqueous ammonia (28% concentration - household ammonia is about 5%) and left it overnight. Now the bench is sitting outside (under shelter, because it is raining) to let off any ammonia fumes.

In the photograph with the bench is a piece of wood leftover from building the bench; it is the same color as the bench was originally. The color of the fumed wood is more gray and duller. It is definitely different from how it looked yesterday.

Next will be a little bit of sanding and then the shellac. This will be my first time making my own shellac. I saw it done once, years ago, and now I am going to try it. I have to wait until it stops raining because I work outside in my backyard (I don't have anyplace indoors to work). Unfortunately it is supposed to rain for the next week so my next update on this project may be a while.

oak bench put together but unfinished

Finally! On my very last shop day of the year I managed to finish building my white oak bench. All that is left to do is finish it. I doesn't look much different from the first picture I posted, does it? I assure you that in person there is a great difference!!

My goal in making furniture is to make stuff that can take abuse, where dings and scratches are "character" instead of damage. The way we live in my house, furniture needs to be that way. That means I don't want to put a dark finish on it that will show bare wood if it gets a deep scratch. I am considering fuming it with ammonia in the way that some original Arts and Crafts furniture was made. The original Arts and Crafts era crafters fumed with ammonia to create the aged look they so admired in ancient furniture. If it makes the wood dark enough I won't have to stain it at all. First I am going to experiment with some of the scrap pieces left over from making this bench. If I like the results I'll use the process on the bench. If fuming doesn't turn out well then I'll use a more conventional stain, just not too dark. Either way I hope to have the results posted here next month.

I'll be starting on another piece of furniture next month, something for my living room. I've been planning all along to build all new furniture for my living room but only now am I getting started. This month I am giving away virtually all the wood furniture in my living room; I think it will motivate me to work on my long-delayed furniture projects.

LESSONS LEARNED from this project: Make every cut, every step of a project as perfectly as possible. It saves so much time/effort/frustration as you progress. I made many mistakes with the first bench I made that I spent a lot of time fixing towards the end of the process; I didn't do as much of that this time and it was so much better that way!!!

Oak bench at rough cut stage

In my last session at the woodworking shop I made this progress. All the pieces for the bench are now roughly cut except for the stabilizing brace not started yet. I love the bandsaw!!

Next up will be making the brace, making the mortise and tenon joints to hold the brace, routing the top, and fine-tuning the fit and shaping the edges of the apron and legs. But most of that will have to wait until woodworking class resumes next month.

New woodworking project

In my last post I showed the lumber I bought for a couple of projects. Here is the first project started. It will be a little bench, similar to the one I made before. It was always my plan, if the first bench turned out well, to make a second one out of better (and more expensive) lumber.

This wood is 5/4 (five quarter, meaning that it is 1 1/4 inches thick) flat sawn white oak about 10 inches wide. I purchased 11 board feet milled S2S 1E (surfaced on two sides, with one edge) for about $50. (length x thickness x width = board feet) This is definitely more expensive than the 3/4 inch poplar I used for the first bench.

The board had a knot in it which I did not want to use but I knew I could get the lengths I needed while working around the knot. As is generally the case, I cut a few inches off the end of the board where it was split a bit. Always take this sort of thing into account when planning how much lumber to buy for a project or you'll buy too little and have to get more. I wanted the entire project to be made from one board. The color of the wood will match exactly, the grain is the same, and it seems like a more period approach.

I chose flat sawn oak instead of quarter sawn because I wanted the finished width of the wood to be 9 inches without piecing, which it just isn't possible to get from modern lumber yards (if someone knows of such a place please tell me!). White oak is less easy to find where I live than red oak, but I like the color better and it is closer to the European oak used in period. It is still not the exact same species but it is as close as I can get.

The photo above shows the apron of the bench roughly cut out with a band saw. I'll further shape and refine with hand tools. I am basing my design on several medieval era examples as shown below (larsdatter.com was the starting off point for my research). I drew a template for the apron on brown craft paper, then taped that to my wood and traced around it on both apron pieces. Then I cut them out.

Next I will repeat the process for the sides of the bench but that will have to wait until next week. I won't be back in woodshop class until then.

mmmmm.... lumber

At some point, perhaps before Christmas or maybe not until next year, I'll post a picture of some of this beautiful white oak marvelously changed into a piece of furniture. One piece of it will be a medieval seat, most of it will be part of an Arts and Crafts bookcase. It is filling my car with a wonderful sweet smell, I love it!

New skill - turning wood

Last weekend I took a class on wood turning and made this bowl and mallet in class. I've long admired turned objects and thought that some turned wood items would help with my medieval kit. Of course, the use of modern lathes powered by electricity and modern tools made of high speed steel is not very medieval but I prefer them to their period counterparts. I will hopefully have access to a lathe next month so I can try out some more turning. It was easier than I thought, although the inside of the bowl was difficult, and it was also fun.

The wood I used was black acacia that was gathered by the class instructor a couple of weeks ago when the city cut down a tree across from the shop (how fortuitous!). There is nice variation of color between the heart wood and the sap wood that looks very striking.

Maru dai completed, now I have three!

It feels like such a long time since I last posted when it has really only been a couple of weeks. I took a week long hiatus from doing any craft type activities for a couple of reasons. First, my wrist was hurting and I thought a rest would be good for it. Second, I just started a new job and wanted to focus my energy on work.

Now it is almost time for school to start again. For me that means back to the woodshop and starting a new project. In order to be ready for new things it is time to finish off the old things. This week I finally finished these maru dai (stands to use for making kumihimo cord). I have been using them in their unfinished state and they worked fine, but it is good to have them done.

I chose three different heights as an experiment to see how it would feel to work with different sizes. The shortest one has 12 inch posts. It is convenient to use when sitting although I do have to tie up the cord coming out the bottom more frequently. The middle one has 17 inch posts. It was the first stand I made so the one I have used the most. It is not convenient to use with the tables I have at home but it is a good height when I set it on a low stool or when I am standing. The third stand is 24 inches high and is my favorite. It sits on the floor when I am sitting to weave or on a coffee table if I want to stand. Because it is tall I don't have to worry as much about tying up the cord. The drawbacks are that it takes up more space to store and was expensive to make, especially because I used walnut.

The tall and short stands are walnut and the middle height stand is red oak. The walnut is so beautiful but so much more expensive than other woods. I probably spent over $30 just for the wood in the tall stand and $18 for the short one. The oak was about half as expensive. I used a gel stain on all the wood, rubbed in by hand. This went on much better and more controlled than the liquid stain although it was harder to find a store that carried it. The walnut is stained with a dark walnut stain, the oak with a color called "Provincial" (a light-medium golden brown). All the stands are finished with multiple coats of Mylands wax, a blend of beeswax, carnuaba wax and other stuff not mentioned on the label. The wax gives a nice low sheen and doesn't make to wood too slick and cause the threads to slide around too much when in use.

Each time I make something new in wood I learn a new lesson. This time the lesson was: don't skimp on sanding with the low grit sandpaper to get the big scratches and flaws out. The finer grade sandpaper won't do it the flaws really show up when the piece is finished.

A&S 50 Challenge: new skill - Inkleweaving

Here is my first attempt at inkleweaving. I attended a class at an A&S and put that information together with the book Inkleweaving by Helene Brass to come up with the inkle loom and my first weaving. As you can see it is not very good. The loom I made in woodshop in maple with birch dowels. It is not finished yet but I didn't want to wait until it was finished to try it. I hope it doesn't take me too long to get good with this technique because I would like to make something in fiber more period than the crochet cotton I chose for learning because it is cheap.

Wood painting bridge for illumination

I realized it has been two weeks since I last posted. I have been busy sewing Vyncent's blackwork shirt but I won't post pictures of it until it is done. He has to wear it in less than two weeks, so that will be soon. As a diversion (because I get bored doing any one thing for too long) I decided to finish up a couple old projects.

This is my first woodworking project. It is a bridge for illumination painting. One places the hand holding the paintbrush on the bridge instead of the paper, keeping the work clean. It is made of poplar with walnut dowels and stained with natural color finish and paste wax. The bottoms of the feet are covered with brown felted wool.

My first completed piece of furniture: a medieval stool

The design for this was based on several examples I came across in medieval art. It was my first attempt to make a piece of furniture and my second ever woodworking project. I chose a light finish called "Natural" because this was my first time applying finish and if I did a horrible job I didn't want it to be too obvious. Aside from needing a final rubdown with some steel wool it actually came out OK and it doesn't even wobble! It is all held together with slots on the sides and dowels on the front and top; there are no screws anywhere. Next time I won't be so afraid to use a better (more expensive) wood. I am really excited about making another piece although that will have to wait until I build closet organization for my not-very-big old house closet.

I learned a lot while making this piece. Next time I would be more careful about the scrollwork and not make such acute angles. First of all, not every one was the same; second, the really acute ones were a real pain to sand without contributing anything extra to the look of it. Also, brushing on polyurethane is a real pain. Next time I will try wipe on or spray finish.

Progress on medieval stool

In the last picture I posted the stool pieces were mostly cut out but not assembled. Now the entire thing is assembled and waiting for the glue to dry. Then will be more sanding followed by application of finish. I learned a lot of lessons while making this piece and I suspect I have some more lessons coming as I go to apply my first finish.

Maru dai bobbins

Work continues on my maru dai stand. I really wanted to make some bobbins for it so I could start using it even though I haven't finished sanding or gluing. First I tried the bobbins that look like spools but on those the thread is kept from unwinding by tying a certain kind of knot and I wasn't very good at that. My bobbins kept unwinding and it was giving me sour face.

Next I started on a version of bobbin I found in the book which is my primary source so far, The Big Book of Sling and Rope Braids by Rodrick Owen (ISBN-10: 0304348252, ISBN-13: 978-0304348251). I have used that book alone to teach myself braiding and so far, so good. This next bobbin was problematic; the corkscrew of wire that is inserted in the top of the dowel was hard to twist and impossible to make look nice and even. Then, I had an epiphany! I dug into my picture hanging kit box and took some brass loops, the kind that screw into the back of the picture frame that the picture hanging wire fastens to. The ends were pointed and threaded like wood screws (since they are supposed to be screwed into picture frame backs, go figure) so they went into the ends of my dowels really well (pilot holes helped!). Then I took a pair of pliers and pried the loop open so thread could fit in the loop and voila! it worked perfectly and looked attractive. I only made six since that is how many wooden discs I had so I photographed the stand with a sample four strand braid. It is sitting amongst the lavender in my newly renovated front yard.

Note in the picture that I used metal washers as counterweights; they are a little difficult to see in this picture. I liked them because I could vary the weight on the counterweight, also they fit perfectly on the 3/8" dowel so I can vary the weight (and thus tension) on the bobbins.

Medieval stool

This is my second project in woodworking class. It is a medieval stool based on many I have seen depicted in manuscripts and some extant examples. It is made of poplar, the least expensive hardwood and suitable for a beginning project. It is unfinished but far enough along to see approximately how it will look. It is turning out just how I imagined and I am so excited about it!

My first attempt at a maru dai and kumihimo

I started taking a woodworking class though the local adult education and I am hooked! For my first project I made a kumihimo braiding stand called a maru dai. Although is it not finished yet I wanted to try it out to make sure the dimensions were good. I liked it a lot and now I will finish it. I tried this type of braiding once before using a quickie cardboard contraption but the wood stand is much nicer to use.

I made a simple four strand braid for my first attempt and it turned out pretty well. The thread is some silk my friend Renee gave me. She dyed it using indigo and tumeric. I also have to work out a better system for the bobbins and counterweight. I don't like tying a slip knot around the bobbin and for the counterweight I used a spool of solder and some wire my boyfriend was using that happened to be handy. I'll post another picture when I have that worked out.