National Woodworking Month Woodworker Spotlight: David Esterly

About a year ago I somehow became aware of a book written by a lime wood sculptor. I think I found a review of it online. After ordering the book I was amazed by the story as well as the talent of the author, David Esterly. The book is called The Lost Carving: A Journey To The Heart Of Making. 

In his book, Mr. Esterly chronicles how during the 1980's, he was asked to restore a 17th century carving made by Grinling Gibbons for Hampton Court in England. The ornamental carving had been badly damaged in a fire and it was the authors task to restore the damaged carving as well as recarve lost sections of the carving. 

While the book tells this story, it also gives insight into the mind of the artist and creator. In additon, Mr. Esterly carefully considers the process of restoration and conservation. The blend of all of these concepts is what inspired me and gave meaning to the subtitle of the book. When a person takes on the challenge of restoring an item, they find themselves looking at that item from many different angles to try to get a fuller picture of the intent of the creator. I was immediately drawn to this concept as it is what I do all of the time.

The comparison between Mr. Esterly and myself stops there! This man can not only write but he can carve. A look at his website shows the incredible detail that is achieved in his carving. I was beyond words when I first viewed his work online. His carvings seem to defy what is possible with wood and dazzle the observer with their intricacy. 

 Below is a photo of his book and I urge anyone interested in art or the creation process to read it . I find that I keep buying copies of it and giving them away! I have also included several photos of his work and a link to his website. I am pleased to pay homage to such an artist and woodworker on my blog and encourage the reader to pursue this man's creations.

http://davidesterly.com/

Oak Bobbin Cabinet (ca.1920)

The Completed Cabinet

Recently I worked on a piece that is a bit of a mystery. It is an Oak cabinet that was made sometime in the early part of the 20th century. The cabinet has a large door that opens to reveal six drawers. The drawers all had bottoms that had holes drilled in them every three or four inches in a grid pattern. There is also a shadow of some pieces that cris-cross the holes in a x-pattern. The owner of the cabinet thought it might have something to do with an old record player, like a Victrola. The thing that first came to my mind when I saw it was that the holes had dowels in them at one time and that these dowels received bobbins of thread that were not in use. If this were true than the bobbins would have to have been pretty large in diameter and height and also the cabinet would have had the capacity to store many bobbins. If it was used for this purpose, it was likely used in a commercial setting. 

All of that being said, I really have no idea what this cabinet was initially used for. The cabinet was made from Oak and portions of the case were veneered with book matched panels of  Quarter Sawn Oak with a very pronounced grain pattern. If it was used in a commercial setting, I wonder why the manufacturer made it look so good?

The cabinet was in pretty rough shape when I received it. The finish was cracked and the top was marred with scratches and rings. In addition, the cabinet was missing a portion of the bottom of the case as well as two feet (one a carved lions foot) and it was also missing a drawer. Below are some photos of the restoration of this mysterious Oak cabinet. 

The first thing I did was to remove the finish from the cabinet. Once that was done I set about the repairs and also making the drawer and the missing feet. To make the drawer, I disassembled an original drawer so that I could make copies of each individual component. The photo below shows the drawer disassembled. The blue tape shows me the orientation of each board for reassembly.

The front edges of the two side boards were dovetailed into the front of the drawer using a half blind dovetail. This means that the ends of the dovetails on the sides are concealed by the front of the drawer. These original dovetails wer produced by machine and so I faithfully reproduced the originals using my router. To do this I built a cross cut sled for my router that allowed me to move the edge of a board across a moving bit. I then set up the router in the table with a dovetail bit and cut my dovetails. Below is a close up of this operation folllowed by a shot taken from further back.

I used a similar procedure to cut the mortices for the dovetail pins into the board that would be the front of the drawer. Here is a close up of the completed dovetail on one side of the drawer.

This photo shows the new drawer constructed minus the bottom.

This photo ( a little out of sequence) shows the new drawer sides beside one of the sides I had copied.

The next two photos show the completed drawer with the bottom. The bottoms of the original drawers were plywood that was nailed onto the bottoms of boards. I kept with this design when I made my drawer.

This last photo shows the new drawer on the left being glued next to the one I disassembled. I glued them on the table saw to ensure that they were flat.

To make the missing feet, I first had to glue up some Oak to create a block large enough to accommodate the size of the feet. Once again, this was done on the original cabinet instead of using a thick stock of Oak. The next two photos show the blocks being glued up.

 To create  the carved foot, I traced the profile of the original (seen above in the photo below) and cut two sides of the block. The block is seen after the cuts were made in the photo below.

Using double sided tape, I then reassembled the block and cut the adjacent sides. After those cuts were made. I removed the unwanted sections, as well as the tape. The photo below shows the double sided tape on the piece to the right.

The photo below shows the sawn block roughed out to the shape of the original foot. I then carved the detail of the toes by hand. One quick side note: When carving with an extremely sharp gouge on tough White Oak, try not to point the gouge towards your hand. I slipped and it went straight into the inside of my knuckle! That meant a trip to the ER and two stitches. Oh well, It happens to the best of us, but I am happy to say that the finger has healed and I am currently typing with it!!

Jumping ahead in time, This photo shows the assembled cabinet with all of the feet and the new drawer in place, ready to be stained.

The last few photos show the completed cabinet. The new drawer is on the bottom in these photos.

Reproduction Walnut Hall Tree Part 4: Restoring The Original

This post concerns the restoration of an Oak hall tree, circa 1890. The post is also part of a larger series of posts I am writing on the reproduction I am building of this piece. The key differences between the original and the reproduction are that the reproduction is made from Walnut and also that the design of the reproduction has been modified to include a storage box below the bench. The first three parts of the series deal with the fabrication of the Walnut hall tree and the last entry (part 5) will show completed photos of the two together.

As for the original, The customer and I discussed the finish and decided to leave the original finish intact to preserve the age and use of the piece. That being said, there were a few places that the finish had deteriorated beyond repair, so it was removed and replaced selectively. The hall tree was also missing a few parts and needed to have them fabricated. This included one piece of hardware which had broken. I include photos of the hardware, reproduced by Ball and Ball foundry, later in this post. The last thing the hall tree needed in terms of repair was to be glued so the joinery would be tight.Below are some photos of this process.

These first two photos show the hall tree as it came to the shop. The brass hooks had been removed at this point but the mirror was still intact.

Below the seat there was evidence of  stretchers that connected the front leg to the back. The absence of these stretchers had caused the seat joinery to be come loose. With no template to go on, I decided to copy the design of the turnings in the arm posts. The posts are thicker then the diameter of the stretchers, but the design elements were the same. The stretchers were about twice the length of the arm posts, so I made the stretchers have a mirror image from the center of the post design. Another way of saying that is that from the center of the stretcher the design of the arm post was copied in both directions. The photo below demonstrates this. It shows one of the two stretchers after it was turned.

I actually turned both stretchers from the same board. They can be seen below side by side on the lathe.

This photo shows the stretchers after they had been removed from the lathe and cut into individual stretchers.

This last photo shows the stretchers in place in the hall tree. Please note that the hall tree is resting on its back in this photo and that the photo shows a close up of the bench and below.

With the stretchers now fit in place, The entire seat assembly was glued. The photo below shows it during the drying process. 

As I stated earlier, certain parts of the hall tree really needed a new finish. The seat was naturally in the worst condition. This photo shows the seat with the surrounding areas taped off so that the finish can be removed.

This next photo shows the seat after the finish was removed and the seat was sanded.

The following photo shows the seat after it was stained to match the color of the hall tree.

The pediment of the hall tree consists of two carved outwards facing lions. Between these carvings in the center was evidence of a semi circular piece which bridged the two carvings. Again without a template, I took an educated guess as to what would have been there and cut an arch with a  simple "v" groove carved in it. This was also carved on the reproduction hall tree. Below you can see the pediment (removed) from the original hall tree with the new carving in place. Behind it in the photo is the reproduction pediment.The following photo is a close up of the carving followed by a photo of the carving stained to match the color of the pediment.

These next two photos show the turned stretchers before and after staining.

As stated earlier, one of the hooks had been broken at some point. I needed to have hardware made for  the reproduction hall tree, so we got an extra hook to replace the broken one. The photo below shows a complete hook on the the top with a reproduction made by Ball and Ball foundry below. 

This photo is a close up of the bottom of the hall tree and shows the refinished seat as well as the new turned stretchers.

These last photos show the hall tree after the restoration was completed. The brass bars across the top of the mirror are for holding hats with brims. There are two hooks on either side of the mirror. The next post will show completed photos of the reproduction as well as photos of the two hall trees side by side.

Reproduction Walnut Hall Tree Part 3: Assembling The Hall Tree

This is the third post concerning the reproduction of a 19th century hall tree. The previous two post have dealt with designing and making individual components. This third post will follow along with more of the same as well as show the assembling of all of the components to make the hall tree. One thing that always surprises me when constructing a piece of furniture is the interrelation of all of the individual components. If a change is made or an error occurs, the result affects the entire piece. Sometimes this is a change for the better or an error that can be corrected, and other times it can have deeper consequences, like having to make a new part from scratch. I liken the process to walking on a tight rope. It requires concentration and a steady, focused hand to persevere. That being said, mistakes inevitably happen and it is good to know how to deal with them when they occur. Now enough with the philosophy, and on to the project!

There were several components that I decided not to draw in SketchUp (see first post) but rather to copy directly from the piece. These were appliques that were superficial to the construction of the piece, but enhanced the design of the hall tree. The first of these was a piece of molding that had an edge consisting of half circles cut into a cove. The Molding is pictured below:
The first step was to make the portions of the molding made by the router. This consisted of the decorative lines running from side to side and the cove itself. This was a very small piece of molding in terms of width, so I left a lot of extra waste material so I could have better control of the piece as I worked on it and also I could keep my hands away from the machinery. Once the routed parts were completed, I flipped the board over and drew the half circles on the back side of the cove using a compass. This next photo shows the half circle layout on the back of the board.
I then took the piece to the band saw and cut the circles out. The photo below shows what that looks like. After that the last step was to remove the extra waste material by ripping it on the table saw.
On either side of this molding is an applique that works as a transition piece from the molding to the frame of the hall tree. It's purpose is solely visual. Below is a photo of one of these pieces followed by another photo showing the pieces made for the reproduction. The profile of these pieces were cut out on the band saw.

Next to those pieces, and applied to the sides of the hall tree, were some decorative pieces with carved hints of a volute. All of the carving on this piece was simple and were typical of factory carving of the time. The intention was to add decoration and to hint at the idea of a highly carved piece. Most of the carving was shallow and was similar to drawing. The original applique is pictured below followed by the ones I made for the reproduction.

These last applied components are found in the middle of the hall tree and flank the central raised panel on either side. There were cut out on the band saw and then little turned domes were applied to the faces of the components. here is a photo of one of the originals.

Here are the two pieces for the reproduction after being cut on the band saw.
This photo shows the applied domes being glued in place.
This photo shows the finished product.
Now that all of the applied pieces were made it was time to assemble the hall tree. The first step in this was to take all of the rails and stiles and lay them out on top of each other with the tenons overlapping the piece it would mortise into. This allowed me to accurately layout where the mortises were going to be. Below is a detail photo showing this. Rather than being flat, the pieces were stacked so I could trace around the tenons on to the face of the piece below it. The photo that follows shows the entire back assembled in this fashion.

After the mortises were all cut, I dry-assembled the back to make sure everything fit together nicely. The next photo shows this. It is followed by a photo of the rails and stiles for the bench assembled. This was an exciting moment because for the first time I was looking at an assembled item versus a pile of parts!

After all of the mortice and tenon joints were test fitted and fine tuned, I fit the raised panels in place and fine tuned their joinery as well. This photo shows the frame dry-assembled with the panels in place.
Before gluing the back together, I needed to apply some wood to the long back stiles that would stiffen these stiles up and help keep the back straight. I wanted these piece to be straight and in a search for a flat surface to glue them on, I remembered a lathe in the shop with a seven foot bed. The bed provided the flat surface I needed so I glued these strips together clamped to the bed. Below are two photos of this process.

After that was completed, I removed the clamps and glued the hall tree together. There were a few appliques as well as the seat I left out, but most of the gluing happened at this time. Below is a photo of the hall tree clamped while the glue was setting followed by a photo of the hall tree standing on it's own four feet!

The next step was to make the lid for the box at the bottom of the case which would also act as the seat. This lid comprised of a frame that went around the back and sides of the lid and the lid itself, which had breadboard ends to strengthen the lid. Below is a photo of the breadboard ends being glued to the lid.
Once the glue dried on the lid the clamps were removed and the ends of the breadboard ends trimmed. The next step was to attach the hinges to the lid and the board that went across the back. After the hinges were in place, the boards which frame the lid on the sides were glued on to the back. I glued them using the hall tree so that they would match the rest of the piece as well as possible.
Now that the entire seat was assembled, I needed to produce the rounded molding along the edge of the seat. The next two photos show the seat set up for this procedure. I clamped boards on either end of the seat to run into with the router. This prevented grain tear out and the boards were discarded after they had served there purpose.The last photo in the set shows the seat with the molded edge.



The last step in the assembling process was to attach the seat and arms to the hall tree. The arm posts had turned tenons which joined them to the seat and the arms. The seat and the arms were attached to the back with screws and I used dowels to attach the seat to the seat frame below. The photo below shows the seat and arms being glued in place. It is followed by two photos of the fully assembled hall tree. The next and final post will deal with the application of the finish and show the final product!

One note: I have left the lion carvings that are featured in the first post off of the hall tree in these photos because with the lions in place, the Hall tree is too tall to stand in my shop!