Building On History
There are two very good online resources for Shaker furniture that most folks do not seem to be aware of. Hancock Shaker Village has their entire collection cataloged in a searchable database with photos, overall dimensions and what time frame the pieces date to. You can check it out here. Shaker Museum Mount Lebanon also... Continue Reading →
If you have an interest in Shaker history, the Shaker Museum at Mount Lebanon maintains an excellent blog you may want to check out. I am not sure who authors the posts and picks the subjects but they do a great job of keeping it interesting. The topic of the latest post is about a... Continue Reading →
As some of you may have noticed, Popular Woodworking has been gradually curtailing their DVD formatted videos. The Moravian bench DVD has been unavailable for several months now. I am happy to announce that Wood and Shop has picked up production of the DVD version and it is now available in their store here. Many... Continue Reading →
I've been working on a near copy of a bed from the collection at Hancock Shaker Village the past couple of weeks. They have many beds in the collection, this one is my favorite. This example originated at Hancock, made sometime in the early 19th century and is still sporting it's original green paint. When... Continue Reading →
I make a custom tail vise for the Moravian workbench. The reason I have not written about them, I have had a back-log of orders to work thru the past two years. These are a kind of spare time project for me and there has not been enough spare time! The batch of 25 I... Continue Reading →
Most older wood lathes have around 36" max between centers. Anyone who has made chairs knows that this is a limiting factor. Most larger rocking chairs have 40"-42" back post. I have made do with some pretty stupid and unsafe rigs to turn longer posts but finally decided on a more permanent solution for the... Continue Reading →
I recently built a chest of drawers base on a Shaker example from Hancock Shaker Village. The seven drawers of the chest have overhangs planed into the ends and top edge. The front of the drawer faces also have a simple molded edge. I used a process I call gang planing on the end grain... Continue Reading →
I was contacted by Russ Hammond, a reader in Brisbane, Australia. He took my quick sketch of the hanging cabinet and made a much more presentable drawing. The measurements are metric which will make about 90% of the world very happy. I especially like the reverse engineered pediment, my hat is off! Special thanks to... Continue Reading →
On my last visit to Hancock Shaker Village I took some quick photos and measured this little hanging cabinet from their collection. This cabinet is probably familiar to you, it is in many books on Shaker furniture and is one of HSV's more famous pieces. It is simply made in white pine, all nailed... Continue Reading →
2018 Has been a very busy year, 2019 is shaping up to be even more so! Below is my teaching schedule as it stands now. Some of these are already sold out, if you are interested in a class and it is full be sure to get on the wait list. People's schedules change quite... Continue Reading →
Eclectic Mechanicals 