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WIP - The English Woodworker's new backed stool

S

SteveMP

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Steve
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Broke down and purchased the course yesterday so following along. The series is "live" so only a couple of videos are up yet. The nice thing about the live courses is that Richard will respond to questions in the Member's Area of the build. But he does have a few free vids on youtube on making the tools required for the build. So watching the vids that are up and first step will be building that ingenious chairmaker's shooting board and v-block. I have a Veritas tapered tenon cutter and reamer, so I am not sure if I will bother making the reamer he builds or not. Will post pics as I make progress on either the tools or the stool.

www.theenglishwoodworker.com

New Series! The Backed Stool - The English Woodworker

Watch The Teaser… Sign up today for 25% off The series is now running! The PDF Plans are ready to download, and new videos will be added until the build is complete. Enjoy the full series for a one off payment of only £26 (pre-order price) Now then. I don’t think we all learn the […]
www.theenglishwoodworker.com www.theenglishwoodworker.com

Plan on going to get the wood for it this weekend and getting it roughed out according to the cut list plan.
 
SteveMP said:
Broke down and purchased the course yesterday so following along. The series is "live" so only a couple of videos are up yet. The nice thing about the live courses is that Richard will respond to questions in the Member's Area of the build. But he does have a few free vids on youtube on making the tools required for the build. So watching the vids that are up and first step will be building that ingenious chairmaker's shooting board and v-block. I have a Veritas tapered tenon cutter and reamer, so I am not sure if I will bother making the reamer he builds or not. Will post pics as I make progress on either the tools or the stool.

www.theenglishwoodworker.com

New Series! The Backed Stool - The English Woodworker

Watch The Teaser… Sign up today for 25% off The series is now running! The PDF Plans are ready to download, and new videos will be added until the build is complete. Enjoy the full series for a one off payment of only £26 (pre-order price) Now then. I don’t think we all learn the […]
www.theenglishwoodworker.com www.theenglishwoodworker.com

Plan on going to get the wood for it this weekend and getting it roughed out according to the cut list plan.
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Having had the privilege of meeting Richard in person a couple of times, I think you have good taste and have made a sound decision.

Richard has plenty of real world experience to draw on and from what I have seen of the series so far, there'll be no skimping on explaining everything properly.
 
AndyT said:
Having had the privilege of meeting Richard in person a couple of times, I think you have good taste and have made a sound decision.

Richard has plenty of real world experience to draw on and from what I have seen of the series so far, there'll be no skimping on explaining everything properly.
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Thank you. This is actually the 7th video series I have purchased of his. I am always surprised actually. Even though I have watched years of other peoples videos like Paul Sellers, Rob Cosman, Chris Schwarz, etc and read countless articles, I always learn some new tip or trick from Richards videos that I haven't seen anywhere else, even the sharpening series. Heck look at his new video on the chairmaker's shooting board, and then one he uses it as a sort of pole lathe with a bungee cord.
 
AndyT said:
Having had the privilege of meeting Richard in person a couple of times, I think you have good taste and have made a sound decision.

Richard has plenty of real world experience to draw on and from what I have seen of the series so far, there'll be no skimping on explaining everything properly.
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I also met him a couple of times, once at one of Peter Sefton's Open Days (alas no more) and the other was at the vast show held at Cressing Temple Barn a few years ago. Sadly there doesn't appear to be a large woodwork event held anymore in the South of England - Rob
 
Starting on making the custom tools and gathering up all my tools to see what i may need to make/buy. Got a start on the chairmaker’s shooting board. Didn’t have any thick stock except these 4”x4” cutoffs of mahogany from the local guitar shop, so cut one down to 1 1/2” with my beast saw




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Shouldn't you and a friend be converting huge logs to veneer with that?!

I recognise the Blackburn Tools kit. How do you find it in use? Do you have an ordinary hand rip saw as well?
 
AndyT said:
Shouldn't you and a friend be converting huge logs to veneer with that?!

I recognise the Blackburn Tools kit. How do you find it in use? Do you have an ordinary hand rip saw as well?
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Love it in use. Its effortless and starts smoother and easier. I have a big disston d8 i think it is with the thumbhole and rip. The disston is way more tiring to use and tends to wander. This frame saw tightened up is probably half the effort, saw does all the work and probably twice as fast as the disston and stays straight. The main problem with the frame saw is you pretty much need a vise to hold the piece where the disston you can just put the board on a sawbench or cinder block and use your knee to hold it down.
 
AndyT said:
Don't forget the small one you said you might go to!

www.londoniwf.uk

London International Woodworking Festival

www.londoniwf.uk www.londoniwf.uk
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I've had a rethink and won't be going. The event is good with some great names (Philly Edwards won't be there) but it's held in a hall about the size of a school gymnasium. You can literally walk round it in ten minutes, see what there is to see, have a natter at the various exhibitors stands and that's about it, unless there are other events taking place in which you're participating. There's also a charge to get (£15 I think) inside the doors as well as being a bit of a pain to get to by rail. The highlight of my trip at the first show was having a rather excellent lunch (vegetarian lasagne and pud) with Philly Edwards and a really good 'catch up' natter.

Contrast that with the now defunct Yandles bi-annual show which was free to get in, inc parking, had a vast range of timbers at discount show prices and a huge number of exhibitors/craft stalls spread over a very large site. To see everything and spend time in the woodshed easily took the best part of an exhausting and very long afternoon - Rob
 
Mike G said:
I get a bit of a nose bleed and headache if I venture within the M25, but if there are people from here going.......
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I looked into going but the cost was more than I was willing to pay with travel costs, accommodation, taxes etc plus the obvious highlight of the festival would be Andy Browns seminar on unusual woodworking tools & I can witness that for free* at the Scroop with only a 30 mile jaunt & definitely no congestion charge.

It does seem telling that with the festival so close at hand they appear to be really pushing it in the media, they even recently joined UKW to spread the word, a quick glance at their site suggests quite a few seminars/courses are still available, I wonder if the location is the reason folks aren’t as interested as perhaps they would be if it was in a more accessible inexpensive location.

* well perhaps the cost of a cuppa 🍵😂
 
That stool looks fantastic, I could easily be tempted myself (if I didn't already have a jobs list longer than the River Nile).
Also, that promo video has been VERY well-produced. The lighting, the editing and the music all coordinate perfectly. I'm impressed.
S
 
AndyP said:
Are there any pictures of anyone sitting on the backed stool? It looks a might uncomfortable to sit on to me.
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Not that I have seen. He kind of says its more to use as a stool (like for example for playing an instrument upright or leaning slightly forward). Though its based off the Tage Frid chair, not sure if that one is comfortable either. So far in the members area, there is only a couple interludes and Chapter 1 video done, but he goes over a prototype and how he is going to put more curve in the back rail that the prototype for back comfort.
 
Steve Maskery said:
That stool looks fantastic, I could easily be tempted myself (if I didn't already have a jobs list longer than the River Nile).
Also, that promo video has been VERY well-produced. The lighting, the editing and the music all coordinate perfectly. I'm impressed.
S
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Yeah I really like all his new videos he has made the past few months, many free on YouTube. They kind of have an old LA Noir vibe like an old Humphrey Bogart movie, or Vonnegut book or something, and i “think” its him playing the bass
 
Ok got the first part of the chairmaker’s shooting board done. Now need to look for a spare allen key or buy a cheap one. Then build the tailstock.

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SteveMP said:
Now need to look for a spare allen key or buy a cheap one.
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Don't buy cheap, buy good.
I had a motley collection of Allen keys and a member from the Other Place (AES - I haven't heard from him for ages, I hope he is alright) got so annoyed that he sent me a fine set of Swiss-made Allen keys. The difference in use is night and day.
Yes a good set is more expensive than cheap ones, but they are not THAT expensive, you don't have to take out a mortgage. Here is a selection.
S
PS Remember Ruskin - or was is Morris? I forget, but whoever it was, he was right.
 
Steve Maskery said:
Don't buy cheap, buy good.
I had a motley collection of Allen keys and a member from the Other Place (AES - I haven't heard from him for ages, I hope he is alright) got so annoyed that he sent me a fine set of Swiss-made Allen keys. The difference in use is night and day.
Yes a good set is more expensive than cheap ones, but they are not THAT expensive, you don't have to take out a mortgage. Here is a selection.
S
PS Remember Ruskin - or was is Morris? I forget, but whoever it was, he was right.
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Richard says to use a cheap one since you have to file a point onto both ends and saw in half. He used the free ones from Ikea type furniture. He said good ones are too hard to file.
 
Steve Maskery said:
OK, fair enough. So you are not actually using them as Allen keys?
S
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Think of it as becoming a center of a lathe. Pretty ingenious device really, the whole video is a good watch, its reallly adapatable and can make “patterns” to repeat legs, make them round or octoganal and various tapers etc. The allen key part starts around minute 31 if you want to see what i am talking about:

 
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