A fellow at the Philadelphia Furniture Workshop Open House video taped my demo and posted it to YouTube.com. It’s here
I thought it was nice of him to ask permission to tape me and ask permission to post a clip. And he chose a clip that won’t get me in trouble.
The argument I give in the video isn’t very convincing, though I’m 90% convinced its true. It is possible that approentices stopped at jack planed surfaces. Though, even those aren’t always very fair. I think it would be more trouble than it’s worth to explain how rough a baoard can be in each particular face. One really does see fairly rough surfaces on some 18th c work.
As freaky as it is to see myself on video tape, easily looking 50 pounds heavier than I am, hearing my nasaly high pitched voice, I think it’s good to have videos like this one out there. You can watch it carefully and see how I hold my planes, my technique, their performance etc.
Thank you Jamie for taping me and posting this video.
Adam
Thanks for the kind words, Winston.
I’m not a big fan of trying to make boards out timber. That is now and has alays been a job for a saw mill. My advice is to split that lumber for chair parts- I really wanted to make my ladder back out of walnut, but I just could find 10 or 12/4 locally. Ditto for cherry. I woudl ruive that into larger sections for chairs, beds, table legs etc. The mahogany for a Chippendale chair legs isn’t cheap. You want 2-3/4" at least. Maybe you should reserve that walnut for a Philadelphia chair of some sort?
I think splitting wood with wedges is the best way to convert trees into useable lumber.