SAPFM Members
in the News
Brian Coe has written about a Moravian Christmas pyramid and describes how to make one in the 2008 Christmas issue of Early American Life.
Mary May's carving career is the subject of a feature article in the October 2008 issue of Woodshop News.
Al Hudson's work is featured in the October/November 2008 issue of American Woodworker Magazine.
Ed Stuckey's Federal demi-lune card table appears in the December 2008 issue of Woodwork magazine.
Tony Kubalak has won the Best Traditional Design Award from the Minnesota Woodworking Guild. Tony exhibited a Philadelphia Queen Anne side chair. You can read more about Tony's honor and the chair in the August issue of Woodshop News.
Congratulations to the following SAPFM members who appear in Early American Life's 23rd Directory of Traditional Crafts: Dennis Bork, James King, Tony Kubalak, Paul Rulli, Mark Soukup, Duane Wendling, Fred Chellis, Brian Cunfer, and Jim Van Hoven. Cartouche Award winner Gene Landon served as one of the judges for this year's Directory.
Eight pieces of Bob Whitley's work from the Michener Art Museum's retrospective exhibit appear in the Gallery of the August 2008 issue of Woodwork magazine.
Walt Segl's shop is featured in an eight-page spread in WOOD magazine's special interest publication America's Best Home Workshops 2008.
Jeff Headley explains how to make a veneered serpentine drawer front with cockbeading in the July/August 2008 Fine Woodworking. In the Master Class feature, Jeff shows how to apply stringing to the same serpentine shape. Joel Ficke and W. Patrick Edwards have work featured in the Reader's Gallery.
Joshua Lane, Co-curator of Historic Deerfield, is mentioned in the May 2008 Magazine Antiques for his role in organizing the exhibition Into the Woods: Crafting Early American Furniture. The exhibition runs through 2012. Visit Historic Deerfield for more information.
Phil Lowe's McIntire armchair, Frank Woolley's serpentine bombé, and Mike Greenberg's collectibles box appear in the Gallery section of the June 2008 issue of Fine Woodworking.
Joel Moskowitz explains how he hollow grinds chisels in the June 2008 issue of Fine Woodworking.
Steve Latta compares 16 different marking knives in the June 2008 issue of Fine Woodworking.
Robert Whitley's furniture is featured through June 1 in a retrospective of his work at the Michener Art Museum. Robert is the 2002 Cartouche Award winner.
Mark Arnold writes about the Peabody Essex Museum's The Art of Woodcarving in America exhibit in the June 2008 issue of Woodwork Magazine.
Tony Kubalak's serpentine bombé and Joel Ficke's Philadelphia high chest appear in the Gallery section of the June 2008 issue of Woodwork Magazine.
Steve Latta writes about reproducing moldings in the April 2008 issue of Fine Woodworking.
Alf Sharp, 2008 Cartouche Award recipient is featured in the March issue of Woodshop News.
Peter Howell's workshop is featured in the February/March 2008 issue of Woodcraft Magazine.
Patrick Edwards writes about painting in wood in February 2008 issue of Fine Woodworking.
The Chairmaker Part II
5. The mortise chisel (Stemmeisen) of this workshop differs markedly from those of other woodworkers, p. 32. The edge of the mortise chisels of other woodworkers runs along the breadth of the blade while the edge of the chairmaker's mortise chisel is along its thickness, fig. VIIa. Therefore, the width of the cut of this mortise chisel is only as wide as the chisel is deep, and has a tempered steel edge on the left side.7 The wheelwright cuts tenon mortises with this chisel only and smooths or cleans them with the above, p. 36, mentioned Stechbeutel.8
6. The Vermohrungeisen serves the chairmaker only if the seat of the chair has cross stretchers (mortised or "let into" the back legs of the chair) not too far above its feet. In the same way he cuts with this chisel the large mortises in a sofa because his mortise chisel is too small.9
7. The Schweifeisen, fig. IX, is nearly four inches broad at its edge. The chairmaker curves with this chisel the upper shallow curve of the curved front legs of the chair. This chisel must, therefore, have an unusually broad cutting edge because a narrower blade gives an uncontrolled cut in a shallow curve and therefore takes more away than it actually should.
7 This is the same mortise chisel that British and American cabinetmakers use. The form of mortise chisel "used by other woodworkers" Sprengel describes in the carpenter's chapter as ground on both sides of the blade.
8 The Stechbeutel is a more general use chisel with a bevel ground on one side. Sprengel describes it elsewhere as a wide chisel used to straighten out and clean up mortises that are cut with the Stemmeisen. It may equate closer with a firmer chisel according to other sources.
9 The Vermobrungseisen is evidently a specialized chisel peculiar to the chairmaker. The Grimm Brothers' Dictionary defines the verb vermohren as "used by chairmakers when the tenons are put into their mortises and united with one another." Their definition of Vermohrungseisen describes it as somewhat large like the Stemmeisen and used specifically to let in the tenons of the cross stretches of a chair.
