As you know, I bought the log from the forestry division of the Amana Shops. I drove up yesterday morning and with the help of Larry Gnewikow and Tim Krauss, I had a tree cut down and dragged to a clearing by 11:00 am. Then for the next two hours or so, I tried to put the lessons I’d learned last spring while attending a ladderback chair class at the John C. Campbell Folk School to good use.

I’ve never tried to split a tree of this size before. In fact, except for chopping firewood, I’ve never really tried to split a tree at all. I brought with me the tool box containing all my tools that I used to build the chair last spring. I also brought along a couple of sledge hammers, two 4-lb. steel wedges, four plastic wedges, and two hard maple splitting wedges that I’d made myself.

The first step in splitting a tree this size (approx. 20″-24″ diameter) is to score a line. Well, actually the first step is to find any splits that happen naturally from the stress of being cut down. As you can see in the photo at left, I neglected to do that and had to redo my score marks after I discovered this stress crack. Trying to fight that crack is next to impossible, so it’s best to take the path of least resistance.

Once I’d completed the scoring I switched to my 12-lb. sledge and started in on the steel wedges. It’s kind of hard to see here, but once the wedges start to take a bite, the tree will split perfectly along the scored line. At least you hope it will! This tree wasn’t perfect, but it is pretty close to veneer grade. This means the bark runs straight up and down, there are no visible knots or branches, and the growth rings should be concentric and start in the exact middle of the trunk.

The split veered off just a bit at the bottom edge (photo above), but that had more to do with my crooked scoring than anything. Once I’d gotten the tree to split across its width, I started to concentrate on splitting it across its length. After about a half hour, I’d managed to get the log split in two.

Eventually, I managed to get one half split into quarters. I used an axe to split the fibrous splinters holding the two sections together. Like I mentioned, it only took me about a half hour to make the first split. The second and third splits took considerably longer! But, all in all, I’m happy with the results of my hard days work. I’ll keep you posted on how the chairs are coming along. -Joel

One of the things that I like about woodworking is that there are so many different ways to work wood. So if you’re adventurous, you can use hand tools to do almost all the work. Or even take it a step further and go back to the way they worked wood in the 19th century, and use old hand tools!

I spent most of the day in woods outside Middle Amana, Iowa today splitting a six-foot section of veneer-grade white Oak. Man, was that a lot of work. You may remember that last spring, I took a ladderback chair building class at the John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina. During the class, we started out with a small quarter section of a red Oak tree and rived it into chair parts. All of the work of felling the tree and splitting it into quarter sections was done by the instructor for the class, Lyle Wheeler. Lyle is a big, burly guy and now I know how he got that way!

Anyway, I contacted Larry Gnewikow, forester for Amana Society Forestry. Larry manages the largest privately-owned hardwood forest in the state of Iowa and one of the largest in the midwest and he agreed to sell me a 5-6 foot section of white Oak. Larry and forester Tim Krauss were waiting for me at a clearing where they had been logging white Oak for a veneer factory in northeast Iowa. Normally, the factory takes 8-12 foot long logs, but Larry explained that occasionally they’ll find trees with only 5 or 6 feet of veneer-grade trunk that the factory won’t accept. Since that’s all I needed, I took the good stuff and the rest will most likely be sold for pallets. Note the knot about 6 feet up in the photo at left. That’s all it takes to get rejected.

Tim started by surveying the best location to fell the tree. Then he cut a notch on that side of the tree. Next, he removed the taper at the bottom of the trunk so that it wouldn’t roll around when I got ready to split it. Tim knows his work and it took less than 10 minutes (with chips flying everywhere!) for him to drop the tree and have it ready for the skid to pull it out to the clearing.

I’ll tell you how I split it tomorrow. -Joel

Last weekend, I told my wife I was going to start spending at least one hour per day in my shop. I may not get too much done, but at least I’m going to make the effort. So here goes.

Last evening I finally stepped foot in my shop for the first time since last May. At that time, I was busy building a tool box to hold my hand tools for my trip to John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina.

I was also in the middle of a project that I started way back in the fall of 2005 — an Arts & Crafts-style rocking chair. You can see how far I am on that project in the photo at left.

If you look real close, you’ll recognize the back legs and rails, the front legs and rails, plus the two main horizontal rails for the seat back. I used some walnut that a friend gave me.

Once this project is complete, I’ll be giving the rocking chair to my buddy. The walnut tree was cut down on their property back in the 70′s and the milled lumber has been sitting in my his dad’s garage rafters ever since. It’s beautiful wood, but there’s some flaws, like knot holes and checks, plus some sapwood that I plan to work around. I’ll fill the checks with tinted epoxy and I’ll probably leave the sapwood as is. If it’s good enough for Sam Maloof, it’s good enough for me.

One of the problems I have in my shop is a lack of space. It’s only 400 square feet, and like a lot of you, I’ve crammed it full of tools, jigs and assorted items that I just don’t have room for anywhere else.

As you can see in this next photo, I’m even lacking in adequate lumber storage space. I’ve been working around this pile of walnut since I started the rocking chair project. For quite a while, it sat on the concrete and linoleum floor in my shop. It’s bone dry in my basement, so I wasn’t too worried about it warping and twisting (remember, it was milled almost 30 years ago and it’s been air drying ever since). I finally got it up off the floor just a few months ago.

I’ve got enough lumber here for two chairs (notice the vertical back slats and the two side rails that are already cut to size in the front of the stack). The 12/4 pieces that are partially visible at the back are for the rockers.

By the way, the plans from the rocking chair came for a couple of old issues of Woodwork magazine. The plans and article are by my friend, Paul Sellers and I believe the issues (No. 90, November 2004 and No. 91, February 2005) are available to order. They have a printable form on their website.

I didn’t get much done today, just a little cleaning and taking some photos, but tomorrow I’ll actually do some work. If you’ve had some trouble getting back in the shop, do as I’ve done and make a point to spend at least an hour per day in the shop. – Joel

As the name implies, each stick tells the cabinetmaker a story, providing an easy way to avoid errors in reading a tape measure or dimensions from a plan.

Chairmakers use a story stick as well. The one I made in North Carolina during the Ladderback Chairmaking class has all the dimensions I’ll need to build another one of Lyle Wheeler’s No. 203 chairs.

With the stick I’ll never have to put a rule or tape measure on another post or rung billet. It also shows where to taper the bottom of the posts and where to add the notch at the top of the back posts where the finial begins. A note on the stick even tells the chairmaker how many rungs, posts, and slats are needed — three back slats, two back rungs, three front rungs, and six side rungs (3 on each side), two front posts and two back posts.