Fellow woodworkers,

Enjoy your woodwork
Frank
(Contact at:
Frankramsay8@aol.com)

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November 2020 BAWA Zoom Meeting

The meeting was called to order by President Frank Ramsay.

Announcements:

Treasurer Jon Kaplan announced that dues need to be paid to him by check.
Dues for 2021 will again be $48. Jon will look into online payment methods.

Matthew Werner identified himself as a guest who does marquetry.

The next meeting will be on December 13th.

Following the talk, Burt Rosenzweig volunteered to take on the secretary duties for BAWA.
(Steve> As outgoing secretary of 10 years standing, I wish him well and offer my support in the future.

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Guest Virtual Speaker
Brian Newell

Brian had spoken to us previously in 2011. He makes original furniture designs which he will be showing this evening as well as providing a tour of his shop.

Brian was born in Flint, MI in 1966 and began woodworking at the age of eight, doing carving. He recommends it as a good way to explore wood as a material to learn about how to cut grain properly.

At 14 he began to read books, starting with "A Cabinetmakers Notebook". After reading Krenov's book he purchased a jointer and a bandsaw. He then began attending the University of Michigan in order to avoid a life of manual labor, but soon found himself immersed in the camaraderie of the university's woodshop.

He did not graduate but began attending the Krenov School in 1989. He found the folks there to be "smart people working with wood" who validated his choice of woodworking as a career. He left the school at the age of 21 and went to Chicago where he worked making patterns in basswood for the model automobile industry. There he learned how to make smooth compound curves for body work as well as crafting small details.

He then went to Japan for 10 years where he made and sold furniture through studio galleries.

In 2008 the gallery furniture business fell apart. Nowadays he mostly does work on commission.

He purchased the Cypress Street Barn in partnership with Jennifer Anderson. They remodeled it and now have 5 renters of shop space. The total floor area is 3200 square feet and includes a gallery/office space. After working on the renovations for several years Brian is now able to go back to working on furniture.

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Among the pieces he showed were:

Pearwood cabinet from the early 90's with coopered doors and carved cocobolo decoration. It is a Krenov-like piece, but with carved decorations.

Sycamore and hornbeam cabinet, which is meant to be a "walk around piece". It is about 5 feet high and has glass shelves, and a base with mitered corners reinforced with splines.

Rosewood and Applewood box which was the first piece he made in Japan. The lid is frame and panel construction, curved and domed. He generally works without drawings, preferring to make sketches and then building templates to construct the final piece.

Curved, veneered cabinet in which the Imbuia wood veneer is cut in small squares to conform to the curved surface.

4-1/2-foot-tall curly sycamore cabinet. The cabinet is formed of 6 identical curved panels, made by laminating commercial veneer, bent over a form in a vacuum press. The sycamore veneer is applied in 5 rows over the curved substrate. The show veneer is custom sawed about 1/16 inch thick. The glue used was Unibond. He cautioned never to use a water-based glue when veneering as this causes the veneer to swell. Rather, one should use epoxy or urethane.

Rosewood cabinet with Ebony legs with veneered squares. The lower stretchers are bent lamination. The piece was veneered one row at a time in order to get the joints tight.

Ebony and rosewood desk in the form of a half circle. It has laminated panels and 9 Ebony legs.

Brian then gave a shop tour.

The shop has 6 bench spaces with an 1800 square foot machine room. The equipment includes a Laguna dust collector, an Oliver 88 sliding table saw, a Sawstop cabinet saw, a 24 inch Oliver planer, an 8 inch Delta jointer with a helix head, a vertical belt sander, a spool sander to cut inside curves, a 20 inch Kuwahara jointer, a 30 inch Oliver bandsaw with a 1/2 inch blade, a 36 inch Oliver bandsaw with a 1 inch blade for cutting veneers, a 16 inch Powermatic, a Hoffman horizontal mortising machine and a chop saw.

The gallery is a long narrow space where he holds winter shows for the Krenov school.