The city of Atlanta is famous for many things. The birthplace of Coca Cola. The site of the 1996 Summer Olympics. The home of one of the world’s busiest airports.
And, the home of High Rock Woodworking run by Chris Adkins. Chris is a gifted woodworker, able to build furniture, his own tools… the works. As with many woodworkers, has completed his new workbench – a Roubo, and it putting it to good use on a wide range of projects.
Chris also happens to be the founder of the Modern Woodworkers Association, and is one of my partners in crime on the MWA podcast.
Check out his site… I think you are going to be impressed.
Growing up in our modest two-story house in Bloomingdale, New Jersey, there were some places where we weren’t always welcome in the house. After all, my two brothers and I were pretty rambunctious kids, and the formal dining and living room weren’t places that my mom and dad wanted to replace furniture or broken china. These rooms were extra special places where my parents would entertain special guests on important holidays. Easter. Thanksgiving, Christmas Day.
Normally, those important guests and my parents would enjoy a few cocktails seated on the antique furniture, then retire to the dining room to enjoy the sumptuous food. The kids? We ate in the kitchen because, more than likely, we were going to end up with puddles of gravy or bits of food all over the floor.
Mom and Dad in front of the fancy Christmas tree in the formal dining room.
But, there was this one day of the year when the rules were off. Christmas Eve. That day was so different from the other 364 days of the year. Typically, Christmas Eve would start off with my maternal grandparents coming to the house. They were going to spend the night there to enjoy the spectacle of three holiday-wired boys frantically unwrapping presents at 0-dark-thirty in the morning. But, that was hours off… the real fun was going to happen before then.
We would go to Christmas Eve mass at St. Mary’s church over in the neighboring town of Pompton Lakes. The church staff always decorated the altar beautifully, and we would fidget constantly, anxious to get home to the main event. Oh, we knew what was coming.. and we were looking forward to it like nobody’s business.
Me, my brother Mike, my mom and my brother John – Christmas 1985
Once mass was over, we drove home where the magic truly began. We changed out of our fancy going-to-church duds and got into more comfortable clothes and assembled in the dining room. That’s when we began the traditional feast of the seven fishes. From what I was told, the tradition comes from the Roman Catholic practice of observing a fast day before a major holiday. But, by fast, I don’t mean not eating… but abstaining from meat. Thus, the seafood-inspired menu.
My mom would start bringing out the food … and what food it was! Shrimp fra Diavolo. Clams casino. And, the star of the show – lobster tails. No, we weren’t a rich family, but on Christmas Eve, we celebrated. I can also remember my grandmother mixing up wine spritzers for me and my brothers – red wine and Sprite. We would eat like there was no tomorrow… And we enjoyed each other’s company gathered around that dining table in the room we weren’t normally allowed to be at. My grandfather would ask us where we thought Santa was. Dad would have to cut the meat out of mom’s lobster tail… she wasn’t one for cracking shells.
After the delicious meal, dessert would be served. We would eat such creations as Baked Alaska (browned meringue on top of frozen ice cream? How was that possible?) while the parents and grandparents would drink coffee and remind us that – if Santa was going to come visit our house – we had to be off to bed. But, before we retired for the night, we each got to open one present from a relative.. maybe from our grandparents. We raced off to bed, anxious for the morning to come.
It’s been more than three decades since those memories were made, but I still look back fondly on each of them. Christmas was great, but Christmas Eve still holds a special, magical place in my memory. When December 24 comes around, I forget that I’m in my 40’s, and the child inside me is allowed to join me in that special place around my dining table in my house. Tonight, we’ll have oysters on the half-shell. Steamed clams and mussels. Cod with crabmeat stuffing. Shrimp fra Diavolo. And, with my family gathered around the dinner table, the magic will be back.
May each of you capture the magic of the holiday season and let the child in yourself into that special place in your life.
OK, everyone, as you can imagine, the activity level at the North Pole is through the roof. Elves are busy putting the finishing touches on gifts. Mission control is checking the sleigh out to ensure all systems are ‘go’. The vet is giving the reindeer the once over. And, the big guys is double checking his list to make sure everyone is on the proper list…
So, today’s poll is very important… On which list do you find yourself? Give it a good, long thought…
OK, blame me for this one! Back in 2009, I had posted a quick poll asking ““Who have been the three most influential woodworkers who got you started woodworking?” It was about then that the muse of inspiration fluttered down and kicked one Steve Taylor (a.k.a. Torch02) in the posterior, giving him enough impetus to launch a blog of his own.
Steve’s blog has really been a voyage of discovery for him. He’s done a tremendous amount of work in the craft, developing his skills by showing his dovetail a day. He is in the process of building his own Roubo bench. He is turning pens for the troops… this guy has his beak dipped in all the action.
The best part about Steve is his down-to-earth attitude, friendly demeanor and his encyclopedic knowledge of movie lines. Just try to stump him… you won’t be successful.
Oh, and since today is the official end of the world according to the Mayans, I thought it would only be appropriate to post this along with today’s link.
When I was up in New York City, I experienced a great number of different ethnic cuisines. Greek. Indian. Italian. Chinese. The works.
The best one, though, had to have been the tacos that came to lunch one day. Ezekiel, better known as EZ, told me that these tacos were not to be missed. They were delicious, and there was this green sauce that EZ recommended that I put on top of the tasty treats.
No, it wasn’t spelled or pronounced like today’s species spotlight, but in my exhaustion and excitement, I told one of our crew that the sauce you were to spoon on the tacos was called Goncalo Alves.
Never take food advice from this woodworker.
I guess it was fitting that I messed up like that – because I had seen Goncalo Alvesin person in a few woodworking projects, and all I can say is that it becomes a real feast for the eyes. This handsome South American hardwood grows as far north as Mexico, but it found plentifully in places such as Columbia and Brazil. The tree grows 100 – 120 feet tall, with a diameter of three to five feet.
It’s a very heavy reddish-brown wood with streaks of dark brown or black found irregularly throughout. It has a janka score of 2,250 pounds, making it nearly as hard as mesquite. Despite being very dense and hard, it works surprisingly well, although some areas of interlocked or curving grain can pose tear out challenges.
What can you use it for? Well, it’s a great accent wood for larger projects, and is great for building smaller pieces. It also turns beautifully and can be sanded and buffed to a sheen.
That sheen, of course, comes from the oils naturally present in the wood. Which can lead to some unwanted downsides. First, if you are going to glue it, you have got to clean the surfaces with paint thinner or some other solvent, otherwise, it will not take glue too well. Those oils, which help give the wood a great deal of rot resistance, can also lead to sensitivities if you breathe in the dust. So, be sure to wear your dust mask and use effective dust collection when working with this wood.
OK, so I do have to brush up on my Spanish and Mexican cuisine knowledge, but I can tell you that Goncalo Alves is going to make for some tasty looking woodworking projects.
Wow. I just mean wow. With my deployment to New York, a bunch of things to do around the house, the Modern Woodworkers Association, the Wooodworkers guild, gosh, it seems like the holidays are racing up behind me, ready to capture both me and Iggy…
That’s why we are both working like crazy to get some stuff done. The manger for the nativity sets are done, so they are off the list.
Next up, I have to finish the hope chest for my niece. To refresh your memory, I have four nieces, and I am building a hope chest for each of them for their 16th birthday. My eldest niece, Carolina, got hers a few years back, and now it’s time for my niece Lauren’s. Her birthday was in mid-November, so – as you can imagine – this one is already late.
I needed it to be able to be packed flat for shipping up to where she lives, so I opted for frame and panel construction. Basically, this baby will pack into a top, two sides, a front, a back and a bottom. My brother-in-law is a pretty handy dude, so he can glue them together when he receives it. The piece is looking good so far, made of maple and Mayan walnut.
I’m particularly proud of how well the lid is coming out. I made the main part of it maple, and made the breadboard ends out of Mayan Walnut. I attached them by cutting a groove in the edges and a tongue on each end of the lid, boring some pins for dowels, enlarging the outside two dowel holes in the tongue and then gluing the middle into place before driving the dowels home. I like the look of the exposed tongue on the edges, and the contrasting dowels.
I will leave clear instructions for how the piece goes together.. she should like it!
I also have some pieces for a project I wanted to build for someone special in my family. I veneered a few beautiful pieces onto an MDF substrate using hot hide glue, but haven’t really gotten into production yet. I don’t want to tell you who it’s for or what it’s going to be, but I can tell you, I’m excited about this piece.
And, I know that at some time during the next few weeks, I’m going to have to start thinking about building something for the upcoming art show held at the county courthouse. I’m thinking of a safe project I can bang out in a few hours, and a more advanced piece that may take longer… I’m still sketching out a few ideas.
But, there are only so many hours in a day, and so many days before Christmas. I guess I had also better plan in some time to spend with my family to just relax and enjoy the season…
I wish for each of you to find some peace and quiet with the ones you love during this hectic season. Oh, and some enjoyable shop time!
OK, you have built the gifts in your shop. Maybe a cutting board for Aunt Edna or a vase for Uncle Bill. The finish is dry, and it’s read to go…
Oh, yeah… Getting those gifts there. Some of us are lucky – we’ll be handing gifts to lucky recipients on the holiday. For others,well, those gifts are going to have to travel a great distance to get there. And, with shipping come those pesky shipping deadlines – many of them arriving this week. Blech…
While your local post office and other carriers such as FedEx and UPS can get things where they need to go in a hurry, they haven’t yet created time travel – allowing you the flexibility to ship things to arrive in the past.
So, this week, let us know if you are going to make those shipping deadlines, or if you are going to be sending apologies for a late arriving gift!
