Etaux

This is the third day since we started working with keiran in the etaux, and we put some oli on it already:

We started from some 2" lenga that needed a glue up for the jaws, since they are 2 1/2"

This was pretty much what we did the first evening.

Following day was mostly cut dovetails and the moulding on the resting plate.

Today we made the brass braces. First saw them, then drill holes, bolt them together and file them to shape.

 This afternoon it was glue up and oil time.

And a test ride with my little helper Toto.

I got a book about guitarmaking, and all the spanish and french makers that appear on the pictures have one of this on their workshop. So I thought I could use one too. Later on the week we will start with the solera for the acustic guitar.

There is still some work to be done on the inside but will wait for my friend to bring the router. The braces need a runner on the botto but I got tired of sawing today so it will have to wait a bit.

All this because summer school was cancelled due to third parties reasons. A shame, but you need to woodwork anyway in your vacations, isn't it?

Summer school 2017

Well well, I know is a bit of a short notice but I have consider this instance more of a holiday than a project, but maybe some of you are traveling down south and want to drop by and help a bit.

Image totally not related.

We are heading south to Puerto Varas from 5th of february or so to finish the roof of this baby, you may remember it from last year:

 We need to finish the hip roof this time

At the moment we are 3 confirmed plus a dog. We are staying there for 3 weeks to have plenty of time to cut joints, travel around, make bbqs and visit the hotsprings.

If you would like to visit the place and see people building a timber frame by hand with japanese tools and methods, just drop me a line and I'll give you the address. If you want to be part of this you are welcome to join but you need to arrange your own accommodation. There will be space to camp but no electricity or running water (there is a spring 30m from the gazebo though, so there will be a lot of chop wood carry water). A good time to arrive would be from the 14th of february onwards so we have time to set up shop. If you want to work you need to bring your own saw and your own chisels, and you will be only allowed to work if you have previous experience. We may run a short introductory course but is not my aim for this year, I'm more interested on finishing the roof and traveling around and forming an even tighter group of friends working together.

So yeah, summer school 2017 is happening again.

hot springs

 We did laundry today

and in the evening to the hot springs

it looks cools but feels better

Because yesterday we were putting some up with some shit

and covering with blue plastic for the time being. 

Almost there

Getting tired of blogggin of this, shit is coming along. 

The morning was spent on fiting those half lap bevel, man we are doing something wrong cause we spent far too much time and energy putting in, putting out, trying the fit.

 Anyway, the winter will come and a simple roof will do, and that's what we are doing tomorrow together with putting everything up.

Lots of screws, circular saws and nails. I guess I could build a "chilean" house in a few days.

We cut the posts to lenght, 220 till the start of the tenon, and loaded the truck.

 And rode with em

 the view is as usual priceless.

That's where everything will happen tomorrow

Stay tuned.

Back at it

Welcome once again, to Sebastian's House of Joinery.

We took a plane, Keiran and I, and arrived yesterday to Puerto Varas, where the food is great and the weather is awesome. Valparaiso is already cold and cloudy and Santiasco is smoked and hot, so escape here even for 4 days feels like fucking heaven.

Nico had some health problems in argentina that delayed his trip to the end of the world so could not make it... and David is back in Berlin building his own workshop. Hope to see pictures of that soon.

Anyway, we arrived to pv, got some beers and burgers, and came here, to "home". Wood was where we left it.

Today we wanted to fit the tenons of the columns on the mortises and by 11:30am we had 2 done. At 4 the job of the day was done and we were ready to swim. Feels good to have rested for a few weeks and the back doesn't hurt when you move beams around. Job was sweet, as it should be.

 That's the first tenon going in.

It was so hot that measures were taken

the centre lines don't lie

looks cool, isn't it? maybe a new tattoo? Japanese joinery tattoo porn, I like that.

  and around 5pm we were here

That's how it looks down the river

and this is up, direction argentina

I was swimming like 15 minutes, really nice water man, I'm telling ya.

Come next year to join us, we planned to come here to the river one day for bbq and spoon carving or some shit like that, working next to the water, swimming, checking out the birds.

Summer School 2016 Review

Everything started like this:

Somewhere in the south of Chile a few crazy guys (and hopefully gals too) meet in the middle of the forest to build something together.

That something is not just a wooden shelter, but it will have wood. There will be japanese tools but is not about the tools. We will sharpen not only our blades but our skills. There will be talk, food and rivers. Work, layout and planning. Lots of cooking. Saw sharpening.

Well, we didn't have saw sharpening since the time didn't help but for the rest the description was quite accurate. We were told crazy more than a few times; we built something together despite the structure not being standing at the moment; our skills are sharper and mistakes will not be forgotten; there was talk, food and rivers, a lake to swim in, and a volcano to look at. (Not as much fun as I anticipated since the work was way heavier than what I thought.)

We left for unknown seas, unknown parts of ourselves, and we reached the limit of our forces, defeated by the material but somehow happy of having given it all in the way. We have built a bond, and once that quincho is standing on the land, it will be a token of that friendship. And may the friendship last longer than the joints this friendship has made.

I wanted to somehow summarise the ten days we spent there, but having arrived home and submerged myself in daily life has taken the urgency of this off a bit.

We have tickets for 11th of March, so wait for more news on this white whale called quincho. It'd definitely not the last one we are making, that much is true. (I may be getting a large makita circular saw, a jointer and a planner though.)

To be continued...

The Whale

The morning of the seventh day dawned fair and fresh, and once more the solitary night-man at the barn was relieved by crowds of the daylight look-outs, who dotted every post and almost every bench.

"D'ye see him?" cried I; but the whale was not yet in sight.

It appeared soon enough:

 at 9:30am we had our first lost, Nico lost his arm to a chisel-shark and slowly drifted away to the land of the tea drinkers.

Soon after David was called by the mermaids and lost his mind to their song. Keiran just kept at it, pairing nothingness into nothingness to add nothingness to the posts.

I lost the use of my legs and arms, my mind was trembling, we built a sauna:

People left, we had a day of rest and animations and today we found this and managed to put the tenons half way in.

We are traveling to santiago tonight, have a weeks of rest, come back in march to put things up. We are defeated by the white timber whale and need to heal our wounds, learn our lessons, let time pass over and have backs again that can work with this mass of wood and joints. 

Stay tuned for the second chapter of this saga. 

Sunday of hot springs

The name says it no? We had pains. Like everywhere and in different amounts, my favourite one was on the ass muscles. Keiran had lower arms pain. David lower back and Astrid hands. Schoolboy was feeling just fine, fucking teenagers.

So we took the rain with us and drive 37km to the hot springs.

It was good. Better than good in fact.

No pictures since it was that good. But imagine, a river, forests both sides, water steaming and hot sands. Cannot get much better eh?

Before that we did some try out and it didn't fit, as it was supposed to. The pieces should not fit at this stage since we still need one more housing and some chamfers.

We had laid out the housing wrong, as you can see in this picture. (Doesn't it look great? that was marked by schoolboy I think, he likes pen and chamfers. Also, remember this was a summer school? well, we are all learning here. For example, look at the lines of ink. Messy, isn't it? too much water or too little, too fast pulling the line, not enough pressure on the silk, waiting too long to mark the line... it's full of subtleties that you need to go trying once and again to grab its flow. At the beginning of the week I was the only one marking, now we are splitting the task since the boys are starting to get it too. Sorry for the long derridarean parenthesis.)

And this is the place where the thing will go. The thing is called quincho btw, pronounce it as king-cho

The waters made their magic and my ass pain is gone. We could sit and talk in the night, not only fall asleep after work, wake up, grab food and sleep again. Moods are better. Monday will be a long day.

Sorry for these seemingly half thought posts, I just want to keep track of what's going on each day to have a better idea later of how things went... a week now seems like a year, and our eyes see end grain being pared away in the food. See you tomorrow, with hopefully a square in our hands.

Getting there — Dub special

Greeting for the sisters brothers and rastas. Today is a dub special. Lots of delay and reverb, paring again and again and again... dubstyle.

But first of all, the food:

cast iron, olive oil and veggies.

In the morning I gave it a try with the saw, missed the line for 1mm or so when going out of the timber. Helped a lot, like gave us more stamina to keep on paring the rest of the day.

 Don't see any housing

 Central supports plus fedders

 and it used to be larger but they cut it.

 Resident architect

 Starts to look like something. Patterns repeating, being serious since they are a series,

 David spen the whole day hand sawing. Brave boy

 end of the day

 no without blood and tears and dub

 And this is a beautiful example of chilean joinery, the famous dovetail half gap bevel scare joint

Sorry the poor lighting, but I guess you get the idea. We think it was a communication problem when the boss said cut it at 45 degrees.

Free day

We are in puerto varas enjoying beer, coffee and free wifi. Had burgers for lunch.

This are the pics of the last 2 days.

Gonna get more pics of the barn soon, and maybe some measurements.

And that axe picture is for you Don.


Planing bevels:

 Hommer kanna

 one day of work

 Inspectors

 Barn. That's not a half lap, it's more like cut 18in of that 20in beam and put something on top. Everything is eaten by termites btw.

Hard kanna, needs some cooking. Didn't work.

 honing the axe's edge

 more volcano

 where we sleep

 nazi joke

 explaining bevels, geometry and sqrt 2

 art

 work

 Somebody said gang cutting? Look at the concentration of the boys

 and my favourite shot till now

 yesterday. There's a mistake there.

 but not there

We are a bit on the short of time side, so from tomorrow we are using the skill saw to speed up the chiseling and cross cutting. And it doesn't even feel like cheating to be honest. Cut the shit out of those beams and get out of here. 

I asked David, our visiting architect to measure the barn and make a drawing of it, maybe that can be the next life project.  

Wanna ask something? just comment and I try to reply next time I get internet.