Follansbee videos and working green oak?

[george wilson]

Karl,I'm not a big user of oak. I used musical instrument woods mostly,and was next to the cabinet shop,where they used mahogany,walnut and cherry along with secondary woods. Oak and walnut were predominate in English woodworking before the new,colorful woods of the New World became all the fashion.

I don't see why red oak couldn't be used in any number of applications,such as framing buildings,where it was not directly exposed to the weather(and rain). I'm pretty sure that by the 18th.C.,there were far LESS trees in the whole area around Williamsburg than there are now. Wood was used for everything from heating on up. They didn't even allow trees to be in town in the 18th.C. in Wmsbg.,because they wanted the place to look like a city,not an outpost. Their ideas were pretty different about shade trees back then,from what they now are. So,you wouldn't really have seen those big,pretty trees lining the streets of Wmsbg. in the 18th.C.. To our modern eyes,the town would be ugly without them,though.

Charcoal makers really denuded large areas back then,making charcoal for forges,etc.. A very dangerous occupation,too!! Walking around atop a dirt covered LARGE pile of smoldering charcoal the size of a yurt,you could make a wrong step,and fall in,getting baked alive. They did this to poke holes to regulate the fire inside.

[James Owen]

1) "Green" red oak should work fine. I have never worked green oak before -- all of the oak that I've used has been air or kiln dried. From the videos, I gather that green oak is relatively easy to carve. Dried oak is more of a challenge..... Most of my carving has been in walnut, various types of pine or douglas fir, and basswood. All of those carve relatively easily. Pine is especially useful for "test carving" before you cut the pattern in expensive wood....

2) A froe, a froe mallet, a sledge hammer, a small axe, and several wedges should get you there. As I recall, those are the tools used in the chest video, for splitting the log into billets.

3) Carving tools: Pfeil makes very nice carving tools and probably has the largest selection of sweeps and sizes. Ashley Iles also makes very high quality carving tools, but with a smaller selection than Pfeil. I have not used any Henry Taylor carving tools, but based on using their bench chisels, I would expect them to also be of high quality.
Depending on the size of the gouge(s) needed, expect to pay about $30 to $50 (most seem to be in the $30 to $40 range) per gouge for the Pfeils (that will depend largely on the size of the gouge); in general, the AI and HT are slightly less expensive. Altogether, for the dozen or so that are needed to do 17th Century chest carving, you're probably looking at about $200 to $350, depending on what brand you settle on and which tools you buy.
As long as you don't let the gouges or V-Tool get (too) dull, the four-piece set of the Spyderco ceramic slips will get you honed back to sharpness quickly. If you prefer oil or water stones, you can also get a set of slips in those materials. Otherwise, your regular sharpening set up should work fine; you'll want something equivalent to about 8000 grit or 10000 grit in water stones as your finishing stone. Some carvers like to strop, with or without green honing compound. For the woods I use, I haven't found the need. YMMV.

4) The carving is a lot easier than it appears. Mr. Follansbee breaks the carving down into basic steps in his videos. The traditional patterns are essentially a series of simple cuts put together in various ways.
I have watched all three of his videos. I think that they are excellently done, and present a huge amount of information in a way that it is easy to absorb and learn. He does an excellent job of explaining and then demonstrating, along with letting the viewer know some of the potential pitfalls and how avoid/fix them.
The first two videos concentrate on carving. The video on the chest emphasizes the construction aspect much more than the carving.
Another thing that I like is his emphasis on body mechanics. Particularly in the two carving videos, he repeatedly mentions and demonstrates the proper body mechanics ("postures" in his parlance) for the carving operation that he is performing. As with the carving techniques, he explains and then demonstrates.
In one respect, his presentation method is similar to that of David Charlesworth: he takes his time and thoroughly explains what he is doing and why. I happen to like that methodology, as opposed to the rapid-fire style that some videos use; you may or may not.

All in all, I think that they are excellent videos. Admittedly, they cover a relatively small niche aspect of woodworking, but for what they cover, they do a superb job.

For what it is worth, the first carving video is what inspired me to build the chest below. The chest is something that I had wanted to build for over a decade, but the carving intimidated me. Mr. Follansbee's first video, demonstrated to me that the carving is not as difficult as I thought it was, and inspired me to build and carve the chest.
You may find, after viewing one (or more) of them, that they do the same for you. You'll find that you learn a LOT, and, if you do the carving or build the chest with carving, that you will have learned a number of very useful skills. I certainly did.


Chest Front SMC.jpgChest Back SMC.jpgChest Side A SMC.jpgChest Side B SMC.jpg

[Joe Cunningham]

I've done some very basic green woodworking with red oak (splitting out panels, squaring up posts, spring-pole turning). Works fine. I don't have a froe, though I am considering getting one since I seem to like this more than usual kiln-dried woodworking. I just used an axe and hatchet to split things out.

Go for it. It costs you nothing except time. I do have wood planes though that I use with the green wood. Not sure I'd use my metal planes with it.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Chris -

Peter's 17th-century style woodcarving is rather simple, repeating geometric patterns - I wouldn't get too hung up on sweeps - just something similar-ish. If you want to be particular, you could scale up the image from his website until the ruler is roughly at size and then compare it to something like the chart in the new Tools For Working Wood catalong (you can print that from their website, as well) for a decent idea of what a sweep number is going to look like compared to what he's using if that helps.

I really enjoyed his video, even though I haven't applied his carving style to anything other than some scraps. I need to get some slip stones before I start picking up more profiled tools, and right now I'd rather build what I can with what I have and spend money on wood.

I have the first DVD if you'd like to borrow it before you start chasing something new. I promise I'll get it out faster than that inlay stuff.

If you're at all interested in green woodworking, the book he recently did with Jennie Alexander (the joint stool book) is a great book as well. I really liked it. Heck, even if you're not interested in green woodworking it's a great book. It covers a lot more than the title would suggest and is beautifully illustrated. I know there are other books by Alexander and others on the topic, but the joint stool one is the only one I've seen. There was a fair amount of info from the book contained in the excerpt that was in in Popular Woodworking a few months back as well.

[Michael Gaynes]

Chris -

...If you want to be particular, you could scale up the image from his website until the ruler is roughly at size and then compare it to something like the chart in the new Tools For Working Wood catalong (you can print that from their website, as well) for a decent idea of what a sweep number is going to look like compared to what he's using if that helps.

I did just that (with a little help from Photoshop) when I first saw that blog post: Folensbee Chisels.jpg

[Chris Griggs]

Gentlemen,

Thanks you for the very thorough and thoughtful replies. Very very VERY helpful.

James, well they must be great videos, if they motivated you to make that. We all know what the proof is in and your chest is definitely the proverbial pudding. Very very nice.

Josh, I would LOVE to borrow that video. My guess is it will end up persuading me to buy his others. I know what you mean about trying not to spend money on tools in favor of wood lately. I've been trying to do the same, which is why I might be a while (at least until after the holidays) before I buy any carving tools and put anything from the videos to use - I won't have time until than anyway, so post Xmas will be a good time for me to really decide whether or not to take this on. THough now that I've gotten all this great info I really really want to build one of those chests.

Thanks for doing that chart Michael. Now I can figure out exactly what I'll need and start budgeting for carving tools.

Next step for me is to make sure the tree/wood is good to use and if so, start splitting.