This was made over the last winter/spring by 6 of us in the woodworker’s guild as a lectern for the Cary Memorial Library in Lexington. The panels are cherry, and the rest, including the top, is of soft maple.
Warren Woodford, me and Dick Wolk
Generally, bad concrete stairs require a jackhammer and these were really bad.
Fixing a set of trippers (bad stairs)
I designed the stairs so that the new stringers fit over the concrete (11” treads, 7.25” rise). The new railing matches other existing railings on the house and the bottom of the rail is carved so that you can swing around the corner. The new deck will be built on the next trip (to Atlanta) and will be 7.25” higher, just a little below door level.
weddings PLUS home projects
The only post I hadn’t replaced on my back deck was rotten and full of carpenter ants. I had to replace a couple of deck boards and put in a set of stairs down to the back yard. Mostly I used red meranti which is a very hard, heavy mahogany replacement carried by my local lumberyard. There is a lot of layout required in this stair design, but once the stairs are established, the railings are layed out from the nosing of the top step to the nosing of the bottom step. The flats at the top and bottom follow those steps, and give a nice, inviting look to the stairs. The flat rail at the bottom keeps water away from the newel post. I think that it is a mistake to space balusters too far apart, it looks like you’re cheaping out and with a few more, it looks right. These are 1 1/2” balusters spaced 1 1/2” apart. A subrail top and bottom makes assembly much easier and adds nice detail to the railing.
Read Moredining room chairs #sammaloof
I'm going to build 4 dining room chairs to go with the knockdown dining room table that I've made in white oak (pictures to come). I decided 2 of the chairs would be in white oak, and 2 would be in black walnut. Here is the process. The project is on hold due to upcoming weddings.
First is the drawings, then, the templates, 4 chairs, as parts, stacked in a corner of the shop.
Hey, how about this? I gotta say, what a guy.
Dear Steve,
I bought a chair from you at the CraftsBostonSpring Show after it jumped across the room from me as I approached your booth at the Cyclorama. What I didn't get a chance to tell you, is the experience of walking it out of the show past many artists, all too busy with their own shows to appreciate what you brought to yours. One woodworker said, " That chair was not made...it was born..." My experience of your work is to have changed by understanding of furniture all together. I now see it as an irreproducible piece of work resulting from the inspired union of artist and his medium in a singular moment in time. Every matched grain, precise joint, non-linearity of your pieces is testament to how deeply you have almost single handedly recreated my concept of furniture. I have decided to renovate an old guest cottage on my property to be a live-in museum of my favorite artist's works to be shared by other artists otherwise too dedicated in their work to have the time to appreciate and be inspired by yours. I look forward to expanding my own experience of your pieces over time and thank you deeply for what has taken a lifetime to develop as a craftsman and artist to share with us as you do. Your vision and work will long outlast you and me. I am grateful to share in this singular moment and encourage other readers to not underestimate the enormous difference in experiencing your work live rather than through the glossiest of internet pictures. The nuance of grain, texture, color, smell, all as the process of bringing your vision to form is not able to be fully captured except in person, in your home, over time as I appreciate your chair more with every experience of it. Very gratefully, Todd