Adventures of an Imperfect Man In Search of a Handmade Life
Here’s another excellent video of Robin Wood, wood turner and traditional craftsman. Visit his website to learn more about this remarkable man and his admirable career choice. As he explains, his job is easy to describe while so many careers are just about impossible to explain what one does and we create fancy titles to describe what we do all day.
His website is: http://greenwood-carving.blogspot.com/
I gotta make a couple of these.
Hal in Oregon sent me some photos of his stick-built vardo. It is sheathed in house wrap and wood-sided with a metal roof. Sturdy looking simple design. So far, he’s spent about two weeks on it and the shell appears to be nearly complete. This is a link to the album with more photos but I’m not sure it’s public yet. Please let me know through the comments if this link does NOT work for you. In the meantime, here are some photos posted by his sister Jodie:
I don’t buy a lot of tools but this past week added one old, one new, and created one to add to my pile.
I found this old shoe anvil at out local pawn shop/junk store last weekend and couldn’t pass it up. It will help with my ever increasing level of shoemaking and might just serve as a rivet set for other leather projects.
I used an Amazon gift card I received for christmas to purchase a Mora curved knife I’ve had on my wish list for some time. I can’t wait to start making spoons again.
And finally, I have nearly finished a buck-saw that’s been lingering in my mind for some time now. This is it assembled, having sawed a log just to be sure it worked, but lots of finishing touches will need to be added to be a suitable tool. I’ll round the edges and spruce it up with some carving I think, but for now, it makes a nice take-down saw. Total spent: about $20 US.
From Carpentry and Building, April 1903
The next step in finishing the pack frame…
Here’s a detailed photo of the naked frame with an initial coat of oil & pine-tar coating. This will weatherproof the whole thing and make the rawhide less appealing to critters (I caught my dog licking one of the lashings this morning). This mixture is about 60% boiled linseed oil and 40% Stockholm pine-tar, an ancient coating used on just about everything in pre-industrial northern Europe. It should dry in a day or two and be ready for a second thin coat later in the week.
I hope its not TOO lame reblogging other people’s posts but this is just too ON TARGET. Check out his blogs.
Learning from the past is important and I sometimes think about this from a design perspective. Can we learn from old traditional designs, or techniques and apply them to modern design? Is all primitive design and technology inferior?
I believe that at the very least learning about old ways can provide us with food for thought, a comparison to our new directions and if necessary can inform any necessary adjustments to our course and design thinking.
External frame backpacks are interesting not only of their more versatile modularity, but also because the structural component of the pack is clearly visible and offers a great opportunity to any designer wanting to explore structural innovation. Designing compelling structural elements from diverse materials such as wood, aluminium, or even carbon fiber is something I think most designers live to do.
Every designer and their creativity draws from all forms of knowledge and inspiration…
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Mike is finishing up his remarkable vardo in the great white north. He included a mollycroft in the roof which not only looks cool but should add a lot of light and headroom. The front storage is accessible from the outside like a sheepherder and it will have an enormous bay window in the front. As it comes along I hope he’ll write up more about the design and construction of the wagon. With this wagon and Jack’s build last year, I think I’ll add a page to the header bar for “other vardos” so that they are easy to find on the blog.
Enjoy! Hopefully more to come…
Beautiful and well-loved sheepherder photographed by Roger Wade Studio.
I really like the cupola on top.
I like architecture that thinks beyond the ordinary while still trying maintain functionality. Here are some interesting stairs designed by TAF – Gabriella Gustafson & Mattias Ståhlbom courtesy of http://hovercraftdoggy.com/.
My only question is how you could get this past most of the building inspectors I have dealt with.
UPDATE: Luc sent a comment and link to “miller’s stairs” (see comments) for tight spaces: http://www.mier.be/realisaties/trap_1.html. I think that early american houses had more ladders in tight spaces, at least in the appalachians and the ozarks.
Preindustrial Craftsmanship 