http://www.clearlakefurniture.com/blog Fine furniture made simple Mon, 29 Mar 2010 02:15:14 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Winter has returned to ClearLake Furniture—not the season but a craftsman. Justin Winter, a skilled woodworker, spent a few months here in the ClearLake workshop while on hiatus from his college education. He left in December after helping us to make progress on the 62 dining tables we were building ... http://www.clearlakefurniture.com/blog/?p=141 When we’re expecting company at home, I usually give the place a quick look and declare to my wife that all looks good. It’s clean enough. She, on the other hand, flies from room to room like a tornado, sucking up everything in her path in a quest to tidy ... http://www.clearlakefurniture.com/blog/?p=121 Black River High School here in Ludlow, Vermont, has a winning tradition, as evidenced by the trophies in their lobby. Year after year, the championships piled up, and so were the trophies in the cases. Then the Class of 2009 decided to donate a trophy case so the awards could be ... http://www.clearlakefurniture.com/blog/?p=130 Back in 1881, Leighton G. Fullam, a Vermont farmer became interested in the lumber industry. He bought a large tract of land in Plymouth, now famous as the birthplace of Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States. Fullam started up a sawmill on the property to make lumber from the ... http://www.clearlakefurniture.com/blog/?p=114 From 1889 to 1909, L.G. Fullam & Sons crafted a line of wooden rocking chairs not far from our ClearLake Furniture workshop here in Ludlow, Vermont. These hardwood rockers featured a high back, with reed and rattan seats, and were known for their comfort. In its 20-year history, the company ... http://www.clearlakefurniture.com/blog/?p=108 Sometimes an idea hits you like a splash of cold water. Other times, it has to percolate a bit. I think the idea to celebrate the heritage of a 19th century Vermont furniture maker by recreating its classic rocking chair was somewhere in the middle of that scale. I was speaking ... http://www.clearlakefurniture.com/blog/?p=105 I've had a lot of customers ask me about mortise and tenon joinery. What does it do? Why does it matter? Isn't the biscuit method just as good? There are many ways to connect two pieces of wood. Nails, screws, glues, and bolts are the easiest and most common. But if ... http://www.clearlakefurniture.com/blog/?p=87 Sounds like a children's book, doesn't it? Well, the Golden Ratio, also known as the Golden Rectangle, is called an irrational mathematical constant that has baffled even the most brilliant mathematicians all the way back to the Ancient Greeks. It exists in architecture (the Parthenon, the Great Pyramids), in art ... http://www.clearlakefurniture.com/blog/?p=77 There’s nothing as beautiful as a table top in finely honed hardwood. I’ve probably hand-crafted hundreds of them in my career, and I never get tired of the result. Now that doesn’t mean I turn my back on other natural materials that make fantastic table tops. Granite, slate, glass, and marble ... http://www.clearlakefurniture.com/blog/?p=66 In the world of woodworking, "hardware" has nothing to do with computers. In fact, when the administrators of the Taft School in Connecticut asked us to create dining tables with removable table tops but without bolts and hooks, I had to go back to my roots in timeless techniques. I analyzed ... http://www.clearlakefurniture.com/blog/?p=53