News | Chippendale School

Woodworking Tips- Astragal Doors

Our Corner Cabinet Project

Sandy and I are currently working on quite a big project. A client has commissioned two large corner cabinets. The top sections of each cabinet will sport a pair of astragal doors which are by no means simple. (The sort of doors that are made up of loads of different panes of glass, framed by mouldings made of wood or metal). They will be display cabinets for books or china.

Time-Saving Tips

Anyway, I thought I would share a couple of basic tips with you, which may save you a few potentially wasted hours should you ever decide to embark on a similar project. The first thing to mention is that you will need a spindle moulder (or router moulder) to get really balanced, matching doors. [You can use old-fashioned moulding planes but these aren’t so common these days. Should you want to make your own then check out this site www.philsville.co.uk/mouldingplanes.htm].

Tip1

Work out all the angles in advance. The angles are the really difficult bit when making astragal doors and, as is often the case, good preparation will save you a great deal of time in the long run.

Tip 2

Do a mock up of one section. This will help you work out the angles and you will clearly see in what direction you are headed. If you are going wrong, this will allow you to correct the piece before going too far down the line.

Tip 3

It’s really easy to get hung up on the angles and to loose sight of other important aspects. With that in mind, make sure everything is aligned as you go along.

Student of the Year

Jonny Baxter came to Chippendale following a 4-year stint in timber frame construction in Northern Ireland. 10 months on and he has won the prestigious Student of the Year Award. We catch up with him a month after the end of term.

So what did he make of the course?

“It was definitely action-packed” he says. “We were taught loads of skills and techniques but what I really liked was the idea of bringing in specialist tutors for things like the gilding, carving and stained glass. In the day-to-day furniture making side of things the staff at Chippendale were really helpful and knowledgeable. But there was such a broad spectrum of stuff going on that you couldn’t expect them to be masters at every single skill. So it was great to be able to pick the brains of the visiting tutors because they work with their specialist skills everyday and can give you really relevant advice backed up with real world examples.”

And how did he feel about becoming Student of the Year 2009?

“It was really unexpected, actually. But it was a massive confidence boost and it has helped me feel ready to take on the world”

His favourite project…

“…was a brick-built lighthouse that I made at the end of second term. It was actually something that led on from one of the bench-skill sessions. It wasn’t one of my term-projects; it was just something extra I did. At the time everybody was finishing their second-term veneering projects and it was nice to step back from that and enjoy some down time. It was great fun and I built in lots of secret compartments.”

So what does the future hold?

“Well I’m starting up my own business, Jonathan Baxter Furniture. I was offered a bench at Chippendale but I decided to go for something a bit closer to Edinburgh, so I’m renting space at a workshop in Dalkeith which I found through Scottish Furniture Makers. I’m going to be doing contemporary furniture design and furniture restoration.”

You can find Jonny’s website here at www.jbaxterfurniture.com. We wish him all the best with the new business.

Smith & Rodger

When it comes to polish there’s only one supplier for me and that’s Smith & Rodger in Glasgow. With a pedigree of 130 years, these guys know their polishes. But they aren’t just knowledgeable. They are also very friendly with slick customer service. They label their products exceptionally clearly and they always deliver my purchases within a day or two of me placing the order.

I’ve been in the furniture making business for nearly 30 years and I have only once used one of their competitors. It was a mistake I came to regret and I have never used anyone apart from Smith & Rodger since. I can’t recommend them highly enough; either to the students on my woodworking courses or to you.

Smith & Rodger

34 Elliot Street

Glasgow G3 8EA

Tel: 0141 248 6341
Fax: 0141 248 6475

Email: info@smithandrodger.co.uk
Web: www.frenchpolishes.com

3 Tips for Practical Colour Matching

As most of us already know, woodworking isn’t all about making furniture. From time to time we will be called upon to do some furniture restoration. One of the most challenging tasks when it comes to furniture restoration is colour-matching (or ‘color-matching’ if you are reading this on the other side of the Atlantic). Several people have approached us asking for colour-matching advice and so our resident expert, Graham Davies, has agreed to share his top three colour-matching tips.

Tip 1: Choose your wood very carefully

This often calls for an interesting balance depending on whether you want to focus on matching wood or colour. I believe that close-grained walnut is the single best wood to use if perfect colour-matching is required. I would especially recommend it when trying to match a mahogany piece. If you are doing a dark colour-match, then use heartwood (wood from the centre of the tree). If you are doing a light colour-match then use sapwood (the ‘living’ wood away from the centre of the tree).

Tip 2: Only ever use water dyes and gradually build up layers

One of the most common mistakes I see new students make on our woodworking courses is trying to get an exact match in a single layer. It just doesn’t work like that. The fact is that the colour on your pallet will dry to a different colour. Your first layer should always be a light yellow. From then you should gradually go darker. In this way if you make a mistake you can use a kitchen scourer and some water to go back a step.

Tip 3: Think carefully about your polish

There are basically 3 types of polish that can help you. If you have a perfect match, then use a white polish. If you need the wood to have a slightly older, ‘mellowed’ look then use a button shellac (yellow) polish. For a really old, antique look then you need a garnet shellac polish. And don’t forget that once you have polished you can still vary the colour through the use of different waxes.

“I’m an Organ Maker”

It’s a very easy thing to say, but for Neil Richerby, there is a lot more to his business than this simple statement suggests. He doesn’t just assemble organs, you see. Neil designs, builds and ‘voices’ (tuning to you and me) bespoke organs for a wide and varied clientele. The process involves leatherwork, metalwork and woodwork. And not just any woodwork:

“If you do one of Anselm’s woodwork courses” he says, “chances are the biggest thing you will make is a 6 foot wardrobe. Our pieces can be up to 7 metres (over 20ft) tall, and the work must be of a comparable quality to a professional cabinet maker.”

No two days are the same for a professional organ maker

Neil makes 3 or 4 bespoke organs each year in his workshop in the Lammermuirs. No two projects are the same, he says, and each design is unique. With the ever changing, challenging nature of the work, it is small wonder that organ building has been a constant passion for Neil since he first started it as a hobby, aged 14.

For more information visit: www.lammermuirpipeorgans.co.uk/

Visits on our cabinet making courses

We visit Neil in his workshop in the Lammermuirs every year as part of our 30-week cabinet making course. Every Friday morning of the cabinet making course is dedicated to visiting a different workshop or a lecture from a professional.

Choosing Woodworking Courses

Here are some of my thoughts as a current student who went through the process of choosing a cabinet making course. There are very few comparable cabinet making courses in the world and one reason I am qualified to write this piece is that I have experienced one of the other woodworking schools that offer a similar cabinet making course.

Decisions Decisions

There are many factors that come into play when making big decisions such as giving up your job to retrain. I first needed to know if a woodworking course was indeed something that I would like to commit my time to. I then needed to find a woodworking school that would allow me to reach a professional level of proficiency in a limited timeframe.

North Bennett Street School’s Short Woodworking Course

I took a 10-week introductory cabinet making course at the North Bennett Street School (www.nbss.org) in Boston where I was living at the time. The course covered some of the basic joints and managing of hand tools. I found it an excellent reintroduction to the world of woodworking, convincing me that I should take the plunge and sign up for a fulltime woodworking course. So I began looking. There are two reasons that I chose to come back to Scotland and study here at Chippendale instead of North Bennett Street.

Professional Woodworking Course in a Business Environment

One major thing that appealed to me about Chippendale was that there is a furniture restoration and furniture making business that runs alongside the woodworking school (www.anselmfraser.com). In my first 3 months here I have seen numerous client interactions and restoration projects coming in. This is invaluable experience for setting up ones own business. In addition the scope of the cabinet making course here will allow me to have some confidence to have a furniture restoration side to my business as well.

Full-Time Cabinet Making Courses

The North Bennett Street School runs its own full time cabinet making courses over 2 years and I’m sure if my circumstances had been different this would have been an excellent way for me to go. However, the woodworking course here at Chippendale is only one year long. As I could not afford to go to a woodworking school for 2 years without an income, this made sense.

Limitations of a ‘Short’ Cabinet Making Course

A limitation of one-year woodworking courses is that you can’t spend as much time on each subject as you can on longer woodworking courses. Nevertheless, you do cover everything you need to know to get you started.

Lifelong Learning

Limitations aside, I feel that I will pick up further proficiency and speed over time. The ethos of the school is that you learn for the rest of your life and the first year is spent jump-starting that process.

Andy Rayne – Student