Chippendale Furniture School student blog Archives - Page 2 of 2

Choosing your tree to make flawless furniture

An example of a warped plank compared to a well chosen unwarped plank

The Chippendale International School of Furniture, half an hour from Edinburgh, is situated in rolling East Lothian countryside close to fantastic mature forests of oak, elm, lime, ash, chestnut, sycamore and beech trees; an environment with all the raw materials needed to make flawless furniture.
“We teach students on our nine month course to plant a tree, choose a tree, fell it and plank it,” says Anselm Fraser, Chippendale Furniture School Principal.
“There is much more to selecting a good tree for furniture making than you might think. You need to understand the effects of shrinkage, defects in the wood and warp.”
Here are some of the useful tips that students at the furniture design school are given on how to choose wood for the furniture pieces that they make each term (you can see more photos on Flickr and slides on these tips) :
•    A hardwood tree should generally be about 150 to 200 years old. An oak tree, for example, should be about 200 years old. Trees that are too old usually suffer from rot and other defects, which means they often cannot be used for furniture making.
•    The wood in a felled tree dries out and shrinks as it ages. After 6 months you may see radial checks and splits towards the centre of the wood and tangential (clockwise or counter clockwise).
•    Boards cut from a fresh cut log will not show any shrinkage. However, after six months boards cut away from the heart of the log may show some warp due to tangential shrinkage. Shrinkage takes place around the growth rings. So, boards need to be cut from the centre of the log to reduce the chances of warp.
•    When shaped pieces of wood are cut too early from a log they will also end up distorting as the log seasons. Cut wood circles will end up more like ellipses, and square cut pieces can turn into parallelograms.
•    Stresses in a tree can appear in planks cut from it a year later! If a tree is in a windy location, the wood can become ‘cork screwed’. The wind can result in planks being springy, bowed, cupped or twisted. So, you should not buy a tree in an exposed windy location on the top of a hill or standing alone in the middle of a field.
•    Watch out for natural defects in a tree such as a cross grain, a diagonal grain or a spiral grain (also called ‘corkscrewed’), as well as the effects of knots.
•    These defects can also make it difficult to plane or work with pieces of timber: the fibres of growth rings may run in different directions, grains may be interlocked or wavy.
•    You also need to ensure that the tree is felled in the right way. Bad felling techniques can result in ‘shakes’ creating cracks in the heart of the log like a ring, a cup or a star.

“At Chippendale Furniture we have stocks of locally cut boards that we ‘air season’ outside in the yard. A 1” thick board needs to be air seasoned for 1 year; a 2” thick board for 2 years…. That is why buying 1” thick seasoned boards is significantly less expensive than 2” boards or 4” boards.

“Our students also learn to work with wood with attractive defects; these pieces can be used to make artistic furniture pieces like table tops and facings on drawers,” adds Anselm Fraser.
For details of Chippendale International School of Furniture’s intensive 9 month furniture design course, please visit www.chippendale.co.uk or www.chippendaleschool.com

Chippendale Furniture student launches business in Chippendale Incubator

David Lonsdale with the ipod stand and desk he made at Chippendale Furniture School

A blog by David Lonsdale a former Chippendale International School of Furniture student who has set up a furniture business in the Chippendale Furniture Incubator.

What sort of work were you doing before becoming a student at the Chippendale International School of Furniture?

I previously worked in sheet metal fabrication for an aerospace company (Midland Aerospace). Working with metal I believe is a good flow through for then working with wood as you need the same attention to detail and very high tolerances especially with aerospace.
I then set up in business in 2004 as Lonsdale Home Improvements doing general DIY, decorating, basic joinery and carpentry. I’ve always enjoyed working with wood and creating something out of nothing!

What were the highlights of your 10 month furniture design course?

I enjoyed being able to work with wood other than pine and MDF! Other highlights were being able to experiment with my own designs and ideas, and having the opportunity to express myself through my designs.
It was interesting having a mix of nationalities and cultures at the School, and seeing how it influences their style and designs.
Which pieces of furniture did you create while you were at the Chippendale School of Furniture?
My first term ‘solid wood’ piece was an olive ash writing bureau with a concealed chair and some secret compartments. This was a more traditional piece which i originally made for myself but actually ended up selling at the School exhibition.
My second term ‘veneer’ piece was an i-pod shelving unit which we now just refer to as ‘the pods’. I wanted to make a modern piece with a funky vibe to it yet still be functional; it is all wired up as an i-pod docking station. You could call this modern art!
Please tell us about the business you have now set up: what are your objectives for the business?
Since finishing the course I have moved up to Scotland with my wife and children and have set up as LR Custom Furniture. I am gradually building a reputable business. I have attended plenty of craft fairs to market the business, products and bespoke furniture making service, and this has proved quite successful.
My aim is to build up the business with a solid reputation for unique, functional and beautiful furniture, kitchens and gifts.
Why did you choose to base yourself in one of the incubator units at the School?
Having not lived in Scotland before and, as I’d moved the family up, it seemed the most sensible option at the time. I wanted to have a solid base to build up my business but still have access to the School for advice and help if needed.

The remarkable iPod stand looks like a piece of modern art!

Could you please describe some of your recent commissions?
Previous commissions have been two oak bookcases. These were built to fit into difficult spaces that no ‘off the shelf’ product suited. Another commission was a modern occasional chair made from sycamore and upholstered by me. This was made for a very lucky lady as her Christmas present!
My most recent commission is a walnut chaise longue. It was made to my customer’s specification but I still managed to put a bit of my own design into it by suggesting storage compartments under the seats and putting it on castors to make it more versatile.

A Strathclyde police officer’s first impressions as a Chippendale Furniture student

Sean works on his grandfather clock at the Chippendale School of furniture

A blog by Sean McManus, furniture design student

Rapidly approaching the mid point of my course at the Chippendale School of Furniture I find myself reflecting on what has gone and, with some trepidation, to what has yet to come. To use the old cliché, it does seem like only yesterday I visited the school for the first time and was taken aback by the results achieved by the previous year’s students. Their furniture designs were on display for all to see in the great hall, open to criticism from anyone with an opinion, and the acid test awaits… ‘will it sell!’

With a head full of 1001 thoughts, I signed up and turned up first in the car park that Monday morning having driven the 54 miles to the School from home. By the end of the first week I realised the daily commute of 108 miles, which was taking over 2 hours, was not going to work. Isobel to the rescue! I, along with another student (Quentin), was to move in with a second student (Lee) and her partner from Monday to Friday, saving the 2 plus hours of daily travelling and allowing me to work on late most evenings.

Having come from a traditional background of a 4 year apprenticeship, where learning came through repetition, the learning environment at the School is quite different. You are given your head, encouraged to try new things, often resulting in learning through making mistakes. A great deal of discussion takes place between students and staff as well as between students themselves, igniting the thought process from which new ideas evolve into realisation (thanks for the tambal idea, Quentin!).

This course is in my opinion geared towards those who intend starting in business on completion, which is my intention. The basics of costing a job, and lists of suppliers for all things required to start and run a business is a godsend, without which much time would be spent attending business start up courses.

Giving more thought to what I said at the start I have changed my mind; I am now looking to what is still to come, not with trepidation, but with anticipation. Bring on the second half!