Richard Jones, aka SgianDubh , is headed back to England after a brief visit to the New World.
I’m delighted to say Richard stopped by as I was working on a sofa table for my daughter. He immediately ticked off the names of the various woods I’m using (Bubinga, Mahagony, Jarrah) and ran his finger across the joints pointing out where I needed to do some additional smoothing.. then gave me some finishing tips.
It sounds strange, but that piece will always mean alot to me because he saw and critiqued it. Along with most of you, I regard Richard as one of the world’s great masters of furniture making.. and feel fortunate to have him as a resource on this forum.
By the way, Richard says he’s working on a book about wood. Not just about understanding and allowing for it’s movement but also about it’s structure, origin, historical uses, and relative value to various cultures through the ages. Although it will cover enough technical information to satisfy the experts, it will also make the arcane and esoteric.. understandable to all woodworkers.
Alas, Richard and I didn’t have a chance to hoist a pint but.. maybe next time.
Cheers!
Bill
Replies
Bill, you flatter me with your kind words. I'm really just a hack trying to get by--- but I do have a well developed line of convincing sounding bull***t.
Now you've exposed my current writing project I guess I'd better finish the darned thing! It's true that I'm tackling timber technology and including a greater range of relevant information than is seen in other books on the subject. It's all the stuff I wish, as a furniture maker, was in a book on the subject thirty odd years ago when I started-- but wasn't.
It was a pleasure to see you again yesterday. Was it yesterday? I seem to have lost track of time, what with travelling! Slainte.
Richard Jones Furniture
Richard,
Since Bill made your book project public, I thought this site may be of interest to you.
http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/indextotal.htm
It is the most complete list of pictures of wood, anywhere, I think.
ASK
An excellent, useful, and idiosyncratic resource ASK that I've known about for some time. I like it because the author is opinionated, tells it as he sees it, and has no side. Slainte.Richard Jones Furniture
Glad you made it back home safe and sound, Richard. It was great seeing you again and I hope it's not too long before your book is published. I'm really looking forward to purchasing a copy. I'm especially intrigued by the beer pint illustration!
As you may have caught in another thread, I had a wee bit of trouble with the table.. but it's all sorted out now.
Cheers!
Bill
Ah Bill, the full pint beer glass, the half filled pint beer glass and the full half pint beer glass to get across the relationship between atmospheric absolute humidity (AH) and atmospheric relative humidity (RH).
Here's a teaser. Click on the image link after reading the text below. I suspect most woodworkers relate to beer (and the fullness of their pint, or lack thereof) and I think the analogy works quite well.
With a small stretch of the imagination these Imperial measure glasses serve to illustrate the concepts of saturated air, absolute humidity (AH) and relative humidity (RH.) At left is a pint glass full to the brim representing a package of fully saturated air, at its dew point- AH is 1 ‘pint’ and RH is 100%. Centre, a pint glass with exactly half a pint of liquid in it—AH is therefore 1/2 a ‘pint’ and RH is 50%. Right, A half pint glass filled to the point of overflowing. Imagine that cooling the half full pint glass in the middle causes the glass to shrink to only half pint size. This is as if the air cooled to the point that full saturation of it with water vapour occurs (the dew point.) Any further cooling of the air (shrinking of the glass) will result in water vapour condensing (liquid spillage.)—the AH is still 1/2 a ‘pint’ but, critically, RH is now 100%.
Anyway, working on my timber tech manuscript is a chance to (hopefully) provide a fairly easy way to understand and use a method for calculating wood movement due to moisture change. It'll be easier than Hoadley's descriptions I believe because I'll make every effort to ensure that the errors that crept into his highly regarded book won't happen. I can work around Hoadley's textual errors and I know what he was trying to say. I suspect some proofreading went wrong, and it makes the text confusing, especially for someone that is new to the topic or struggling to come to grips with it. Slainte.Richard Jones Furniture
Brilliant! But now you've made me thirsty and, as it's Saturday, I'm entitled to afternoon imbibing.Now, where's me pint glass?Cheers!Bill
Nice analogy but the photos...I was expecting Guinness or a reasonable substitute. What is that red stuff anyway?David Ring
http://www.touchwood.co.il/?id=1&lang=e
"expecting Guinness or a reasonable substitute. What is that red stuff anyway?"
Diluted Ribena (brand name) blackcurrant cordial. There's not a cat-in-Hell's chance that I drank that sickly tasting muck either during or after the photo-session, ha, ha-- ha, ha, ha.
I probably put the health benefits and palatability of Ribena at about the same level as pretty much all the Coca-Cola products along with other commercially available pops, squashes and cordials. Almost every one of them to me is undrinkable, nasty, fizzy, muck with overwhelming overtones of unnaturally tinny tasting chemicals.
I guess you can tell I'm not a fan! Slainte.
Richard Jones Furniture
Edited 4/15/2007 5:12 am by SgianDubh
When I'm surfing the various topics and see a post by Richard, I never fail to read it. He is not only one of the best but he is always willing to help.
Richard, you're not really as bad as Billballeza says you are:>)
It is amazing isn't it? Try to find masters in any other craft or profession who are as generous with their knowledge.
Woodworking must just bring out the best in people.
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