For a few years now, I have enjoyed building rustic furniture. I started out making 3-legged stools, the first of which used square mortise and tenon joinery, with the tenons being roughed out with a hatchet. Given the labor-intensive way I built this stool – not to mention, it was my first one to build – I started thinking about how I could speed up the process. This led me to discover some of the nifty products such as tenon cutters that log furniture builders were using.
I soon purchased a Log Man tenon maker and a set of forstner bits. At that point I was able to achieve round mortise and tenon joints very quickly, which led me to build a few more stools, some bedframes, and a handful of other items.
So I had this neat equipment that allowed me to churn out products more quickly, but I also had a constant draw back toward hand tools, and a more laborious (albeit enjoyable) way of working.
That first stool was a very rewarding project for me. I remembered the satisfaction I had when it was complete, knowing that – although it took some time – it was achieved with hatchet, mallet, drawknife, and chisel. No screaming saws, no sawdust filling the air.
I guess you can say I came full circle, plus I’ve now added a froe to my arsenal. 🙂 Yep… I’ve found great pleasure in riving (splitting with a froe) logs into chair legs, shelving boards, or any number of parts for a given project.
That “doing it the old/hard way” is the same mentality I carried over when I started building these wooden rings. I wanted to sell items that were truly hand-crafted. I knew that turning them on a lathe would mean I could churn them out more rapidly, and that meant I would make more money off of them. However, I didn’t want to create a ‘disconnect’ from the work. Just like with the furniture and larger items, I wanted to be really involved in the shaping of the rings. Granted, I do use a drill to start out, but most of the time I’m sighting down the ring as I turn it, sand, turn it, sand, aiming for a pleasing fit and appearance.
Some of our rings will be slightly out-of-round, not perfect. But that’s their appeal and charm! In this way you will know they didn’t come through a highly-automated assembly line.
Besides, our fingers were designed in a generally-round-but-not-a-geometric-circle shape.
😉
We welcome you to check out our handcrafted wooden rings.