Almost Wordless Wednesday...

Our office manager goes all passive-aggressive on a slacker leaving dishes in the sink... (In color, no less...)

It's not...

It's not the clothes that make the man, it's the tools. 

                                                                        -Canoez

Well, I'm a firm believer in this as you can tell from my quote above.  I'm sort of a renaissance man in some ways  or Jack of all trades, master of none, take your pick.  Let's think about this for a minute.  I'm a homeowner and I like to be relatively self-sufficient in terms of maintaining my home and my yard.  There are certain things I don't work on - for example gas fittings, the furnace and hot water heater, but otherwise, I'm happy to work on most other things that are part of the home and the yard.  So, we've got the yard tools and machinery to cut grass and move snow.  Plus, you have to have the tools to maintain them.  I like to cook, so we've got a fairly well equipped kitchen.  I like to build furniture, so I've got hand and power tools that are geared towards that.  As a boat-builder, I've got some tools that are specific for doing that.  Because I have been trying other boat-building methods, I find that I need to either buy or build tools that are specific to the build type including 'glassing tools, lap clamps and hot knives for skin-on-frame building.

BUT.

The "but" is that I've had a problem.  Many of my tools and some of my tool storage are hand-me-downs or "finds".  I have a rugged wooden tool chest that belonged to my Grandfather and a very tired Gerstener-style tool chest that I've used for quite some time.  I also have a bunch of plastic totes that I store some of my "homeowner" tools that are specific to a job, like plumbing, sheet-rock and plaster work, electrical work, etc.   Because I carry tools back and forth to the school where I teach and take classes, I have some Nantucket Diddy Bagg(s) which I like a lot.  I've got a canvas one and a poly one, both of which I highly recommend.   I tried a gate-mouth bag, which I didn't care much for and a bucket-boss which was OK.  I also use a plastic crate and a wooden crate to store and transport some of my tools.

However, I've been trying to organize my shop and have better tool storage than the multiple bags, buckets and crates for the lion's share of my tools.  For a long time, I've wanted a "roll-away" style tool chest to store all my tools in.  This weekend, I finally took the plunge.

I've looked at a variety of tool chests and in particular liked some stainless-steel tool chests at the Big Orange Box for some time.   As you can see below, it is now in use.  It consists of a top chest and a bottom cabinet.  Amazingly (I guess...)  It is already full.    It is not a top-of-the line tool chest, but it is of decent construction including full extension drawers with ball-bearing slides, a lock, gas-shock lifts on the lid, a power strip (really) and locking casters.  I'm a bit suspicious of the "stainless steel" part - I don't know if you can see it in the picture, but there are two relatively large magnets (one for fixturing, the other a magnetic bowl for small parts.) stuck to the side.  N.B. - 300 series stainless steel shouldn't be magnetic, 400 series (which will oxidize...) is.

 

The two parts of this chest were heavy. DW and DD helped me get the two halves into the basement - Empty, they each weighed about 150 pounds.  We had all we could do to manage to put the awkward top on the base.

It is getting better in the shop space, but I still feel that I've got a long way to go.  It is a start, however.  Perhaps a second roll away is in order?

Just a little something nice for a Friday evening...

Seen on the way to work...

A bumpersticker:

Wordless Wednesday

Photo by Ian Stewart

Salish Sea Canoe Journey

An acquaintance of mine over at the WoodenBoat forum is a fellow by the name of James McMullen.  James is a shipwright at an outfit called Emerald Marine in Anacortes, Washington.  James' primary interest is in traditional sail-and-oar boats and he has quite a nice one.  (Along with several other boats and kayaks...)  However, he recently went to an event called the Salish Sea Canoe Journey which was hosted by the Swinomish tribe in LaConner, Washington.  The pictures that follow are his (reproduced with his permission) and are wonderful.  Thanks go out to James for kindly sharing with us.

Basically the event is a cultural event which is centered around the dugout canoes of the region.  Among the canoes were traditionally built canoes of cedar logs that have been hollowed and then formed with heat and steam to shape the sides of the canoe.  According to James, some of the canoes were made using more modern methods including planks, cedar strip and fiberglass.  Most of the canoes, however were traditionally carved and decorated boats.  Some were as long as 30 and 40 feet long!

Per James - "The full range of traditional shapes and styles are represented. These canoes are lovingly owned and maintained by people who take their roots very seriously, and they build and use the same designs that their great-great-grandfathers would have used. Some of these canoe families paddled for over two weeks to get to this meet."

The canoes reflect different designs by different Tribes from different areas.  As with most craft that are designed and built by indigenous peoples, they have evolved over a long period of time adapting to what works for the conditions in that particular area and the tasks that they wanted to the boats to perform.

A Northern type Canoe - with a lovely Cedar wreath on the bow.

    

These canoes are Makah style - note the centerboard trunk in the canoe in the foreground.  That canoe is intended for sailing!

A Salish canoe on the left and two Nuu-Cha-Nulth types to the right.  (James made all the identifications - even after Adney, I'm not certain of all of my canoe types...)

Note the pavilion in the background.  These were built by the Swinomish  people for this event.  Note the shape.

...And here is the inspiration for the shape - a traditional woven cedar rain hat!  I suppose you could say that the pavilions are just big rain hats!  Take note of the cool paddles that they're carrying too.

Here is an interesting shot of the interior of the pavilion showing the construction.

All-in-all some pretty cool shots of some very interesting canoes.  One of these days, I do hope to make it out the the Pacific Northwest to see some of these things for myself.  The culture of the Native people of the Pacific Northwest  - all the way from Oregon up to Alaska, has some pretty interesting small craft traditions that I'm really looking forward to the opportunity to share in.

Caning Party

After our last, rather pleasant session caning on the front porch here at the Chateau D'Zaster, one of my students and her sister (another student...) kindly offered to host the next cane-weaving session at her camp on a local pond.  This is actually the same pond where we've celebrated the 4th of July with some other friends who also have a camp there.  As you can see for the panorama above, the location is fabulous and it turned out to be a wonderful day, weather-wise.

The plan for the day was for everyone to arrive around 1:00 PM and we'd spend time working on our caning and share a pot-luck dinner that evening when we were done.

People gradually trickled in and settled themselves, and we started in with some good, honest work and instruction.  Some had not caned in a while and there was a bit of repair and checking on some of the pieces before more work could continue.

  

You can almost feel the intensity of focus in the picture below:

 

There were also some snacks and drinks to keep up the spirits of the participants as the afternoon wore on.  The variety seemed to rotate as the afternoon wore on.  The ladies who were our hosts, had held a recent party and had lots of small bottles of soda from a boutique soda maker in the area along with iced tea, lemonade and water.  A bottle of beer or glass of wine made the occasional appearance as well...

 

As I said before - the location was really very beautiful and the gardens were beautiful...

 

This particular group of students spans several years of classes.  Along with students were several spouses as well as some other family and friends who were kindly invited to join us for the afternoon.  There is a builder who completed his kayak (The Phoenix...) and there are 4 students who really don't have much more to complete their canoes other than the seat caning.  So, they were hard at work...

 

BUT.

"All work and no play will make Jack a dull boy."

 

There was also some fun to be had as well.  Some of us went for a bit of a sail - my first time of anything like sailing with some great instruction - I need to do some more!  (Do I see a 50/50 sailing canoe in my future?)

There were also several canoes and kayaks and I'd brought my Wee Lassie to give people who are building the boat the opportunity to take it for a spin to get a feel for it.   Here's the builder out for a spin in the Phoenix.  I got my first paddle in this boat on Sunday and it is a very sweet and fast kayak - a pleasure to handle.

 

The water was also too inviting not to get in an afternoon swim after working up a sweat with nimble fingers.  I won't say the water was too warm, but it was almost too easy to just settle into the water and float back into the pond.  People worked their way back and forth from the water to the task at hand until it was time to start the grills.

Dinner was an impressive event and the groaning board was so full that we had to take the desserts out to the kitchen!  There were hamburgers and hot-dogs along with sausages of various kinds, grilled vegetables, potato salad,  fresh fruit, beans and rice as well as baked beans, salads and all the trimmings.  If you walked away hungry it was your own fault!  Blueberry cobbler and brownies rounded out the meal for those who could find space.    I must say, that when we tend to have sessions that include food, there is always an abundance of truly fantastic things to eat - and I like to cook and eat about as much as I love to build and paddle boats!

One of the more interesting things that happened was the arrival of a woman as we were cleaning things up who was looking for some jumper cables for her dead battery.  Fortunately, I have DW carry a a set of them, so she was able to loan them to this woman. (DW's commute is a bit remote...)  On this woman's return with the cables, we started to talk about the boats - I could swear I recognized her, but couldn't place her at first.  It was Lynne Padu.  Lynne is a boatbuilder and educator who has also taught cedar-strip canoe making.  Her work was brought to my attention by a co-worker who is an Appalachian Mountain Club member a number of years ago when he brought in a copy of an article in the AMC's  Outdoors magazine featuring Lynne and her work.  It was truly a pleasure to get to talk with her and I hope that our paths will cross again in the future.

Still, all good things must come to an end and so, with a gorgeous pink and orange sunset, we bid our hosts a fond farewell and headed for home.

Addendum : This afternoon, I received an email that was copied to the group by the wife of the couple building the tandem canoe in the class.  They had such a wonderful time yesterday it has got them thinking of a camp of their own at the pond!