Keeping busy

[Hughman]

[DrakeChristensen]

wow...how 'bout some more pictures?

[Paul Pless]

Cool! You have been busy. All hand work? Are those lockers what you were looking for very wide pine boards for a while ago?

[capt jake]

Holy toychest! Looks like Santa's workshop.

Nice job!

[Hughman]

looking for very wide pine boards for a while ago

Yup. here's the shavings from my (very wide)planer

[Hughman]

I gotta make a bunch of these, too.

[Hughman]

Originally posted by capt jake:
Looks like Santa's workshop!

I could use some elves.

[Fitz]

Planning a long, long voyage?

[Hughman]

Waiting for the blacksmith to deliver the hardware:

[John B]

Very nice Hughman. I like the "man in woodshavings shot"

What are the lockers for ?

[Hughman]

The woodshavings are the result of hand planing all those wide pine boards, using the wood smoother in the top photo. My arm hurts. y'all should know that if you do this much hand planing, you will KNOW what makes a decent edge!

The shavings were saved at the request of a potter neighbor who will use them in a raku firing. he hustles all my sawdust/chips out of my shop almost before I'm done with them.

[DrakeChristensen]

Are there two differnt styles there? One with 'feet' and one without?

[Hughman]

Originally posted by Drake:
Are there two differnt styles there? One with 'feet' and one without?

There are 8 seachests, and 5 deck boxes/mess benches.

[Hughman]

[Sailor]

I have a set of beckets I want to finish. I just need a chest to put them on......

[Hughman]

Have I got a deal for you!

[J. Dillon]

Hughman
By now the chests are the easy part . Now the beckets, I mean the real fancy ones..... they take time. I also have a back load of decent beckets to do for the grand children I made chests for. Even my own chest needs a decent pair ....maybe when I get old I'll find the time.

JD

[Bill Perkins]

Hugeman ,; several times when I've done allot of hand planing the day would come , when demounting the chip breaker to sharpen the blade , that I'd find the blade had become noticeably magnetized by my repeated strokes . Did you get that ?

[Rick Starr]

I can't imagine how I missed this first go-round.

Nice work, Hughman! or should we call you mr becket?

[Hughman]

Hugeman ,; several times when I've done allot of hand planing the day would come , when demounting the chip breaker to sharpen the blade , that I'd find the blade had become noticeably magnetized by my repeated strokes . Did you get that ?

Magnetized? wow. (I don't think I can move that fast!)

[Hughman]

I can't imagine how I missed this first go-round.

Nice work, Hughman! or should we call you mr becket?

Well, these beckets aren't anything to brag about, just grummets. They are just to tie the chests down in a seaway, and be easily replaceable if worn.

I wonder what level of fancy work was common in Elizibethan merchant service? Most of our tradition comes from the whaling fleet.

[Hughman]

Now I can send all this dunnage to sea and get to work on my own boat!

[Vince Brennan]

I wonder what level of fancy work was common in Elizibethan merchant service? Most of our tradition comes from the whaling fleet.

Bleedin' good question, that!

American whalers came from Puritan stock, them as had small truck with ornamentation of any sort, yet we've a rich tradition of scrimshandery, painting and carving of chests (no matter how crudely) and most awesome knotwork, especially on chest beckets.

This all had to have some sort of antecedent, one would think, yet I'm aware of little-if-any 16th - 17th century work of this sort which survives and would give a clue as to the provenance of the later 18th and 19th c. stuff with which we are familiar and which, in large part, is our inspiration today. One thing I should imagine is that in Elizabeth's and the Stuart's days there were precious few ships that sailed for long periods, most of the maritime trade being across the channel or around Iberia into the Mediterranean... not a weekend jaunt, but by no means the several-year voyages undertaken by the 18th and 19th c. whalers or the 9 month trips of the China traders in the 19th. Perhaps the function of time-at-sea was a determining factor in the existance of such artworks?

I've posited this to a friend, a lecturer in History at Leeds and he's promised to annoy his friends and colleagues on the point.

[Ken Hutchins]

Hugh, fantastic work.

[trull]

Nice job, Hugh. So where did you finally get all your wide pine?

[Hughman]

Alden, I scoured sawmills in three counties to get what I needed. It would have been better if I'd had the time and foreknowledge to custom cut a big log, but my chrystal ball was on the blink... Thanks for your suggestions, however, I'll check with them again.

Ken, thanks. I delivered all of it today..check is in the mail!

Vince, the seachest design comes from the Mary Rose, about 1545.

These ships were painted garishly, the guilded carving comes and goes with the state of the economy, and is well documented, but the individual seachest decoration is hard to fix without examples.

[Hughman]

Here's a question for the seachest fans.

What is the origin and purpose of the Tumblehome design?

I have my own ideas after working with this design, and it's not related to any of the reasons I've heard to date. The design seems to have been well established by mid-16th century.]

[Peter Malcolm Jardine]

I'm gonna build a couple of those seachests when I get a minute... I liked em from your very first photo you posted back when. Nice work... and a lot of it.

Tumblehome designs originated with Tumblehome man didn't they? You know... really ancient hairy sailor dudes...

[Hughman]

Tumblehome man ROFL!

Yeah, I been there....

[shamus]

My thought on the tumblehome is that it allows the lid to hinge up within the footprint of the base. Whether that is worthwhile depends on where it is stored I expect.

[shamus]

Actually with those backflap hinges, it mightn't. Were they usual?

[Hughman]

I discovered I had a photo of a Mary Rose seachest, and it is pretty close to the info I was working from. Except for the mud....

[Vince Brennan]

I was updating my website and I've a link to this thread which I had to update, so I came to check it out and found.... all the pictures are gone!

OY!

Hugh, if you would, email them to me so I can put them on the site or perhaps you could restore them here? That was some really nice work.

[Canoeyawl]

Just a thought about the tumble home.
Perhaps it has more to do with preserving your (and your mates shins)... A gesture of kindness?
I have an old captains chest of drawers, no pulls, flush mounted locks, all the corners are mitered off with strategically placed grooves to lash it to the bulkhead, etc. It seems that perhaps this was done to protect the hughmans from flying into a sharp corner.