Craftsman-Style Rocking Chair

Page 3

Fall 2003

Center for Essential Education

School of Woodworking Newsletter

Few things satisfy me more than to see succesful students loading their ‘apprentice piece’ into their vehicle and drive away with their finished prize. The rocking chair marks the culmination of their course. Some students have spread out their workshops over several weeks or months and in some cases years. Most of them savor every moment of the workshops and towards the end, when they see success in sight, begin to recount their anxieties and unbelief that it is possible to make a

chair of this complexity in six days using basic hand tools. Throughout the complete course which takes a total of twelve days, students make a dovetailed shaker candle box, an arched wall shelf, an occasional table and a craftsman style rocking chair

using less than a total of fifteen minutes machine time. Every student that has ever come to the advanced level workshop has completed their rocking chair to near perfec standards. Most of them have no hand tool experience before they come, yet by the time they have finished the course they competently handle the tools (not machines) as though they have been using them for years. I don’t know how many rocking chairs have left the school, but David Burfischer, Roger Paquette and John Below added three more the list last three weekends ago.

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For many years we have enjoyed a traditional harvest of pure sorghum syrup where the young people of our community

harvest the summer crop and squeeze the juice from the cane using a horse-driven mill made over a century ago. They cook the five-acre harvest over a copper evaporator using wood-fired heat to refine the juice. This coming Labor day weekend we will have an open house for friends and guests to join in the fun. You can visit our workshops and see the craft

village where the woodworking school is located. We will have demonstrations in many different crafts and enjoy barbecued

brisket and home made ice cream served throughout the day. Please feel free to come and visit us. Stan and I will be in the workshop to show you around.