Just went to the bio archive to check out my recipient's bio, and
decided to look in on my own. Wow, a lot has changed over the last
couple years! Back then I was knee deep in restoring my old house,
blacksmithing at Hancock Village, and doing lots of timberframing.
Well, I'm still knee deep in restoring my old house (but lots of
progress has been made!), I haven't blacksmithed in a couple of years
now, and I'm wrapping up the last timberframing project scheduled to
take place at my own property (I'm open to projects occurring
elsewhere...).
The aforementioned last timber frame project is my long-awaited
woodworking shop. It is a Dutch-style story and a half building 20x24
in dimension, sitting on a stone foundation. The main section is
20x14 and will be set up primarily for hand tool working. The lean-to
is 10x20, and will be separated from the main shop by a partition.
That is where the neanderbuddies will reside (the neanderbuddies are
usually last resort, I prefer to listen to music than screaming
tools). I'm looking forward to setting up shop and discovering what
I've got stashed away and long forgotten.
Once I finish the shop, the main activities that will occur there are
the making of Windsor chairs and small traditionally built wooden
canoes. I recently got the Windsor chair bug and have taken three
classes at Mike Dunbar's school. There's almost a thousand board feet
of seat stock air drying in the yard as we speak, so I've got to get
busy! I've managed to get some antique WIndsors that I'd like to
replicate. I've still got to hone my turning skills, and have my eye
out for a treadle lathe.
In addition to the chairmaking, I'm also planning to get back into
the wooden canoe business. I had a shop in Wisconsin where I
primarily restored old wood and canvas canoes. That was put on hiatus
on our return to New York while I worked on the house. Gettting back
into it, I'm planning to build small lapstrake paddling canoes and
decked sailing canoes of the style that was popular 1880-1910.
Cheers,
Dan
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Dan Miller
Dragonfly Canoe Works
http://dragonflycanoe.com
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