Hey, George Wilson

[Pam Niedermayer]

St. Roy has posted season 28 episodes on the Woodwright's site and I just watched episode 2810, hammer veneering. The guests (one was named Marcus) sawed some veneer with a saw he said was made by George Wilson. What a beautiful saw it is.

You, too, can see it at http://www.pbs.org/woodwrightsshop/schedule/28season_video.html

Pam

[Berl Mendenhall]

Pam,
Thanks for putting the link up. A really fine saw. Nice to see someone using it to do really fine sawing.

Berl

[george wilson]

Thank you,Pam. That particular saw is a special one that Marcus requested from me. It is of the usual Kenyon pattern that most of the other saws were made from,but this one has a very thin blade. The Kenyon crosscut and rip saws were .042" thick,and not taper ground. This one is only .030" thick.It was made for sawing between the spinet keys. Harpsichord keyboards were sawn out of a full width solid blank of limewood glued up to width. The ends of the sharps were mortised out,then the keys were sawn apart.

This saw takes care to use as it is very flexible. You can get pretty accurate with hand tools if that is all you ever use,as Marcus has shown. After all,all the old great masterpieces were made by hand. Marcus joined me in 1970. I knew him when he was studying classical guitar at the North Carolina School of the Performing Arts. He was able to take master classes with Andres Segovia,and is a fine guitarist. Ed Wright is also educated in a similar way. He joined us in the early 80's IIRC.

Marcus was unfortunately laid off with many of the senior craftsmen in January. He wasn't yet retirement age. You can see the kind of skill that was let go. Ed is the only person left from what was once a staff of 5 craftsmen in the Musical Instrument Maker's Shop,at that time a separate entity from the Anthony Hay Cabinet Shop.

I left the blade on that saw blue from special request. The majority we washed off the blue with weak acid. The blue is the color of the spring temper,as most already know.

[Pam Niedermayer]

I was pleased to catch up on the Woodwright's shop after Time-Warner removed my access to the public station (ooh, we need to steal from basic cable to seed digital, sorry we're not providing you with what we promised when you signed on to our service). And then to hear of a saw made by someone I "know." Very cool.

At least TWC's internet connections in the Austin are very, very fast. Now I can cancel the cable TV service.

Pam

[Phillip Pattee]

Pam, Thanks for the links. I was not familiar with that series. I'll watch all of those soon.

George, I was admiring that nifty box elder smoothing plane that had been fitted with the ebony mouth plate. Did you make the hand planes Marcus was using as well?

[george wilson]

Philip,not the planes he used on The Woodwright's Shop. I failed to see the slightly earlier episode where Marcus and Ed used the oval drawing attachment we made to scribe the ovals for the veneers on the top of the tool chest. That was an attractive tool. Brass and dark mahogany.

[Robert Rozaieski]

George,

Did you ever think of making tools for sale? I'm sure there are plenty of folks who would pay for your experience and there aren't many folks making accurate 18th century tools today. Most are more based on 19th century designs. There are a couple of plane and saw makers but no one making chisels or gouges that I know of. Of course since you've done this for the last however many years, you may be ready to move on.

I'd still be interested in some 18th century design chisels though. Were the repros you made for the historic area laminated like the originals or solid steel just designed to look like the original laminated tools?

[Berl Mendenhall]

I agree with Robert, I know I 'd be interested in something luthier related. Even a wood plane or a saw, let us know. I hope this isn't violating the rules of the fourm.

Berl

[george wilson]

Thank you all for your interest in having me make tools for sale. I used to make quite a few for sale in the 70's and early 80's. That was when I had a small home shop too small to make guitars in,and needed a change from working on instruments,and talking about them in Williamsburg.

I made Norris type dovetailed iron body planes of my own design. Also,some brass body ones,brass body egg beater drills,but much more elaborate than the ones we have today,saws,violin planes,etc. Had regular customers in EAIA.

I want to get back to guitars for now,and also have to do model work,and tool and die work for our home business Bijou Graphique jewelry that my wife mostly does. Some of the models are mine,most are hers. I do lockets,some trees,and some of the earrings and brooches.

I also have some customers for special antique repair (which is much more lucrative than anything else I do). I make usually smaller things like missing or damaged ivory or metal parts for certain types of antiques for whom I have regular customers. Also,I make tooling,forms,and spinning chucks for certain silver smiths. One is the PGA trophy maker. Quite a number of these trophys have been made around spinning chucks of mine,bases I make,handles,moulding dies,etc. that I've done.

So,you can see that I still have quite a bit to do,though lately on account of my back,I've been taking it easy.

I need to get into posting some photos. If you Google George Wilson guitar maker,you can see some of my work,and a machine for bending guitar sides I didn't invent,but made out of 3/4" aluminum plate,rather than the usual plywood,that doesn't stand heat too well. Plus,I made some improvements like a heated caul for bending the waist of the guitar. The whole device gets as hot as a clothes iron. Please,I did NOT invent the name of the site. I was invited to join.

[Clay Thigpen]

I need to get into posting some photos. If you Google George Wilson guitar maker,you can see some of my work,and a machine for bending guitar sides I didn't invent,but made out of 3/4" aluminum plate,rather than the usual plywood,that doesn't stand heat too well. Plus,I made some improvements like a heated caul for bending the waist of the guitar. The whole device gets as hot as a clothes iron. Please,I did NOT invent the name of the site. I was invited to join.

WOW! that is some amazing work George. I like the shop too, what I can see of it anyway. Do you ever do 19th C. style guitars?

[David Keller NC]

George - Just a thought, but if you're unhappy with the domain name, it's easy and relatively inexpensive to get your own. Go Daddy's a service I'm familair with, which provides you with domain name registration and a number of web tools, but there are plenty of others out there.

[george wilson]

I'm not yet very computer savvy,David. I've been given grief for the name of that site,when I had no control over it,is all. I'd like to put up a site one of these days.

[David Keller NC]

George - When you get to point of wanting to do something, you've plenty of resources on SMC about how to go about it - just post a thread on the site (not sure which forum, but perhaps someone else will chime in).

[Glenn Clabo]

George...It would be great if you could find the time. As a conributor...You have all the tools to create a blog or just have a bunch of pictures in an album. If you need help...just yell.

[george wilson]

Glenn,I hope to get to it soon. Right now I am still carrying things like tools,woods,metals,and other odds and ends from 23 years of being a packrat at Williamsburg. That shop was bigger than my last one,before moving here abt.4 years ago,so that I used to keep a lot of my stuff down there. Now,I am making storage for too much stuff. Plus,many of my slides of my work are put away somewhere,and I can't find them.

I was fortunate to study with William Reimann,a great artist and sculptor,now retired head of the Art Department at Harvard Univ. About 30 years ago,he visited my shop and borrowed many of my best slides. It took almost 30 years to get them back.We haven't quite finished a bedroom in this house,which will eventually be my study.A lot of books,and apparently the slides,are still packed up. Lately,I've finished making built in wall shelves on one wall,but haven't begun loading them yet.

When you run your own business,it is really a 7 day a week job,and my wife is too tied up getting ready to do a trade show to boss me where she wants the books put !!

Another issue,the slides will have to be made into pictures. I used to give lectures,so made slides of the work. I also for the past 23 years have gone to 8X10 photos,fortunately. They will have to be gotten into the computer,too. I need help with all that here at home.The slides were made with 400 speed film. I hope they will make into decent pictures.

Thank you for being a friend,Glenn. My wife has family in Rhode Island. Maybe we'll be up there again some time,and can meet.

[Ted Calver]

George,
If you get the Virginia Gazette, today's has a full double page feature honoring Colonial Williamsburg Foundation employee service milestones--Ed Wright is there, but still a pup at 25 years :)

[george wilson]

Thanks Ted.No,I don't take the Gazette. Too many other ways to get news,and I can't see the high cost of newspapers. Soon,they may all go digital,I hear. I'd REALLY like to hear all of the Last Word comments,though!!!!

[David Keller NC]

"Another issue,the slides will have to be made into pictures. I used to give lectures,so made slides of the work. I also for the past 23 years have gone to 8X10 photos,fortunately. They will have to be gotten into the computer,too. I need help with all that here at home.The slides were made with 400 speed film. I hope they will make into decent pictures."

George - I'm a long-time photographer with professional equipment, so I've some expertise in this area. The state of the art of flat-bed scanners has progressed to the point where they rival the quality of slide scanners. So long as you don't buy the $39 special at Best Buy, but invest about $200 in a high-quality Epson with a direct-light slide feeder, you can make superb digital images with it. And that beats the $1600 Nikon slide scanner I have setting by my computer all to heck. It's a bit slower than a slide scanner with an auto-feeder, but I'm betting that you really don't want 300 photos on your website, blog, or photo gallery anyway.

[Adam Cherubini]

Just so you know George, a lot of us at the conference this year were very upset to learn so many of the talented craftsmen were let go. I personally did not understand why CWF would chose to let go of folks who's products could easily pay their salaries and help the foundation if they were made available commerically.

I'd like a 2' rule and I'm frustrated that I can't buy one. I began making hand saws many years ago because I couldn't buy the saws you made. Why isn't the Prentis store full of items? It's not like there isn't a market for the things you guys make.

regards

Adam

[george wilson]

Adam,there were only Jon Laubach,and myself in the shop,to serve not only all the craftsmen,AND others in the museum who used equipment,like the Apothecary,Wig Shop,and others you might not think of. But also,we did numerous repairs for the maintenance departments,etc. There are,or,were about 4000 employees there. We fixed tailoring machinery at the Costume Design Center. Walk in work happened almost every day. We used to have a behind the scenes manufacturing Silversmith Shop that I was much involved with.Still am with the silversmiths who used to work there. I fixed nearly all the old machines in the Millwork Shop.We re cut and repaired the internals of old steam and water valves that could no longer be had. The infrastructure of Williamsburg dates back to the 20's in some places !!

There was no way we could have made products,too,without more help. Those folding rules were so much trouble to make,they'd be $500.00 each. Just not worth the trouble,except for the museum to be as authentic as possible. I even made the number stamps by hand,exact copies of an original. These were short run tools,mostly hand work. Saw handles were bandsawed out,but mostly hand worked as the contours ,the "roundness" of the handle's cross sections changed around the handles. Not a simple router job as are modern handles. Backs were hand cut,annealed,bent,and ground smooth. Teeth were hand filed after punching,and hand set.

[greg Forster]

Looking at pictures/videos of saws at CW it appears the blades still have blueing, or is that just the light reflecting?

[george wilson]

Greg,if you read all the postings,I left the blue on some of the blades. The blue is very superficial,and I thought it would just rub off. Not so!! After 1992,we cleaned the blue with weak acid.

[george wilson]

Thanks,David,our home business, Bijou Graphique jewelry, run by my wife,has the best Epson scanners. She once ran the photo lab in Williamsburg,and is the computer/graphics whiz. It's just that she is always working 7 days a week,and evenings for some upcoming show,or on new models.

[David Keller NC]

"Thanks,David,our home business, Bijou Graphique jewelry, run by my wife,has the best Epson scanners. She once ran the photo lab in Williamsburg,and is the computer/graphics whiz. It's just that she is always working 7 days a week,and evenings for some upcoming show,or on new models."

So... Sneak in there when she's not looking and give one of those scanners a try. I think you'll be surprised how easy it is. Many of the photographic techniques used in a darkroom to adjust contrast, shadow/highlights, brightness, etc... have been automated in the newer software so it's a one-click operation that yields great results.

With a little guidance from some of the more experience computer folks in the Lumber Yard section of the forum, and WordPress blog software (the easy version's free, and the more versatile pay version's still inexpensive), you can have your own custom site with very, very little effort. Not as much fun as making furniture and tools, but still quite satisfying.

[george wilson]

Thank you for your many helpful suggestions,David. My talents lie in other areas,and I will try to get better in computers if I ever get my slides,and other stuff unpacked.

[george wilson]

Hey,I just noticed that the nice oval drawing device(ellipsograph) that we made for the Musical Instrument Makers IS featured on one of the Woodwright videos Pam pointed out in the beginning of this thread.It's the one called "Hollywood"

Jay Gaynor came up with a picture of one that is in a museum in England. We made it in time for last year's woodworking forum in Williamsburg. I missed this show,so was glad to see it,thanks to Pam.

We did make the plane(not the toothing plane) used in the video,and the dovetail saw. Also,I made the little iron plane Ed Wright uses,way back in 1974,at home,long before I became toolmaker in 1986. I don't think I'm ever going to get it back!!

We had also made a nice little swiveling knife for the ellipsograph,but it wasn't used on the video. It swiveled,perfectly following any oval the arms were describing.

[Pam Niedermayer]

That ellipse marker is magical.

Pam

[george wilson]

It works the same as those little wooden novelties,which were called"smoke grinders",(Or grinders of another sort!!)

[Berl Mendenhall]

George,
Being a violin maker I love to look at fine small tools. That small iron plane that Ed used in the Woodwright video is one sweet plane. Don't get me wrong the ellipsograph is a fine piece of work, but that plane does it for me. That's some great tool making.

Berl

[george wilson]

Berl,it was just milled out of a solid block of steel. It would be called a bowmaker's plane,for violin bows. When I left the instrument shop,I left quite a few tools of my own there,because I didn't want to denude the place of equipment. They were supposed to gradually replace my tools,but never did. Well,by now,i guess I'll never recover them.But,I really don't need them,anyway.

I could wish Marcus,or whoever made that little strip scraper,had not used cadmium plated head phillips head screws in it.

A quick way to get unplated screws is to put them in a cup with some muriatic acid. After a few minutes of fizzing,the plating is gone. BUT,the acid is very hard to kill.I always heated the screws to blue,as small screws often were in the 18th.C.,to drive off the acid. and,just avoid phillips heads,too.

The ellipsograph took a few weeks to make,but I was training my new person while we made it. It was done the day before the forum,where it would be used.

[Jim Voos]

Beautiful work!

Just saw the veneering video on St. Roy's show.

George, do you have any detailed photos you could post to the Gallery or to Flickr? I would like to build one of these for my daughter to use. Couldn't tell if the channel was dovetailed or not that the rails run in.

Thanks for any help you could provide.

[george wilson]

Hi,Jim. the channels are not dovetail shaped,though some are. The channel is about 3/4" wide and 1/4" tall. The brass plates lay over the top,narrowing it down to something like 3/8".

[Pam Niedermayer]

...Just saw the veneering video on St. Roy's show....

Jim, I went back today to rewatch a few of the season 28 shows; but I can't find them now. Where did you?

Pam

[Zahid Naqvi]

I was going to ask the same. The episodes are listed on PBS but ate not linked to any videos.

[george wilson]

Jim,sorry for the delayed response. I have a good 8"X10" photo of the ellipsograph.When I ever figure out how to get scanned images into this Mac,i'll post it for you. Right now,I can't get the images to work.

[Chris Padilla]

I was going to ask the same. The episodes are listed on PBS but ate not linked to any videos.

The link provided by Pam no longer works...anyone have an update so we can fix Pam's original link?

[Ryan Baker]

The season 26 and 27 shows are still there, but season 28 disappeared. I wonder if that is just a mistake, or if it was pulled for a reason. Season is still airing in some locations (like mine, very occasionally).

[Bill Rusnak]

I noticed that as well. There's more episodes with links under past seasons for 2001 through 2003 but they don't work. I was hoping to watch the treadle lathe episode from the 2004 season. Ever since they posted the PDF of the plans for the treadle lathe on the Woodworking Magazine blog, I've been trying to get more info on using one of these. I'd really like a lathe, but don't have the money to buy one right now.