Roubo's Bookstand - Class at Roy Underhill's Woodwright School

[Phillip Mitchell]

I thought I'd share some photos of the class I took this past Saturday at the Woodwright School in Pittsboro, NC.

The day began with a bit of history on Roubo and the cultural significance of the bookstand.

Some helpful and general caveats were discussed and then the work began.

We finished planed the boards with a smoothing plane and began to layout for the wooden hinges. Then came a healthy amount of pounding, chopping, and excavating with a variety of chisels and knife.

We drilled 1/16" holes in the top corners of the hinges, stuck a fret saw blade in the hole and sawed in between the hinges to free them.

We re-sawed the 7-8" wide walnut from each end down to the hinges with a rip saw.

If you did everything just right, then you were rewarded with a satisfying pop as your board, that was previously one solid piece, hinged open into a folding bookstand.

We finished with laying out the decorative profiles on the top and bottom of the stand and sawing them with a coping saw.

Not only was it great fun to accomplish this unique project in 8 hrs, but it was also uplifting and restorative to be surrounded by 10 other eager woodworkers, all focused on doing the best they could with simple hand tools.

I didn't include many nitty gritty details, but if anyone is curious for more, feel free to comment and ask.

Hope this is of interest to some here!

Edit: Why do all my photos import in the wrong orientation...? Sorry. Anybody know how to fix that?

[Jim Koepke]

Thanks for sharing this Phillip. This is another project on my bucket list.

jtk

[Richard Line]

"Why do all my photos import in the wrong orientation...?" Your holding the camera upside down. I don't really know the answer, as you've already guessed. I've that problem with some of my pictures.

[Megan Fitzpatrick]

It looks great!

[Tony Corey]

Phillip.

Your bookstand looks great!

I will be attending that class in December. Very much looking forward to it.

Thanks for giving me a preview!

TonyC

[Brian AdamsMS]

I took a class at the Woodwrights School about three years ago. Mine was making a dovetail saw. Definitely a very enjoyable experience, the atmosphere and fellowship with other woodworkers. I've wanted to go back, but with the school in NC and I live in MS... well it just hasn't worked out yet. I highly recommend to anyone who has thought about taking a class there.

[Jason Dean]

Phillip.

Your bookstand looks great!

I will be attending that class in December. Very much looking forward to it.

Thanks for giving me a preview!

TonyC

Your book stand is looking awesome! I will be at the class in December as well, I hope mine turns out half so nice.

[Hrant Manoukian]

Very nice, Phillip!

.............I've been dreaming to go to the Woodwright's School for the last 2 years, but the classes fill up in a heartbeat. You guys on the East Coast have it good

[Graham Haydon]

Nicely done Philip.

[Phillip Mitchell]

Thank you all for the kind words. I think I'm about to start making another one, in cherry this time. It will make a fantastic gift for friends/family that are book lovers.

Yes, the classes fill up very quickly. I'm on their mailing list, which alerts you of the upcoming year's class schedule a day or two before the general announcement / release on their website. Most of the classes for the year (and all the classes with Roy) usually seem to fill up within 2-3 days! They release the upcoming schedule for the year in mid-late December from what I can tell.

I took a hand plane skills class there last year and really enjoyed it. I'd love to take them all....maybe if I keep going to 1 or 2 a year, I'll get there eventually!

It's about a 3 hr drive for me, and I have in-laws that live in the Raleigh area so it works ok for me to travel there.

I feel grateful and fortunate that something like this exists in my state/region and hope it continues to do so.

[Jeff Ranck]

Great job! it looks wonderful. I've wanted to build a variant of this for some time as a bible stand. We have an old family bible from my wife's side of the family and it needs a good way to display it. I've thought that an appropriate sized one of these, perhaps with some scrollsaw/fretsaw work might be the ticket. Plus, these have always looked fun to build to me.

[Richard Line]

Phil,
I made one a couple of years back, just because it looked interesting and a good learning experience. I didn't take a class, just referred Roy's description. It was a good exercise, but with 1 problem I haven't solved yet. The problem is how do you smooth the inside surfaces, where the rip cuts are made. When I did it, I tried planing it, but of course the plane will only fit into a part of the area. You've got me thinking of it again, I'm thinking about spoke shaves, cabinet scrapers and card scrapers - all things I didn't have when I originally did it. Did the class give any ideas, or do you just have to make the rip cuts neat.

[Phillip Mitchell]

Richard,

It was funny. Roy encouraged us to leave the ripped section on the bottom half of the stand raw because "we earned that." The top half, which is much more visible and in fact where the book rests was planed across the grain as well as possible and then cleaned up with a card scraper. A clean and straight rip cut will certainly be an aid in achieving smooth surfaces easier.

If you look closely in the last of my photos, you will see some fairly deep marks left from a rip saw on the taller section of the upper half of the stand. When we started the class, we each picked out roughed out blanks of walnut boards that already had the top notch ripped out of it and my board was ripped (by someone) rather course. Should I desire a totally smooth surface, I'll need to remove about 1/16" of thickness from that face...I've yet to do it and wonder if it will do more harm than good. The thickness is currently at around 3/8" for that part. I worry about taking too much material off of that inside face and potential warping happening if I planed it down to a smooth surface.

The surfaces that I ripped in the class were pretty easy to clean up with a plane going cross grain with some creative work holding, then a bit of work with a card scraper.

[brian zawatsky]

Phillip - thanks for sharing this! That looks like a really cool project. I'd definitely like to attempt one in the very near future, like as soon as I finish my work bench project. Any more details that you could provide would be very much appreciated!