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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (April 27, 2016)
6 Wednesday, April 27, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon Students learn to build the old-fashioned way By Craig Rullman Correspondent On April 21, three bus- loads of fourth-and fifth- graders from Cascades Academy descended on Sisters Country to learn tradi- tional woodworking skills of the American Revolutionary era. The students started at the Fir Street Pavilion, where Kris Calvin, owner of Earthwood Timber Frame Homes in Sisters, invited the students to study the con- struction of the pavilion, and then asked them how it was different from other buildings nearby. The students quickly pointed to the wood pegs that complete the joinery, and Chris invited them to keep that in mind as they worked through the various stations later in the morning. The Cascades students are currently studying the American Revolutionary era, following an “experiential learning” model. Spanish teacher Hattie Tehan high- lighted the importance of get- ting the students to actively participate in the methods and techniques they were taught. “This gives them a hands- on experience in what the trades looked like at the time,” she said. For their Revolutionary- era instruction, Cascades teachers Rose Moison and Autumn Elkins divide the students into miniature vil- lages. Each student will then serve the village by inhab- iting a role, such as apoth- ecary, blacksmith, millner, or a carpenter. At the end of the teaching block, all of the vil- lages come together and cre- ate a market, where the wares they have produced as villag- ers are displayed and avail- able in a small market. I think it’s important for the students to develop an appreciation for how things were done… Back at the Earthwood shop, Chuck Tucker, a tra- ditional woodworker who learned his skills while stationed in England with the Air Force, displayed a Sackback Windsor chair he had built using traditional tools and methods, modeled directly after the chairs used by the founders and still on display at Constitution Hall in Philadelphia. Chuck then demonstrated how to build chair legs, start- ing with a round of green hardwood. Using traditional tools, Chuck split the round, then showed the students how to use a traditional shaving horse using both a drawknife and a spokeshave. The prepped wood was then ready for the treadle- lathe, and Tucker showed the students how a carpenter of the era would have turned the legs, pumping the treadle and precisely controlling the depth and angle of his cuts. The students wondered aloud how long it would take to finish a chair. Tucker said, “It takes me about 40-50 hours, but at the time, they would probably have been done by now.” Watching the progress, fourth-grader Bridger French said, “This is pretty cool. I’m surprised you can make such beautiful pieces of furniture with such simple machinery.” The students were then brought outside where Calvin displayed period saws, chis- els, and mallets, before dem- onstrating traditional tech- niques for creating mortis- and-tenon joinery. After the demonstration, and a safety brief, the students were invited to get to work finish- ing the joinery by sawing, chiseling, and using a tradi- tional brace, or drill, to com- plete the work. Calvin told The Nugget, “I think it’s important for the students to develop an appre- ciation for how things were done when they didn’t have what we have today, to start asking themselves ‘what’s holding stuff together? How are things connected?’” Dennis Mills, also a tradi- tional woodworker and mem- ber of the Central Oregon Woodworkers (centraloregon woodworkers.net), who was on hand to assist in the dem- onstrations and instruction, emphasized the importance PHOTO BY JERRY BALDOCK Chuck Tucker works with traditional tools. of “understanding what you can do with woodworking by hand, and to see that the quality of work was as good or better than what we have today.” The students, clearly enjoying themselves, and eager to participate, were broken into groups, with each group taking turns at the trea- dle lathe, the shaving horse, and using the various vintage tools, connecting directly with the materials, the tools — and with history.
