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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.