“Free Wood”… Money Grows on Trees!

Somebody at the Portland Saturday Market, ask me, “What kind of wood is this wine rack was made from”. Sorry, sometimes I’m a wise guy. I said, free. But of course, while money does grow on trees, it is very time consuming and dirty hard work to turn them into lumber.

I started building these smaller wine racks, eighteen inches tall, to sit on top of kitchen counters.   I didn’t think at the time, it would be easier for me to source material, because the parts would be smaller.  If I can’t lift the log into my truck by myself, I can’t really deal with it right now.

Portland General Electric the local utility, contracts with tree services to trim trees away from their power lines. About a year and a half ago, they trimmed a dozen trees on SW Bertha Blvd., across from the bus stop behind the Burlingame Fred Meyer store at the intersection of Barbur Blvd. They chipped all the small stuff and left some logs. I drove by them for a couple weeks thinking they would come to get them or else someone would snag them for fire wood. Finally I stopped and  dragged them into my utility trailer.

Here is a typical evolution of  one of my pieces:

I think these were Western Maple but I’m only guessing. It is pretty hard but it dried very fast and is not that dense as material goes. When the logs began to check, I split them with a maul and hammer, along the natural crack.

Next, I plane flat surfaces and try to square the logs up on the jointer.

I try to decide how to make the trade off between a high yield and  clear or figured material. Then I start to slice them up on the band saw.

Ah, some clear pieces with some figure! Enough for a book matched top.

I usually cut pieces a little bigger and let them dry some more for a few days. Air drying is a black art. Wood is always retaining and releasing moisture depending on the humidity and temperature. Every time you cut a new surface the material dries further and usually warps some more as the cells collapse and give up moisture. Here are parts for the racks, ” relaxing” until I run them through the thickness planer for rack parts.

I glue up the book matched top.

I laminate some Black Walnut strips to the edge banding.

I use these jigs to make the “cheek cuts” for the tenon joints on the racks… they will mate with round mortices I bore into the legs with a Forstner bit on a drill press. Here I remove material on the router table with the same jigs:

I use my second table saw with a fixture mounted so it that holds the rack parts ninety degrees from the router table, making an eight sided tenon. It’s not quite round, but fits tightly and allows glue to squeeze out making assembly quick and accurate.

I bore the round mortices in the rack stretchers.

Finished top with three coats of polyurethane.

“Bertha Boulevard Wine Table: KTW #2309”

McMinnville Wine & Food Classic

It was a lot of work but it was fun too. I met so many people and had some great conversations. I can’t say enough about the SIP Festival staff and volunteers . Very professional and competent throughout and they went out of their way to help me with my truck problems on Saturday night. The festival seemed well attended and there was a good party atmosphere. I met quite a few folks from out of state and at least as many people from the Portland area as locals.

The Evergreen Avation & Space Museum was an amazing setting. I had a chance to walk around the Space building all by myself before it was open to the public. I talked with a guide that had been an engineer. His knowledge of the history and how politics and events influenced the development of the space program was a great insight. I need to go back and spend time reading through all the exhibits and then go next door to the Aviation building and see the Spruce Goose.

Friday Morning was a little wet.

There was a spectacular array of wineries and the arts and crafts vendors and food vendors were very good too. I wish I would have had some time to walk around and maybe have a glass. I did get a sip of what my neighbors the Duke Family Vinyards, 2006 Pinot Noir was like… and I mean this as a compliment… it tasted like Kool Aid. It was so good and drinkable. One could drink a lot of this. I don’t know how to talk about wine and I would rather drink beer. Nevertheless, it was great experience. Then Dukes 2007 Pinot Noir was very different. From grapes grown twenty miles away from the ’06. Much more tannin, a little more bite and earthiness. It made me want a thick grilled steak.

Home of KTW fro 3 days, My neighbors the Dukes Family Vinyards

I got a minute to talk to my new buddy, Wende at Willamette Valley Vineyards and had a sip of 2008 Pinot. Great, great wine. I wish I had the vocabulary to express, but very rich and elegant. I only drink anything at all occasionally, so it is a real treat to taste these wines.

I was too busy to get to a friend I have known from high school. Ken Slusser of KathKen Vinyards in West Salem. I am planning on going to a couple of the concerts in the series they will be having at their vineyard this summer. Then I will have a proper chance to sample their wines. Ken said he makes a Port I would be interested in. It was great to be able to talk to him for a few minutes in passing. We were kind of working after all.

Saturday and Sunday were sunny spring days.

I had an OK weekend. I sold enough to cover the cost of the booth fee and a tank of gas. I got lots and lots of encouraging feed back about the work. I hope maybe one or two of the many people that ask or talked to me about custom work will follow through. The path of least resistance would be for me to put piece from my portfolio back into the rotation to build it for them when I can source some materials.

Thanks to all who bought wine racks from me. They went to good homes!

The view from my corner of the building...

Dukes Family pouring away...

There was pretty good live entertainment all weekend and way better that a lame Muzak track or something. Saturday evening Ellen Whyte sounded great from where I was and she played a long time I think. Love ya Ellen! Wish I could have been up close to see you, you are the real deal.

The old Datsun pressed into service for the Sunday retreat back to Portland...

Sip! 2010 – McMinnville Wine & Food Classic

The experiment in direct marketing continues this weekend; Sip – The 17th Annual McMinnville Wine & Food Classic – will be held at the Evergreen Space Museum, in the heart of Oregon Wine Country.

http://www.macwfc.org/

I’m looking forward to seeing the Spruce Goose again. I used to go to Long Beach for the Formula One and IndyCar races every year and I toured it once. A wooden airplane, my kind of aircraft!

Looking at the event schedule, I see that local pianist Tom Grant is not listed anymore, but Ellen Whyte is playing with a trio on Saturday evening. Tom was scheduled to play on Sunday, something must have happened. I was looking forward to seeing him but Ellen on the line up was a surprise. I have been following Ellen’s bands for a dozen years. She had a fifteen piece big band at the Portland Waterfront Blues Festival this last July and played arrangement from her new CD. It was one of the best performances in the whole week and she also did a duo performance with local tenor sax player Renato Curanto that killed.

It has just started to pour down rain and they are saying that this storm is one of those slow-moving tropical systems that might bring us up to normal rainfall for the year. It hasn’t rained that much so far this year, and I saw on the news that we are only at 87% or normal for the snow pack.  Good thing it’s inside. Now if I can just get all my stuff down there with out being drenched.

Portland Saturday Market

This last weekend was the beginning of the “World Famous” Portland Saturday Market season. While Spring is still a couple weeks away, it has been sunny and warm as much as it has been rainy and cold. Not your typical Portland winter. Some of the market weekends in November and December were pretty brutal with rain, sleet, snow and hurricane force winds. Even clear, dry, beautiful, winter market days were frozen solid. So, this last weekend was the first day in recent memory when it was T-Shirt weather.

Both days of the Market were crowded but not as packed solid as the Saturday after Thanksgiving. There were local news crews doing live remote broadcasts and it was the place to see and be seen… the Portland Hang.

After talking to a bunch of vendors Sunday evening, the results seemed mixed. Some vendors did really well and had a better day that any last year and one said they have only sold better once in seven years. Most of the vendors near me thought that the food vendors were the ones that rally did well and were glad that they at least sold enough to cover their Market fees.

I did not sell one piece all weekend. I handed out a lot of cards and flyers so I never know what might happen. About one in ten people that show interest in my work ever contact me and only a very few of them ever actually follow through to have me custom make anything or buy a piece that they looked at. It seems like people will see my stuff two or even three times before they buy something. For the most part, when I have done festivals or markets, buyers will see something and have to have it right away.

I am encouraged by what I hear as the hours go by. Usually groups of people walking by will make comments like; Wow! Great idea!… Look at the wine racks, nice! One couple remarked, Look honey there are the wine tables we saw at the Seafood Festival. Some guys will come up and check out the pieces very carefully, looking at the mitre joints and laminations in the tops. I always ask if they are wine drinkers or carpenters. More often that not they say both and tell me that the work looks good. I had a lady look at one of the butcher block tops and tell me that it was a work of art. I have to say that it’s not really, but that I am only a craftsman and the work is far from art.

I put two of my coolest looking Black Walnut counter top wine racks right in front so they are the first pieces that people see. Every other minute someone will rub their hand on the top to feel the finish. One young guy was amazed that I cut these pieces from logs. He just stood there repeating, “That’s awesome!” If I had a nickel for every time somebody rubbed the tops… I wouldn’t have to sell them.

One of my neighbors that has been doing the Saturday Market for many years, said that there were lots of people, but that he didn’t sell very well at all. He said things will pick up as the people that really support the vendors come out through the spring and summer months.

We will see…

http://www.portlandsaturdaymarket.com/

Seafood and Wine Festival Recap…

I made the long haul, maybe ten blocks up the street to the Oregon Convention Center and got all set up on Thursday.

There were lots of people and there was a good festival atmosphere. I talked to hundreds of people and made some interesting contacts. I sold one piece for seventy-five bucks in two days. Saturday evening, my neighbors across the way ask if I wanted a glass of wine. I’m not a big wine drinker and only drink once in a while. Mostly a cold beer on Saturday evening after eating sawdust all week.

A glass of 2007 Willamette Valley Vinyards Pinot Noir was fantastic.

A five hundred dollar glass of wine. That is what the booth fee was, so I got something out of the exercise. I gave out a ton of flyers and cards. A lot of people had great things to say about my stuff. Maybe it will pay off at some point. I may get a call for a custom piece, but from past experience, I’m not going to hold my breath.

One of the organizers bought the sign I made for thirty-five bucks, so at least I made gas and lunch money for a week. My neighbor at the shop, Steve Knight from Knoght Toolworks, cut signs for me on his CNC machine and I painted them. Thanks Steve…  www.cncrouting.biz

The Festival was professionally run and things we going well until the vendors went to pack up. The organizers found out at the last minute, because of the Blazer’s basketball game, they wouldn’t  let us drive into the exhibit hall like we could when we set up. That might have been a minor inconvenience to most vendors, but it was really bad news for me. To add insult to injury somebody knocked over some stacked tables and wasted them. A hard way to make a buck.