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Daniel Mack
Rustic Furnishings
14 Welling Ave,
Warwick, NY 10990
Phone: 845.986.7293

Tools and Techniques discussed in Daniel Mack Workshops

General Set-up: Tables, table heights, lighting, storage, heat, access

Safety: glasses, gloves, air, storage, disposal, fire extinguishers, noise

TOOLS

Drills: 1/2”, 3/8” corded, battery, “keyless chuck”

Drill Bits: Varieties, uses

Drill Press: floor, table model, Use of V Blocks, shims

Cutting: Knives, chisels,

Saws: Hand folding, Circular, Reciprocating, Jig,

Chain Saw(s) Gas, electric, battery, Chop Saw, safety, blocking

Specialised: Arbortech Carvers, Power Chisels

Tenon Cutters: safety, stationary, changing heads, adjusting blades, portable Alternatives: Hand Cutting, Chisels, hole saws, grinders

Antique Tools: hollow auger, spoke pointer, rounder

Holding: Hands-in-Gloves, V Blocks, Vises, Clam, bungees, Shaving Horse

Finishing: Rationale(s) Grinders, Dremel, Sanders:Palm, Random Orbital, Sandpaper

TECHNIQUES

Construction: Mortise/Tenon, Wedged Tenons

Mechanicals: rationale, screws,(trims, timberlocs...)

Chemical: Glues, Varieties, conditions for use

Alternative Joinery

Bark Applique handling, adhesion, trimming, finish

Country Woodworking (Drawknife/shaving Horse)

Carving with power Carvers

NEW: Carving Found Wood--Bark and Driftwood--

Finishing: Oils, stains, Sealers: oils, water-based, wipe-ons,wax, lye, vinegar

Woods: Identifying, Acquiring, Harvesting, Peeling, Storing, Drying, Kilns, Bugs

Seating: Seat Weaving, Uphosltery

Tricks & Tips: markers, paints, plugs, dirt, acorns, leveling legs

Tool and Materials Suppliers for Rustics

Tenon Cutters

Lee Valley 12 E. River St Ogdensburg, NY 13669

800 871 8158 www.leevalley.com

Carving Tools

Warren Tool Co. Rte 1, Box 14A, Rhinebeck, NY 12572
845 876-7817 www.warrencutlery.com

Lee Valley 12 E. River St Ogdensburg, NY 13669

800 871 8158 www.leevalley.com

Clippers, Pruners, Knives, Saws

American Standard Co 157 Water St. Southington, CT 06489

203 628 9643

Fiskars 780 Carolina St Sauk City, WI 53583

800 500 4849

Cutco Bx 810 1116 East State St Olean, NY 14760

Fasteners

McFeeley’s Square Drive Screws 1620 Wythe Rd Lynchburg, VA 24506

800 443 7937

Timborlocs

Low temperature Kilns

Nyle Corporation Box 1107 Bangor, ME 04401

800 777 6953

Ebac Lumber Dryers 704 Middle Ground Blvd Suite A2

800 433 9011

Tool Catalogs to get:

Country Workshops 90 Mill Creek Rd Marshall.NC 28753

704 656 2280

Bridge City Tool Works 1104 NE 28th Ave Portland, OR 97232

503-282-6997

Garret-Wade 161 Avenue of Americas NY, NY10013

212-807-1155

Hartville Tool Value 940 West Maple St Hartville, OH 44632

216 877 3631

Smoky Mountain Knife Works Box 4430 Sevierville, TN 37864

615 453 5871

Van Dyk’s Suppliers Box 278 Woonsocket, SD 57385

605-796-4425

Woodcraft Supply. 210 Industrial Pk Parkersburg, WV 26102

304-428-4866

The Woodworkers Store 21801 Industrial Blvd. Rogers, MN 55374

612-428-3200

Woodworkers Supply 1108 North Glenn Rd Casper, WY 82601

307-237-5354

Timberline

Rustic Materials and Seating

Rustic Furnishings, 14 Welling Ave Warwick, NY 10990 trees, bark

845 986 7293

Intermares Bx 617 Lindenhurst, NY 11757 bamboo, cane

800 229 2263

The Caning Shop 926 Gilman St. Berkeley, CA 94710

514-527-5010

Connecticut Cane & Reed Box 762B Manchester, CT 06040

203-646-6586

Hancock Shaker Village Box 898 Pittsfield, MA 01202

413-443-0188

H.H. Perkins Company 10 S. Bradley Road Woodbridge, CT 06525

203-389-9501

Shaker Workshops Box 1028 Concord, MA 01742

617-646-8985

Sturges Mfg. Box 55 Utica, NY 13503 ($750 minimum order)

315-732-6159

Courses/Information/Events

Rustic Tutorials with Daniel Mack

at his Warwick Studio, twice a year 845 986 7293

at The Omega Institute, Rhinebeck, NY, twice a year 845 266 4444

at The Woodlanders Gathering, yearly rustic workshops www.woodlanders.com

Rustic Makers Fair, early September, Adirondack Museum, Blue Mt Lake, NY

518 352 7311

The Furniture Society PO Box 18 Free Union, VA22940

804 973 1488

Early American Industries Assoc Box 143 Delmar, NY 12054

Read Woodshop News

Why have several of the same tool?

Log of shop accidents to rustics...

4 Rustic tools you already have.

Normal woodworking tools are made for handling lumber, a distant cousin... the American Cheese... of trees. These tools are meant to make things straight and flat. There is almost nothing like that in the woods. The woods are bumpy, curved, sinuous, arching, ... The woods reflect perfectly the crooked ways of life. It is difficult, sometimes unpleasant to be reminded of this, so it's tempting to dismiss it, and dismiss the Rustic Furniture which reflects it, as unrefined, clumsy, oafish.

It's really a doorway into another world of making, a work where you must discover and confront your own sense of design, proportion, to invoke the beautiful in your own way... it's the opportunity for a meandering, an impromptu encounter where all of several choices might work.

The Hand is the Proto-Tool with it's strength and near- infinite motions to grasp, turn, angle, pose, position, twist, grab, discard... Units of measurement are hand-based: the inch, a pinch, a handful, two-fingers. Remember hands are not perfect; they are different sizes, fingers have been cut, sliced and healed oddly; fingers curl and stiffen... Strength comes and goes. Most invented tools are hand helpers.

The key tool is the Body: The Body provides the essential frame of reference. The viewpoint on the world and the physical connection to gesture, the human animation through which we convey unspoken messages to our fellows. The body is a rich grammar of emotion and action. The gesture of the arm, the foot, the extended hand, the arched back, the tilted head, the open chest... Body language is a fundamental part of all furniture, and especially rustic furniture. When these gestures are discovered and selected from the trees, they become doubly powerful as the message of furniture because along with the gesture intended by the furniture maker is the residual shape, texture and history of the tree itself.

Rustic woodworking requires an altered sense of time. The rustic worker is linked to the rhythms of the seasons for cutting and drying wood; to the mysteries of various tree blights and insect attacks and to the creative rhythm of making something without a pre-set design. Rustic woodworking is responsive woodworking: responsive to the seasons, the moods of the maker, the idiosyncrasies of individual trees and the murkiness of the creative process. All of this make for less than a production line schedule. It's hard to predict when some rustic project will get finished. In that way it seems a bit out of control and gets talked about as a "folk art" or "naяve furniture", rooted in places not easily accessible in neat articles in woodworking magazines. It's true. Real rustics don't use paper. The real rustic moment is an "aha" when some stick or twisted log finds its way into your hands and gets hooked up with another piece. There is really no set of directions that can get you there.

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from Simple Rustic Furniture by Daniel Mack Lark Books, 1999 page 57

Projects are wonderful thingsЕ they are the end result of a process of literally projecting into our own futureЕ they are imaginings which can take on material presenceЕ or they may just remain projections. I suspect that many of the people who have my books are involved in the projecting and not always the projects.

What is a project? It is an creative exercise in order and harmony. It is a fundamental creative act which is as important as air, food and water to the human being. It lasts over a period of time and its result may outlive its maker and take on quite new significanceЕ as a family heirloom or part of a yard sale.

What is most vital about a project is the act, the drama surrounding it. My friend, artist David Horton gives a talk about an apple core being only the leftover object, the reminder and remainder of the many now invisible events: intention to eat an apple, the finding of apples, the choosing of an apple, the looking, the feeling its weight., itТs shape. Then thereТs the biting, the piercing, the chewing, the wetness, the sweetness, the fibrousness. The project of the apple includes the experience of it being consumedЕ of chewing, swallowing, feeling the weight and temperature encounter your lips, mouth, throat, stomachЕ there are the decisions about when and how to end this part of the projectЕ how far to eat into the core? Some people chew up the entire core up.. Horton ends his talk about the apple core by holding up the core and saying that this is what art isЕ the end result, the evidence that a process had taken placeЕ

HortonТs talk is a powerful reminder of something so easy to forgetЕ.Time. ItТs hard to see time. ItТs easier to see things. But we can learn, or re-learn, to get evidence of the fleeting and the invisible by looking and engaging in the visibleЕ That means being aware of the co-importance of the thinking, talking, planning, preparing that precedes a "projectТЕ and the moving, sorting, placing, wear and that post-dates the making of the itemЕ The item is only part of the projectЕ

You are doing projects all the time: They are called meals, cleaning up, dressing, drivingЕ

You are using and inventing joinery all the time Е most commonly, those wonderful techniques called Selection and Gravity:

Pick up something here Еand put it there!

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from Simple Rustic Furniture by Daniel Mack. Lark Books, 1999 pages 14 and 15

You may recognize parts of your self in these few descriptions of the different ways of being, and being Rustic:

The Hunter: You are active, moving, dynamic seeking the unknownЕYou have a short intense attention span; you want results. You enjoy the search and the discoveryЕYou need the chance of utter failure to be a successЕYou can search the local woods for new materials to add to your storehouseЕ Odd shapes, supple branches, more driftwood, mossesЕ You remember where things are and how to get there; you might make a map. You like to create, extend and defend

The Magician: You study the sticks and hold the sticks and decide what sticks are right for being special. You reveal and release the power in sticks by choosing, placing, sanding, whittling, coloring and giving the sticks to others. You might tell about secret places and ways. You are compelled to make things special. You understand the unseen and unspoken around you. You see how sticks can become part of something elseЕ You have a sense of patience and a sense of experimentation. You have a broad view. You know that things never stay the same

The Bodger: You use the tools in cooperation with the treesЕ so that both the tree and the maker can be recognized. You saw, drill, whittle, sand, glue, pegЕ You come from the line of HephestusЕ the inventor, the craftsmanЕ who was kicked off Olympus and kept trying to invent ways backЕ You know ways of protecting and providing comfort. You build chairs, tables, toolsЕ and shelters, huts, lean-tos

The Muse: You find the trees to fit the airЕ You make music with trees. You make dance with branches; you make sculpture and shadowsЕ Your work is beautifully insubstantial. You have come from MnemosyneЕ the source of deep memory, so time, slow time is a part of your work. You use the musky smells of the forest in your work