Genuine mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) or African mahogany (Khaya ivorensis) would have both been fitting for our latest customer living just over 2,000 miles west in a small town made famous by movie stars and posh living…Beverly Hills, California.
Unfortunately we’re not at liberty to share the specifics or the the name of the customer (but you can bet we’ve already requested autographs). Rumors are flying in the office…was the mahogany used as casing, panel mold or to frame a priceless piece of art worthy of The Ghetty Museum. As we packed the order for shipment, we couldn’t help but huddle around the computer when someone mentioned…she lives just off Mulholland Drive.
A phenomenal local role model, Jason Thompson has just been diagnosed with Histiocytic Sarcoma Cancer (a very rare and agressive form of cancer with only 20 cases recorded in the last 20 years of this kind). We’re asking for your favor and five minutes of your time to help Jason…visit www.kickingitforjason.com.
Jason is an incredible person and a friend to all of South Walton County. He gave his time and energy selflessly to our children and our community–and now HE needs us. Go to his website and click ‘HELP JASON‘. Donate funds, services or anything that can you can to further this effort. Please take the time, read the story and pay it forward.
Our prayers are with Jason and his family. Read Jason’s story and help in any way you can.
Architectural trim is a defining feature in any home, whether the interior is formal or casual. And historically, it was the door casing that set the tone—from the graceful arched profiles in a Georgian to the stocky symmetrical surrounds in a Craftsman.
Today, a variety of period profiles can suit a new home—as long as the scale and proportions are right—and restore original detail that’s been lost from an old one. Best of all, almost any style casing can be built from standard stock molding. “Even elaborate profiles are often just a lot of simple, inexpensive shapes pieced together,” says This Old House master carpenter Norm Abram.
Our friends at This Old House have put together a wonderful collection of photographs that highlight both execution and architectural periods of door and window casing…struggling with how to execute your window door details? Read more at Molding: A Case for Doors.
The origin of woodturning dates to around 1300BC when the Egyptians first developed a two-person lathe. One person would turn the wood with a rope while the other used a sharp tool to cut shapes in the wood. The Romans improved the Egyptian design with the addition of a turning bow. Early bow lathes were also developed and used in Germany, France and Britain. In the Middle Ages a pedal replaced hand-operated turning, freeing both the craftsman's hands to hold the woodturning tools. The pedal was usually connected to a pole, often a straight-grained sapling. The system today is called the "spring pole" lathe. Spring pole lathes were in common use into the early 20th Century. A two-person lathe, called a "great lathe", allowed a piece to turn continuously (like today's power lathes). A master would cut the wood while an apprentice turned the crank.
The term "bodger" stems from pole lathe turners who used to make the chair legs and spindles. A bodger would typically purchase all the trees on a plot of land, set up camp on the plot, and then fell the trees and turn the wood. The spindles and legs that were produced were sold in bulk, for pence per dozen. The bodger's job was considered unfinished because he only made component parts. The term now describes a person who leaves a job unfinished, or does it badly.
During the industrial revolution the lathe was motorized, allowing turned items to be created in less time. The motor also produced a greater rotational speed for the wood, making it easier to quickly produce high quality work. Today most commercial woodturning is done by computer-operated machinery allowing for mass-production that can be created with accurate precision and without the cost of employing craftsmen. Despite this, there is still a demand for hand-turned products. Woodturning is also a hobby enjoyed by many people.
Modern professional woodturners are typically either "production" turners producing large quantities of functional pieces, or artistic turners producing smaller numbers of pieces, often enhanced after turning by carving, piercing, coloring, applying pyrography, gilding, or a number of other techniques to produce objects for the art market.
We often take for granted the “bullet proof” machines such as the Newman Planer from one of the great American companies of the early 1900’s. These machines run tirelessly, day after day and represent the lifeblood of a wood manufacturing and molding plant. The following is the history of the Newman Company and this remarkable machine published in the September 1957 issue of “The Wood-Worker”.
The Newman Story
Over half a century ago, George F. Newman, the co-founder and first president of Newman Machine Company, got a far-sighted vision of the importance of machines in the lumber, millwork, and furniture industries. This vision led him to organize the company which today stands as a leader among manufacturers of woodworking machinery.
As the flawed human beings we all are, from time to time, each of us needs a break from swine flu fears and waterboarding debates. As a 35-year-old man-child, my distraction of choice is video games. For others, it’s Lego.
Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation on Thursday announced that “The Lego Group is now the exclusive licensed manufacturer of Frank Lloyd Wright (FLW) Collection Lego Architecture sets.” Good for them, since it would have been pretty embarrassing if someone else won the Lego license. And earlier Friday, we mentioned the set in a brief, but here’s some more info.
The new FLW Lego series is part of the Lego Architecture line that debuted last year. The line currently consists of six buildings: The Sears Tower, John Hancock Center, The Space Needle, The Empire State Building and now FLW’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and “Fallingwater.”
Both Frank Lloyd Wright Lego Architecture sets contain booklets that feature traditional building instructions along with archival historical material and photographs of each building.
Lego appropriately released the first set, the Guggenheim, at the opening of the Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit: “From Within Outward” at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum on May 15.
If I was the kind of guy who’d choose Lego as my distraction of choice and was a FLW fan, I’d be a little disappointed in the pics released of these sets so far. Is it just me or do these look a little too simple and not detailed or complex enough? I guess that’s why they’re Lego and not scale models.
LIGHT & SHADE: Moldings on the outside of a building are almost always illuminated by direct sunlight. Interior moldings, on the other hand, are usually illuminated by indirect reflected light or electric lighting. To compensate for the general weakness of interior light, you might want to make still more adjustments, since moldings only exist tot he degree that they produce effective planes of light and shadow. This is especially crucial on the interior, where, in the absence of external miters, you must rely on the tonal play of shade and shadow to define the profiles at hand.
Space doesn’t permit us to go into detail on the dynamics of light. We can make a few basic points, however, by comparing the OVOLO and ECHINUS profiles (upper left and middle right, fig. 12). Assuming light falls in parallel rays from above, the gradation from light to dark on the OVOLO will occur in uniform increments because all points along its surface are equidistant from its geometric center. With the ECHINUS, the gradation is far more complex because it is constructed according to the non-circular geometry of the ellipse. An ellipse doesn’t have geometric centers, and therefore — unlike the OVOLO — its curvature is constantly changing, making the shift from light to dark more subtle and less monotonous than the OVOLO.
Particularly noteworthy is the little highlight at the top of the ECHINUS, known as the QUIRKING, which is where a curve returns upon itself at its ends. You can see it even more exaggerated in this CYMA REVERSA, (lower left of Fig. 11) which can also be made from portions of an ellipse. The QUIRK can add much to a molding, in addition to the light effects it produces. For instance, it creates greater contrast between curved and straight at the extremes of a molding, in contrast to the OVOLO, where the profile assumes a vertical orientation just as it meets the adjacent fillet. The QUIRK also anticipates and makes a more organic connection between contiguous elements than does the rather abrupt perpendicular termination of the OVOLO into the flat surface above.
For over 20 years, Good Millwork has manufactured architectural wood products for Seaside and the coastal communities along the 30-A corridor. We are now pleased to offer all our products in TimberSIL® - a glass infused wood that won’t rot, won’t burn, is environmentally safe and is backed with a 40 year transferable warranty.
Good Millwork has teamed with local, Florida licensed general contractors to offer turnkey services for the replacement of rotten siding, decks, handrails and all exterior wood components including shutters. With a 20 year local track record and 40 year transferable warranty on the TimberSIL® wood products, we simply want to be your second, and last, provider.
OCULAR RECTIFICATION: Another instance where one might manipulate the size of profiles concerns the position of moldings relative to the eye. These revisions, known as OCULAR RECTIFICATIONS, are intended to restore the profile to its normal appearance by counteracting distortions inherent in human perception. These distortions may be caused by such variables as the vantage point of the observer, available lighting, even the color of the moldings. The issue of perspective is especially critical on the interior, where one rarely can stand as far back from a vertical surface as on the exterior. To illustrate, in fig. 11 if the profile stands roughly level with the eye, you would probably construct the various moldings according to regular geometry (center). But if this same sequence of profiles is to be located near the floor, you might make adjustments because the viewer will always be looking down on it.
For instance, you could re-configure the SCOTIA so more of it is visible, and less is concealed by the overhanging element. The face of the FILLETS may also be turned, and even the half-round could be given an egg-like contour to restore some of its underside to view (left).
REDUCTION/AMPLIFICATION: While it’s illogical to have two disparate scales present within a particular molding sequence, it’s not unusual to have varying scales in moldings belonging to different features of the same building or space. In fact, in structures of any complexity, one is often compelled to use moldings of diverse scales. The challenge is to adeptly bring about what I call the REDUCTION or AMPLIFICATION of scale where they meet.
In Fig. 10, the TORUS and PLINTH moldings that articulate the base of the building are hefty in size and scale, because they are in proportion to the overall height of this very tall urban structure. The moldings of the door surround, on the other hand, are literally reduced in size so they can relate to a more human scale appropriate for a door. Equally important is how they come together. Notice that the overall height of the step and pedestal element in the doorway is contained within the bottom flat member of the building’s base, and how the greater number of divisions at the door element, versus the single division in the base, conveys the reduction in scale. The same happens immediately above the big flat, where the height of just a single large TORUS is given over to both a TORUS and a PLINTH.
Located in Florida, Good Millwork has been manufacturing architectural moldings and wood trim for over 20 years. We have over 10,000 molding profiles, including crown, baseboard, casing, chair rail and other wood profiles.
Over 200 woods species are available. Orders are packed and shipped daily. LTL service is available in the Southeast (Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas).
All molding profiles are available for full scale preview. Moldings not found in our database can be matched in 24 hours. All moldings are produced to approved CAD drawings. Order lead times are typically 5-7 days.
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