Long's Park Success Stories

Fun was had by all at Long's Park this year... until a monsoon rolled in... but, I'll get to that part later.

As makers of large and heavy things, we had to arrive bright and early on Thursday morning to ensure we could get everything assembled and ready for Friday's show open. First things first, remove the giant cart of furniture from the horse trailer. Again, with the aid of a block-and-tackle and some ramps, we wheeled that sucker out with relative ease. Lucky for us, the weather was perfection for move-in day. We set up over 30 pieces of our furniture in our booth, enjoyed a nice packed lunch on one of our new desks, detailed the pieces, lit everything, and were on our way before the sun set. Yes, that includes the moving and set up of the 11'6" long live edge brown oak table and our just-finished live edge walnut desks.

The park opened it's metaphorical doors at 10am on Friday and the Lohr Woodworking Studio team was ready for visitors! I was particularly excited (and nervous) because it was my first-ever show. What I learned? People are so nice! Seriously, if you want to talk to really pleasant, interested, and happy people, go to the Long's Park Art & Craft Festival because that seems to be where they all are- both visitors and exhibitors. With a steady flow of foot traffic through the show and our tent all weekend, I got the chance to meet and talk with so many wonderful people. Everyone wanted to know about the materials, the designs, and process that goes into making our pieces and we were all more than happy to tell them all about it. It was fantastic!

What makes any show even more fantastic is finding those people in the world that love something you've made so much that they want to take it home to keep as their own. I was the first to make a sale and, beyond being completely surprised, I was flattered and appreciative that Sandy couldn't imagine her new mantle without my live edge maple candle holder atop it! So, Friday marked a landmark moment in my woodworking career- confirmation that people like the things I can make enough to buy them; I'm still smiling, two weeks later! Jackie came to Long's Park to find Rob specifically after seeing his article in Woodcraft Magazine. She and her husband are now the proud owners of a mini Lohr Woodworking Studio collection of their own including two Morris chairs, an accessory table, and one of my cherry hand mirrors. Elaine couldn't leave the show without one of Jeff's last remaining floor lamps (likely never to be made again). Above and beyond all that, we were proud to sell out of our easy-storing red oak deck chairs! What a show, what a show!

One of the major highlights of this year's Long's Park Art & Craft Festival was getting to meet Marion Faulkner. Marion's husband, Dick Faulkner, founded the Long's Park show in 1979 and their son Rick went on to serve as co-director with his father. He built the show from the group up and it now continuously reigns as one of the top fine art & craft shows in America. Despite the difficult terrain, she came into our booth and posed for a photo with Jeff. It's thanks to the Faulkner family that artists from across the nation are able to share their art every Labor Day weekend at Long's Park so we considered it an honor to have the chance to meet her!

After a long and enjoyable three days of perusing all kinds of art, talking with all sorts of people and artists, and showing and selling our furniture, it was time to pack it in and head back to Schwenksville. Out came the cart and the horse trailer, and in came roughly 50 packing blankets. With the threat of 'severe thunderstorms' lingering all day, Jeff & Linda brought in reinforcements to make the move-out happen as quickly as possible. With Jeff, Linda, Rob, myself, John, Paula, and Steve, 5 vehicles, and some celebratory beers, we got everything done in record time. It was all smooth sailing, the cart was in the trailer, we were breaking out the sheets of plastic to protect what we could inside of it from the threat of rain... and then the sky opened up. Smooth sailing quickly turned into a scramble to get anything left out into the trailer, drape some sort of plastic over the heap of furniture, and get the door closed before everything was soaked. Everything still got pretty wet but, thankfully, I think we got more soaked than the furniture. It was really the above-and-beyond efforts of Jeff and Linda pulling everything out into the shop to air dry the following day that ultimately saved the finish.

Thank you to those of you that came to the festival and enjoyed the final weekend of Summer 2014 with artists from all over the nation. A huge thank you to those of you that stopped by our booth to say hello, chat, sit, touch, and/or shop with us! Thank you to the amazing people that helped us move in and move out of the show. For those of you that missed the festival, I can't recommend it highly enough as something to add to your 'Summer 2015 To Do List'.

Now, we welcome the fall season and all the excitement, classes, and furniture-making it will bring!

We'll see you at Long's Park this weekend!

It's almost Labor Day weekend, folks, and you know what that means- it's Long's Park Art & Craft Festival time! We've been in a whirlwind of putting finishing touches on pieces, wrapping furniture, and loading trailers in preparation for our departure to Lancaster tomorrow morning. The festival will be running rain-or-shine this weekend Friday-Sunday and we will be there, fully-loaded with a diverse selection of Lohr Woodworking Studio furniture.

For the past two weeks, we have been selecting which pieces would take the trip with us to Long's Park. You'll be happy to know that we have a wide array of live edge pieces mixed with our traditional refined Arts & Crafts style furniture. The Lohr Woodworking Studio booth will be filled with tables, cabinets, tables, desks, lawn chairs, and more. See my previous post for some details on the two new desks we'll be showing for the first time this weekend! All the pieces were crafted by one, or all, of us and are all original designs. And, bonus, I will be
proudly debuting and representing my "Apprentice's Corner" filled with Larissa-crafted things.

Anyway, because we make things from wood, they are, by nature, prone to dings and dents. To avoid harming any of the furniture as we pile, stack, and cram them into trucks and trailers, each individual (of the 36!!) piece is wrapped in a blanket(s) and banded. After all the objects dismantled and wrapped, a huge game of Tetris began.

Our heaviest, biggest pieces include two live edge walnut desks, a cherry table sofa, and the famous, single-slab, English oak burl "Resurrection" dining table. Needless to say, there is no way we were moving and accurately placing those guys into the trailer without some assistance from physics. The first stage was loading all of these guys onto a cart with wheels; Lesson learned: Big, heavy things on wheels are much easier to move around. Then, with a little ramp action leading up into the trailer, we used a block-and-tackle (hooked to the floor at the front of the trailer and to the cart) to pull that sucker up and in with [relative] ease. And physics wins again.

Come by, dine on some delicious local food, sip on some beer (or wine if you're feeling fancy), listen to some live music, and admire 200 artists & craftsmen from around the country. Seriously though, what makes better holiday presents than one-of-a-kind pieces from a once-a-year festival? Plan ahead, kids! We hope to see you there, enjoy the last remaining days of summer in an ideal Labor Day weekend environment!

Live Edge Walnut Desks Done, Photographed, & Ready for Show!

Well, folks, we've done it again; By which I mean we have finished two one-of-a-kind live edge tables AND we were lucky enough to get Eoin in here and take some stellar photos of them. Woo!

Both tables are actually desks and are made with two slabs from the same walnut flitch. The first desk is appropriately named "Great Expectations" because it's destined to be a surface from which only great things will be previous post describing the "in progress."
inspired and produced (I'm rooting for a grand novel to be written here). It has a solid, live edge walnut top with curly maple inlaid dovetail bones strengthening and repairing the natural splits. The trestle base has hand-sculpted legs courtesy of Jeff's awesome shaving horse skills. This version of the desk comes complete with two drawers and a keyboard tray that can be pulled from either side of the desk. The drawers have some of Rob's signature dovetails and are made with spalted maple drawer fronts that curve to marry with the natural live edge of the top. For more detail as to how we tackled the various parts, read my

The second desk is in the same vein as Great Expectations, less the drawers and keyboard tray. With a simpler look, it maintains the same flowing trestle base design and solid live edge walnut top. The legs were hand-sculpted just the same but, the dovetail bones in this one are made from highly figured walnut so they have a subtle, striking effect. Both slabs have a long, beautifully feathered grain pattern (and amazingly free of splits or checks) down the center of the crotch.

We're bringing these new fellas to Long's Park Art & Craft Festival! If you're in the area, you should come to the show because it's filled to the brim with America's best artists along with some tunes and food!

I've said it before and I'll say it again, we are lucky to have Eoin O'Neill as part of the Lohr Woodworking Studio team for more reasons than one. Above and beyond his admirable woodworking and teaching skills, this man knows his way around a camera! We work incredibly hard to create pieces that are as beautiful as they are functional but Eoin gets all the credit for capturing these stunning images of them to ensure their timelessness. Two weeks ago, we pulled up all the foam floor tiles and repainted the cyclorama wall white to prepare for the shoot. The 16' seamless wall takes up 1/3 of the shop so it's all hands on deck to prepare and maintain it's clean-ness for the days of the shoot. This time around Eoin spent two days documenting three live edge tables. And (surprise, surprise) came out with great pictures.

Thanks again for all your time, equipment transportation, and skills, Eoin. And, for those of you that can make it Long's Park over Labor Day weekend, swing by our tent to see these gems in the flesh! Until then, a happy Monday to you, internet readers! 

Craftsy was here & Rob is a star again

In May, we had the pleasure of hosting three awesome members of the Craftsy crew here at the shop for a few days. Their mission? To film a course designed and taught by Rob to share with the woodworkers of the internet. Craftsy is a site designed to offer online courses taught by experts to learn crafts at your own pace, in your own space, and on your own time. So, with the wonders of modern technology, you can now learn all about making doors and finishing wood from Rob on your tablet in your basement shop at home. Woah.

Jared, Nathan, and Tony brought bright lights, cameras, and an overall feel of Hollywood from Denver to our dusty, farm shop in Pennsylvania... it was awesome! We got to see the fancy camera swoop-ins, hear the snap of the slate, watch live editing, and all the other fancy movie-making magic. The roosters didn't care about the sound sensitivity factor so the background noise is filled with authentic shop/farm activity.

For three days, Rob taught lessons on how to make doors for fine furniture and cabinets; Suitably, the course is titled Doors for Cabinetry & Fine Furniture. A couple of weeks later, Rob was off to shoot an additional course called Flawless Finishing. Meanwhile, I was dubbed "Rob's Assistant" for the week which means I am taking it upon myself to claim a small degree of fame by association (and because I was lucky to be featured as 'glue up partner' in one of the lessons).

In the Doors for Cabinetry & Fine Furniture course, Rob covers everything you will need to make doors for your furniture/cabinets. He discusses choosing the right materials, designing doors, proper joinery terminology and execution, hardware installation, and, of course, actually making and assembling doors! He covers raised-panel doors as well as flat panels and discusses how to resaw pieces so that it's easy to create those panels with bookmatched grain patterns. The course is broken up into digestible lessons complete with downloadable course materials that include materials lists and jig plans.

Flawless Finishing is all about the Lohr Woodworking approach to finishing any type of wood with a smooth, perfect-sheen finish. Rob flew out to Denver to shoot this one. Wait, did I mention that it's free? Oh yeah, kids, it's a free for all mini-lesson. Get it while it's hot! Rob teaches four lessons (totaling about an hour and a half) covering the process we use to ensure natural, stunning color that is then protected by a smooth, durable finish. He walks you through the step-by-step procedure we use ourselves at the shop for all of our furniture. He covers various finish application methods and rub out materials to provide surfaces that will resist ringing when wet as well as feel smooth and soft to the touch. 

For those who have taken classes with us, you know how much we care about the craft and harbor a love for teaching others about it. Now, we're so happy the internet world is getting a chance to learn something from us too. Even better, you can trust the instructor on the other side of your computer screen instead of crossing your fingers that the guy on YouTube knows what he's talking about.

Well done Rob, well done. And a big thanks to Craftsy for coming to hang out, but moreso for making such wonderful productions to help eager woodworkers learn a thing or two from home.

Now, readers, go enroll! Learn to make doors! And then finish them!

Live Edge Walnut Desk in the Works!

Summer is in full swing, kids. I know, I know, summer "officially" starts this weekend; It's been over 80 degrees for over a week and that means it's summer, I don't care what anyone says.

As summer begins, we at the Lohr Woodworking Studio have our eye on Labor Day weekend. Why? Because it's Long's Park Art & Craft Festival and we're going to be there with bells on! The past few weeks we have been hard at work on a new, collaborative project to bring with us to the show. The piece is well on it's way
to being a live edge walnut desk (that I wish I could keep for myself because it's awesome). The walnut slab was the result of Jeff bidding (and winning) the flitch at a charity auction held at Hearne Hardwoods. The proceeds from the sale went to support the Moringa Community Project- a non-profit organization started by Jeff and Linda in 2008 in Ghana where they (with the help of their African project director, Abu) built a woodworking school and taught sustainability via food preservation.

Jeff designed the overall plan for the desk and as the development began, we were each put in charge of different aspects in order to make it a collaborative project. Jeff took command of the trestle base of the desk. He hand sculpted the legs on the shaving horse and incorporated a flowing, curvy aesthetic to marry with the live edge of the walnut table top. With the legs at an angle, I can attest that every aspect of this base took careful planning and execution to fit together perfectly- there was some careful routing and chiseling involved.

I was assigned to dovetail bones to be inlaid into the top surface anywhere there were crack, splits, or voids that needed repair. I was in charge of designing and making the shapes and sizes, picking their placement, and finally inlaying the bones; And, the apprentice steps up to the plate! I made twelve bones. As per usual, they were bandsawed to rough shape, fine-tuned with sanding drums on the drill press, double-face taped in their place on the table top, and traced with a marking knife. The high-anxiety came with having to carefully router out the shape of each unique bone as perfectly as possible. And, finally, they were glued in with epoxy and sanded down level with the surface.


Rob was assigned drawer construction. As usual, he killed it with the dovetails. The design of the base calls for the drawers to be able to be pulled through from either side of the desk so he crafted double live edge fronted drawers. There, of course, is a curve to the natural live edge drawer front, and he did a stellar job of making some dovetails to accommodate. The longer, wider drawer is even more impressive but you'll have to wait for the finished desk photos for those!

Today was the big day- boiled linseed oil the desktop day. Between the figure in the crotch, and the pop of the maple bones against the walnut, the application of the oil was just as exciting as we anticipated. These are the moments we look forward to throughout the whole process.

We break on desk construction for a Practical Woodworking class next week but, check back for updates as we near completion on this beaut! Happy Friday to all.

Save the Ramp Wall 2014

Once upon a time, a stone-filled ramp was built leading from the parking lot area at the end of the driveway up to the second floor of the sawmill building. The sides of the ramp were built with stacked retaining wall blocks. Unfortunately over time, and the added aid of the harsh winter elements this year in Pennsylvania, the stones compacted on each other to such a degree that the wall started to grow a bulge halfway down one side and the collapse of the wall was too real a possibility.

No worries though, folks, we are the Lohr Woodworking team and we are led by a master of all things practical. Jeff drafted a plan for us to use huge pressure treated posts and boards to create a strong, straight, stable box around the collapsing areas of the wall to fill with stone. For added strength, we would run cables between the posts across/under the ramp to keep them forever pulling inward.

With a plan in place, we set to work. The first stage of "Save the Wall 2014" was measuring out the distance between, and placement of, the pressure treated posts. During this phase, I got my hands on a plumb bob for the first time.

After the post placements were decided on and marked with stakes, we called in the big dog- Trixie, the tractor. With a massive auger mounted on the back, she dug holes for the posts to be mounted in to. I have personally thanked Trixie for eliminating the alternative situation in which we would have had to dig out those 10, 3' deep holes with shovels. Plus, watching that auger plunge through PA bedrock was pretty impressive.

Once the holes were drilled into the earth, we were off to Home Depot to load up some pressure treated posts. With a trailer of posts and boards, we returned to hoist the posts up into their holes. Using the bucket on the tractor and some brute strength, we got them upright.

Then, we leveled the poles 90 degrees upright in all directions and held them with 2x4's and stakes. When they were all equally spaced and neatly in a row, we started mixing concrete; what a messy job, by the way! We poured a bag of concrete into each hole surrounding the base of the posts to keep them in position.

The posts were then connected to one another using long lengths of pressure treated boards to create a new, strong wall to support the collapsing stone one. We cut end caps from the boards as well to close off the areas into space to accept the tons of stone we were soon to dropped into them.

The strength of this wall-save does not stop here, though. To ensure this ramp will stand the test of time, Jeff decided it was best if we took the extra step to run steel cables between each pair of posts. First things first, Jeff jumped on the tractor again to dig 6" deep valleys across the ramp between the posts for the cable to run in; later they'd be buried with the replaced dirt and covered in a new layer of stone to smooth and level the ramp.

We drilled holes through the posts and ran 5/8" galvanized threaded rods through them. On the inner ends of the rods, we screwed on eye bolts with attached thimbles and clipped stainless steel cable through them. Once this was done to each pair of opposing posts, we tightened the nuts on the out-facing ends of the threaded rods to pull the cables tight.

Thanks to the spring season finally making it's way to the north east, we have been hard at work to dress up the outside of the shop. Our first mission- Save the Wall 2014. And, as you can see from the image to the left, we managed to get it up just in the nick of time. The vacant area you see between the bulging stone wall and the pressure treated posts is where the tons of gravel and stone now live to add pressure and support.

When the cables were all tight, we replaced the dirt that was removed to bury them and flatten out the ramp once again. We had over 60 tons of stone delivered the following day to smooth and level the ramp, parking area, and driveway. I had a grand ol' time driving the little tractor around with the iron drag rake in tow to disperse the stone evenly. The discussions have already begun regarding how we plan to decorate the new wall in all it's glory. But, as it stands now, it is a sigh of relief that the ramp will remain standing for years to come.



The upkeep of the Lohr Farm is an essential part of the Lohr School of Woodworking and Woodworking Studio being able to function and flourish year in and year out. Part of being a Lohr Woodworking team member means I am lucky enough to get the chance to learn about everything that goes into woodworking, milling, teaching, machine repairs and maintenance, farm/home repair and maintenance, landscaping, animal care... and, in this case, how to save a falling stone wall. Cheers to another practical and successfully completed mission at Lohr Woodworking!

The Latest Generation of Advanced Joinery Grads

A big ol' congrats to the Advanced Joinery graduates that completed their second level course with us today! Outside, the north east was battling weather ranging from perfection to flooded disasters, while inside these eight woodworkers we crafting their own stunning walnut and cherry accessory tables. Patrick, Perry. Allen, Matt, Dave, Anneliese, Ed, and Brian can all go home today proud to know how to make drawers, floating shelves, drawer pulls, breadboard end table tops, and much more about intricate joinery. Way to go, kids, way to go!

Over the past few weeks, the Lohr Woodworking staff has been working hard to save the walls of the ramp bank leading to the upper floor of the sawmill. Over time, the compression of the stone and weight of the elements have stressed the walls enough that they were nearing collapse. Luckily, with Jeff's ability to design a fix for anything, Trixie the tractor and her giant auger, and some giant pressure-treated beams and boards, we have made significant strides to keep it upright. Check back next week for the full story on the design and work that went into this mission!