Can't tell you how many classes I have been at over the years, but the last class with Brett and Frank (Reclaimed Wood/Handscraped and Craftsmanship: Advanced to Expert) was outstanding!
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Can't tell you how many classes I have been at over the years, but the last class with Brett and Frank (Reclaimed Wood/Handscraped and Craftsmanship: Advanced to Expert) was outstanding!
My skills are sand and finish … just get it flat, so this class was fun, because it was things that I have not done much of or never have done at all … rip it, cut it, chop it and make it look like a corn cob.
Some of the cool things were the "hook scraper" and getting the hook on it. Randy brought his bag of tricks, as well as the best insight of how to take the bag and make some money.
Looking ahead, I can see taking the flooring we cull and make some of the best-looking hand-distressed flooring. What I put in the fire box can now be used as an awesome floor. I hope this class becomes a full-time offering of the NWFA, in fact, Brett, Frank and I did begin a conversation over dinner on that topic. It was great to see how Randy, Joe and Tony took the hook tool and added a flavor to the flooring. At the end of the day everyone had the hands-on, but no one did the same thing with the same tool. That is what makes it great: The look will not look like a machine has repeated the pattern; it all has its own look that is unlike anything. Randy showed tricks that rolled the flooring, chattered the flooring, dished out and waved it, all with a goal of using the grain to bring a bold look. I have seen photos of flooring like that but never had I seen the program to get there, so this class brought it all together.
Frank K. took an old-school handheld grinder with 60-grit paper and made a distressed edge and butt joint on a 6-inch-wide oak floor. To give it an aged but highlighted side match, he mixed water and vinegar in a bucket. The night before the stain demos, he took steel wool, added it to the vinegar and let it rust up. The rust became black in the mix. He then took a small brush and hit the side match and butt joints. Once that dried he sanded it, and the dark stain on the sanded flooring looked great. He put an oil finish over the rest after sanding it, and that floor looked 100 years old on the spot. He added a bow tie between the side match so it looked like the bow tie was holding the flooring in place; that is just a cool look that adds value to the flooring. Frank said they would get a jig to drop them in the flooring, each one took about 10 minutes to install.
Randy had a job where the homeowner wanted a distressed wide floor but did not want to remove the old 2¼ flooring. Pulling a tool from the bag, they took the tools and side-cut every third board. That made it look like a wide board, then they did the voodoo they do so well and folks, it looked like a 6-inch-wide hand-distressed floor. If I did not know what they did to the floor, I would have never picked up on the skill. That is the key: Do something that not many folks can do or would think to do.
Joe R. did a demo with dye and stain; his goal was to give a floor a "worn" look. Once he was done, you would think it had been walked on for 20 years.
Once again we had gifted floor men with the heart to share it with all of us. That is what makes the NWFA what it is: give and ask nothing back. My hat is off to them; they got skills!
The next day was a treat that I did not get to be a part of because I had to leave early to get a floor coated. Randy showed them how to use the scroll saw and make some of the fine cuts and shapes.
The bottom line: You may not be able to teach an old dog new tricks, but you can give him new toys to play with. When they offer this class again, and I hope they do make it a full-time class, you will see me in the front row.