Peter Follansbee, joiner's notes

I made a few ladderbacks in the past month, one of which was to bring with me to the class I just finished at Pete Galbert’s. These recent chairs are the first of a batch of white oak chairs that will take me a while to get through…

white oak w hickory bark

The photo’s a bit crooked, not the chair. It’s been fun working this much white oak, I mostly get red around here. Linseed oil finish. Hickory bark seat, woven in a diamond-pattern. The bark was a few strips from the end of a batch, over time their color and texture will blend just fine. Sitting on bark seats creates the best finish they can get.

diamond weave hickory bark seat

I decided I’m even going to keep one of these chairs. For all the time I’ve spent on them in the past eight or so years, I have none in my house, they all got sold. Time to change that.

overall view

This chair is for sale – $1,600 includes shipping in the US. I didn’t measure this particular chair, but it’s my standard Jennie Alexander-style chair – they’re about 33 1/2” high, width across the front c. 17” and depth of the seat about12”. Seat height around 17 1/4”. 

If you’re interested in this chair, send an email to me at PeterFollansbee7@gmail.com and we can sort out the details. You can send a check or I can send a paypal invoice – including their fee, $1,658. If you come pick it up, we’ll call it $1,450.

I wrote about this on my substack blog the other day but realized I should put it here too, just in case. I got news last week that Vimeo on Demand is going to shut down. I have several videos posted there – so if you have bought any of those – first of all – thanks, those videos were/are a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. And I appreciate the support I got from readers who bought them…helped me keep my head above water. Once they disappear from Vimeo, I’ll still have them – and I’ll try to find a new way to make them available. BUT – this part’s important – IF you did buy them (or if you do before Sept 21, 2026)- download them before they vanish. That deadline is Nov 20th. Here’s what their email said:

Starting on September 21, 2026:

• Customers won’t be able to make new purchases or start subscriptions

Between September 21, 2026 and November 20, 2026:

• Your existing VOD content will remain available to customers who already purchased it
• Your seller account will remain accessible

On November 20, 2026:

• Vimeo On Demand will be phased out completely
• All VOD listings will be removed
• Customers will no longer be able to access previously purchased content

This link is to a page on my website pointing to a number of the videos – https://www.peterfollansbee-joiner.com/videosondemand

That page links to several videos – two on carving – one about strapwork patterns and the other about S-scrolls that come from Dedham, Massachusetts

strapwork pattern

There’s also furniture projects; the joined chest with a drawer and two chairs – one the Jennie Alexander chair and the other an Alpine/German/Swiss, etc “brettstuhl”.

Braintree chest w drawer, 2022

There’s two videos that came after that page was created – one about carving this pattern:

Here’s the link to that one – https://vimeo.com/ondemand/honeychurchpattern

And most recently, a work-in-progress, about the cupboard that’s the subject of my newest book from Lost Art Press – The Essex County Cupboard

I have at least one more video to add to that set – but the collection isn’t so much a how-to of every step of building that cupboard, but a view into many of the individual steps – right now, there’s 10 “chapters” totaling almost 5 hours of video.

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/504407

All right. Just a heads-up. Nothing lasts forever…

[If you read my substack blog, skip this one. Just notifying readers of the new book about the Essex County cupboard.]

PF version of 1680s Essex County Massachusetts cupboard

I was the luckiest woodworker around when I got the chance to make TWO versions of one of the most elaborate cupboards I know…and even more so when Lost Art Press (who else?) agreed to turn my notes and photos into a book.

The link for ordering is here – https://lostartpress.com/products/17th-century-essex-county-cupboard

I first saw the cupboard this is based on in 1998 – it’s in the collections at the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston. At that point, I was embarking on a study with my friend Bob Trent of this cupboard and its relatives. That study took a couple of years to research, digest and write.

PF photo of the Paine/Sawyer family cupboard at MHS

Along the way I had a chance to collaborate with my joiner-friends Ted Curtin and Rob Tarule – they were building a copy of a related example to be exhibited at the Saugus Iron Works – and they included me in some of that work. Then in 2001 the article I worked on with Trent and Alan Miller was published in the 2001 edition of American Furniture. At that point, I figured that my Essex Co Cupboards notebook would go on the shelf and stay there. And so it did, for 20 years – when out of the blue I got asked would like me to make one! I jumped at the chance and was twice-blessed. I wrote enough about the project that another person chimed in & said “I want one too.”

Along the way I shot a bunch of video of the process in addition to the photos for the book. I’ve edited a bunch of those – about 5 hours’ worth and made a vimeo-on-demand page for them. Think of them as a companion to the book. All the details are in the book. Many of the processes are presented in the video series. Link is here: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/504407

I posted a sample video of about 10 minutes of setting the pintle hinges on the cupboard door over on my substack blog. That video is above the paywall – so you should be able to see it. Maybe you need a free subscription – those that get the truncated posts. Often those are about half the length of the full post…

https://peterfollansbeejoinerswork.substack.com/p/the-cupboard-book-is-done

detail upper case of the 2nd version

A follow-up to the previous post about that 19th-century door. One reader, Dennis Santella, was able to create very clear images from some of my photos. How he did it is hocus-pocus to me – all that matters is he did it. I’ll post a few of them here with some partial transcriptions. Thank you to Dennis – and if anyone can fill in my blanks, I’d love to hear from you. The transcription I put in italics, to distinguish from my comments.

Across part of this batten I can make out the following:

First real snow of the season Dec 4, 1886

First white frost season  Sept 21, 1886

Heavy freeze Oct 4, 1886

—————————————————————-                           

1891 Robins and blue birds Mar 15

Frogs Mar 20

Crickets [evening of?] Oct 2? [7?]

      “              “              “  14

      “             “             “  18

                  “               “            “   20

Crickets heard first time on Aug 9

First frost of the season Oct 2, 

Total eclipse of the moon Nov 15, 1891   [illegible beyond date]

Dennis showed me the part about the eclipse. I looked it up & there was an eclipse then visible in Massachusetts – over night on Nov 15/16. The next photo of that batten shows a small area blocked off in 2 squares:

June 15, 1887

White frost this AM. No damage to Garden

First frost of the Season Sept 16, 1887

No damage to Garden

I’m pretty sure that first date is 1887. One pass through I recorded it as 1889, but that doesn’t make sense. The last photo of that batten has a few entries on it –

Crickets distinctly [heard?] for first time Aug 5 [?] 1887

Crickets on Oct, 8, 1887

          “    “      17     “

          “     “    18      “

The last part of that batten has records from two different years, much of it I can’t make out. 

The worst and longest ____ ____

Of the year with ____ _____ ___ in the 

Night of Nov 7, 188_

Thunder Storm & very heavy rain Nov 18, 1886

First Snow of the season  Nov 13, 1886

Heavy [thunder?] & ____
Feb 18, 1887 ____ ____

[bottom bevel on right-hand end of batten:]

Bad NE Snow Storms _____

April] 13, 1887 4 or 5 inches _____ 

____  to 9 PM _________

Some of that beveled section shows up better in a later photo – I cropped it & insert it here:

A non-woodworking post – but it has a hand-made 19th century door in it. Some friends & I often chat about the birds we see around the neighborhood and in one of those conversations recently they re-told me a story of a door in their house. It came out of an old house here in town about 50 years ago. Though I had heard the story, I hadn’t seen the door until this spring – of didn’t remember it anyway.

19th century interior door

As far as that sort of thing goes it’s a nice, but pretty common, white pine door. Shiplapped boards, clinch-nailed battens. I like how some of the boards taper in width – that’s a nice feature. Its original configuration was from a house-to-a-shed. I don’t know what went on in that shed, but someone kept notes written on the door about the weather and comings and goings of nature – 

Here’s what I can read from the middle of that section:

1890

Bluebirds Robins + Blackbirds 

10th of March ______ _____ ___

First Crickets Aug 7, 1890

First frost of the Season Sept 25

Crickets on Oct 10 [Rainy? ???]

   “           “     “    16

First Snow flurry Nov 11 1890

These notes are scattered all across the top half of the door. Some legible, most less-than legible. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the format – one year is here, the next is elsewhere.

On the top cleat are some notes from 1886 – then right under them 1891

I can’t quite make out the top line but just below that is:

“First white frost of [the season?] – with the date just past the nail head – “Sept [21?] 1886
Heavy freeze Oct 4 1886″

Then right below that a line setting off the next entries for 1891

“1891 Robins and blue birds Mar 15
Crickets heard first time on Aug 9″

It goes on – but that photo cuts it off right there…it spills onto the next photo. “Frogs Mar 20 Crickets….” [illegible]

So – if you’d like to help decipher what’s written on this door, I’m all ears. I shot large photo files – and if I’ve done it right you can view and/or download them – but you gotta have a dropbox account…

I wasn’t sure of a way to create downloadable files here on this blog – and I gave up trying.

Any of you with graphics wizardry might be able to improve the photos to bring out the writing. The earliest date I’ve seen is 1872, latest maybe 1894 or 5. I think this link will bring you to a folder of 30 or so photos. If you can transcribe stuff, key it to the photo’s number

I tinkered with the brightness & contrast on this section from the 1870s

the bottom third I get:

“Crickets Aug 1st 1877
” heard distinctly on
Oct 15 1877 after a very Warm day”

Anything you have to add, leave a comment or send an email – PeterFollansbee7@gmail.com