OldTools Archive
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278290 | Phil E. <pedgerton66@g...> | 2024‑03‑08 | project finished |
Greetings Galoots, I've been a fan of James Krenov's work for a while now and I decided to attempt one of his small wall cabinet designs. It's made with a mineral-stained poplar door and carcase of pine with walnut top and bottom. Inside there is a bank of small drawers with varied kinds of wood for fronts. There's also a shelf. I enjoyed building it, but had my usual challenges of changing things in the middle of the building process and thus making more fiddling for myself. One of my main necessarily developed skills is also how to fix screw-ups. No wonder projects take me so long to complete. One of my confusions with Krenov is, "What are his cabinets FOR?" They are beautiful but what in the world do folks possess to need cabinets like this? Damned if I know. I just made one anyway. (Link to pics below--it really did happen. Ha!) Best to all Galoots, Phil E. Pics: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBgQTQ |
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278291 | Kirk Eppler | 2024‑03‑08 | Re: project finished |
On Fri, Mar 8, 2024 at 2:07 PM Phil E. |
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278292 | Frank Filippone <bmwred735i@g...> | 2024‑03‑08 | Re: project finished |
Your email has a totally obvious error in it.... Remove the word ....NEED..... Frank Filippone, tongue in cheek BMWRed735i@g... |
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278293 | Don Schwartz <dks@t...> | 2024‑03‑09 | Re: project finished |
In answer to your question. People put into these cabinets anything they wish to - or nothing at all. If you have enough wall space, you just hang it up and wait for it to find its purpose. If you don't have much wall space, you stuff it with hankies, pencils and pieces of string not worth saving. fwiw Don �On 2024-03-08 3:07 p.m., Phil E. wrote: > Greetings Galoots, > > I've been a fan of James Krenov's work for a while now and I decided to > attempt one of his small wall cabinet designs. It's made with a > mineral-stained poplar door and carcase of pine with walnut top and bottom. > Inside there is a bank of small drawers with varied kinds of wood for > fronts. There's also a shelf. > > I enjoyed building it, but had my usual challenges of changing things in > the middle of the building process and thus making more fiddling for > myself. One of my main necessarily developed skills is also how to > fix screw-ups. No wonder projects take me so long to complete. > > One of my confusions with Krenov is, "What are his cabinets FOR?" They are > beautiful but what in the world do folks possess to need cabinets like > this? Damned if I know. I just made one anyway. (Link to pics below--it > really did happen. Ha!) > > Best to all Galoots, > > Phil E. > Pics: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBgQTQ > > > > > -- \u201cWe should feel offended or unsettled when we hear the word homeless not because we stigmatize those experiencing it but because we are ashamed at our own moral culpability in its existence and the continued harm it inflicts on the most vulnerable.\u201d Josh Kruger \u201cTo argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture.\u201d \u2015 Thomas Paine, The American Crisis |
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278294 | Dennis Heyza <michigaloot@c...> | 2024‑03‑09 | Re: project finished |
Phil, That's quite an accomplishment! You should be proud. Dennis -----Original Message----- From: oldtools@g... |
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278295 | Darrell <larchmont479@g...> | 2024‑03‑09 | Re: project finished |
Beautiful job on that cabinet, Phil. Tell us more about the changes, screwups, and fixes if you can. I know I always have my share of those on projects. As far as what you put in them... I dunno, I'd be more concerned with where I would put the cabinet rather than what's in it. We've been making and accumulating stuff for way too long and there is no room left. Darrell On Fri, 8 Mar 2024 at 17:07, Phil E. |
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278296 | Kevin Foley <kevin.foley.135@g...> | 2024‑03‑09 | Re: project finished |
Phil, Beautiful work, beautiful design. Congratulations. If you enjoyed making it, it has already justified it’s existence. Last night I started hacking up some wood to make a smallish bookcase that will hold probably seven feet of books. The “What’s it for?" question would suggest ferreting through the books we have and carting seven feet of books the donation bin. Slippery slope — start justifying projects then you might start justifying tools! Cheers, Kevin in rainy Chantilly |
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278297 | Mark van Roojen <mvr1@e...> | 2024‑03‑09 | Re: project finished |
Hey, that's nice! I especially like the spalted front. -Mark |
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278298 | Steve Keltz <stevekeltz@g...> | 2024‑03‑09 | Re: project finished |
I put cabinets in mine steve in brooklyn |
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278299 | Phil E. <pedgerton66@g...> | 2024‑03‑10 | Re: project finished |
Thanks to Galoots who complimented me on my Krenov-style cabinet . Good musings also about what this kind of cabinet is for. "Furniture as art" I guess. Phil E. |
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278304 | Thomas Conroy | 2024‑03‑11 | Re: project finished |
Greetings Galoots, Phil E. wrote: "One of my confusions with Krenov is, "What are his cabinets FOR?" They are beautiful but what in the world do folks possess to need cabinets like this? Damned if I know." They are for nothing. They are useless. In the old dialect phrase: "It's for pretty." There is nothing you can put into a Krenov cabinet, without immediately discovering that you need more, and practical, cabinets to hold the rest. "The rest" will, of course, be the remainder of what you put into the Krenov cabinet. This goes even when he tells us that a particular cabinet was made for a particular purpose for a particular customer. In one example he made a cabinet with fitted compartments for the customer's collection of Oriental porcelain bowls. So far so good. Krenov makes the cabinet. Customer takes delivery and, oh so carefully, moves his collection into the fitted drawers and closes them with a feeling of perfect joy completed. And what the hell does he do the next day? Give up collecting? Go on collecting, thus ruining the perfect match between his collection and his Krenov cabinet? Put up with inferior cabinets until is collection has grown enough that he can order another perfect Krenov cabinet for his collection annex? Or consider the cabinet Krenov made to hold a customer's violin---I forget the details, but I'm assuming it was a violin and a violinist worthy of a Krenov cabinet. But a cabinet for one violin? Did you ever know a serious musician who had only one instrument? At least---the ones who have only one instrument aren't plonking down the bucks for a Krenov cabinet. And what about all the little stuff that goes with the fiddle? Think of the clutter of spare strings, beeswax, the bow--or, rather, bows----, all needing a place to live and resisting tight regimentation.... Its not just that putting something in a Krenov cabinet humiliates it with base functionality. What else can you put in the same room with a Krenov cabinet except maybe one (just one) other Krenov cabinet? Add watch out if the room is badly proportioned, or painted the wrong color, or incorrectly lighted; because then that beautiful wisp of a cabinet won't look nearly as beautiful. I know there are collectors of Krenov's work; in my imagnation they must be rich enough to afford a mansion with one room per piece of furniture, and then an entirely separate set of rooms to live in. Don't get me wrong: I think Krenov's work is transcendentally beautiful. I love it, though I probably couldn't live with it, even if I could afford the mansion and so on. But the first step to undeerstanding it and really appreciating it is to grasp the fact that it is utterly, completely useless. Then you can give up the ego that says that furniture should toil at your bidding, and you can just look, and look, and look at it. Like the caverns of Helm's Deep. This is clearly a case which falsifies (in context) one of my favorite sayings, by the important Arts and Crfts Movement philosopher and theoretician W.R. Lethaby: "Nothing looks well that has been done for looks." Tom ConroyBerkeley |
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278305 | leeburk@a... | 2024‑03‑11 | Re: project finished |
That is all true. Krenov's writing and his work are indeed about "art" and "design" and "pretty" of course but are at its root about the integrity of work - of doing something ordinary like a dovetail or even a butt joint so well (seen or unseen) that the work itself is the art. |
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278307 | scottg <scottg@s...> | 2024‑03‑11 | Re: project finished |
Wonderful work Phil! Way to go!! I have a slightly different take. I once made a cabinet very similar. Whether is was as artistic or not would be up to the beholder. All art is a subjective thing. For me it was about scoring some drop dead gorgeous blue stained pine. Fungus stained pine is not uncommon where I live. Its a downgraded wood compared to plain. But these 3 pieces I found was God on a bright spring morning, at the paintbrush. Richest blue and shimmering gold. With random streaks of dark chocolate accentuating the contrast. It was the prettiest wood I had ever found at the time. I built the little cabinet just to show it off. I have adored James Krenov ever since I first became aware of him. But I can't help but think that sometimes the material presented itself first and the poetry came after. yours scott -- ******************************* Scott Grandstaff Box 409 Happy Camp, Ca 96039 scottg@s... http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/ http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/hpages/index.html |
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278315 | Chris Wolf <hframe79001@g...> | 2024‑03‑13 | Re: project finished |
Although I admire Krenov-style cabinets, I have long held the view that they are "useless" for me. Thomas' explanation was so hilarious that I laughed all the way through it and then laughed again the second time I read it. However, I can present the other side as well. To me, Krenov-style wall cabinets share their general form and size with the classic Shaker wall cabinet. The Shakers were known above all for their simplicity and practicality, so I'm quite sure that they found these cabinets very useful in their homes. I think perhaps the main explanation for this would be that they had far fewer possessions than most of us do today.� They would not dedicate a cabinet to storing a single fiddle (as they would have probably called it), nor would they have a collection of Oriental porcelain bowls. A small cabinet could probably work well to hold many of the essentials of everyday life, the ones they wanted to have close at hand rather than stored in low chests, trunks or large drawers. --Chris Check out H-frame, the site for vintage Black & Decker Workmates https://h-frame.weebly.com/ |
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