Stuart is best-known for his innovative ways to achieve the precision of traditional twisted spindles and twisted hollow forms, open-twist finials, and specialty twists such as the pig-tail and ram’s horn.  He is an expert carver on turnings as well, and he teaches quick and effective techniques for hollowing turnings for carved detail.

Stuart will hold an all-day class on twistwork with 5 students at Dennis Liggett’s woodshop on Labor Day, September 6th.   Several club members have enjoyed preparatory classes with Dennis to learn the basics of twistwork, including twisted hollow forms.  There are still two spaces left for the all-day class.  Call Dennis:  719-471-8754

Stuart will be one of the featured demonstrators for the Rocky Mountain Woodturning Symposium in Loveland, September 11 and 12.  Call Dennis if you need information on the Symposium or any of the Denver and Ft. Collins club events.

A few months ago, Doc Thode celebrated his 90th birthday with many of his woodturning friends.  Dennis heard about the birthday party from Lee Carter, and realized that it was time to place his order for a 1/3 scale high chair for his youngest grandchild.

Doc called Dennis last week to invite us up to his house.  He has lived in  an old Victorian house a few blocks from the CSU campus in Ft. Collins for quite some time.  It suits him to keep his tools in the basement, his books all around him, and the furniture that he makes employed with the various duties of furniture.  A special delight in the house are the many lamps made from useful bits and pieces of other things–barrels, pipes, fancy clamps, ironwork, and other bits of industrial leftovers.

Each of the full size pieces of furniture appears to have it’s twin at 1/3 scale perched on top of it. It took a few minutes for me to discover the smaller piece on top.  Doc waited patiently, and then enjoyed the discovery at least as much as I did.  There is a writing desk, and there is a scaled version; there is a Victorian card table with a rotating top, and there is a scaled version.  There is an antique corner cupboard, with just one of the three scaled   copies remaining.  There is a 1/3 scale highboy chest and companion mirror made to scale.  There are cradles, desks, and pie-crust tip-top tables.  But most of all, the house has the famous Windsor chairs and the caned rocking chairs for which Doc Thode is known worldwide.

Doc’s mother was a successful antique dealer in Denver.  He began making the 1/3 scale chairs for displays of antique dolls.  She also gave him an old chest of drawers covered in gray paint.  He cleaned it up and repaired it, discovering that it had lovely cherry casework and solid tiger maple drawer fronts.  It is upstairs in the bedroom, now, with a 1/3 version on top of it.  According to Doc, this piece of furniture started it all, and he has never looked back.

Doc is a renegade among the woodturning crowd.  He works on a metal lathe, and fabricates many of his own tools.   He never joined the AAW.  He particularly enjoyed meeting Bill Jones and Allan Batty, because they grew up in the traditional turning shop, learning to create accurate duplicates in short order.    Doc uses a story stick to create the numerous spindles that he needs for a windsor chair.  He cuts the coves with a round file so that they are all identical dimensions.  He doesn’t sand, because sanding removes the crispness of the tiny beads and coves.  He doesn’t have any interest in  turned bowls.

For Doc, the fun of creating furniture has always come from the challenge of figuring out the construction, and then finding (often making) the tool to do the job.  He has enjoyed making tools and jigs for Lee Carter.

Doc has taken great care to create historically accurate Windsor chairs.  He   maintained an extensive correspondence with John  Kassay  in order to make the scale chairs in the correct manner.  In the beginning, for example, he was wedging the tenons for all of the spindles in the back of the chair.  In fact, most historic chairs only had the center five wedged, in order to preserve the strength of the curved back rail.

Everywhere in Doc’s house the joy of disciplined creativity shines forth.  He has been making furniture for almost eighty years, and kept his standards at the very top of the craft.

–Kay Liggett

Dennis will look for  new trees during January in order to produce another batch of bowls with bark.  Generally, he is able to find cherry or ash in northwest Missouri, which has more hardwood trees than Colorado.  The winter-cut trees hold the bark better.  This is one of those works of art that takes both art and science!  When you see a natural edge bowl that you like, get it, because the grainlines will probably never be repeated in a subsequent bowl.  These are unique collaborations between the woodturner and Mother Nature.

Caring for a natural edge bowl:   It’s best to keep it out of direct sunlight, which will darken the wood.  Choose only light-weight, non-liquid contents!  If the surface needs polishing, use a high-quality paste wax, applied very thinly and delicately rubbed out.  The original finish was ‘Renaissance Wax.’  Contact Dennis if you have questions about caring for any of your woodturnings.

For 2009, Dennis has made a traditional icycle ornament with sea urchin shells and holly.

The urchins are a delicate seashell that has been stabilized and painted with iridescent paints.  The finials are turned in three pieces  too conserve holly, which is a very white, and relatively scarce wood.  The ornaments are 6″ tall, with shells up to 2″ wide.

The urchins are sometimes used upside down by woodturners, but Dennis prefers the Victorian look of the rightside-up shell.

Merry Christmas to All, and to All a long night in the woodshop!

The photo illustrates Stuart’s response to some bad noises coming from the Liggett lathes.  While Dennis and Kay turned, hollowed, carved, and sanded, Stuart worked on several of his own projects:  a huge goblet, two burl bowls for a local fundraiser, and photos for a magazine interview.  Neighborhood woodturners came by to pick up turning blanks, and to get help with things like refinishing a guitar.

The shop was filled with forms in various stages of completion.  Kay took several photos of the various ’still life’ opportunities in the shop, pictured below after some photoshopping.   Looking at Stuart Mortimer’s hollow forms in various stages is something like studying the drawings and studies that lead to paintings by Picasso or Matisse.  The forms have their own charm, in addition to the promise of the final product.

Dennis makes an English-style pepper mill learned from Allan Batty.  This shape allows a good grip for grinding when held either vertically, or perpendicularly to the food.   Maple is a good choice for tableware because of its hardness and durability, as well as its non-aromatic character.  This is a lovely piece of tiger-striped maple.

The upside-down salt shaker  repeats the shape of the pepper mill.

Peppermill    11″ tall

Salt Shakeer  3,25″ tall

The entire piece is turned from American Cherry.  As it ages, it will darken to the familar dark red cherry tones.  The finish is penetrating oil, with a hand-rubbed wax.

Overall height  10.5″  x  11″ diameter

Dennis Liggett – Skew Practice Stick  (hand-out from Demonstration)

Start with a 2” x 2” x 10” piece of stock

Mount between centers, and use the spindle roughing gouge or the skew to shave it to a cylinder.  Make the cuts by moving your body, not your hands!  Posture is the key to all skew work.

The first cut (top of photo) is the V-Cut.  This is the start of all shaping cuts with the skew.

The next shape is the half-bead.  Make the V first.  Starting at the top of the bead, roll the skew into the V, without stopping.  

The cove cut is more challenging with the skew.  You may also use a spindle gouge for the cove cut.  

To practice the ball and the egg, mark the fullest circumference in pencil.  Use v-cuts to lay out the length of the ball or egg.  Start at the pencil cuts and roll the skew into the V.  Don’t cut the pencil marks!

At the bottom of the practice stick, Dennis has shaved a narrow disk with V-cuts on both sides of it.  This is a good test of how much side pressure you are using.

Practice with the skew is the best way to learn correct bevel contact for all turning tools.

Practice every day for no more than 20 minutes.