John Hooper's Way With Wood (1977)

[Music] [Music] I love that sort of experience of being right in the woods when it's very quiet and nobody around and and uh you feel rather small against all these tree people standing around. And I I think that's the sort of feeling I've had for such a long time that wood is or trees is so much more than just plants growing around the place that you burn or that you chop up. When I come to chop a tree down, I don't particularly like killing the tree, but I am hopefully going to use its wood a good purpose. I think people have to realize when they're working with wood that it is demanding and it does require understanding and respect in order to get a good job out of it. The lumber industry is machinebased these days. That means that your selection of wood is much poorer than it used to be in the old days. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] The easiest and most economical way of cutting logs is flat soil. By this method, the best boards come from the outside of the log. The center of the tree is formed when it's young. And this wood has a property which causes it to shrink and swell more than the outer wood. If you look at the end of a board and the annual rings are steep or at right angles to the board, then this board comes from the center of the tree. If you look at a board that has come from the outside of the tree, the annual rings will curve gently. It is these boards that come from the outside of the tree that are best for furniture making. [Music] There are great number of different species of trees in Canada. [Music] You can find good woods for furniture or cabinet making like birch, maple, pine, oak, cedar, butternut, fur, any number of woods. [Music] But you have to look for them. Not all lyards will stock them. [Music] Oak is a good wood for some furniture. It's hard, so it needs sharp tools and a well set saw. There's this fallacy that uh once you have a dry piece of wood, whether it be kil dried or air dried, that it then you have a piece of wood that will stay that way forever. And that's obviously not so at all. Wood is governed by atmosphere and by particularly by moisture. it will give out moisture or take in moisture all its life. Therefore, you have to ensure that the condition of the wood is compatible with the atmosphere in which it is. And that applies as much to an old piece of wood as it does to a new piece of wood. I enjoy cutting a mortise and tenon joint by hand to get it really tight and strong. If I used wood that had a lot of moisture in it, the wood would would eventually shrink and the joint would loosen and and really would lose its purpose altogether. [Music] There's such a turnover of wood in Olympia that it's often not stacked or protected properly. Your wood should be stacked so that there's plenty of air circulation around the wood so that it'll dry evenly and slowly. So, there should be spaces in the wood set above each other and at proper intervals. The lumber industry often kil dries wood rapidly and rather poorly. And although this wood is all right for construction, it is not suitable for furniture making. John, make sure you get the the letter the ABC at this end. Right. >> Yep. If you can't get the dry lumber you want, you can bring back green lumber and dry it yourself. And the best way to do this is to bring the lumber into your heated workshop, stack it, and wrap it completely in plastic. The the heat of the room will cause the wood inside the plastic to lose moisture. If the plastic remains totally sealed, the moisture will condense on the inside of the plastic. This means you have to open a vent in the plastic in order to let some of the moisture out. If the vent has been opened for a while and you see cracks beginning to appear on the ends of the boards, that means that the wood is drying too fast and the vent should be closed down some. drying the wood by this method. Well, depending on just how wet the boards are that that you're trying to dry can could take months or even into, you know, a year or two depending on the type of wood. [Music] When you build a piece of furniture, it's it's a process of joining pieces of wood together to arrive at the finished result. But this bench is is part of a larger process which is one of removing wood. [Music] I've been carving for about 25 years and I've used quite a lot of different woods and each each wood has its own particular value and challenge. This mahogany I'm carving now is uh it has been good to carve. It's uh it splinters a little, but it's resistant and it it takes a good finish. Hey, hey, hey. There are times when there's a need to pause for quite a long time and I find just to sit and look at what's coming out of the wood and and reflect on what happens next And at a point when the figures begin to emerge, I find that it becomes a mutual affair. I I I find myself obviously being governed but what by what I see in front of me. And in a funny sort of way, the the figure is almost saying, well, you know, I think I'm going to sort of take on this form. And I'm myself sort of saying, well, okay, then I'll take some more off here, and I'll maybe be careful not to remove any there. And uh this seems to continue right until the the final moment of of completion. [Music] He was in the [Music] Those [Music] [Music] figures whilst they've been developing, it's been very much of a mutual affair. But as they come to completion, take on their own sort of personality. It's really goes full circle back to the tree in the woods. You can chop it down or you can just look at it and admire it or touch it and uh it's there and it's going to be there and uh you don't really matter much one way or the other. And yet you have the pleasure of being involved with the tree, with the wood, and in its transformation from one form to another. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]