Tuesday, August 11, 2015

The New Shop Works

You should see the look you get when you tell a moving crew that you're taking three 200lbs slabs of slate with you on your move across the country. Maybe it was just the fact that we were standing in a fieldstone basement, and they were suddenly wondering how many of the other rocks in few were coming along. At least there was no further argument when I added, "And this pile of wood too."

Some time in 2005 I was tipped off that an old pool table was being thrown out. It had lived in a cabin, without climate control. The felt was shot, and not much better could be said of the wood structure beneath. I found myself drawn to the idea of the slate between the two, though. Probably there was a subconscious dream of refinishing a pool table for my own house, but there were definitely also thoughts of chalkboards and such.

And so, the chunks of table top made it down one snowy January slope, and up another, into the back of my truck, back to my home, and into my basement … where they sat for seven years. When I first felt the mass of them, the chalkboard dreams vanished — who would feel safe attaching that to a wall? It took a bit of time to come up with other plans.

The first test came right after building a bed. Much smaller pieces were required, which both alleviated the weight concerns, and also meant there was plenty of material to experiment (i.e. fail and retry) with. I had no stonework experience, but after reading, watching youtube videos, and playing around, I cleaved two pieces that made pretty, textured tops for our nightstands.

Then the slabs sat dormant again. Shortly after my previous blog post, we left Greater Boston and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. Thus, the sidelong looks from the movers.

While we moved most of the house, one thing we didn't move was the coffee table. That was a varnished pine concoction that I built in college, and we found it a nice home instead of bringing it along. That opened a hole in the living room, and what else could I possibly see but the weighty, smooth, shady, cool slice of slate?

Some sketches, some planning, a load of lumber, and a few months of weekends later…

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I'm super happy with how this turned out. The top is cut down to 21 by 42 inches, with some natural cleaving around the edge for detail. It's finished with Glaze'n'Seal, to keep stains off. The base is mahogany, hand-planed planks glued edge-to-edge, so the weight is supported in the direction of the grain. The wood is finished with my trusty mix of mineral oil and beeswax.

This was the first project I've done where I didn't have all of the dimensions nailed down before starting. Given the piece of slate, and the basic height and shape of the base, I calculated the maximum amount of wood I could need, and started there.

I found the wood at Global Wood Source. They had stacks of beautiful species, and they were very friendly and helpful. I settled on mahogany mostly for its color, which I thought would contrast with the grey slate without being jarring.

I probably should have bought a planer at this point. But instead I hauled out my hand plane and water stones. Three sessions, each a few hours in length, and I had some roughly jointed planks.

I cut these to length - 16 inches - and then determined how many I would need to span from one corner to the other of my slab. After a bit more edge cleanup, the gluing began.

The cross-pieces and shelves came together in a similar manner, and once they each had their basic shape, the work began to fit them together.

Sanding was the wonderful process it always is - tiring, dirty, but revealing. With each new grit, more of the figure of the grain became visible. And some day I'll spend more time learning how to capture it on camera properly…

I risked doing all five pieces at once in the final glue up. It seemed like the best bet for making sure the whole unit was flat and stable. Luckily it seems to have worked.

If each successive stage of sanding makes the grain more beautiful, then the first coat of polish is the ultimate sanding. Though the dust was undoubtedly red, the pieces themselves had been quite pale to this point. When the oil and beeswax hit them, though, they popped.

Meanwhile, there was stonework. I found a simple wet tile saw to work fairly well, even if it did produce large clumps of clay. I took the slab to size early in the project, to be able to double-check and gauge true dimensions.

Once the base was done, I cut grooves in the bottom of the slab to keep it from moving around. This was by far the dirtiest part - the saw flung tiny bits of slate all over. I was glad to be wearing a dust mask and safety goggles.

The final detail on the top was a cleaved edge. A few minutes of scoring a line along the edge, 1/4 inch from the top, and then just a fun time tapping a cold chisel.

A bit of sanding on the top face was required to remove the dusty, scratched surface, and to remove sharp edges. Coats of Glaze'n'Seal went on with drama, and now the piece sits in our living room. It passed the dinner test. :)

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Monday, May 4, 2015

Redwoods!

Hi Everyone!

This past weekend, we had house guests and did some exploring with them. The daughter of my former boss, and her roommate, spent the break between their spring internships and summer classes exploring California. They spent a few days with the roommate's family in the Los Angeles area, and then they spent a few days up here with us.

On Sunday, we went to Santa Cruz for brunch and a walk along the beach, and then we went to Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park for a hike. It was a lovely spot, and I know that Gramma in particular likes a good tree, so I took some pictures to show you.

Despite the drought, the forest was still pretty green, and there was still a bit of water running through the stream in the park. This was the view up the hill from our hiking trail.

This picture doesn't really capture how massive this tree is, but it's one of the largest ones in the park. I think there's about 200 feet of tree above us, and the diameter of the tree is on the order of 20 feet.

The trees are so tall that you can't take a picture of the entire thing unless you use panoramic mode on the camera - maybe Bryan has one of those pictures! 

Lots of people in the park, including horseback riders, bicyclists, and lots of hikers, some with dogs. It was a nice way to spend an afternoon. If you come visit, we'll take you to the redwoods too!

And on that note, we bought a new couch that folds out into a queen-sized bed, so we have space for guests again.

That's all the news from California!

Amanda (& Bryan)
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Sunday, March 29, 2015

Making Udon Noodles

** I wrote this several months ago, but just now got my photos to upload. Sorry for the delay!**

On our way back to Kansas City after Christmas, Arman and I stopped at Kusaka Japanese Restaurant in Mineral Point. (For those of you in FDL at Christmas, this was the restaurant my mom was talking about.) It is so so good! I have been craving it since.  Arman had Ramen Yaki with Pork Shoulder, which was pan fried noodles with veggies, pork and scallions. I had Hiroko's Chicken Soup with Udon which was slightly spicy and delicious! Both the Ramen and Udon noodles were homemade. They are nothing like the dried ramen and udon you can purchase at the grocery store. We talked for a bit with the owners/chefs and they encouraged us to try to make them at home, so we did. The very next day.

Making Udon is kind of like making Italian pasta, except the dough is only flour, water, and salt. No egg. I used a combination of two recipes, Recipe 1 and Recipe 2, which came to roughly 3 c. flour, 1 c. water, and a teaspoon or so of salt. You can Google. There are a gazillion recipes and methods. I think it must depend on the region of Japan and your family.

I don't have pictures of the first few steps.

First we mixed the flour, water and salt with the stand mixer and bread hook for about 5 minutes. I scrapped the dough down a few times, as it kept creeping up the hook. Then we let it rest in the refrigerator for about 5 hours. From what I read it is better to leave it overnight, but again every recipe is different.

Then came the funnest part. We put the dough in a large plastic bag, sealed it almost all the way, and spread the dough out with our feet! Weird, right? I think many websites say to do this, because the dough is so stiff. I don't have a picture of our feed kneading, but here are someone else's feet...

I don't think this is how they make them at the restaurant, at least I kind of hope not. Anyways, each time the dough spread out, we took the dough out, folded it in 3rds or 4ths, and repeated the process. We did this about 4 times. Then we let it rest for about 20 min.

Next came the rolling, cutting and stretching. This dough was really really hard to roll. After it was rolled out, we folded it in thirds, cut strips, and stretched the strips out.

1. Rolling 

2. Folded and cutting noodles

3. Stretching noodles 




Next came cooking the udon. After a couple batches, we realized that it was important to dump the noodles in ice water as soon as they were cooked otherwise the texture was off. 



While I was rolling, cutting, stretching, and cooking the noodles, Arman was cooking the chicken and veggies, making broth, and handing me plates and bowls of ice water. Sly took a nap.

We ended with this yummy dish which we ate several times.

We're going to attempt this again soon, I think. Now that we have the process down it should be a bit easier and faster.

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