Garden Wheelbarrow shown less a Splint Basket (available special order) featuring 18” diameter wheel for easy pushing and white oak wood throughout. Note sweep of the rails and chamfer detail. — $475 (painted)
Many other variations possible, including the heavy duty version below. Call to discuss options and prices.
Table top brazier with 6” x 6” fire box and removable Walnut turned handle as well as lift off grill sown as it can be used to cook on the finished surface of a table. Design copied from an original in Ford Mansion Washington's Headquarters Morristown, New Jersey, and made in the USA. — $220
Pine Tavern Tankard with flip up lid to keep the flies out of your cider. Hand made by me and lined with West Systems epoxy for permanent sanitary and sealant solution. — $110
Delaware Valley mid-18th Century Sawbuck Table with Windsor Green painted legs using Rockler authentic color. Shown also is a correct pine plank bench with split off tapered oak legs that easily knock out for storage/traveling.
• Standard 1” thick 48” X 32” top shown on table — $330
• 48” long Bench — $90
With two benches you have comfortable seating for four people.
Solid wood swells with humidity and shrinks across the grain when dry. This movement of the wood produces cracks if the wide wooden top of a table is secured to the finishing end board (bread board attached to hide end grain) and the batten attached under the top to provide additional strength by multiple fasteners.
Some early furniture builders solved this problem by making the joint that attaches the bread board end and the batten by a long "dovetail" joint. The batten or bread board is kept from sliding off the top by a single peg into the the table top and now the expansion/contraction takes place at will with no constraint. A 30” wide pine top will contract nearly 1/2 inch from my New Jersey summer shop weather to California or Arizona dryness on even in a heated house in the winter.
You can see this dovetail joint in the picture as well as the pin that secures the stretcher between the "X" legs of my Saw Buck table.
One of the best collections of Revolutionary War items in one place is in the little known Visitor's Center at Washington Crossing State Park Titusville, New Jersey.
The Swan Historical Foundation's collection of over 600 pieces are on display seven day a week (except holidays) many with known provenance and some known to been carried in the crossing December 1776. This display reflects four generations Swan collectors!
Included is an original Ferguson Rifle, numerous muskets and rifles, swords, powder horns, eight dog-face pistols, etc. all with information about the item. Kels Swan, President of the Foundation, is usually at the Visitor Center on Saturdays and if you display a knowledgeable interest in an item you very well might get to see it up close and personal. At the very least you will be rewarded with fine discussion from a skilled teacher. Phone: 609-737-9303
The Original Johnson Ferry house is open Wednesday thru Sunday and has been restored and furnished much as it would have been when Washington and his officers visited during the three crossings made prior to and after the Battle of Trenton. Curator Nancy Ceperly is a wealth of knowledge about the Johnsons, the crossings, and the 18th Century garden she tends behind the house. Phone: 609-737-2515
NOTE: Oak wheelbarrow built for Nancy by the Living History Shop.
One of the interesting projects we've done just for fun has been to create an accurate scale model of our farm house, circa. 1840's. The core of the house was built in about 1740, but it was extensively added to and remodeled throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries.
Scale: 1" = 1'
In the photos below Regina Toone looks over her finished roofing project which required application of over 3,000 cedar roof shingles. The model is designed to disassemble for easy access to the fully finished — and furnished — interior.
Smoke & Fire News is a worthwhile publication for those interested in living history interpretation. Editor Lee Larkin is also a Master Horner.
He stopped by the Living History Shop tent during Ft. Frederick Market Fair. In the photo below, Lee (left) and Richard Toone discuss how the Spring Pole Lathe could be adapted to turn butt plugs for powder horns.
First seating using the British 33rd Regiment of Foot officer's mess kit to entertain civilian visitors at the Ronald Reagan Library, April 2009. Learn more about the mess kit.
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