Peter Follansbee

Nov 13, 2024 | finewoodworking.com | Peter Follansbee |Anissa Kapsales |Ben Strano

*editor’s note: You’ll notice this video just starts—no intro, no fanfare. It was all too good to cut. Follansbee, the youngest of 5, grew up in Weymouth, Massachusetts. When he was 17, he Inherited his father’s shop full of power tools. An artist, he began learning to use the table saw and other things to make picture frames at first. Then one thing led to another. He dropped out of art school in 1976.

Nov 13, 2024 | finewoodworking.com | Peter Follansbee

Synopsis: Peter Follansbee does his woodworking in a freestanding timber-frame shop that’s just under 200 sq. ft. He only uses hand tools, so the shop has no electricity. A woodstove keeps the place warm in winter. The shop includes an 8-ft.-long workbench, a foot-operated pole lathe, an auxiliary bench, and hand tools on shelves and in chests, cabinets, and boxes. There’s also a loft, with storage for additional tools and for unused furniture.

Sep 24, 2024 | popularwoodworking.com | Peter Follansbee

The cost of this stock is physical exertion, but it’s fun and rewarding. The riven oak that I use for joinery work is the best stock available; but it comes at a cost – the labor invested to produce it. Money can’t buy this material; you must split and plane it. But the rewards are many. The oak produced in this manner is unsurpassed, better even than quartersawn stock. Each riven board is perfectly radial, and consequently very dimensionally stable.

Aug 7, 2024 | finewoodworking.com | Peter Follansbee |Ben Strano

There’s a lot of turned work on the Essex County cupboard I build in Fine Woodorking #312. I use a pole lathe; the action is provided by a foot-treadle below and a 12-ft.-long sapling in the ceiling above. A cord tied to the sapling wraps around the workpiece and runs down to the treadle. Each kick of the treadle spins the turning toward the tool, then the pole springs it backward. Then comes another kick. I often reserve a short section on the turning as the place the cord wraps around.

Aug 7, 2024 | finewoodworking.com | Peter Follansbee |Ben Strano

The original of this cupboard was made during the 1680s in Essex County, Mass. It is made up of two cases, and encompasses just about every technique used in English joinery of that period–applied moldings and turnings, carved patterns, faux architectural enhancements, and painted accents. Follansbee made it from green wood, split from a log, using all hand tools. I recently got the chance to build a reproduction of a cupboard I’ve been studying for over 25 years.