Frank Caico's Blog

This was indeed a great weekend of unseasonably warm weather for Rochester.  I spent a good deal of time in my workshop working on my latest project:  A krenov style Wooden Hand Plane.  Its coming along real well and I suspect I will finish the woodworking this week (if the weather report is correct).  Its a real cool project that has forced me to learn some new techniques.  The book I am using as a guide (Making and Mastering Wood Planes) is pretty amazing.  It goes into great detail on each and every step and really keeps your confidence up as it documents the possible pitfalls involved.

Mike had his annual X-Mas party this weekend. Good fun was had by all!  We even got to experience some actual Myrrh!  For those of you interested;

Myrrh is currently used in some liniments, healing salves that may be applied to abrasions and other minor skin ailments. It is also used in the production of Fernet Branca.

Look for the holiday group shot pictures to be posted within the next day or two.

The guys over at Treehugger are reporting on a sexy new lingerie made out of wood scraps!  This is the real deal - a sexy lingerie with "the comfort of silk, the feel of cashmere, and the coolness of linen. The resulting pieces acquire surprising thermal regulating and anti-stress properties."

Talk about renewable lumber, This is the kind of wood that could keep on giving. If you know what I mean.

Had a nice relaxing weekend (all too short, as usual).  I finally got around to doing some much needed chores.  I also managed to do a little bit of woodworking.  Last week I put the final coats of polyeurethane on my Mitre Saw station, and on Saturday I took some photos of it.

Mitre Saw Station

I even got to use it on Saturday to make some picture frame moulding out of spalted cherry.  Its going to make a great addition to my shop.

Saw a few movies this weekend:
Friday I saw For Your Consideration.  I didn't think it was very good.  There were some funny moments, but all-in-all its kind of the same schtick that Christopher Guest and his gang have been doing reformed and revised yet again.  I think I could probably miss their next movie if its going to be more of the same. 

On Saturday we saw Borat, which unless you've been living under a rock you have already seen it or heard much about it.  I think this has to be the funniest movie I've seen in a very long time.  The hotel room scene had me howling. I can only imagine what kind of law suits this movie is generating for.  Purportedly, the police were called on Sacha Baron Cohen 91 times during the production of this film.

Sunday I saw Babel. This is the latest movie directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and written by Guillermo Arriaga.  Their previous works include 21 grams and Amores Perros.  The acting was quite good, and the characters were well-developed and sympathetic but the narrative didn't feel satisfying in the end.  It certainly seemed like it could have been edited down to much less than the current running 2 hours 26 minutes.  I'd say I liked it more than 21 grams, but less than Amores Perros.

Saturday, Angela, John and I went to The Black Pearl Cafe (used to be Dickies) to see what their food was like.  Pretty underwhelming.  I don't think I'm going to try their food again until business picks up (if it ever does).   We had originally tried to eat at Red Robin, a new gourmet burger chain that has come to Rochester. The 40 minute wait time scared us off.  Let me know if you have a burger there - I am curious to see if their burgers are worth the $10-$12 they are asking.

The Rochester Woodworker's Society had a lecture and workshop this weekend given by Garrett Hack. Garrett is a nationally known woodworker, teacher and contributing editor to Fine Woodworking magazine (in fact he's on the latest issue's cover). He is also the author of the seminal The Handplane Book; an excellent book on the history and use of one of the most important woodworking tools. I've got this book and it really is a terrific read.

Garrett's work is pretty fantastic on its own (you can see some of his work at this web site, but he's also an excellent teacher. Hearing him speak about his choices and the way he's developed his style and technique really reminded me of other exceptional teachers that I've had from entirely different disciplines. Its interesting to see how people develop once they go beyond the skills of the teachers available to them. For those people not satisfied to continue doing what they (and their predecessors) have already done, there comes a need to strike out and develop a unique language and skill set that no one else has. The beauty of this is that it not only allows those exceptional few to continue to increase their skill, but if they have the wherewithal to teach others it advances the craft as a whole.

Kudos to Mr. Hack for being that sort of a teacher. I think his ideas will continue to influence the craft of fine furniture making long after he's dead.

Some of you guys know that I've been getting into woodworking in a big way recently. I've completed a few projects and my confidence level is rising.

I've been asked a couple of times how I'm teaching myself. The answer is from books. There are some really good books out there covering woodworking techniques. It helps to have pictures too. Probably the best book(s) I've come across has been Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking. This is an excellent 3 volume set of books that really covers alot of the fundamentals. It also comes with a great DVD of Tage Frid showing some of the techniques (and in general clowning around). check it out!