I might have to give up on the Hayrake Table.

[Benchwayze]

Folks,

I have scoured Google and Yahoo for some meaningful articles on the Barnsley style Hay-rake Table. I have found one or two photographs, but they are difficult to interpret. I would buy a book I have seen on Barnsley and his workshop, but the SWIMBO Radar has just been serviced and it's working at fever pitch!

So, yet again it looks like the back of an envelope and an HB pencil! So, while I am at it, does anyone know if Whitmore's Timber Merchants in Hinkley are good for English Oak. If I can't get English oak, is it a crime to use European, or American for this project?

Cheers
John

 

[Max Power]

I'm sure Lataxe over on fine woodworkings knotts forum recently made one of those, might be worth having a look

 

[liam8223]

I'm five mins from Whitmores which is in Claybrooke, not Hinckley, and they will be fine for english oak.

I dont find them expensive at all, and they are extremely handy for me!

Liam

 

[Paul Chapman]

I have scoured Google and Yahoo for some meaningful articles on the Barnsley style Hay-rake Table.

I seem to remember someone making a table in that style which featured in F&C some time ago :-k

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[Aled Dafis]

Let me have a rummage through my "stash" I'm sure that I have plans for a Hayrake table from a magazine somewhere. Let's just hope that it wasn't "filed" in the last "reorganisation" I had a few months ago :roll:

Cheers

Aled

 

[Benchwayze]

Thanks folks...

I remember one in 'The Woodworker' a good few years back now. It had ebony and boxwood inlays all around the edges of the top, (Wouldn't necessarily include that aspect.) But I've wanted such a table for the lounge ever since. I think the hay-rake underframe demands a full size lay-out on ply first though, so I can get busy on that when this freeze lets up!

This will be occasional-table size btw. If it's a success, SWIMBO will no doubt realise my talents and demand a Dining Table to match. :lol: :lol: :lol:

Liam, I will definitely be making tracks for Whitmores, so thanks for that. (I already have a cube of 'centreboard' oak for the top, so that will be a saving.)

Thanks again and I'll scout around the web a bit more.

regards
John

 

[jimi43]

I take it you found this one John:

They are beautiful aren't they?

Jim

 

[Benchwayze]

That is the one I saw, as far as I recall. Yes it is a fine piece of woodwork.
I particularly like the curved 'rake-head' which is a departure. I am keen on the inlays around the edge, but I don't want to be too slavish. Times like this when I wish I could carve oak-leaves! However, just look at the rays on that top!

Thanks Jim. That's a step nearer.

(I unearthed the mahogany BTW, but SWIMBO wanted to go shopping today. So I risked the ice! No problems, but tomorrow I am free all day! Whey-hey! )

John

 

[Benchwayze]

Let me have a rummage through my "stash" I'm sure that I have plans for a Hayrake table from a magazine somewhere. Let's just hope that it wasn't "filed" in the last "reorganisation" I had a few months ago :roll:

Cheers

Aled

Thanks Aled... Great help.

Regards
John

 

[jimi43]

Here is the full article...it has some detail in the finer parts but the pictures are not that big...hope this helps...

FULL HAY RAKE TABLE ARTICLE.

Thanks on the mahogany...can't wait to see the pictures!

I will do some more fettling tonight...I am on shift at 3pm tomorrow so no early start!

Cheers mate

Jim

 

[Tony Spear]

I love those butterfly dovetails in the top.

If he can sell that at over 3 grand what would an original by Gimson be worth! :shock:

 

[tja]

I take it you've seen the February 2009 issue of Popular woodworking, which features a 6-page article on a hayrake table by Don Weber. There's also a Sketchup model.
Some pictures of his work in progress.

Take

 

[Modernist]

Interesting the competence of the maker shows through clearly.

And another dropped and brazed up carriage makers plane!

 

[Chris Knight]

I have always loved the Gimson one. It obviously calls for skill and care in the making but the joinery is pretty straightforward in design terms I think.

 

[woodbloke]

I'd go for English oak in the first instance and European second...stay clear of that AO for a project like this as I think it deserves something better - Rob

 

[Benchwayze]

Right Folks,

Such a lot to digest here. So the Hayrake design wasn't Barnsley's after all. Small wonder I couldn't find what I was really looking for. I did find that photograph from Popular Woodworking but it was at an American site and the magazine wasn't mentioned! It looks to be more straightforward in its construction, but it's still gonna take some care.

What I like most about the first design is the detail in the carving and the chamfering. I'm not too sure about the inlays around the edge. They give the table that 'zing', but they might come off as 'gaudy' in comparison to the colour of the oak. I also like the curved cross bar in the 'rake'. That takes away the need for four angled mortice and tenons where each end meets the diagonals. So I will incorporate that.

The wide 45 deg chamfers worked on the inside of the legs of the larger table, also eliminate four more angled M&T joints, so I might incorporate that too. Not scared of the angled joints, but there's enough work here anyhow to keep me busy!

Instead of butterfly inlays, on the top I thought of putting raised walnut inlays in the ends of the top. (A' la Matty!) A lot will depend on how dry I can get the timber. So ATM I am enjoying the planning.

It's unfortunate that I don't carve well. Although maybe an acorn or two might be within my meagre stock of gouges!

My thanks to everyone who has helped here, especially with drawings and pics. It snowed heavily here last night. But as soon as I can, I am off to Whitmore's!

Regards
John

 

[Benchwayze]

I'd go for English oak in the first instance and European second...stay clear of that AO for a project like this as I think it deserves something better - Rob

I agree Rob.. It was a daft question anyway! :lol: :lol:
There really is no alternative unless it's Bog or Brown oak!


John

 

[paisawood]

John,
I recall that I saw a Gimson Hayrake table a couple of years ago. I think it was in the Arts and Crafts section of the museum at Cheltenham although it may have been the V&A. It doesn't appear in Cheltenham's on-line catalogue but if you want to see, touch and feel one it would be worth ringing them up and asking if they have one. (Telephone 01242 237431 )

Good luck

Regards

David

 

[Benchwayze]

Hi David,

Thanks for that info.

I don't think I could travel to the 'Smoke' just yet, but Cheltenham isn't too far out of the way, if they have one of these tables.

I am obliged for the info.

Cheers.
John

 

[Tony Spear]

Right Folks,

Such a lot to digest here. So the Hayrake design wasn't Barnsley's after all. Small wonder I couldn't find what I was really looking for.
Regards
John

You may not have been as far out as you think!

After Edward Barnsley left the Cotswolds and and set up the Edward barnsley workshops in the early 1900's, Ernest Gimson and Sidney Barnsley carried on in the Daneway/Sapperton area for a further 20 years. Gimson was actually more interested in the design aspects and often used assistants for the actual manufacturing, whereas Sid. Barnsley was himself much more involved in making things. It's quite feasible therefore that pieces exist that were designed by Gimson (or Gimson and Barnsley) but were actually made by Barnsley.

There is a photograph of the "business end" of a hay-rake table made by Sid. Barnsley in:

"Arts and Crafts Furniture: from classic to contemporary"
by Kevin Rodel and Jonathon Binzen
Taunton Press c.2005

There's also a reproduction of the plans for such a table in the book (I know 'cos I sin it! :wink: ), but I don't remember who's design it was.

So there you go, Barnsley was right all along, just the wrong Barnsley!

It's also possible that there is one of those tables at Kelmscott, but it's so long since I've been there that I really don't remember.

Edit to add: A lot of Gimson's later stuff at Daneway was actually made by Peter Waals.
Also, Gimsons last major project was the Library at Bedale's School and the table in the photo i referred to above is in that Library!

How the hell do I remember all this stuff? :shock: