Tracey Cheuvront
Creator & Powervarver, also Specializing in Tool Restoration
Tracey’s Paid Seminars
Unconventional Spoon Carving (2 hours, $50)
Because Tracey carves dry lumber as well as greenwood, his approach to hand carving is a bit unorthodox. Spoons for instance would traditionally be hand carved from greenwood using an axe, straight knife, and hook knife — but it can also be done expediently on a shavehorse with drawknife, spokeshave, gouge, and knife. In this two hour seminar, Tracey will show the basics of traditional axe and knife work, though the emphasis will be on his less conventional approach because it not only allows for carving dry wood but is safer, quicker to learn, and the tools are easier to acquire and maintain. Discussion will also include reading grain, wood species, techniques, and tool maintenance.
Wood Literacy (2 hours, $50)
(Saturday 9:00am – 11:00am)
Choosing the right piece of wood for a project can not only enhance its strength and beauty but also minimize potential pitfalls. Is this knot a flaw or a feature? Does grain orientation matter in this particular situation? Is this even a good workpiece for this project? What is the difference between hardness and toughness? Tracey will address the fundamental reasons why wood warps and cracks as it dries, along with considerations of the physical qualities of wood and characteristics of individual species. The goal is to see inside a log or board, comprehend and respect what the grain is doing, and approach it with the right tools.
Backyard Wood Processing (2 hours, $50)
Unwanted trees can be so much more than firewood, so capitalize on an underutilized resource and save money! Many of the hardwood species growing throughout the US in urban areas are not readily available on the commercial market but are beautiful, plentiful, and easy to work with. Tracey will share ways to evaluate and process raw logs so you can prepare and preserve your own high quality small slabs and project blanks with a minimal investment in equipment, space, and time. Topics will include identifying wood species and their potential uses, sawing vs. splitting, tool selection, and wood behavior.
Seminars Included With General Admission
Blade Geometry Basics
(Friday 1:00 – 2:00 | Saturday 12:30 – 1:30)
In most cases the overall profile of a blade is much more important than razor sharpness at the very edge. This seminar will be more a discussion of the physics of how blades engage with wood rather than a tutorial on specific sharpening methods. Whether chisel, drawknife, hand plane, spokeshave, gouge, or axe, understanding these basic properties is essential to make edge tools perform at their best.
The Dynamic Drawknife
Not just for peeling bark, a properly tuned drawknife is an efficient and versatile shaping tool. Tracey will demonstrate various types of drawknives while showing how to read grain on the fly to cut fast and clean. He will also cover how to find, evaluate, restore, and sharpen both modern and vintage drawknives. Shaping on the Shavehorse If you have never used a well designed shavehorse for hand shaping with a drawknife, spokeshave, rasp, or scraper, you don’t know what you’re missing! Tracey will run through shavehorse design considerations and demonstrate how amazingly effective each of these hand tools can be when paired with this marvel of ergonomics and expediency.
Shaping on the Shavehorse
If you have never used a well designed shavehorse for hand shaping with a drawknife, spokeshave, rasp, or scraper, you don’t know what you’re missing! Tracey will run through shavehorse design considerations and demonstrate how amazingly effective each of these hand tools can be when paired with this marvel of ergonomics and expediency.