newsminer.com

FAIRBANKS — Knowledge passed through the ages has suggested treasures can come in many forms: Books, knowledge, memories, family, peace. Local woodworkers John Manthei and Phil Marshall recently set out to prove treasures can also come in the form of a piece of wood.

“We’re hoping to open people’s eyes to what is in the forest,” said Manthei, a semi-retired woodworker-turned-carpenter-turned-teacher. “We all experience the forest in different ways, and we want to expose students to a new experience with the forest and the treasures within.”

Manthei and Marshall co-taught a University of Alaska Fairbanks Summer Sessions course that spanned four days last weekend, Treasures From the Forest. After completing the class, each student had the beginnings of their own personal treasure, with wood collected from an area along Glacier Creek and the 2004 burn area along Fairbanks Creek.

“I’m looking at things completely differently than I did before. Being out in the woods I realized those aren’t just dead trees, they are possibilities,” said student Kathy Nussbaumer as she scraped bark from a chunk of tree that she envisioned as the salmon tray it was to become.

A fist-time woodworker, Nussbaumer said she took the class because she likes new experiences, and she liked the idea of spending time outdoors and learning what she could about hand tools. Although not entirely sure of the name of each tool she used while chipping away at her project, she was optimistic about her work and enjoyed the experience.

The instructors anticipated the need to open the students’ minds to a new outlook before Friday’s introductory class. Manthei has been “dabbling in woodworking” since he was a child and started working professionally in the 1970s, having studied furniture design in New York. He also does carpentry work, volunteering for Habitat for Humanity and doing traveling contract home construction. Teaching, he said, was a good extension of the work he’s done for so long.

Marshall, currently a professional wood carver and proprietor of Polhavn Woodfabrik in Fairbanks, said he began carving about 19 years ago, first as a hobby and eventually as a profession. Trained in traditional hand woodcarving in Austria and Norway and under German and Italian masters in the U.S., Marshall said he now enjoys working on rustic pieces done with old-fashioned tools.

“We have more enthusiasm than we know what to do with,” Manthei said amidst the array of projects underway Sunday afternoon. “When we started I suggested everyone choose simple projects they could finish in two days, but everyone chose complicated, challenging projects, and it is very exciting.”

Ambitious plans

Chipping away at her own undeniably challenging project, Melody Springer was brimming with excitement and determination.

“This part,” she said, pointing to a three-foot-high stump with an attached root system with a nearly two-foot diameter, “was on the roof of one of the trucks when we hauled it out.” Next to it sat an even larger stump, with a diameter approaching five feet in its widest section. That would serve as the top of her table, and the other stump would be the base.

“I just loved this sunburst it makes,” she said, pointing at the elaborate circular root system.

Aware she had a lot of work ahead of her, Springer set a goal early on to get the bark scraped in a fashion that offered a pleasing surface texture, then carve the stumps so they jointed together to form the table. Her plan was to end with a glass top over the sunburst and eventually display the table outdoors in a gazebo.

“I just love functional art,” she said.

Close by, Kathryn Mosley admired the soon-to-be table while scraping bark from her own project — a sturdy burl on a tree limb that would soon be a lidded box. Unlike Springer, who made a birch and willow chair last year, Mosley had no handcarving experience prior to the class. No stranger to the forest, she said the class changed the way she sees the woods. Mosley said she learned to recognize the value of things like burls and curved wood stock.

“At first I would be looking for firewood. Now I own a sawmill so then it became a search for lumber, and now I have a whole new way to look at trees,” she said. “They’ve become more functional, beautiful, and value added.”

The lone male in the class, Mike Nutter appeared to be more at ease with many of the tools on hand — “I’ve been bending nails since I was knee-high to a duck,” he said — but was experiencing the same evolution of vision as his classmates. Most of Nutter’s background is in carpentry work, but he jumped at the chance to focus on a more rustic approach.

“I really wanted to learn more about wood jointery and how to use my tools better,” Nutter said, noting he is familiar with hand tools such as lathes, chisels and other tools and has been “eating wood since I had teeth.”

Nutter chose a sentimental project: A rocking chair for his pregnant fiance.

“She really wants one, so when we went out there (harvesting) and found that first S-curve (branch) I thought, ‘That could be a rocking chair,’” he said, adding his classmates with good eyes helped spot other necessary elements for the chair, including some curved branches for armrests and a large burl stump for the seat and back.

“This is a really great use of parts. It’s a beauty,” Manthei encouraged.

An encouraging atmosphere

Students used such tools as lathes, mallets, chisels and other old-fashioned items, with only the occasional whine of a power tool. Words of encouragement could be heard amidst the scrapings, chiseling and other sounds emitted from the little camp in the Native village inside Pioneer Park. By 3 p.m. Monday afternoon, Manthei and Marshall were ready to begin cleaning up and allow their students to share their successes and frustrations.

Springer left the class not with a finished table, but with a good start on a project and guidance as to how she can finish it on her own time. That’s all right with her, she said, because she came into the class expecting it to offer ideas to keep her busy long after.

“There were times I wondered if my sunburst would end up just hanging on the wall instead of becoming a table, but it actually came together,” Springer said of her project. “You can tell it’s a table now.”

Nutter, calling his project “amazing” and “unruly,” said his chair is “close to being kinda sorta almost done.” He also didn’t expect to finish during the two days, but to have a good start on an item to tack onto his project list, which also includes a baby crib.

“I’m stoked at how it turned out,” he said proudly.

Nussbaumer asked about specifics as to how to finish her salmon tray, which still needs some rounding on the handles and treating to prevent cracking. Mosley also has to do some treating to ensure her burl box lasts and needs to do some work fastening. The group emitted as much eagerness at the end of the class as it had during their first session three days before.

“It’s been wonderful to have so many people trying new things and being so positive. This enthusiasm has been contagious,” Marshall said.

Contact information was exchanged so continued connection among students and teachers could exist, and, when Marshall posed the all-important question — “Would any of you do this again?” — the group answered unanimously: Most definitely.