Barn Door

Continuing with the theme of government jobs, here's a photo of the service door going into my shop. The door's made out of 2x6's and set into a steel frame. The window is an angle iron frame with a little jazzed up ironwork. The door faces south, so it's hard to keep a finish on it but I give it a coat of varnish every year or so. The inside stays nice because it's out of the sunlight. This project I had to work on after school for the most part. I also had to get a little help from the former woodworking teacher, Mr. McDowell. Having very little woodworking experience at that time, I thought it prudent to seek out professional help. The inscription is a quote from Elbert Hubbard. After deciding to go with Hubbard's inscription and his design of the lettering, I forged a carving tool and went to work.


















Hubbard was a serious player in the Arts and Crafts movement 100 years ago. His Roycroft Shops manufactured items out of wood, copper and iron. They also published The Philistine magazine and books, many of which featured fine leather bindings and hand illumination. Many of the books were of original Hubbard material and others were reprints of classical works by the great orators and philosophers. In Hubbard's New American Bible I came across Robert Ingersoll for the first time. There's another real interesting individual, by the way. I also picked up a copy of Hubbard's The Message to Garcia a few years back. It's a short inspirational book that also happens to be the fifth most widely published book of all time.

I got a chance to visit the Roycroft Shops in East Aurora, New York about a year ago. There are three or four buildings and a statue of the Fra himself that you can check out. If you're a fan of the Arts and Craft movement, as I am, you should definitely stop there if you're at all close. You can also tour the home of Millard Fillmore while you're there.

So I'm kind of proud of my door but Hubbard built a whole community and Fillmore, by the way, built his own house in East Aurora. I'm such a piker.