03 – Paris – Day 3
Day 3 – May 2, 2009
Bonjour…Today we need to buy some materials for our workshop class, and while jean-marc attaches the trailer to the car, I walk around the outside of his home and take a few pictures…
(above) Here is
his garage before it gets plastered on the outside…THIS, is how most of the
homes are built…Clay tile blocks stacked and mortared…
(above) How they
do it here…
(above) Jean-marc
has shaped his share of boards…He runs www.shaperoom..net
…Check it out… It is the Swaylock’s for those who speak French…
(above) Home to
J-m & family…
(above) Most good
homes here have a garden plot…In a month or two they should be eating well out
of this one…
(above) Found
this dead/going petrified toad out in the yard…No more flies will be in peril
from this guy…
(above) on our
way to get materials, I saw this postal delivery woman on her authorized
bicycle…Purpose built…
(above) Next on our list of things to get:
cork for the rails of the boards we will build in the workshop…We stopped in at
Aggloloux-CBL one of the two cork ‘factories’ in
In this magazine cover, it shows a cork harvester cutting the bark from a cork oak tree…The trees have been harvested this way forever, and the bark grows back and is re-harvested every five to seven years…Sustainable resource management, in the best possible way…
(above) Here is the raw cork bark drying out…
(above) One of
the ways the cork is used is to grind it up,
then add binders to it, put it in a mold, add heat and pressure then let
it cook…Here two different densities of grind are compared…
(above) These are
the decades old, still state of the art mixing machines…
(above) After the
mixture is put in a mold, they are put under pressure then placed in this oven
to cook..
(above) Out of
the oven come these loaves…Other molds produce cylinders…
(above) Some cork
cylinders ready for the next phase…
(above) The lath
which “peels” the cork from the roll…
(above) just
above the toothed roller is the blade…
(above) The blade…twice as sharp as any razor blade you’ll ever see…
(above) It is in
the form of a continuous blade that is just like a bandsaw…The cylinder of cork
is set onto a roller then the machine starts, the belt rotates and the cylinder
is rotated and “peeled” the same way that logs are peeled of their veneers…
(above)
(above) That is
how thin they can peel it… We will use some sheets that are thicker…
(above) From these…
(above) …come
these…
(above) …and turn
them into these…
(above) Yes,
there is a connection here…
(above) Cork
brake shoes for bikes…
(above) It’s done
the same way as it has for decade, real people in a family business doing
something they believe in…
(above) The chair
in the foreground is a new product…It folds flat and has a reinforced cork seat
and backrest…The other thing is a prototype play horse for children…
(above)
(above) the older
harvests of cork are more valuable and used to cut the stoppers for wine
bottles…
(above) Call me
nostalgic of the older ways and I know I am more than a bit of a cork geek, but
guys like this, Cave’s father, are a vanishing breed we need to honor their
commitment to products they are passionate about…
(above) the
tradition lives on… Visit and support generational families like these… More
at: , www.agglolux-cbl.com
(above) Jumping
from one extreme to the other, we needed to get some epoxy reasin and went to
the local distributor, Seabase…If it’s surfboard related, they got it..
(above) Fresh
from
(above) “Custom”
is a word that is seldom spoken…
(above) From
there we went to where Jean-marc works… He gave us an insiders tour, but I kept
my camera in pocket out of respect…
(above) But I did
get one shot of a poster of the Big Cheese of rip Curl Europe sliding a monster
wave…The guy has some serious cred…
(above) Our tour
continued, to visit Michel Molino, and artist, shaper, visionary, veneer board
pioneer…Here is a ‘fin table’ he had on display…
(above) Michel
has been building these style of veneer covered foam boards for over twenty
five years..
(above) A peek
into the shop..
(above) He was
gracious enough to let us into his home and show some of the pieces he lives with
every day…here is a decade old countertop…If you understand wood, you
understand how nearly impossible it is to do this…
(above) A simpler
table, but just as impressive…
(above) Shape a
chair then veneer it…
(above) Michel
has a lot to smile about… Check out more at
www.monsite.orange.fr/woodconcept/
(above) Next stop, over to see Jeremy Ferrara one of the guys who will be in the class…
(above) he wasn’t there when we got there but was gonna be back at a quarter after…
(above) So I
walked around and snapped a few…Resin drips…
(above) An
experimental (aren’t they all) finless board...
(above) Something
to think about…
(above) And
another concept with validity…
(above) I admire
this kind of thinking…Jeremy came on time and we had a nice visit then we had
to go…
(above) We went
to the main surf break at Hossegor and found the surf looking like this…Nice
day though…
(above) Around a
jetty these adventure seekers were heading out…
(above) To
this…Wow.
(above) So we went and got some more materials, saw
some more history and then headed back to Jean-marc’s place for the
evening…Life is feeling pretty good, I hope you appreciate yours too…
More later …
Paul