5 minute read
Brown County Woodworking Club
Scott Mills, Bill Ziegler, and Jim Beck prepare beams for the new, outdoor structure at Brown County Music Center.
~story and photos by Chrissy Alspaugh
The newest masterpiece from a group of Brown County artisans whose tools include chisels, chainsaws, and Paul Bunyan-sized hammers, will soon be on display outside the Brown County Music Center: a 700-square-foot timber frame pavilion.
The dozens of artists who hand-crafted it will remain largely anonymous. Their intricate creation will be given to the Music Center. Payment comes through the knowledge that they contributed to their community in a way that visitors and their own grandchildren can enjoy for years to come.
The Brown County Woodworking Club has no officers and no dues, simply calling itself a group of “sharing and caring woodworkers.” The group meets monthly for presentations on woodworking techniques, such as steam bending or marquetry, or to tour a woodworking shop. Subgroups meet separately to craft projects including bowls turned on a lathe and towering timber frame structures.
The artisans have found numerous beneficiaries for their finished pieces.
The Village Wood Turners, the group that specializes in creating wooden projects on a spinning lathe, has donated bowls to the Mother’s Cupboard charity auction. Their current service project is creating wooden wig stands for cancer patients, said member Don Housman.
The timber framing group built and donated a shelter at the Grandview Cemetery. In 2022, the group constructed, donated, and auctioned a 16-by-24-foot “cruck” structure that yielded $45,000 for Brown County Indiana Habitat for Humanity.
The new pavilion structure the club is finishing for the Brown County Music Center promises to help the facility increase revenue by creating a new space for a beer garden during performances, intimate after-show parties, and weddings or other special events on days not booked with performances, according to Executive Director Christian Webb. The community-owned music center sends 100 percent of its profits to the Brown County Community Foundation and the county commissioners for cultural and infrastructure improvements.
“It’s amazing to find this many people willing to donate their time,” said volunteer Mike Riebl. “A group like this doesn’t come along that often.”
Club members have been working independently and collectively on the music center structure for nearly a year, Riebl said. The 4,800 board feet of timber comprising the 14-by28-foot winged pavilion was all Brown County red and white oak trees a year ago. Volunteers always keep their eyes and ears open for trees that fall during storms or need taken down, Riebl said. Members use their personal trucks, tractors, sawmills, planers, wood kilns, and other equipment to gather, cut, hone, and dry the wood into usable timber.
“The work involved before we ever do the actual timber framing is enormous,” Riebl said.
Timber frame construction is a building method that dates back to 200 BCE where timbers are shaped and connected with simple, wooden joinery and wooden pegs. Equipped with hand chisels, chain mortisers, a behemoth wooden hammer, and a lot of collective brain power, the Woodworking Club worked at Riebl’s wood shop in Gnaw Bone to ready 120 timbers, some weighing 500 pounds each. He guessed that each beam would cost around $1,000 if purchased commercially. “It would never be feasible or reasonable to try to commercially build a structure like this,” he said.
Club member Jim Stewart said he was excited for the opportunity to learn timber framing in the club because, “it’s a skill not many people still do.” Stewart came to the club with experience in construction at Indiana University and in furniture making as a hobby.
Riebl said the club is a great way for hobbyists to expand their knowledge and advance into professional-level skills thanks to ongoing education in areas including proper kiln drying, moisture content, wood shop setup, and much more. Each year, one club member receives a scholarship to attend a weekend class of their choice at Mark Adams School of Woodworking.
“So much of the knowledge shared in this group isn’t something you can Google or find on YouTube,” Riebl said.
But perhaps the rarest aspect of the club is the woodworking camaraderie. Stewart said. He couldn’t find a woodworking group near his home in Bloomington but was excited when a neighbor told him about the Brown County club.
“There’s so much value in getting to work with a group,” he said. “The truth is, a lot of woodworkers work alone in their basements.”
Riebl said that club work nights were one of the few destinations where many of the retired members felt safe during the COVID pandemic; that social interaction became invaluable.
Do members boast about the value the club is adding to the Brown County community? Nah! They simply consider themselves a group of volunteers meeting to work together on projects, share stories, and laugh.
“There are just so many good people willing to contribute, and there’s so much energy surrounding our community projects,” Riebl said. “That’s the value. That’s the positive.”
Brown County Woodworking Club typically meets at 7 p.m. on the first Wednesday of each month at the Brown County Public Library. For more information, email forshee@iu.edu .
