Tribute to Tenchman

[Phil Hobson]

Steve Sinnott (Tenchman) is a guy who's work I have long admired through the forum, I recently had the pleasure of meeting Steve in person he's a nice guy. If any members have not seen Steve's work yet I would encourage people to view his albums.

In my opionion his work is amazing. For all the people on here who have worked with Geometic / Victorian materials I hope they will appreciate how much skill, craftsmanship (blood sweat & tears) go into this type of work.

On average I do 4 or 5 Victorian floors per year and understand the difficulties faced. The setting out alone requires the highest levels of skill and attention to detail.

Again in my opionion Steve is at the pinnacle of his proffesion, a true artist! and I hope he gets the recognition he deserves.

[Dave]

Some nice words there Phil and i bet that means a lot to Tenchman coming from a true Professional like yourself..

[user123]

Wow, how nice, Phil!!

[whitebeam]

Coming from you Phil about victorian floors thats some praise

[Phil Hobson]

Wow, how nice, Phil!!

Thank you Gisela, I hope new members will look to people like Steve,TJ, Tommyzoom, Hillhead and all the top tilers, to numerous to mention on this forum. As role models, they should aspire to reach this level of skill

[Tenchman]

Thanks PHIL i was happy to finally meet up with you pity you don't go fishing as well i started restoring Vic floors from 1972 onwards, one of my very first jobs was to restore a floor that had been ruined by brickies pouring brick acid over a marble floor which was made up of celtic knots in various colours.
6 apprentices were tested for cutting cubes of inch x inch marble and 5 did badly on purpose, i tried my best and got the 3 year job of cutting just a few hundred short of a million cubes from large format slabs of marble.

they gave me holidays from the job to stop me going stale first one of which was in the states in new york . which was great but because i was under 21 i ended up with a full time NANNY looking after me. = no booze going out girls = nothing no fun

and eventually i became a Tyler-Mason and have worked with Victorian floors most of life i have taught others in 6 different countries now.

and i have restored or laid new floors in most places like the USA/Canada/ New Zealan/ Australia/ most european countries and some in Asia not been to Japan but that is on my wish list as i have lots of hobby interest in Japanese things like Koi/ Martial arts and Bonsai so any Japanese tilers who want to get into Victorian flooring get in touch Once again thanks Phil Cheers Steve aka Tenchman PS. sorry this was late didn't get a chance until now

[Scott]

Wow he really is a God!

[Dave]

Steve.....

[Phil Hobson]

Wow he really is a God!

I really hope the members of this forum enjoy Tenchmans work, I along with other members, know just how much time and effort goes into this type of work. My motto is "measure twice, cut once" Steve's motto is measure four times, then check again PS. I hope to see Steve on Mon, see his latest creation. PPS. Steve I didn't know you were into martial arts, I was an instructor in Shukokai Karate, that never came up in our conversations

[hillhead]

Nice one Phil and great stuff Steve
A superb pro
You must have some class stories from all them countries

[Tenchman]

Thanks for comments ref God (might be pushing it a bit there) etc, Have funny stories and really bad ones more funny than bad Joe, worst is Algeria got stuck in a camp there for months = lost 7stone in weight from various disease's inc tapeworm.

When i said holiday i should have mentioned it was a working holiday my Co sent me to New York to fix an old mosaic, the firm there provided a Nanny to look after me as i was only 18 should have made that cleae , it's just a bit barmy there you have to be 21 to be of age.

Phil same here instructor for quite a few years in Go-Ju only small group that didn't mind me being away a lot. still do it now but just to keep up with being able to rip arms & legs off if they don't pay up

Thanks Steve

[Ceramico tiling]

I wish someone like Tenchman would write a detailed book on this type of tiling.I doubt info like that exists .I would love to find it if it did!

[Dan]

Wow.

I totally missed this thread.

Thanks for the feedback Phil! I'm really pleased to have so many members on the forum of such high calibre skills levels. Brilliant stuff.

[Tenchman]

Hi Russ, I have actually been asked to write a book and some of the higher-ups in Historic Scotland have been enquiring about chances of starting a training program.

Training in my branch of the work is really only worthwhile insitu = on the job, if an old floor has to fixed you have to go to the floor, some time ago i was asked to look at a book written by a woman with a doctorate in conservation and it was about Historic floors lots of learned academics contributed to it some from the likes of English Heritage.

I gave the book to one of my interns to read for a month and see if anything could be used within our work. This girl was near in tears as having read this book from cover to cover there was nothing of practical value in it.

I have a book written by Cyril Carter of Poole Tileries turn of the century it is full of practical stuff.

My experience has all been gained by taking these Victorian floors apart and putting them back together until now it is second nature to me.

I suppose i could write a book on the subject as i have enough experience and i even did a ceramics degree in my mid 30's but that was only to learn how to make some of the tiles i don't use the info much now.

I do know of someone who contacted me years ago she wanted to get some practical work done but she never showed up .

Years later she got in touch to ask to work with me having spent the best part of 6-7 years getting a doctorate in restoration & conservation of tiles at De montford Uni but had never laid any tiles or taken up and restored any floors.Different women than the book writer.
People with practical backgrounds and can do the job are often overlooked by overeducated academics who can't do the job but get paid for talking about it.

Sorry to rant but i'd like architects to have a mandatory year of working with all the major trades so they know how awkward the various jobs are rather than being fresh out of Uni and telling people how to do their job when they barely know one end of a tool from the other. Apart from that i really enjoy my job and if i ever get enough time i might write a book, in the meantime if we ever had the money to still pay me i would be happy to do onsite training most places just need back-up from the powers that be and the likes of English Heritage Historic Scotland CADW (wales) etc etc

[mikethetile]

steve

thats an imressive cv, theres a lesson for youngsters coming into the trade, be the best you can

I often admire the craftmanship of earlier centuries where craftsmen dedicate their lives to developing a skill and the results speak for themselves

you are one of those rare craftsmen whose work will be admired and restored in time to preserve it for eternity

write that book sooner rather than later and put aside a signed copy for me

[aph257]

I'm still in 1st year of tiling and have just been to your web site Steve and am blown away with it. How much patience must you have. I have two friends who have Ennerdale 100 in four diff colours in their hallways and i have told them i'll cut their nuts off if the do anything bad to them. they are looking in need of a clean though, can you advise me whats the best products/method? i've used Aquamix HDT&G cleaner on ceramics quite a few times would this be OK? Thanks

[Tenchman]

Thanks Mike, i would be happy to do that just terrible at typing plus when i write reports up for listed building work (doing two this week ) it takes me forever and because i'm a Celt i write lots of swear words cos it cheers me up then i have to censor the final draft otherwise i leave a few in ha ha,
At least it would give you some idea of how to do the job, better than the academic books which show pretty pics but waffle about how many microns per sq inch of grit is in the screed which i have had given to me as a formula to make screed jusy like they did in old days in the old days it was worse than now they (the old-time tilers) mixed screed with so much crap it is a joke that this prof got paid for sifting screed to come up with the formula i was supposed to use. I told him that it was complete BS.

And in fact in the screed we had found horse manure broken clay pipes dottle from those same pipes, wood shavings the list goes on they never stood and set up equal parts of anything they just mixed up and threw literally anything into the screed.

I have found coins in the stuff, we are more precise nowadays than our tile predecessors ever were, yes they did some brilliant work with rubbish lighting etc.

but we do excellent work today that would just leave them dead, all their tiles were mould made in my album the new section in the Kirton floor i cut all the tiles from 6x6 using a rubi & a wet cut and there were more than 10,000 cuts.

You are right though a book would be handy save getting some floors messed up if i get enough spare time i might make a go at it . thanks once again for everyone's comments.

[Tenchman]

Thanks Paul, i've sent info you required by e-mail. not sure if it also being stubborn on some jobs rather than patience, some of the forum have visited me on this last job laying a new vic floor repro, one of them said i was quite laid back yet i am very intense on parts of job and time whizs by so quick i forget to eat.

I still enjoy my work and i'm lucky it is so niche, thanks again for your comments cheers Steve

[doug boardley]

just looked through Steve's latest album
TilersForums.co.uk | Tile Forums | Tiling Forum - Tenchman's Album: St Helens - Picture

stunning!!!!!

[Dan]

A sample before and after shot:-

BEFORE


AFTER

[Rob Z]

[QUOTE=Tenchman;404597]Thanks Mike, i would be happy to do that just terrible at typing plus when i write reports up for listed building work (doing two this week ) it takes me forever and because i'm a Celt i write lots of swear words cos it cheers me up then i have to censor the final draft otherwise i leave a few in ha ha,
At least it would give you some idea of how to do the job, better than the academic books which show pretty pics but waffle about how many microns per sq inch of grit is in the screed which i have had given to me as a formula to make screed jusy like they did in old days in the old days it was worse than now they (the old-time tilers) mixed screed with so much crap it is a joke that this prof got paid for sifting screed to come up with the formula i was supposed to use. I told him that it was complete BS.

And in fact in the screed we had found horse manure broken clay pipes dottle from those same pipes, wood shavings the list goes on they never stood and set up equal parts of anything they just mixed up and threw literally anything into the screed.

I have found coins in the stuff, we are more precise nowadays than our tile predecessors ever were, yes they did some brilliant work with rubbish lighting etc.

QUOTE]

Hi Steve, maybe we're related!


Isn't that the truth about the old mortar. We find all kinds of crap in the old mud beds that we demo. Never found any coins, but I've found pig hair (was mixed in with plaster), candy wrappers, cigarettes, liquor bottles, rocks, nails and so on. We also see in the mortar different layers that are composed of sand grains of different sizes, and it's clear that layer after layer was floated at different times. We tore out a floor last year and we could see four distinct layers, which I took to mean that they floated the mud in over four separate days.

You mentioned the Smithsonian having victorian floors-it's probably the original building, built in the mid 1800's, the one that is made of red sandstone? I need to go and see that soon and get some pics for everyone to see.

I'd love to hear more about your travels around the US and the places where you've worked.

[Rob Z]

Steve, you and Phil and many others here will be interested to browse around this website and see the photos of installations, historic tile catalogs and so on.


Tile Heritage Foundation