Posts in Category: learning
Making a pen assembly tray
I had also been working on my sharpening skills with a oil stone, so I used the chisel I had just been working on to cut the corners off to make it easier to get things out of the troughs. I was pretty impressed, I actually got a decent edge on it, and it worked pretty well.
I snapped a picture to show what I’m talking about.
I also learned what the knob on the fence is for.
Avoiding splinters. Ouch!
Lesson learned, don’t do that again. I was riding my hand along the wood to hold it steady. Actually, to be honest I wasn’t really paying attention where my hand was. I was focused of the cutting, and I was reminded with a nice deep splinter to keep my focus a little more on all aspects.
Anyway, once the kiddo goes to be tonight I’ll be back down there. I’ve got 16 Cigar pens to make in 2-3 weeks. Which is why today was get organized and clean my work space.
— badger
Teaching Turning…
He was totally self taught, and a bit of beginner, and we worked on technique and process while he did it. He’d been getting it done, but I was able to pass on some tips and trick and good technique as he worked. His turning improved dramatically over the night, and he produced a fine Cocobolo slimline last night.
It’s a little strange to me (and a little not) at how easy it was for me to “instruct” on a subject. Strange because I don’t feel like I’m a master like many of the folks I interact with online, but also not strange because I do love to teach what I know. All in all we had a good time, and the pen turned out quite nice.
badger
Dovetail Box Progress… and FAIL
So, fresh from the Roy Underhill teachings on dovetails, I wanted to do it myself at home to cement this knowledge into my head. I learn best by doing, and I did a successful dovetail in class, but then went on a week vacation. So today I thought I’d do another corner of the dovetail box I’ve been working on. It’s really just a practice box, since my first attempt was so terrible. I had decided to keep the box going, and cobble the bad section together, maybe with pins or something to remind me where I started.
I also put some time into figuring out a groove in the bottom using my Stanley #45, and a rabbeted bottom with my Fillister plane. Both of which were success, and I put a couple grooves in the bottom edge of two boards. I decided to ignore the “stopped groove” idea, and just have gaps in the corners. The #45 was fairly easy to set up, and I was making groovy grooves pretty quickly, despite all that I’ve read about how difficult it was to set up. I took a nice picture of the tools, and grooves in a still life. You can also see the cherry test board I rabbeted as a test fit into the groove.
Next I got my hands dirty on some dove tails. I did the “Roy Underhill” way, setting everything from the width of a chisel blade, and working from there. Very little to no measuring, but accurate reproducible measuring. This is “old school” at it’s finest. I marked, I cut, I chopped and produced a very fine dovetail that fit very tight on my first fit with no extra trimming or shimming. I was pretty pleased with my self, until I realized that I had mixed up my face sides! The pins went the wrong way! Disaster…
Oh well, at least my dovetail joint is pretty sweet. I figured out how to save this box, but I’ll have to trim off the pins and the same amount on the other side to make my square box rectangular and slightly smaller. But at least I don’t have to redo the tails part, just cut new pins. This is how we learn right?
Badger
Woodwrights School day 2
Thursday 3/11/2010 –
Dovetails, Mortise & Tenon with Roy Underhill
Described on the website thusly “After this one-day workshop you’ll have no excuse! You’ll learn to lay out and cut the classic through dovetail, the half-blind dovetail for drawers, as well as the intersecting mortise and tenon joint for chair and table construction. You’ll take home the three joints, as well as the foundation skills for furniture construction. All tools and materials provided.”
The class delivered exactly what it promised. It was a hands-on all day affair with Roy at the helm. My class had eight people in it, and I was probably the youngest guy there. There was one other guy near my age, and rest looked to be retirees looking for something new. I felt pretty good with the tools, the set up was fantastic where we each had our own bench, tools, and lights. Roy would start out by showing us all the steps in one go, going over it piece by piece, then would set up loose to do it ourselves.
We did a set of through dovetails before lunch, and mine were fairly tight. I liked his method of laying everything out, it made a lot of sense. He starts with a chisel, and bases the rest of the layout off of that starting point. Roy’s method is “tails first” and I think I’m going to go with that, and avoid the whole religious debate about tails or pins first. Let me see if I can remember all the steps and put them in another post.
We then broke for lunch at the “old timey” soda shop next door, and Roy joined us. It was really fun to hang out and just discuss random things. He spent some time talking about his new home that they had recently purchased, it was an old Mill house that he planned to make into a larger version of his school. He also bought us all a giant banana split to share!
After lunch we were all a little sleepy, but we got some coffee and soldiered on. Next up was half blind or drawer front type dovetails. They most build on the things that we learned in the through dovetail side, with some variations. Mine came out pretty well, and I was feeling pretty comfortable with the tools now.
The next stage was a bit different, and I was pretty out of my element now with Mortise and Tenon joints. Again he uses a method in which all measurements are based on the width of a the chisel point, and uses very little measuring. This is a good thing since mortise chisels are very hard to find these days, either costing hundreds of dollars for new or getting lucky with used ones. There is one affordable set available by Narex, but they use metric measurements rather than inches. Which is OK with Roy’s method actually, and I might get that set finally. My mortise and tenon joint came out pretty well, except I blew out the bottom of the drilling and tore my wood (can be fixed with glue), and my saw cuts were a bit imprecise, which is hidden by the joint but still…  Sawing was probably my worst point, and I think I need to figure out how to fix this. My cuts seem to drift easily, and I have always had a hard time with sawing. Practice, practice?
All in all I very much enjoyed the experience and Roy was a fantastic teacher and great host. He was as genuine and warm as he is on his show, which is rare in this world. He was a passion for this art of hand tool woodworking, and that comes out in his class. I would love to go back and take other sessions for sure.
Woodwrights School day 1
Wednesday night “Planes for Joinery” with Roy Underhill, Bill Anderson, and Elia. 3/10/2010
Showing up at the Woodwright School was a little intimidating because it felt like every one already knew each other, and I was walking in cold. Â Everyone was very friendly, but it was a little overwhelming at first. Â There was some apparent “technical” difficulties going on, as in the guest presenter forgot his outline/class notes. Â I was amused to witness the famous Roy of the Hand Tools busting out his Macbook Pro, and portable printer to run off a couple copies. Â Soon they got started, and it was Planes Planes Planes. Â The presenter who I had to look up on the site, just launched right into it. Â He and Roy tag teamed the presentation throughout the night, with the guy some have started calling “the Apostle” helping out.
Another amusing thing was when Roy busts out the camera and the LCD tv (artfully hidden behind a blackboard on the wall) and doing extreme close up shots of some of the plane work. Â It was pretty cool (and education), and might have detracted a little from the old timey feel of the shop, but I’ll let that go in the name of education. Â Roy was pretty energetic, if not a little… OK, a LOT tired from teaching a full day class already that day. Â He was still Roy though, and it was great to see him in person.
I did get a moment of stunned silence when they found out I was from all the way out Seattle way.  The question came up when Roy was talking about his favorite plane, the moving fillister plane.  He said you could still get them for about $40, and I couldn’t hold back a snort.  He was puzzled  by my reaction and asked why?  I told him about the total of 2 of those planes I’d seen, and that they went for over $100 easily and were usually busted.  I got lots of sympathy at that, and Roy immediately went to get me a flier for a tool collectors group.
Later after the class went to “hands on” portion I got to talk to Roy a bit, and he was very nice to me. Â Some times when you meet an idol, you find out that the people they are on TV or whatever are not the person they are in life. Â Not so with Roy, and I enjoyed the evening very much. Â We did get to talk about the moving fillister plane a bit (more on that later) and he showed me what to look for in used ones. He was also amazed that I came all the way out there for his class, and joked about how the pressure was on now.
More later on the next day in another post…
Tomorrow I meet a Master…
I leave for North Carolina tomorrow morning, and being from Seattle, it’s fair trek to get there. I am going to meet a master of the craft, a veritable crazy old Jedi wizard of hand tool woodworking.  Roy Underhill. I am taking a class and a seminar at the newly opened Woodwrights School in Pittsboro, NC for my 40th birthday. (My Birthday already happened, but this trip is my present.)
I’ll be taking “Planes for Joinery” Wednesday night, and a full day with Roy on the subject of “Mortise, Tenon, & Dovetail”. Â Should be exciting, and a bit intimidating, but I hope to learn a lot. If nothing else, I’ve always wanted to meet this guy and I owe it all to Dan.
— Badger
Mary Rose
I finally got a hold of a copy of “Before the Mast: Life and Death Aboard the Mary Rose” through inter library loan. It a veritable treasure trove of information on woodworking and tools from 1500’s England. So many of the wooden tools survived due to amazing and somewhat miraculous circumstances. Much of the iron is gone, but you can infer a lot from the markings and residue.
Amazing stuff, and very well documented. Unfortunately I can’t keep the book, and copies go for hundreds of dollars. Time to get busy with a copy machine I think, at least to grab the sections I am most interested in. There is a great dovetailed box that I might want to recreate. They were most likely imports from the Continent, as dovetails weren’t the norm in England until later.
— badger
Sharpening with Rob Cosman…
So yesterday I was able to take a class/seminar/sales pitch from Rob Cosman at my local Woodcraft store (other wise known as the place where Badger can spend money very easily). The class was interesting, but I have some minor complaints about. Don’t get me wrong I did learn a lot, and it was interesting, I just kind of expected a little more from it.
We did cover quite a bit, but unfortunately the emphasis was on the expensive, high quality systems that are out of reach for the average wood worker (like most of us in the class). So I learned some really good things about sharpening from Rob, but I also learned a few thing in spite of Rob if that makes any sense.
For now I am going to continue trying the “Scary Sharp” system that I’ve gotten improved results out of already, with my meager setup. But I did learn a lot about bevels and micro bevels that I want to put into practice. I’m also sold on the idea of doing it by hand, with no jigs, that much I agree with him. “Teach a man to fish” and all that.
There was a really nice older gentleman there in the class that I thought was very cool. He’s a few months from retiring, and he’s going to get into making surf boards and move to the coast and surf and make surf boards. How cool is that, he was really interesting and I hope when I hit retirement age I can be that cool. 🙂
The best part of the class though, was afterward, when I asked for a couple quick tips on dovetails. He sort of grudgingly gave me a few pointers, and they were really helpful! He does have is own line of saw, and that makes a difference. “70/20/10” as he called it, 70% Tools, 20% Skill and 10% Practice which makes sense if your livelihood is to sell tools.  Heh. I don’t begrudge him that though, and his dovetail saw is fantastic and worthy of a fair amount of tool lust. However, they were very modern with plastic/resin type handles and progressive pitch. Comfortable and effective, but for my tastes, too “new”. I’m not sure why, but I am more attracted to “old” tools and methods.  I’m willing to work a little harder with the older tools I guess. But the tips gave me made a lot sense, and I’m going to try them out this weekend along with some sharpening.
I did spend a little money though, and got a cheap Crown Tools “Gent’s Saw”, a quart of Tried and True brand boiled linseed oil recommended by Dan over at his blog, and $2 stick of some kind of Rosewood out of the bulk wood scrap bin out front. I’m curious to try the Oil finish on my pegged box I made during the holidays.
I hope to get into the shop this weekend to try out the new toys, and to begin planning out my other purchase which arrived last night in the mail.
Not the bow/frame saw itself, but the blades. I got the two thick 24″ blades pictured, not the turning blade, and I’m intending to build at least one frame for the cross cut, and maybe a rip style frame for the other one. I have some oak lath that I’m going to use for this that I fished out of a bin a while ago. This will be my first mortise and tenon joint (for the cross bar) so that should be a fun learning experience.
— Badger
My first dovetails…
One of the things you read about when reading about hand tool woodworking is Dovetails. Over and over you see and hear about them, and it’s clear that it’s a basic skill of the hand tool set. So I set out to try these things, to learn what I needed to learn as it were. At some point you have to stop reading and start doing, so you can really and truly learn the skill.
Tonight I put it into practice, here are the pictures so you can bask in my learning and witness my mistakes. I’m working in Pine board I had from a previous project. I’m using a no name back saw that I found at a Goodwill store (talk about humble beginnings, eh?) to do the cutting. I had a low end Japanese pull saw, but it’s teeth shattered off in some Purpleheart during my holiday present making. The only other saw I have is a cheap mitre box saw that is nearly useless for cutting. I’ve been researching saws like crazy, but for now I’ll work with what I have.
First attempt, doesn’t look so hot does it? The layout, and sawing of the tails went ok, the chiseling out of the waste went ok, but I made a major mistake on cutting the pins. I didn’t pay attention to which side of the line I was cutting. I had marked the waste (after a close call) on the sides, but I didn’t mark the tops.
Second attempt, looks much better by far. I marked ALL sides of the waste this time, and was a bit too conservative in my cuts which resulted in too much wood on the pins. Which is better than not enough, because I chiseled it down to fit and got a much nicer fit this time.
Tools and Steps:
1. Mark all sides of the board end with marking gauge by the thickness of the board and then a little more.
2. Lay out pins, using a 1:6 dovetail with the Stanley bevel gauge.
3. Clamp up the board, and cut the tails, then cut the waste off the side with the back saw.
4. Lay tail board down on bench hook, and cut down into the waste with bench chisels, flip over repeat until you can pop out the waste.
5. Clean up inside of tails.
6. Mark the pin board (first time I did it with the saw in the kerf like Saint Roy, second time I use scratched it in after cutting the tails.)Â Also use marking gauge here to mark all sides with the thickness of the board.
7. Cut down with the saw to the marked line.
8. Chisel out the waste again, and clean up the lines.
9. Pare the tails to fit (on the second one, the first one fit loosely and was a giant mess.)
— Badger