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Woodworking Classes

June 24, 2011 By 5 Comments
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Over the past few weeks, I have attended a couple woodworking classes.  The first was a class with Darrell Peart, at the Seattle Woodcraft store.  It was a weeklong class, building a Greene & Greene Blanket Chest.  Below is a slide of the blanket chest.  Forgive some of the picture quality, by camera/phone was giving me some issues during the class.

Home » Woodworking Classes » Greene & Greene - Blanket Chest

The last class I just took, was with Mike Wenzloff, over at The Port Townsend School of Woodworking.  It was weekend class, about making a sharpening handsaws.  My real goal in taking this class, was to get over my fear of sharpening handsaws.  Mike is a great teacher, and I can say I have no fear of taking a file to a saw now!  I ended up making a Crosscut Carcass saw in the class.  It came out really nice, and cuts pretty well.  Again, I had issues with my camera/phone, so I don’t have any pictures taken during the class.

Filed Under: Education

Greene and Greene Details I Class

December 8, 2009 By 2 Comments
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This last weekend I attended a class at the Port Townsend School of Woodworking.  The class was with Darrell Peart and the class was his Greene and Greene Details I class.  It was a fun class, with lot of good information.  Darrell started the class with a great slideshow of Greene and Greene and many of the details found in their houses and furniture.

Darrell is a professional woodworking and his approach if very jig intensive.  Jigs can be very time consuming to make, but they can guarantee results.  I was going through a very anti-jig stage of my woodworking, but after taking a couple classes from Darrell I’m starting reevaluate jigs.  I’m starting see the advantage again, for taking the time to build jigs.

Below are some pictures of the progress going through the weekend.

Filed Under: Education

Greene and Greene Details II Class

August 24, 2009 By 4 Comments
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I spent this last weekend in the lovely town of Port Townsend,Wa.  It’s one of my wife’s and my favorite places to go, for a weekend getaway.  Now that they have a woodworking school there, we (me) have even more of a reason to go there.

This was the first class I had taken at the Port Townsend School of Woodworking.  In a previous blog, I wrote about stopping by the school earlier this year, while in Port Townsend for one of those getaways.

This first class was with Darrell Peart, a Greene and Greene inspired woodworker in West Seattle.  This class was his Greene and Greene Details II class.  We learned how he makes and incorporates these details into his furniture designs.  As an FYI, I’ll be taking his Details I class in Dec.

To be able to complete all of the work in the 2 days, some of the cutting was done for us.  Anything that was done for us, was demonstrated to us and was well within the skills of most woodworker.  An example of this was the finger joints, on a couple of the samples we worked on.

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So the finger joints were cut for us, but we had to shape and “pillow” the ends.  We also learned how to pillow the ends of the Ebony pegs.  It’s sometimes hard to see in photos, but the exposed joinery and pegs are not flat on their tops.  It’s much more than just rounding over the edges.  It’s a delicate process to get the pillowing just right.

This first corner sample is only partially completed.  We finished up the other details on the second day.

We then moved onto a drawer sample.  This drawer pull isn’t really seen on Greene and Greene furniture.  Darrell was inspired by a similar pull made by James Krenov.  When seen on his furniture and it really does work well with Greene and Greene.

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In this sample we learned how the finger joints are made for a drawer.  You only see the pillowing on the front.  Because the drawer has to fit tight, you can’t have the exposed fingers on the sides.  The Ebony pens here are purely decorative, as are most in Greene and Greene.  To give the drawer strength, we pegged the sides with wooden dowels.

We didn’t quite finish this drawer sample the first day.  We finished it up the next day, and started on the next drawer sample.  This next drawer pull is an inlayed cloud lift motif.

To create the inlay, we used templates and a router.  It’s a pretty easy process if you have the templates.  Luckily Darrell has these templates made for him, and we were able to pick up a set for $15.  Well worth the money, seeing how much time you might have to spend making your own.

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Next was to shape the knob.  The rough shaping was done with a router and large belt sander.

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The finial shaping, was always is done by hand.  Again, notice that the top is not flat it is also pillowed.  When it’s all put together, it is a very striking design.

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The only thing I really did wrong on this pull is that I didn’t pillow the horizontal Ebony pieces enough.  I think you can see from the photo they are pretty flat, on their tops.  I should have looked at Darrell’s example a little closer.

In the afternoon, we started on the last detail, which was going to be applied to the first piece we started on the first day.  This detail is supposed to simulate a leather strap.  The rough shaping again was done using several router templates and couple different bits.

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This corner sample is a sample of what Darrell uses on his Aurora Desk.  You can see an example here.  You will also see how he uses the Krenov inspired drawer pulls.

All in all, I had a great time.  Everyone in the class was friendly and hepled others if they needed help.  I’m really looking forward to the next class in December.

Filed Under: Education

1 Year Blog Anniversary

June 20, 2009 By 2 Comments

When I started my blog 1 year ago, I wanted to post something at least once a week.  Well, I fell a little short on that goal, but not too far off.  I’m happy that I have continued with the blog.  So many blogs fall to the wayside, only after a short period of existence.  I never had high aspirations that I would draw huge numbers of readers, but there are a few of you out that return to see what I’m posting.  For that I thank you.

The year in review

Recently I was thinking how little I felt I had accomplished in the last year.  Then I started to look back at what I posted over the last year, and felt much better about what I accomplished.  I attended my first weeklong woodworking class with Christopher Schwarz.  I attended a great hand tool event, Best in the West.  I started the mock-up of the small hall table, where I did my first bent wood lamination.  I made a couple Silverware Trays as Christmas gifts.  Although, I still have a couple more to finish!  I built the Small Benchtop Bench, which was a very fun project.  I attended a 1-day class with Rob Cosman, who is an amazing teacher.  I hope I can take more classes from Rob.  I built a bathroom cabinet for my brother.  Although I used very few hand tools on this project, it was a very stratifying project.  Then to top off the year, I visited the Port Townsend School of Woodworking.  I met 2 great woodworkers there Tim Lawson and Jim Tolpin.  You often hear woodworkers are the nicest people and these guys were no exception.  Tim and Jim took time out of their busy day, to show my wife and me around the school.  I’ll be heading over to the school for a class in August.  With that kind of list of accomplishments, how could I have thought I hadn’t done much woodworking!

In the near future
Things have been pretty busy lately, so shop time has been a little scarce.  The good news is I will have a week off the first part of July.  I work for a great company and one of the benefits we have, is the company shuts down for a week around July 4!  We also shutdown for a week around Christmas!  My wife and I don’t have a lot plans for that week, so I should have a lot of shop time coming up!  I have some new tools I really want to try out and post about.  I also want to finish the small hall table I started around the end of last year.  I also have some new books and DVDs I want to share.  I hope this extra time off will give the time catch up on some posts.

Filed Under: Education, General

Port Townsend School of Woodworking

June 1, 2009 By 2 Comments
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Earlier last week my wife and I took a short vacation over to Port Ludlow, Wa.  Not too far from Port Ludlow is Port Townsend, which is another place we love to visit.  Port Townsend has great food and shopping.  They also have a nice Jazz Festival every July.  For the woodworkers out there, there is also the Port Townsend School of Woodworking.  The school hasn’t been operating that long, and was founded by Jim Tolpin, John Marckworth and Tim Lawson.

Previously I had said I was going to be taking some classes at the school and since we were going to be in the area, I thought I would see if I could stop by and have a look around. I sent of an email to the school and received a quick response from Tim, saying he would love to show me around.

After arriving in Port Townsend, we set up a time with Tim to meet at the school.  We were a little early getting there and as we pulled up, Jim Tolpin was outside unloading some wood.  He welcomed us to the school and started showing us around.  The school has a very nice set up.  The bench room is equipped with some nice Sjöbergs workbenches.  Some of the classes I have taken at other schools have had some pretty rickety benches.  It was nice to see some stout benches for a change!  Then Tim arrived and Jim had to excuse himself, we was preparing some hand planes for an upcoming class he was teaching.

We then spent the next hour or so talking wood with Tim.  I have to say, I have one of the best wives there is!  She might not had been as excited as I was, but she enjoyed the time there.  She found the conversations interesting and may have asked as many questions as I did.!

Tim talked about the future of the school, and asked questions about what kind of classes I like to take, and which instructors I would like to see come to the school.  He said they are still a somewhat new school and are trying to figure out which classes are going to work.  One of their goals is to pull in the new woodworkers, and really give them a taste of the craft.  To make things a little easier on the beginner woodworker, the school has quality hand planes and other tools the students can use.  Having some of these tools is primarily due to a very generous gift form Lee Valley (Veritas).  Tim said they have basic hand planes for each bench, so the students dont have tos share during the classes.  Also, they had many of the “specialty” planes Veritas makes, including the new Small Scraper Plane that just came out.

Tim knew I was signed up for some Greene and Greene classes with Darrell Peart.  He told me that the Hall brothers, who worked with the Greene’s had done some work in Port Townsend.  After the tour of the school, we fold Tim as he took us to one of the houses the Hall brother’s had built.

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The house is still a private residence, so we were only able to view it form the outside.  I believe they worked on this house before starting their collaboration with the Greene’s.   Tim also told us about an amazing wooden boat builder that we should visit, but our time was short that day.  We will have to add it to our list for our next visit.

Even though our visit was relatively short to the school, it was the highlight of the trip for me.  My wife had just as much fun on the trip, visiting 3 Scrapbooking stores!

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Filed Under: Education

Practice Makes Perfect

January 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment
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How do you become good at something? Practice, practice, practice.  This holds true for woodworking, as it does for:  sports, games, cooking (Bar-B-Q!), etc.  I don’t do my own Bar-B-Q, and I don’t mean grilling in the backyard.  There are some things I just leave to the professionals.

This last Saturday I had a fun day at our local Woodcraft store.  Rob Cosman was there teaching a hands-on class.  The course outline was:  Sharpening, Hand planing, Dovetails, and Mortise and Tenon.  Rob said this would generally be a 3 day class.  We had to cut something, so we voted.  It came out to something like this.  Dovetails and Hand planing I think were tide for 1.  Then Mortis and Tenon, then Sharpening.

Rob paused for a minute.  He then said, one the most fundamental skills needed for hand tool work is sharpening.  Without a solid understanding and the skill of sharpening, your work will suffer.  Who could argue with that?  He then took a brand new plane blade from a Lie-Nielsen plane, and had it perfectly sharp in about 3 minutes.  Rob does all his sharpening freehand, no jigs.  After seeing how quickly he was able to sharpen that blade, it was a skill I wanted to have.

The next day I played around with Rob’s approach to sharpening.  I still have some practicing to do, but I was getting some good results.  Not perfect yet, but enough to encourage me to me continue.  In that vain, I have taken all my sharpen jigs and boxed them.  Not that any of them really worked that well anyway.  Having the jigs gone, I will force myself to learn to sharpen freehand.  Practice, practice, practice.

In the class, Dovetails took up most of the time that was left.  My sample corner came out about the same as some of my recent attempts.  The nice thing about a class like this, you get firsthand help.  The tips and critiques Rob gave, were amazing helpful.  With more practice, I can see that my skill level should rise quickly.

Today, I had some time after work and shop wasn’t too cold, so I practice some sawing.  One of the exercises Rob had us do, were a lot of vertical cuts.  You are practicing the perpendicular cut across the grain, which is so important on the tails.  You are also practicing a vertical cut, which is very important on the pins.  I thought I would take this exercise, and cut a few rows each night when I get home from work.

Here are 3 rows I did tonight.  The order I cut them is from top to bottom.  You can see I was very ambitious on the first row.  My lines were pretty close together.  I spread the lines out on the others, so the lines would be easier to see.

The first row, I cut from right to left, on the left side of the line.  The second row was cut left to right, on the right side of the line.  The last row was another right to left.

If you can make the lines out, I’m a little better when I cut on the left side of the line.  I still have some work to do, on getting the cut perfectly perpendicular but I’m getting there.  One of the tips Rob gave, was to establish a shallow kerf across the end-grain then stop.  Pausing after you make this kerf, allows you prepare for the vertical cut.  I found this technique very helpful.

Most of my vertical cuts came out pretty well.  Although, part of the vertical cut is cutting to the baseline and not going past.  Here I still need a little practice.

My goal it cut a lot of these rows, over the next couple of weeks.  If you add up just what I cut in these 3 rows, how many full dovetails would I have had to cut?  Quite a few.  The other skill needed for dovetails, is chopping to the baseline.  I also plan to do some similar exercises for my chisel work.  Practice, practice, practice.

Filed Under: Education, Techniques

Day 4 and 5 – Handsawing class with Christopher Schwarz

July 31, 2008 By Leave a Comment

My last post really went into a lot of detail on what cuts I used on which joints, to demonstrate where the different classes cuts can be used. I won’t bore you with that kind of detail in this post. Instead I just give a general overview of what we did for our final project in the class.

Out final project was a Shaker Silverware Tray. It’s a “simple” and clean design, as you would expect from the Shakers. Clean and simple can be hard to pull off. Everything has to be just right, from the design to the execution. Otherwise it will look like someone just through it together. This tray is simple in design, but the proportions and slight curve in the handle give a pleasing look. Whenever I walk by it, I just want to pick it up and look at it and feel the shape. I try not to let my wife catch me fondling my projects :) .

As you might have guessed, this tray was made with using only hand tools. Well, only after the lumber was given to us. The wood was prepared beforehand by the school. There wasn’t time in the class for us to prep the wood ourselves using only hand tools. This was a handsawing and cutting class, not a rough to ready hand planing class.

Before this class I think I might have cut 10 practice sets of dovetails. The first sets weren’t the prettiest, but I kept trying. I can say it does get easier with practice. The more time you spend with saw in hand the better you will get. During the first part of the week we did have a lot practice sawing, which helped prepare for the hand-cut dovetails.

Let me also put in a plug for Rob Cosman here. Before I took this class, I watched a couple DVDs by Rob Cosman on hand-cutting dovetails. Rob has some very nice DVDs covering a few topics on hand tools. They are very informative and walk you through all of the steps in cutting dovetails. The DVDs are so good I can watch them over and over again. I can’t say that about a lot of woodworking DVDs. Rob has even come out with a shop manual you can take with into your shop. It covers cutting dovetails step-by-step. Also, Chris mentioned that he took a class from Rob, years ago when he (Chris) was starting out in woodworking. Rob will give you the confidence that you can do this, and it’s within everyone’s reach.

The curved end pieces were marked out from a template Chris had. I then used a chisel to chop away the excess wood. You could use a coping saw or some other method here, but a chisel does quick work of it too. I refined the curve with a rasp and then a spokeshave. I haven’t used a spokeshave that much, but I was really impressed with the clean smooth surface I got with. As with most hand planes, no sanding was needed after I was done.

The holes for the handles were made using a brace and bit. We drilled overlapping holes, with the brace and bit. The cherry we used was only 1/2″ think and a little brittle. One of my ends did crack, because I didn’t have it well supported. A little cyanoacrylate glue, fixed it right up. You can’t hardly see the crack.

After few pass with a Smoothing plane, I applied a few coast of Tung Oil. The dovetails came out pretty well. It’s hard to see in the pictures, but there a few small gaps. I’m making process but also realize that these are suppose to look handcut and not machine cut. I’m not saying they have to imperfect or gappy to be hand-cut, but that absolute perfection is not needed. I know I will get better overtime and my cuts will get tighter. Until then I’m not going to beat myself up over it.

Filed Under: Education, Projects, Techniques

Day 2 and 3 – Handsawing class with Christopher Schwarz

July 30, 2008 By 1 Comment

In this post, I’m going to go into some detail on how we built our sawbenchs. I’m going to explain the types of cuts (1st, 2nd, and 3rd-class) we used. This should give you and idea of when to use the different types of cuts and why.

The next 2 days of the class were spent making our sawbench. A sawbench turns out to be an essential tool for the sawyer. When using a handsaw (crosscut) or large rip saw, the sawbench allows you to work with the lumber at the proper height and angle for the saw. For a crosscut saw that is 45 degrees, and for a rip saw that is 60 degrees. If you tried to use these larger saws at your regular workbench, you will find the cutting action very uncomfortable and awkward. I found this out on the first couple of cuts we made.

We didn’t have our sawbenchs yet and I think no one wanted to go up and try Chris’s, out for fear of putting a cut into it! Luckily most of the other cuts we we had to make were made with backsaws, which work well at the bench.

The first task was to cut the legs to rough length, and at a 10 degree angle. This really was a rough cut, as the legs would be cut to final length after the bench was completed. We also worked on the shoulder cut at the top of the legs. The legs are set into the top of the bench, and the top rest on these shoulders. It was a fun challenge, seeing that everything was cut at 10 degrees. I started out with the cheek cuts, and used a 2nd-class cut for these. I then moved on to the shoulder cut, which were 1st-class cuts. I did pretty well, seeing that I still didn’t have much sawing experience under my belt yet. The cheeks and shoulders were cleaned up using my large Lie-Nielsen shoulder plane. It was pretty easy to clean up the cuts to the gauge lines.

One thing I learned during the class, once you get enough sawing under your belt, it won’t matter if the cut is at 90 degrees or 10 degrees. As in most everything, experience breads confidence. Also, as I got more experience sawing, the amount of clean up I had to do was less and less. The closer you can get with your cut, the less work you will have to do with some other tool.

Out next task was to start on the large stretchers. They had to be cut to length and the ends needed to be squared up. I used a benchhook and my Lie-Nielsen 5 1/2 bench plane to shoot the ends. Our next challenging joint was the half-dovetail on the stretches. A half-dovetail is a very traditional joint in bench construction. It’s a little easier to to cut than a full tail, and a half tail gives adequate support and anti-racking strength.

These dovetail joints are also lap joints and are let into the legs. The angle cut on the dovetail and vertical lap/cheek cuts were treated as 2nd-class cuts. They needed to be flat and square, but the finished surface wasn’t critical. Both of these surfaces are concealed inside the joint. The cheeks were also cleaned up using a router plane. The router leave a pretty nice surface, but if you have some tearout it’s not that critical.

The shoulder cut on the on the other hand is a 1st-class cut. This cut needs to be dead on. The shoulder can be seen, and must be tight. My cuts weren’t perfect, so I had to spend some time with shoulder plane to get them nice and flat.

Then the challenge was to half-tail cut in the legs. Use the stretches as your templates. I clamped a stretcher to a pair of legs and marked out the joint with a marking knife. I then used my marking gauge to mark the depth of the lap joint. I made the depth of the lap joint about an 1/8″ of less the thickness of the half-tail on the stretcher. This makes the stretch sit proud of the leg, which can hide any slight imperfections you might have in your joint.

Now that everything was marked it was time to cut. These cuts were all 1st-class cuts. These cuts will be seen and need to straight and square. There was a lot of material that needed to be removed. There are a few strategies that you can use. You can use a chisel to pare away the material. You can also make multiple saw cuts across the area and take the material out with a chisel. I tried both and they both worked well. To use a chisel alone, I think you need a large chisel, at least 1″ or more. I tried it with my 3/4″ chisel and it took awhile to pare away all of the material. Whichever method you use, you will most likely finish up with a router plane. The router plane does a very nice job of flattening and cleaning up the surface.

After all of the joints were cut and cleaned up, the large stretchers were glued to the legs. Glue should be enough, but some students chose to screw them also. I just glued mine. If you screw them, you can screw from the backside of the legs so that the screws aren’t as noticeable.

Now came time to attach the leg assemblies to the top! As mention earlier, the legs are inset into the top. This meant laying out those cuts and removing the material. I clamped a leg assembly to the top and used a marking knife to markout the joints. I think we set the legs in about 5/8″ of an inch. I treated these cuts as 1st-class cut. I used the multiple saw cuts technique to remove the waste. Then used the router plane to flatten up the bottom of the cut. When attaching the legs to the top, we used screws. It needs a little more support than the glue can give.

The small stretchers were the last pieces that needed to be cut and fitted. By this time, the simple half laps on the stretchers were a piece of cake. Again, the shoulders were 1st-class cuts and the cheeks were 2nd-class cuts. The cuts were cleaned up using a shoulder plane and now one of my favorite tools the router plane.

The slot cut into the top is a ripping slot. It’s used when ripping smaller pieces. It allows the bench to give support to the cut while allowing the saw to travel a few inches into the cut. You then move the board forward and proceed with the cut. If needed you can flip the board around and start cutting from the other end.

The final step in the process is to cut the legs to the proper height, for you. The top should be just at the knee or slightly below. For me that ended up being around 20″.

The holdfast you see on the bench is used to hold boards in place while chopping mortises. Chris told that these benches were also commonly used as mortising benches. The holdfast is positioned so that it can hold the workpiece over one of the legs. This give you a lot support while chopping the mortise. Also, if you flip the holdfast around knock it onto the top, it functions as a handle :) .

For those who would like to make one of these benches, Chris did post some plans on his Lost Art Press Blog. The plans are pretty close to what you see here, but there are some slight differences. For instance, the plan doesn’t include the half-dovetail in the long stretcher. It wouldn’t be that difficult to add it if you want that feature.

Filed Under: Benches, Education, Projects

Day 1 – Handsawing class with Christopher Schwarz

July 25, 2008 By Leave a Comment

It was my intention to post updates each evening, but that just didn’t happen. Several of the evenings were spent doing other activities. The first night Chris went out to dinner with a group of us. The second night I was just too tired. The night Gary Rogowski had a Bar-B-Q potluck at the shop. The fourth night we went on a field trip to Mike Wenzloff’s shop, which I already wrote about. So, I will try and recap what went on during the week I was there.

My wife will attest to this, I’m a planner and I like to know what we are going to do and when. She is much more spontaneous than me, but she puts up with me and I with her J. I’m not obsessive over this, but I just like to know what’s going to happen. So, the first day of any class is always exciting and anxious for me. I generally settle in pretty quick, but those first few hours can be nerve-wracking for me.

The first half of the day was spent in a lecture on the different types of saws and the different “classes” of cuts. This was the longest lecture Chris did, the rest were short talks and demos as we moved from one stage of a project to another. It was a long lecture but it was full of good information. I think I will save the information on saws for another post. He gave us a lot of information, and it could take a few posts to through it all. He covered the different types of saws, tooth configuration, pitch, rake, fleam, ppi/tpi and much more. The cool thing about this lecture was that Mike Wenzloff happened to be in the shop that morning and he hung around and gave his view on the topic of saws.

The other part of the lecture that morning was on the 3 Classes of saw cuts. These classes breakdown into Third-class (Course), Second-class (Medium) and First-class (Fine). I like how this also fits into Chris’s approach to hand tool use. If you haven’t see or read about how we views hand tools, Chris has a great DVD called Course, Medium and Fine. The DVD covers the progression you should take as you move through the preparation of stock. This idea works for hand tools and power tools. It’s not a new concept, Chris frequently references older woodworking books and articles. The same hold true for the concept of the different Classes of saw cuts. This isn’t a new concept, it’s a very European approach to woodworking.

Third-Class saw cut
Third-class saw cuts are used for rough cutting boards to length or width. When using a cross-cut handsaw or a large rip saw, these saws can leave a rough surface and can cause some splintering. You should account for this in your rough sizes. Because a third-class is rough cut, you only use a pencil line to mark you board. No need for marking knife or anything like that.

Second-Class saw cut
Second-class saw cuts need to be accurate but the resulting surface doesn’t need to be perfectly clean. These cut are generally buried inside a joint, where the surface is not seen. These cuts can/will be cleaned up by shooting, using a Router plane, or by some other means. These cuts are used on: the ends of rails or stiles, or for tenon or lap joint cheeks. The cuts are also marked out with a marking knife or marking gauge. The marking knife helps establish the precise location of the cut.

You will also use a chisel to make a small cut on your knife line, to help start your cut. This is generally done on a corner where two knife lines meet. Place your chisel in the knife line and give it small amount of pressure to deepen the knife line. A question you might have, should the bevel of the chisel be towards the waste or away from the waste? The wedging action of the chisel will push the chisel away from the bevel. If the bevel is facing the waste the chisel could get pushed back across your knife line. If the bevel is facing away from the waste, your cut could be a little fat. Many articles say you should put the bevel towards the waste. I tried it both ways while in class, and I prefer the bevel facing away from the waste for this type of cut. When I did it the other way, the chisel kept moving over my knife line. I will continue to play with both styles and see if they behave differently in different woods.

First-Class saw cut
First-class cuts are cuts that will be visible. Examples of these are: the shoulders on lap joints or tenons, and different parts of a dovetail joint. It is possible to get clean perfect cuts from the saw, although it isn’t uncommon to clean these cuts up with a shoulder plane or chisel. These cuts are also marked out with a marking knife or marking gauge.

In the example of cutting the shoulder on a tenon, you will need to use your chisel again deepen and establish the knife line. Using a wide chisel, and for me have the bevel facing away from the waste, lightly tap the chisel to deepen the knife line all the way around the joint. Then secure the piece and pare away a shallow trough, on the waste side of the line. The depth and width of the trough needs to accommodate the width and set of your saw. This will be something you will workout over time, for the saws you use. This trough will help you start your cut right on the knife line. Without this little trough your cut can wonder and can turn into a third-class cut really fast.

Filed Under: Education, Techniques

Woodworking Vacation

July 10, 2008 By Leave a Comment

The week of July 14 I will be attending a class at the Northwest Woodworking Studio in Portland, Or. I’ll be attending the Handsawing, Handsaws and Saw benches with Christopher Schwarz. This is the first time I’ve taken a week long woodworking class (woodworking vacation if you will). The other classes I’ve taken have been short half or full day classes at the local Woodcraft store. I did learn things in these classes, but the time was too short to really explore the given topic. It will be interesting to see what a week long class on handsawing will be like.

I’ve always enjoyed Chris Schwarz’s writing in Popular Woodworking and Woodworking Magazine. His blogs are also very entertaining and educational over at Woodworking Magazine and Lost Art Press. It will be exciting to finally meet Chris. He has always been friendly and helpful when I have emailed him questions about woodworking and tools. I’m sure he will be just as pleasant in-person.

This brings up an interesting topic, Hobby Vacations. At least in my family this type of vacation is starting to become “common”. I’ve already found a few other woodworking schools I would love to attend, on future vacations. My wife is a stamper and scrapbooker, and she has found a few places/schools she wants to do on a vacation. By brother is gold prospector and he is signed up for a gold prospecting class. My sisters are great cooks and they have already attended several cooking conferences. How many other people are combining their hobbies and passions into vacations?

Filed Under: Education