College of The Redwoods Fine Furniture: Week 2

Another week of sawdust and shavings have passed and I'm starting to get into a routine here. My routine basically revolves around working at my bench in the shop and frequent snack breaks.
I've been pleasantly surprised by how easy it is to fit in with the woodworker crowd, it helps that they are so similar to climbers. We spend all day working with wood, frustrating the hell out of ourselves when something is off by 1/128th of an inch. Then during breaks we talk about that sick Japanese dovetail someone cut in the class of 1990 or bust out the tool catalog and talk about what new tools we want to order, and argue about saws cutting on the pull stroke or push. Instead of talking about new cams I'm talking about shoulder planes and chisels. Then once the shop closes up we go home, grab a beer, eat some meal made mostly of rice and beans, and then talk about how our work would have been better if this or that had been different or speak in awe at how easily Carlos pulled off his dovetails, like some guy flashing an offwidth in Indian Creek. Then it's off to bed where I flip through Fine Woodworking Magazine or look at books about wood and trees, and then fall asleep dreaming about handplanes and perfect joints. It is just like climbing. Just as obsessive and maybe just as ridiculous too. And yes, I really have been having dreams about working in the shop.

Quick Carlos and his mortise and tenons.

This week started with much frustration hanging around the shop as people finished up their prefect boards. Adam decided to start his completely over, a task I would never wish upon anyone. He wanted his damn perfect, and it is now. 

Laura taught Monday and Tuesday and got us all started on Mortise and Tenon joinery, or as Budlong calls  them, M&T's. The next days were filled with the same emotional highs and lows that I had during the work from the previous week. I'd be really close, 99% close, and then one more pass with the shoulder plane and I'd be chasing a gap around the tenon for the rest of the day. I spent the next five days working mostly on three M&T's, a haunched tenon, a standard M&T and a through tenon. My bench mate is beginning a project that has 34 birds beak mortise and tenons. I wasn't sure what they were either, but just know they are intense. I'm pretty sure the work of cutting these mortise and tenons appeared somewhere in Dantes Inferno.

Chase squaring the shoulders of a tenon.

Greg using the horizontal borer to cut mortises.

We did have some small breaks from the exact and tedious work of the M&T's to start a small wall cabinet out of poplar and to begin some sawhorses. Both of these projects began by resawing all the needed pieces from one piece of wood. It's pretty fun to take a board, layout what different pieces you can get out of it and then take it into the machine room to run it over jointers, through bandsaws and table saws and get all the parts for a project.

Rave and the table saw.

Rave and the bow saw.

On Friday I finally convinced Jim Budlong  to check me off on my mortise and tenons. It was good practice, and Budlong is a stickler...he expects fine work...which will be good to learn from and strive for. Sometimes it is hard to think though that the hard work put into pieces will be lost on people outside of the woodworking community, that routered dovetails and hand cut dovetails will look the same to most. But there is much personal satisfaction in doing something well, in putting much of yourself into your work. 

 Budlong kicked off Saturday with a crash course in dovetailing, and the rest of the day I tried to prevent my eyes from going cross as I stared and chiseled at end grain about three inches from my face. Once again, Carlos turned out some amazing work, while I struggled along. All in all, it was another good week of challenging work and when 5:30 rolled around on Saturday some shuffle board at the Golden West was in order.

The start of some dove tails. 

College of The Redwoods Fine Furniture: Week 1

The first wood-shavings of the year have fallen from my plane and been swept into the dustbin. My year at the College of the Redwoods Fine Furniture Program has begun.

Monday started and ended with plane irons. Flattening my water stones and honing my irons this year was a lot more peaceful than my first experience last summer, when I contemplated bashing my Norton stones with a 4lb sledge hammer and tossing my plane irons in a smelter. This year I breathed calmly as I repetitively ground the tips of my fingers raw sharpening and honing. My experience from last summer had taught me the importance of a truly sharp blade, and though dulling to the mind, a having sharp tools is the basis for any project.

(Hock Plane Irons : Out of the Box Front and Back, Flattening, Newly Polished Backs, Hollow Ground, and Honed Irons.)

After a fun day of sharpening, the class got started on constructing hand planes, a smoother and a joiner. Bandsaws started running, block planes were tuned, and shavings started hitting the floor as our planes took shape. A good part of the day passed looking at my square, then planing some more, looking at my square again, planing, looking at my square….

maple block becoming a plane

Eventually my plane ramps seemed good to go and I got out the clamps for glue up. Back to sharpening my tools again and making sure my stones were flat while I waited for the glue to dry.

Clamps were removed and soon folks were gluing on the soles, working on their plane throats and starting to shape their planes. By Thursday a few planes were cutting their shavings and by Friday the class was starting to move on to the next project…The Perfect Board…

Sam getting ready to glue up his sole

glue up

John tuning up his black plane.

The Prefect Board was my least favorite least favorite exercise last summer. On a scale of One to Ten, one being slamming my head in a car door and ten being in a state of zen I’d go with a two. The goal is to become familiar with the new planes and the idiosyncrasies, the method is to take a lightly milled piece of board, split it, and then re-join it and square it from every angle. My panes either have a lot of idiosyncrasies, or my adjusting skills need some adjusting. Last summer I spent two days on my board before I had it perfect. I proudly took it to an instructor to check out and was told I was approximately half a 64^th off of square. It was supposed to be the perfect board. This year I hoped to the gods of wood that things would go smoother for me. I began working on my board with my smoothing plane, flattening one side. Once I had a reasonably flat surface I hit the planer, the jointer and the table saw. A little bit of work with the planes and it was time to rip it. The most daunting task was almost at hand, re-joining the boards. So with some trepidation of what was coming I took my board to the band saw, and ran the blade through a spot in the grain that looked like I could hide a cut. Ideally it would take about three passes with the jointer plane to get the surfaces of the board ready for glue up. Hours later, with f-bombs flying, and some irons in need of re-sharpening I was close to having the tow halves meeting. It just needed one more pass. Thirty-six passes later I had it in the clamps gluing up. Not as quick as I would of liked, but still a full day quicker than last time.

Carlos working on his perfect board with his smoothing plane

perfect board glue up

and back to sharpening

Sunday finally rolled around and for the one day off of the week Chase, Tom, John and myself headed inland to cut and split around a chord of wood. Nothing like a good day off from the shop.