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.