Tuesday evening. It's rainy and about 59 degrees.
I'm well into the first project. Yesterday I milled the piece of Cherry I'd picked out last Friday afternoon to rough size, including hand planing one side of one of the pieces as flat and as smooth as I could make it by hand. Unfortunately, while I was hand planing, I rocked the workbench significantly, and my little pocket Nikon flipped off the bench onto the floor. Now it won't focus. Something has been knocked out of alignment, and I am waiting for Nikon to reply to my email. Until it gets repaired, any photos I post will have been taken on my cellphone, (just like everybody else does anymore).
Anyway, I ran the wood through jointer and planer, and almost immediately saw it cup. There was cupping in the piece I smoothed by hand, and removing the cupping was the majority of my work. Evidently when I sent the boards through the surface planer, I released some inner stress, and the boards cupped again. So, I finished up for the evening and let the boards sit overnight to get acclimated (acclimatized?).
Yesterday evening after dinner I returned to the school for the weekly Faculty slide shows. The first was from another wood turner who has a very unique style. The second slide show was by Yuri, our current assistant instructor. She has done some really fantastic work making, as she puts it, "totally impractical stuff." One sculpture comprises about 4000 mortise and tenon joints! So, I shouldn't complain about the four such joints that will be incorporated into my project.
This morning I finished up cutting my boards to approximate size, and began laying out the two side pieces. These are the pieces that incorporate all of the 1:7 cuts which are not part of the dovetails. I won't actually make those cuts until I have the dovetail tails completed, and perhaps not even then. We'll see how it progresses.
Because of the cupping, I'm having to take some unusual measures. I am attempting to cut the tails of the dovetails in both side pieces simultaneously. This means trying to keep my cuts straight across 1-1/4 inches. It's pretty frustrating. Sometime after 5 pm, I was working away, and the school's Director, Peter Korn, came into our workshop. He stopped at my bench and asked how I was doing, and I told him I was frustrated. So he spent about 10 minutes or so showing me a technique that I might consider using to fix up the problems I've been having. After he left, I worked for another 40 minutes or so, getting my work set up for tomorrow. Then I cleaned off my bench and came home and ate dinner.
I continue to learn new stuff every day. Some of the things I'm learning are really "ah ha" moments where I discover how to do things I've wondered about, or why we do things a certain way. Other things are just training new muscles memories or learning new ways of seeing things I have overlooked in the past. And, one other very useful thing that I am learning, is how to better use my tools, and which tools are more important to me or better suited to what I need to do. When you work in a shop briefly, every now and again, you don't learn those kinds of things. After he showed me some of his dovetailing tricks, I told Peter that this is not the first time I have hand cut dovetails, but the previous times have been so separated in time that I've never completely learned the techniques. Like anything else, it takes regular practice.
Non-woodworkers might want to skip the next two paragraphs. Maybe not.
I find myself in the middle of a debate (with myself) about which chisels are better I'm using a set Narex chisels which are made in the Czech Republic. They are pretty good, and relatively cheaper than some of the others in use by other students. Their handles are large and they are a bit "klunky", but they get the job done, and hold an edge reasonably well. I've had them for a few years, and I'd say they are adequate. But, I'd really like to own as set of the Veritas or Lie Nielsen chisels. One of the fortunate things about the school is that with 12 students, you get an opportunity to see the tools that everybody else has, and also those available at the school. There's been a lot of sharing going on, and and everyone has their opinions about which is the best. At least two have the Veritas chisels, and one has the Lie Nielsen, and almost everybody else bought a set of the Two Cherries brand that the school sells. Christophe brought some Austrian chisels with him from France, and the instructor uses a set of the blue handled Marples (pre-Irwin) chisels. He makes his living woodworking.
Another good thing about the school I think I mentioned before: both Lie Nielsen and Lee Valley offer discounts to us as students of the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship. So, you might see why learning which chisels I would prefer is of concern to me at this time.
As I was re-reading what I'd written, I also realized that there's one more thing about the school and my fellow students I should mention. I think they are a great bunch of people. I am thoroughly enjoying myself. I guess having a mutual interest brings like-minded people together.
I just looked across the room and realized that this is the first day since arriving that I haven't made my bed. Shame on me. Oh well, in a short while I'll be in it.
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