The School: Day One

The 12 week Intensive Furniture course began this morning.

I got out of bed way before I had to, discovered I didn't know how to use the microwave, left early, got to the school before 8 am.  But, even though the class wasn't scheduled to start until 9, I wasn't the first there.  Christoph, an engineer from France arrived at about the same time I did, and Devon was already there.

Christoph and I chose our workbenches, and I hauled in my over-large collection of tools.  Other students started to arrive, and as each arrived and chose a bench, we exchanged introductions.

Demographics: We have 12 students, a large range of experience, and two of the students are women.  I appear to be the oldest student, and the majority, I would guess are half my age, or less.  Many are hoping for a change of career.  A couple, like me, are hoping to improve their skills and therefore their pleasure in woodworking.

The morning was spent as you would expect in any course - administrivia, followed by safety rules, and other stuff of that sort.

Then we launched in to the course.  First was a discussion of wood - how trees grow, how they are cut up to make boards, the big part moisture plays in movement, warping, cupping, etc.

The big question everyone at home asked me: what are you going to make?  Well, now I know.  In the first two weeks we will be making a small bench of our own design which must incorporate dovetails and mortise/tenon joints.  In the next six weeks we'll be making a casework project, again of our own design, which must incorporate at least one door and at least one drawer. At this point, I plan on making a tool cabinet or something similar.

The final segment we will be making something incorporating bent wood.

A significant part of the afternoon was spent in sharpening 3 chisels.  I'm still not finished.  Then we got partway through a demonstration of making a properly squared up piece of wood from a rough cut board.  More of that and the chisel sharpening tomorrow.

The facilities are excellent.  The photo below is of the bench room.  The next room to the right is the machine tool room.  Large and well equipped, but not the huge industrial sized tools I used at AB Tech.

Through the door you can see in the right of the photo is what I would call the "coffee mess" or kitchen area, and the drafting room.

That's my bench with the yellow topped box next to it.  My "home" for the next 12 weeks.

In the evening I attended the weekly Faculty Slide Show.  First up was the fellow teaching a one week woodturning class.  He's from Seneca, SC, and I'm sure I've seen him at the JC Campbell Folk School.   His presentation was about his beautiful natural edge turned wooden bowls.

He was followed by Peter Korn, the school's Director.  He gave us several intertwined histories - his own, the school's, and the modern furniture making movement.   All very interesting.  Well worth coming back to the school this evening.

And so, good night for the first day of school.

By the way, I said I wan't going to show any more APRS plots, but I have two different routes I can take to get to the school from my apartment.  One takes 4 minutes, and the other about 6.  Here's all the plots for me today.  I think you can understand why this is the last one I'm going to post. The distance from Kathy's Lane, Scott Rd, Chris Rd, West Street Ext, and West St to the school is less than two miles.  The Tolman Pond Market is where I bought a sandwich for lunch.