…getting started and learning the basics and getting started.
On Monday morning I was up and going early, so excited to start this unique adventure. The commute from Lexington to the North End on a Monday was not bad. (Note: I have come to learn that the commute gets longer every day of the week, as it goes along, with Friday being more like a Monday or Tuesday heading in, but often like a Wednesday or Friday on the way home.)
I had already scoped out the area, so I knew where to park, and had already booked reservations for the parking garage for each day of the week, until I could get a monthly pass. Ah, the joys of commuting…and without the rare perk that is parking where you work that Liberty provided me…thanks mother Liberty!
After I parked, I had a short walk over to the school and when I arrived, which I must say was just cool in an of itself, I was handed our two “text books” along with a sharpening stone (hint: guess what we will learn on Day 1?).
So yes, indeed Day One was about the basics of sharpening – with focus on our chisels. We learned to grind on the stones, then honing a sharp edge on our new oil stones, plus other smother stones until we had a true shiny bevel on which to work the magic that is chisel work! In fact, we sharpened several of our various chisels, and then worked them out by taking a simple block of wood, and without only the chisel, to create bevels and round overs by hand. This sounded easier than it was in practice but it was such fun.
On Day Two, we began working with our hand planes. We were focused on the No. 4 plane which is often referred to as the “Sweetheart” plan. For those interested in the history of planes, and the Stanley Tools planes in particular, here is a video which will give you some more history and context. Of course, I am partial to the Lie-Neilsen line of tools, made in Maine, which are, no surprises for those who know me, are on the high-end of the spectrum…but hey, they are so gorgeous and well made! My No. 4 is a beauty, eh?? 🙂
Anyway, we sharpened our plane irons (aka, the blades) while also learning how to properly use the plane, the parts, and how to tune them up for various tasks. I know this is more than most of you may want to know, but it was such fun…and while I had been familiar with much of this so far, given my 15-year hiatus, it was great to get such a thorough refresher. In particular, I appreciated all the time practicing sharpening because that can often be intimidating and just a couple days in, I am feeling far more comfortable.
Finally, the big project or exercise for the day was to use our No. 4, and take a rough piece of lumber, and turn it into a board that was completely smooth, with parallel faces and perpendicular edges, all with just a plane. I took the board to my retirement dinner with my team and showed it off, boasting what I did that day, they just laughed at my nerdish enthusiasm! What a great dinner by the way, thanks team!
Day Three was about taking these two basic skills, chisel and plane work, and building something. In particular, to build our own oil stone box. Plus we got our introduction to the machine shop with the drill press as our first tool, once we had hogged out one side of the board with a chisel (I suppose to appreciate the productivity power tools offer, as if that wasn’t clear by now!). Anyway, I loved that we got to use mahogany for our boxes, but grain running every which way was a real challenge!
Day Four then was more work on the oil stone box and trying out other skills. For example, using simple jigs to round over the edges, which amounted to scraping it with a small block of wood with a piece of a blade the shape of a small round over moulding. You moderns out there would just crank up your router, such modernity!. In addition, I tried my hand with a lining which is using a similar tool to cut a small groove in the wood that I then can insert some inlay which allowed me to put white and black lines (aka, my racing stripes) around the box.
Day Five, which was Friday, was learning another new skill. We learned how to mark out and cut our own tenon and mortise joints. It was another fun, and yet challenging exercise, given it all looks so simple when our instructor Nick shows us, then immediately seems much more difficult when we are at the bench. I also started to get to know some of my classmates a bit more at lunch, as we all found each other at the Rose Kennedy Greenway https://www.rosekennedygreenway.org/ and sat on a swinging bench and chatted during our lunch hour. (Note: for those interested in what it was before this, check out these photos of the Central Artery in Boston before the Big Dig.)
In the afternoon I had some time to get back to my oil stone box and decided to add a much more complicated inlay, which actually was tough just because cutting a shallow and wide groove in the mahogany was very challenging, but I did it with the help of a router plane, pulse patience. And then did my best at working out the inlay to match and did a couple of good miter joints with such small stock. What fun! And this will come in handy in the future, more on that in future posts..
So as the first week wound down, I reflected on the week and it was everything I expected and more. I loved the school, the class, our instructor and my fellow students (six of us, which became five after a couple of weeks as one of the students had to drop the class). So I leave the week feeling tired, and ready for more.
Next week, more stills, and in my next post I will share what the two big projects we will build during the course of the three months. That is all for now…John
P.S. I am rapidly becoming a hater of WordPress, so please forgive the somewhat crude layout above, it was the best I could get. I tried a number of tools, plug-ins, and work-arounds but not exactly what I was going for. Will continue to try and work on it.