Fundamentals of Hand Tool Joinery lived up to high expectations
Yesterday, I taught my third seminar of the month at Lee Valley Tools Coquitlam – Fundamentals of Hand Tool Joinery. Like the previous two (Jigs for the Bandsaw and Jigs for the Table Saw), this one was also sold out completely.
We started with some sawing exercises to get used to handling the Veritas dovetail saws. Then, we cut a cross lap joint, starting with rough-sawn lumber. Along the way, I introduced and demonstrated a number of tools and jigs/fixtures including hand planes, marking knives, wheel marking gauges, bench hooks and shooting boards (and the new Veritas Shooting Plane!). Each student got to use all the tools as they worked on their joint.
After the lap joints were together, there was still some time left so I asked the class if there was something else they wanted to cover. We examined how to cut a mortise and tenon joint, lay out and cut dovetails, and we even tried saw-kerf finger joints!
It was a fun class to teach and I didn’t miss having to shout over the noise of power tools. Instead, I enjoyed listening to six handsaws work their way through the wood. The students told me that they enjoyed learning more about the tools used and seeing new techniques.
This was an all-day class, but there was talk about running the same class again in the evening, starting with fully dimensioned lumber for time’s sake.
Whats next?
The next seminar that I teach at Lee Valley Tools Coquitlam is with Judson Beaumont on Working with Wood: Nurturing, Creating, Realizing Ideas. It’s an evening seminar on October 11 from 5:30 to 8:30 pm. This display, featuring our work, is in the entryway of the store to promote the seminar.
Links:
Sculptural Woodwork by Chris Wong 