As I mentioned in my last post, I headed up to Port Townsend. It turned out to be a 2 1/2 hour road trip (each way, including the required ferry ride) though I was able to catch up on a lot of podcasts during the ride so it wasn’t totally wasted. It was a much [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Northwest Woodworking Studio’
Handcut Dovetail practice
At the class on Handcut Dovetails that I attended at Northwest Woodworking Studio, for the first half of a day, we used a simple technique to practice cutting dovetails. Gary, the instructor, used the analogy of a muscisian or a runner warming up and I think that fits well. All that is needed is blocks [...]
How to determine how much finish is needed?
I’m working on finishing the Handcut Dovetail Hope Chest that I discussed several posts ago. In class, we used Shellac to finish the interior (ok, pre-finish). I’ve not used Shellac really. It seems like a really interesting finish and can provide some color to the work without the over powering nature of some dyes and [...]
Handcut Dovetail Hope Chest – Wrap Up
See my previous posts giving updates from my Handcut Dovetail Hope Chest from last week (I did 5 daily updates). This post is to give you some progress pictures and show you what happened. Here is Gary, the owner and teacher of our class at Northwest Woodworking Studio: Here are a series of shots that [...]
Quick Update: Dovetail Chest – Day 5 (last day)
OK, this was the last day. With all the work to do, I didn’t truly expect to get finished. I didn’t get to the following: Put a coat of finish on the outside (this would have been the last step and would have been done an hour before leaving). Put the hinges on the top [...]
Quick Update: Dovetail Chest – Day 4
It was a big day. We prepped our pieces (cleaned up the interior for pre-finishing) and taped off the glue joints so that finish didn’t cancel out the glue. We adjusted a dado (for the top and bottom) so that the pieces didn’t need a hammer to go in. We pre- finished our pieces – [...]
Quick Update: Dovetail Chest – Day 3
Today, I finished all the dovetails. According to Gary (instructor and owner of school) “it looks good, except that it doesn’t.” He’s a funny guy and makes many “smart” remarks throughout any day. From this statement, I read that it’s good that I have the dovetails done but that there is a lot of work [...]
Quick Update: Dovetail chest – day 2
Today, I finished cutting the tail boards and started on the pins. This is easily the most frustrating part. Getting it to fit tight seems impossible to my current skill level. I get it to fit but the examples the instructor, Gary, does are impossibly tight. Also, he and his assistant have good eyes and [...]
Quick update: Dovetail Chest – Day 1
I just got back to the hotel. It’s after 5:30p and it’s over 100 degrees outside. The class is in an old, non-AC’d, warehouse. Did I mention it’s over 100 degrees outside? The class was great. Gary, owner/teacher of the Northwest Woodworking Studio, first started out with the notion that before you jump in and [...]
Transportation for hand tools
As I mentioned in my post titled “Woodworking Class – Building a chest“, I’m going to a woodworking class for a week down in Portland, OR. The classes haven’t required us to take all our tools but they do recommend some so my question is how do I carry chisels, handplanes, and handsaws? I’ve found [...]
Woodworking Class – Building a chest
As I said in my previous post regarding the Review of a Sharpening Class, I really learned a lot out of just one day. The class was at the Northwest Woodworking Studio in Portland, Oregon. In about a week, I am taking a 6-day course on Building a chest by hand and also a 1-day [...]
Sharpening Class Tomorrow
Finally, I get to go to a class on woodworking tomorrow (it didn’t get cancelled like the other classes did). The class is on Sharpening. At this point, all my sharpening skills are psuedo self taught. I’ve read books, watched videos, and listened to podcasts on this subject. This has given me some skills but [...]
