Jay Knoll
11-25-2004, 11:08 AM
Center for Furniture Craftsmanship Report
Well, I’m going to try to do this again, I’ve written this twice and when I hit Preview Post, I lost the information. So I’m doing it in Word this time and will cut and paste into the forum.
I went to the Basic Woodworking course at the CFC in Rockport Maine in late August. It was a two week program, Bottom line, it was worth every penny and every hour I spent.
The CFC has a lot of different courses throughout the year, you can check out their website: www.woodschool.org for a list of next year’s courses.
The basic text of the course is Peter Korn’s book. Peter is the founder and Executive Director of the CFC (it’s a non-profit) and teaches all the Basic Woodworking Courses.
Here’s a link to the book: http://www.woodcentral.com/books/korn_basics.shtml
Let’s calibrate my experience so you’ll understand my opinions. Other than 7th and 8th grade shop I haven’t had any formal training in woodworking. Only in the past several years have I had the time to improve my skills. I had never cut a dovetail or a mortise and tenon, before I attended this class. On to the review!
The class is limited to 12 students, in addition to Peter who does all the major demonstrations and lectures, there were two full time assistants assigned to the group (on occasion another joined during the work sessions when Peter had other things to do).
There is a strong emphasis on hand tool use. There is a machine room with “big iron” which we used to mill the rough sawn lumber we used for our projects, but I would guess that only 10% of our time was spent there. There is a strong emphasis on safety, each of us was observed operating each machine several times by the assistants before we were permitted to “go it alone”, If we chose a board that was 10” wide, Peter insisted that we hand plane one surface flat before we ran it through the surface planner. Peter said “now you know that you don’t have to worry about not having a wide jointer” (Sorry Peter, I’m getting an 8” jointer as soon as I can swing it!).
The first week was spent learning how to cut a mortise and tenon, dovetail and blind dove tail joint, and designing our project. We could make anything we wanted, as long as it had a through tenon and blind dovetail joints. So, we made a lot of stools! During the second week we worked on our projects.
The school wants you to bring your own tools, not a lot, chisels, marking gauges, ruler, plane etc. The joke was that we didn’t bring chisels, we brought CHISEL KITS. Peter wouldn’t let us use them until we could shave the hair off of our arm, so we did lots of tuning up and sharpening. I now know what a delight it is to work with sharp tools.
Peter emphasizes process as much as product. He says that the real satisfaction is in doing the work, and that the work itself can be as gratifying as the joy one gets from looking at the finished piece.
The most important thing I learned from the course was to carefully focus on each step in a project. This was almost an aside in one of Peter’s lectures, but he said something to the effect that “Woodworking is the only endeavor I know where the quality of any particular step is directly related to the quality of the step immediately preceding it. If the stock isn’t milled square, then your strike lines won’t be accurate. If you cut the strike line poorly, the chisel won’t register properly and the joint won’t be accurate. The time it takes to correct mistakes is greater than the time it takes to do it properly the first time. Work slow, work accurately.”
Will I use everything I learned here? Probably not. The time it would take me to develop the muscle memory to cut accurate dovetails the way Peter does would lead me to frustration. So I’m going to get some kind of a jig to hold the saw steady (or use my band saw) to cut dovetails. But the skills I learned will make me a better woodworker, regardless of whether I use power or hand tools.
Well, I’m going to try to do this again, I’ve written this twice and when I hit Preview Post, I lost the information. So I’m doing it in Word this time and will cut and paste into the forum.
I went to the Basic Woodworking course at the CFC in Rockport Maine in late August. It was a two week program, Bottom line, it was worth every penny and every hour I spent.
The CFC has a lot of different courses throughout the year, you can check out their website: www.woodschool.org for a list of next year’s courses.
The basic text of the course is Peter Korn’s book. Peter is the founder and Executive Director of the CFC (it’s a non-profit) and teaches all the Basic Woodworking Courses.
Here’s a link to the book: http://www.woodcentral.com/books/korn_basics.shtml
Let’s calibrate my experience so you’ll understand my opinions. Other than 7th and 8th grade shop I haven’t had any formal training in woodworking. Only in the past several years have I had the time to improve my skills. I had never cut a dovetail or a mortise and tenon, before I attended this class. On to the review!
The class is limited to 12 students, in addition to Peter who does all the major demonstrations and lectures, there were two full time assistants assigned to the group (on occasion another joined during the work sessions when Peter had other things to do).
There is a strong emphasis on hand tool use. There is a machine room with “big iron” which we used to mill the rough sawn lumber we used for our projects, but I would guess that only 10% of our time was spent there. There is a strong emphasis on safety, each of us was observed operating each machine several times by the assistants before we were permitted to “go it alone”, If we chose a board that was 10” wide, Peter insisted that we hand plane one surface flat before we ran it through the surface planner. Peter said “now you know that you don’t have to worry about not having a wide jointer” (Sorry Peter, I’m getting an 8” jointer as soon as I can swing it!).
The first week was spent learning how to cut a mortise and tenon, dovetail and blind dove tail joint, and designing our project. We could make anything we wanted, as long as it had a through tenon and blind dovetail joints. So, we made a lot of stools! During the second week we worked on our projects.
The school wants you to bring your own tools, not a lot, chisels, marking gauges, ruler, plane etc. The joke was that we didn’t bring chisels, we brought CHISEL KITS. Peter wouldn’t let us use them until we could shave the hair off of our arm, so we did lots of tuning up and sharpening. I now know what a delight it is to work with sharp tools.
Peter emphasizes process as much as product. He says that the real satisfaction is in doing the work, and that the work itself can be as gratifying as the joy one gets from looking at the finished piece.
The most important thing I learned from the course was to carefully focus on each step in a project. This was almost an aside in one of Peter’s lectures, but he said something to the effect that “Woodworking is the only endeavor I know where the quality of any particular step is directly related to the quality of the step immediately preceding it. If the stock isn’t milled square, then your strike lines won’t be accurate. If you cut the strike line poorly, the chisel won’t register properly and the joint won’t be accurate. The time it takes to correct mistakes is greater than the time it takes to do it properly the first time. Work slow, work accurately.”
Will I use everything I learned here? Probably not. The time it would take me to develop the muscle memory to cut accurate dovetails the way Peter does would lead me to frustration. So I’m going to get some kind of a jig to hold the saw steady (or use my band saw) to cut dovetails. But the skills I learned will make me a better woodworker, regardless of whether I use power or hand tools.