Basic skill building exercises?

[Matt Lau]

Hey Neander dudes (and dudettes),

As a neander neophyte, I know that I'm neither skilled nor experienced.
It's a bit tricky to be so, without a good teacher or time to go to class (Jay Van Arsdale has a good one on Japanese Woodworking, right in my busiest time of practice).

Can you suggest some skill building projects/drills?
I'd be particularly interested to see if there's different ones for Western vs Japanese woodworking foundations.
It'd be particularly nice if you could recommend some stuff that is useful/nice presents.

I think Stan had recommended making some wooden boxes with pinned box joints--which I plan to do (aka speaker project).
I'm not sure if there are other great projects?
Winding sticks?

Please advise, great sempais.

[Matt Lau]

For what it's worth, I'd like to try to kill three birds with one stone:

-Build skills
-make something nice for friends...hopefully, not too expensive.
- find ways to do it with my floorbench and future western workbench...finding a way to do it anywhere would be very nice.

[Robert Hazelwood]

I think you are on the right track with the boxes. They are small (so your floor bench can handle them well), economical of material, and incorporate lots of furniture techniques on a scale that can be done quickly. They are also useful, and make excellent gifts.

You can also easily ramp up the difficulty level, and explore new joinery and techniques. But I would suggest repeating a design until you feel you've mastered it rather than chasing novelty (assuming the goal is to build skills).

Better to learn making real projects with something at stake, than making practice cuts on scrap, in my opinion at least.

[Jim Koepke]

Do you have or use any bench accessories?

A pair of bench hooks can be helpful.

A shooting board is useful.

Other work holding devices might be helpful like a board claw:

370103

Here is a top view:

370104

They can be made different sizes or mounted on a board.

Furniture for storage is always a good thing if you have clothes, books, tools or other items to store.

Keepsake boxes make good gifts and many people actually enjoy having a special place for their special items.

jtk

[James Pallas]

I would say boxes are good. If skill building is the goal. You would need to resaw, thickness, groove, rabbet, dovetail, miter, finish plane and apply finish. You could use either Japanese or western tools. If they finish up nice you can give them away. If they turn out not so good you can keep them and use them for yourself and they will remind you of lessons learned.
Jim

[David Bassett]

... Can you suggest some skill building projects/drills? ....

Don't know if it applies since you seem to focus on Japanese techniques & instrument making, but for classic Western / English tools & techniques Joiner And Cabinet Maker (https://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/store/dept/BE/item/AQ-1135.XX), by Anon, Chris Schwarz, and Joel Moskowitz, seems exactly what you're looking for. (At least, if you do the projects as exercises. So far, I've only read it for general & historic interest. :) ) (It's also available from Lost Art Press (https://lostartpress.com/collections/books/products/the-joiner-and-cabinet-maker-1). Different price & shipping, sorta' depends on if you are ordering anything else.)

[Patrick Chase]

I think Stan had recommended making some wooden boxes with pinned box joints--which I plan to do (aka speaker project).

I taught myself full and HB dovetails (and FB/mitered to a lesser extent) by making a bunch of boxes with each. They had no real purpose other than to provide a reason to cut the joinery...

[Patrick Chase]

Don't know if it applies since you seem to focus on Japanese techniques & instrument making, but for classic Western / English tools & techniques Joiner And Cabinet Maker (https://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/store/dept/BE/item/AQ-1135.XX), by Anon, Chris Schwarz, and Joel Moskowitz, seems exactly what you're looking for. (At least, if you do the projects as exercises. So far, I've only read it for general & historic interest. :) ) (It's also available from Lost Art Press (https://lostartpress.com/collections/books/products/the-joiner-and-cabinet-maker-1). Different price & shipping, sorta' depends on if you are ordering anything else.)

Just ignore the part of Joel's commentary that deals with cap irons :-).

[Mark Gibney]

Matt, you mentioned Jay van Arsdale, which may mean you live near Oakland CA?

In case you don't know this, there is a Japanese woodworking event in Oakland this weekend, the 2017 Kezuroukai.

Here's a link

https://www.kezuroukai.us/events/2017/10/21/kezurou-kai-usa-2017-oakland-ca-october-21-22

[Prashun Patel]

Practice cutting dovetails, imho. This teaches you how to scribe, cut straight, and pare.

I humbly suggest that you should never consider yourself inexperienced to make anything, but never experienced enough to stop learning.

It takes confidence to saw to a line and to challenge yourself with joinery when there are easier options. Having the audacity to think you should be able to do it is the only way to improve.

If you are up for some drills, doing a dovetail a day is a fantastic way to build muscle memory.

[Bob Lang]

Way back in 2010 I wrote a series of blog posts for Popular Woodworking about the "Gottshall Block". It's a little hunk of wood from Franklin Gottshall's book "Making Antique Furniture Reproductions". You lay out and make various cuts, mostly with a saw and chisel. Good way to learn without much of an investment in wood and a good thing to return to every year or so.

[Matt Lau]

Wow! Bob Lang! If you were here, I'd have you sign my workshop labcoat.

I missed Kezouro-Kai. Originally, I was going to go to the mini-Maker's fair instead.
However, I ended up just hiding away like a shut-in.

Sounds like boxes are a good idea.

[Jim Koepke]

Sounds like boxes are a good idea.

If nothing else you can make them to store your tools.

They are also great boxes for giving gifts. Here is a link to an episode or The Woodwright's Shop on making sliding lid boxes:

http://www.pbs.org/video/woodwrights-shop-sliding-lid-boxes/

It also shows a bunch of bench accessories one can use for getting into production of boxes.

This episode uses a plow plane to cut grooves.

jtk

[Matt Lau]

Just checking out the video now.

You've got to love Roy Underhill.
"And HERE the PINE is holding the wood snug, WHILE WE CUT A WABBIT, (loud laughter)"

He's entertaining, has skills, and is a great teacher.