2018- What have you learned this year?

[Matt Lau]

Hey Creekers,

As the year is ending, I like to reflect on stuff that I've learned in the past year.

Do you have any lessons that you've learned this year (woodworking or otherwise)?
As to why I'm posting this on the neanderthal subforum, I figure that it takes a special type of person to do things the hard way.

-Matt

[Joe A Faulkner]

My youngest son asked me to help him restore an old rusty saw. After we finished that project, he asked if I had an axe head we could restore. I remembered that I had purchased a hewing axe head a couple of years back at an antique store in western Maryland. After de-rusting the axe head, I learned how to shape an axe handle which then meant I had to learn how to tune a spoke shave, which then led me to explore basic leather craft (see the axe sheath - my first leather project in 42 years). After shaping the axe handle, I decided I really want a shaving horse. That lead me to hand split my first log; in this case a 10" walnut log that the electric company dropped about a year ago. Not sure that I can bring myself to use walnut for a shaving horse though.

[lowell holmes]

I just can not resist. I learned not to talk back to SWMBO.

just kidding.

[Christopher Charles]

After moving this year, I learned (again) that I'd rather be working IN the shop than ON the shop!

[Frederick Skelly]

Cool story Joe! Like that sheath a lot!
Fred

[steven c newman]

Mine was more about the remembering of skills I had forgotten about....

[Chuck Nickerson]

I hope I learned to keep much better notes during a project, particularly on prototypes. If I've got to change something it would be nice to know what I'm changing.

I'll know soon enough if I learned the lesson.

[Rob Luter]

With respect to my woodworking hobby:

- Sharp solves all manner of problems.
- Time spent on a good plan is time well spent.
- Quality drills make really accurate holes.
- There's no sense having 10 back saws when you only use 3

[JohnM Martin]

I'm sure this is common knowledge to most here, but I learned to always check mortise and tenon fit for square after it goes together because it may not seat fully square and more work might be required to keep an entire carcass square. This is one of those things that seems so obvious looking back, but when trying to learn everything from online videos and forums, I guess it's a minor detail that had escaped me until I attempted to fit a drawer into a side table that wasn't square at all.

[Paolo Trevisan]

most important lesson for me was to keep hands behind sharp chisels.
fyi I managed to cut clean through my finger with a 5/8" chisel.
at least doctor was impressed at how sharp it was...
guess it was a good news and bad news
p

[Frederick Skelly]

I'm sure this is common knowledge to most here, but I learned to always check mortise and tenon fit for square after it goes together because it may not seat fully square and more work might be required to keep an entire carcass square. This is one of those things that seems so obvious looking back, but when trying to learn everything from online videos and forums, I guess it's a minor detail that had escaped me until I attempted to fit a drawer into a side table that wasn't square at all.

John, I had to learn the same thing.

[Frederick Skelly]

I second what others have said: dull tools don't work and sharp tools are amazing in what they can do. I managed to somehow sharpen my favorite smoother well enough to pull a 0.001 thick shaving. The finish was simply amazing - better than any sandpaper I've ever used. Now, if I can just get it that sharp EVERY TIME.

Things I already knew but learned again:
* Stop working when I find my attention wandering or I'm in a hurry. I ruined a Forrest WW-II blade by running it into my miter gauge. Was lucky it wasn't my hand.
* The Lee Valley Shooting Plane is one of the best hand tool purchases I've ever made.
* What a great resource SMC is for me!

[Prashun Patel]

Over design is the enemy of good design.

[Chris Hachet]

With respect to my woodworking hobby:

- Sharp solves all manner of problems.
- Time spent on a good plan is time well spent.
- Quality drills make really accurate holes.
- There's no sense having 10 back saws when you only use 3

I have a dozen...probably overkill...but I really like having a dozen back saws.

Personally, I learned to love hand tools again after falling in love with the machine side of the shop.

[Matthew Hartlin]

John, I had to learn the same thing.

Same thing here, lots of M&T in my projects this year. Have gotten much better at cutting and chopping by hand, but have certainly learned the importance of squaring the mortise after doing so to the tenon with the router plane.