Very recently out in BC visiting my son. I had arranged that I could drop by the school so I headed over on the ferry to the sunshine coast road, arriving on a Saturday morning. This is their no machine room day, just everyone in the hand tool shop. When I arrived a lesson was in progress with everyone around the instructors bench.
Naturally when I realised James Krenov's #1 choice of schools in the world was just a few miles from my itinerary I had to see what they offered.
I came away with an appreciation of their uncluttered, minimalist tool, ultra precise way of working.
The students build 2 or 3 small wood hand planes, the 'jointer' was 9" long. One plane was a coopering plane. All students had a small collection of very fine chisels they had brought with them. No two students had the same chisels. Clearly they had been taught to sharpen tools. The planes all had chip breakers, the plane mouth was so precise, the opening so tight that light and a shaving a few microns wide could pass.
All the workbenches were traditional Scandinavian from the same family, dating back to the 1950's.
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Here is the instructors bench:
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Here is the instructors tool cabinet:
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It won't stand up! Software!
The students tool cabinets were far more Spartan!
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A couple of the machine shop:
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Post this before my token runs out and add more later..