Resuming Private Hand Tool Woodworking Lessons Summer 2021

I'm happy to announce that I'll be resuming private lessons for hand tool woodworking this summer in my basement workshop in Ayer, MA. The anticipated start will be late June, 2021.

By that time, it will have been at least 2 weeks after my second coronavirus vaccination. I require that all participants have completed their round of vaccinations at least 2 weeks prior to any lessons. For everyone's protection, I'll be adding a portable HEPA air filter unit capable of cycling workshop air several times an hour.

Private lessons mean you get to choose what to spend time on, and at what pace and schedule. I have a standard curriculum of eight 3-hour sessions, but you can pick and choose what things to spend more or less time on, and how much time you want to spend per class.

You can bring your own tools, or use any of mine. I can provide inexpensive practice materials, or you can provide your own.

See Hand Tool Instruction for full details.

Fall 2015 Session Of Online Intro To Hand Tools Registration

Join me to learn how to use the tools you see on the wall!

The Fall 2015 session of my Popular Woodworking University "Intro To Hand Tools" course is now open for registration here. The course consists entirely of online videos you can watch on your own schedule, running October  21 through January 21. Cost is $59.99.

Note that Popular Woodworking University provides registered students permanent read-only access to courses after they end. That means you can watch the videos any time after the course end date, but you won’t be able to ask questions or use the discussions after that.

This is over 12 hours of instruction in 7 major parts. You can find a complete episode guide here to see what's covered, as well as links to a free sample lesson, trailer video, and tool list.

Whether you want to learn to do everything with hand tools, or just want to add some hand skills to your power tool workshop, you can find it here.

Why do everything with hand tools? The main reason is that not everyone has space or money for a power tool workshop. Hand tools allow you to work in the tiniest space, quietly so you don't disturb your family or your neighbors, starting with a modest investment.

Here are the reviews of the first session that ran this summer:

"Great course. Although I don't own a number of the tools demonstrated, it still shows the proper techniques if I ever do obtain them. Also shows how to properly use the ones I do own."

"This was some of the best time I've spent on woodworking instruction. Lessons were clean and well paced. Mistakes and pitfalls were addressed with fixes. It was great to see the operations performed with the "why" narration in the background. If this becomes (or is) available on DVD, it will be added to my library. Thanks Steve....."

 "Great course, got me back into woodworking quickly and efficiently. Much better than searching YouTube for videos on similar subjects. Quality of video, editing, and audio was great, as well as the logical approach taken by the instructor."

"Thank you so much for this opportunity in learning the crafting skills of woodworking. Steve offers his skills, techniques and insights on how to achieve the in product. Excellent job Steve!"

Thank you! As noted in that first comment, one of my goals is to provide a thorough introduction with a broad range of coverage. I want to be sure to cover not just the tools you have now, but the ones you might run into in the future.

59 Videos: Intro To Hand Tools

Freehand sharpening on oilstones: just one of 5 different sharpening methods covered. Sharpening is just one of 7 parts of the course.

59 videos. Over 12 hours of content (see episode guide below). 5 months of effort from the first email discussion. Hours and hours in the workshop weekends and nights, and more hours on the train editing video and writing accompanying text. A lot of understanding and support from my wife.

My Intro To Hand Tools course is available at Popular Woodworking University for online viewing, or you can purchase individual parts as digital downloads at Popular Woodworking's online store. Both formats are completely self-paced, so you can watch the videos at your convenience.

If you're new to hand tool woodworking, or just want to add some skills, this course is for you. The cost is only $59.99 for the online course, just over a dollar per video, or $4.99 for each of the six downloads, even more economical. You can read reviews of the first online session here.

Note that Popular Woodworking University provides registered students permanent read-only access to courses after they end. That means you can watch the videos any time after the course end date, but you won’t be able to ask questions or use the discussions after that.

It's divided into 7 parts. I cover multiple methods so you can pick the one that you like or that best matches the tools you have available. Try as many methods as you can to build your versatility. That will give you the background to incorporate other methods that you learn about.

"Fistfights And Fundamentals" videos highlight the different methods and compare them. "Exercise" videos provide practice exercises to develop hand and tool control.

While I show everything using easy-to-work eastern white pine, all the skills apply to harder woods. Do the exercises first in easy wood to get the skills, then repeat them with more difficult woods.

This is like learning to play a musical instrument: start with easy material, then advance to harder material as you make progress. Each step forward is a new learning experience.

Don't be afraid to make mistakes. As long as you don't hurt yourself or damage anything, mistakes are also great learning experiences. Get your mistakes out of the way on practice exercises so you don't make them on real projects. Everything you make in the exercises makes excellent firewood! Meanwhile, you've acquired skills.

And just like learning to play a musical instrument, you probably don't want anyone to hear your early practicing, full of mistakes. But with persistence, you start to get it.

If you haven't seen them, check out the sample free course video and my silent trade show trailer that I'll have running when I do live demos. The first is an example of an individual video, and the second shows snippets from all the videos.

A tool list is here.

Here's a complete episode guide with running times so you can see exactly what's covered:

TOTAL 7 PARTS: 59 videos, 12:03:13 total running time

Part 1: Introduction (0:22:42 total)

1.1 Introduction (05:06)

• Why hand tools?
• Fistfights and fundamentals of the different methods of doing things.
• Cost and space.
• Like learning to play a musical instrument, practice!

1.2 Tools (04:24)

• Workbenches: Roubo, Sellers, Underhill portable, apartment folding.
• Handsaws, handplanes, chisels.
• Measuring and marking.
• Other tools: router, rabbet, and shoulder planes, spokeshave, drills, scrapers.

1.3 Safety (02:20)

• Chisels
• Saws
• Planes
• Marking
• Drills
• Mallets
• Sharpen dull tools!

1.4 Saw Types (04:03)

• Saw anatomy.
• Rip vs. crosscut.
• Tooth shape and size.
• Joinery backsaws.

1.5 Plane Types (06:49)

• Plane anatomy.
• Adjusting the iron.
• Plane sizes, functions, and order of use.
• Wooden planes.
• Cambered and straight irons.

Part 2: Sharpening (1:48:31 total)

2.1 Sharpening Fistfights And Fundamentals (16:26)

• Fistfights: bevel shape, abrasives, sharpening motions and techniques.
• Flat, convex, and concave bevel shapes.
• Oilstones, sandpaper, waterstones, diamond stones, and strops.
• Sharpening motions, freehand and jig.
• How to evaluate an edge.

2.2 Back Preparation (04:11)

• Flattening tool backs.

2.3 Convex Bevel On Oilstones (12:22)

• Freehand sharpening a plane iron with a convex bevel on oilstones.
• Stropping.
• Easing the corners of the iron.
• Sharpening a cambered iron.
• Sharpening a chisel.

2.4 Double Bevel On Sandpaper (10:37)

• Freehand side-to-side sharpening a plane iron with a double bevel on sandpaper on glass.
• Sharpening a chisel.
• Sharpening a spokeshave.

2.5 Double Bevel On Waterstones (09:30)

• Flattening waterstones.
• Freehand sharpening a plane iron with a double bevel on waterstones.
• Stropping.
• Sharpening a chisel.

2.6 Double Bevel Jig On Waterstones (09:42)

• Flattening waterstones.
• Jig sharpening a plane iron with a double bevel on waterstones.
• Sharpening a chisel.
• Angle setting jig.

2.7 Hollow Ground With Diamond Plates (06:19)

• Hollow grinding a chisel.
• Freehand honing the chisel on a diamond plate.
• Stropping.
• Sharpening a plane iron.

2.8 Saw Sharpening (19:43)

• Saw vises.
• Jointing and setting saw teeth.
• Rake, fleam, and set.
• Sharpening a rip saw.
• Sharpening a crosscut saw, simple fleam guide.
• Sharpening joinery backsaws.

2.9 Scraper Sharpening (19:41)

• How a card scraper works.
• Burnishing, draw-filing, and honing.
• Forming the hook.

Part 3: Stock Preparation (2:42:39 total)

3.1 Gauges, Squares, And Marking Knives (16:48)

• Pin, knife, wheel marking gauges.
• Thickness center-finding.
• Marking edge, end, and cross grain.
• Squares.
• Checking and using a square.
• Marking knives.
• Marking pieces around.

3.2 Rough Stock Preparation (13:13)

• Classifying work.
• Sawing on a sawbench and the workbench.
• Crosscutting, ripping, and resawing.

3.3 Rough Sawing Exercise (06:45)

• Crosscutting, ripping, and resawing practice.
• Using bench hooks.

3.4 Handplane Fistfights And Fundamentals (03:02)

• Fistfights: bevel orientation, number of planes, body style.
• Bench plane functions and shavings comparison.

3.5 Fine Stock Preparation 1 (19:59)

• The FEWTEL sequence.
• Workholding for face planing.
• Planing order of operations and iron profile.
• First face: roughing, flattening, smoothing.
• Using winding sticks.
• First edge: roughing, jointing.
• Marking reference surfaces.
• Alternate workholding methods for face planing.

3.6 Fine Stock Preparation 2 (17:27)

• Second edge: roughing, jointing to precise width.
• Second face: roughing, flattening to precise thickness.
• More alternate workholding methods.
• Using a card scraper.

3.7 Fine Stock Preparation 3 (14:41)

• Using a shooting board.
• First end: shooting.
• Second end: rough trimming, shooting to precise length.
• The well-shot end.
• Planing end grain.
• Correcting twisted edges.
• Alternate workholding methods for edge planing.
• Roughing, flattening, and smoothing with wooden bench planes.
• Using scrub planes.

3.8 Planing Exercise (09:00)

• More alternate workholding methods for face planing.
• Rouging practice.
• Planing cupped boards.
• Face, edge, and end grain planing practice.
• Chamfering.

3.9 Tapering (10:24)

• Tapering legs with bench planes.
• Alternate workholding methods for tapered pieces.

3.10 Panel Raising 1 (19:47)

• Frame and panel construction.
• Making a pillow-style raised panel with bench planes.
• Alternate workholding method.

3.11 Panel Raising 2 (15:52)

• First method: making a raised-field style panel with chisel and bench planes.

3.12 Panel Raising 3 (14:41)

• Second method: rabbet and shoulder planes.
• Third method: skew block planes.

Part 4: Simple Joinery (2:33:52 total)

4.1 Grain And Strength (02:21)

• Short and long grain.
• Edge vs. end grain gluing, cross-grain joints.
• Wood movement.

4.2 Chisel Exercise 1 (10:48)

• Chisel types and safety.
• Chamfering, curves, and cross-grain.

4.3 Chisel Exercise 2 (15:08)

• Using a mallet.
• Chopping, paring, and controlled splitting.
• Wedging action of the bevel.

4.4 Edge Glued Joints (19:07)

• Edge jointing for perfectly flat joint.
• Glue up and cleanup.
• Destructive strength test: how much weight can it hold?
• Ganged planing of complementary angles.
• Grain orientation in large panels.
• Spring joint.

4.5 Bookmatched Joints (05:31)

• Using a luthier's style large shooting board.
• Glue up and cleanup.

4.6 Coopered Joints (12:01)

• Forming up a half-round panel with a bench plane.
• Glue up and cleanup.
• Destructive strength test: how much weight can it hold?

4.7 Tongue And Groove (07:32)

• Metal and wooden match planes.
• Tongue and grooves with 3 different types of match planes.
• Edge chamfering.

4.8 Rabbets 1 (13:27)

• First method: making edge and end rabbets with a chisel.
• Second method: joinery backsaws.

4.9 Rabbets 2 (14:00)

• Third method: wooden skew rabbet plane (moulding plane).
• Fourth method: shoulder plane.
• Fifth method: rabbet plane.
• Sixth method: skew block plane.
• Seventh method: moving fillister plane.
• Inside corner rabbets.

4.10 Grooves (18:28)

• Plow and combination planes.
• First method: making grooves with chisel and router plane.
• Second method: saw and chisel.
• Third method: shoulder plane.
• Fourth method: wooden plow plane.
• Fifth method: combination plane.

4.11 Dados (14:49)

• Making dados with saw, chisel, and router plane.
• Alternate cleanup with a shoulder plane.
• Side rabbet plane for widening dados.

4.12 Lap Joints 1 (15:20)

• Gang-planing matching widths.
• Making face lap joints with saw, chisel, and router plane.
• Paring to fit.

4.13 Lap Joints 2 (19:48)

• Making edge lap joints (notched joints).
• Making a half-lap end.
• Glue up and trimming flush.
• Using a shoulder plane or chisel instead of router.

Part 5: Mortise And Tenon (1:44:00 total)

5.1 Mortise And Tenon Fistfights And Fundamentals (05:24)

• Fistfights: chop vs. drill, fitting straight off the saw.
• Quiet woodworking to avoid disturbing the family or neighbors.
• Wedged tenons.
• Fit of joint.
• Width of mortise.
• The horn.

5.2 Blind Mortise And Tenon 1 (11:10)

• Mortise layout.
• First mortise method: chopping with a chisel.

5.3 Blind Mortise And Tenon 2 (19:37)

• Tenon layout.
• First tenon method: sawing for fit right off the saw.
• Cleaning up sawing defects.
• Trimming and adjusting fit if necessary.

5.4 Blind Mortise And Tenon 3 (04:44)

• Drawboring.

5.5 Blind Mortise And Tenon 4 (14:46)

• Second mortise method: drilling and paring.
• Second tenon method: sawing fat and paring.

5.6 Mortise Exercise (08:02)

• Chopping practice.

5.7 Tenon Exercise (17:35)

• Sawing to the line practice.
• Paring to the line practice.

5.8 Through Mortise And Tenon (11:30)

• Mortise layout.
• Making the joint with saws and chisel.
• Glue up and trimming flush.

5.9 Bridle Joint (11:12)

• Bridle joint layout.
• Making the joint with saws and chisel.
• Glue up and trimming flush.

Part 6: Dovetails (1:51:09 total)

6.1 Dovetail Fistfights And Fundamentals (07:44)

• Fistfights: pins vs. tails first; sawing vs. chopping waste; angles.
• Joint anatomy.
• Quiet woodworking to avoid disturbing the family or neighbors.
• Strength test of a dry fit dovetail: how much weight can it hold?

6.2 Through Dovetails 1 (18:14)

• First method: tails first, sawing out the waste with a coping saw.
• The Moxon vise.
• Tail layout.
• Making the tail board with backsaws, coping saw, and chisels.

6.3 Through Dovetails 2 (15:52)

• Continuing the tails-first method: pin layout from the tails.
• Making the tail board with backsaws, coping saw, and chisel.
• Glue up and trimming flush.

6.4 Through Dovetails 3 (13:02)

• Second method: pins first, chopping out the waste with a bench chisel.
• Pin layout.
• Making the pin board with backsaws and chisels.

6.5 Through Dovetails 4 (10:10)

• Continuing the pins-first method: tail layout from the pins.
• Making the tail board with backsaws and chisels.
• Glue up and trimming flush.

6.6 Dovetail Sawing Exercise (09:00)

• Sawing practice.

6.7 Half-Blind Dovetails (18:29)

• Making the tail board.
• Pin layout from the tails.
• Making the pin board with backsaws and chisels.
• Glue up and trimming flush.

6.8 Sliding Dovetails (18:38)

• Socket layout.
• Making the joint with backsaw, chisel, and router plane.
• Making a tapered sliding dovetail with the same method.

Part 7: Boring And Curves (0:40:20)

7.1 Boring Holes (12:03)

• Using brace and bit.
• Using eggbeater and push drills.
• Using gimlets and awls.

7.2 Roughing Out Curves (13:35)

• Roughing curves with chisels, straight saws, and gouges.
• Roughing curves with bowsaws and coping saws.

7.3 Refining Curves (14:42)

• Refining curves with wooden and metal spokeshaves.
• Refining curves rasps, scrapers, chisels, and gouges.

Popular Woodworking University: Intro To Hand Tools

Welcome to Intro To Hand Tools!

Big news! I'm very excited to announce my new course at Popular Woodworking University, the new site for online classes from Popular Woodworking Magazine. The course is Intro To Hand Tools.

Click here for registration details and a 3-minute introductory video.

Update: the Fall 2015 session is now open, running through January 21. You can read some reviews of the now-completed first session here.

This ambitious project is my magnum opus. In a series of nearly 60 videos, ranging from 2 to 20 minutes, I teach you everything you need to know about the basics of doing all your woodworking with hand tools, starting from bare lumber. You can watch in bite-size chunks.

Note that Popular Woodworking University provides registered students permanent read-only access to courses after they end. That means you can watch the videos any time after the course end date, but you won’t be able to ask questions or use the discussions after that.

This is Hand Tools 101. Much of the concept was motivated by all the online forum posts I saw that start "I'm new to hand tools, and I need help with...". I've gone through all the same problems you have, so I can show you what worked for me.

I cover multiple methods for doing things, so you can match the method to your preferences, tools, and project at hand. In my Fistfights and Fundamentals segments, I outline the arguments about the different methods, then break them down and look at why they work.


One of several different sharpening methods.

The cost is $59. You'll get all the knowledge I've accumulated, much of which you can read about here, but demonstrated on camera with a variety of closeups and angles so you can see it in detail. These photos are stills from just a few of the videos to show what you can expect. You'll also see how to deal with the problems that crop up.

This is for anyone with any level of interest in hand tools, no prior knowledge required. Or if you already have some hand tool experience, or use power tools but are interested in incorporating hand tools into your work, this will help you expand your capabilities.


How to angle the saw when correcting a rough rip cut.


How to joint an edge as part of the FEWTEL sequence.

If you have limited space, such as an apartment or small house, hand tools are a great way to enjoy the craft. All you need is 4'x6', just 24 square feet. It doesn't even need to be permanent. You can setup a folding workbench to do your work, then fold it up and set it aside.


How to raise a panel using handplanes and a chisel, rabbet plane, shoulder plane, or skew block plane.


How to rabbet an edge using a chisel, moving fillister plane, or wooden skew rabbet moulding plane.

By the time you've completed the course and practiced the skills, you'll be able to take on any project with hand tools. You'll also be ready to take more advanced classes from any of the fine woodworking schools in the world, confident that you have the background to make your tools sing.


How to make dovetails, pins first or tails first, sawing or chiseling the waste.


My favorite antique tool, the Spofford brace. This was made about the time Abraham Lincoln was president.

Got questions? Like, why do everything with hand tools when there are power tools? Watch the 3-minute video introduction on the course page. You'll get some preview of the lessons.


How to shape a curve using a spokeshave.

The course is in 7 major parts, each broken down into multiple video segments. Additional non-video content includes recommended reading, links, and tool lists.

The syllabus is listed below. I'm still in the process of creating the videos, so the exact list may change a bit.

• 1. Introduction
• Introduction
• Tools
• Safety
• Saw Types
• Plane Types
• 2. Sharpening
• Sharpening Fistfights and Fundamentals
• Back Preparation
• Convex Bevel on Oilstones
• Double Bevel on Sandpaper
• Double Bevel on Waterstones
• Double Bevel Jig on Waterstones
• Hollow Ground with Diamond Plates
• Saw Sharpening
• Scraper Sharpening
• 3. Stock Preparation
• Gauges, Squares and Marking Knives
• Rough Stock Preparation
• Rough Sawing Exercise
• Handplane Fistfights and Fundamentals
• Fine Stock Preparation (3 parts)
• Planing Exercise
• Tapering
• Panel Raising (3 parts)
• 4. Simple Joinery
• Grain and Strength
• Edge Joints
• Rabbets
• Dados
• Grooves
• Lap Joints
• 5. Mortise and Tenon
• Mortise and Tenon Fistfights and Fundamentals
• Blind Mortise and Tenon
• Through Mortise and Tenon
• Bridle Joint
• 6. Dovetails
• Dovetails Fistfights and Fundamentals
• Full Dovetails
• Half-Blind Dovetails
• Sliding Dovetails
• 7. Boring and Curves
• Boring Holes
• Roughing-Out Curves
• Refining Curves

About The Music


Gary C. Hicks, Sr., with the guitar he built himself. Photo used by permission of Available Light Photography/Kathy Hicks Murray.

The music you hear in the video is by my guitar teacher, Gary C. Hicks, Sr. He'll be 75 this year and has been playing since he was in 7th grade. He plays decades of rock 'n' roll, country, jazz, and swing. His teacher was Bill Leavitt, who went on to head the guitar department at Boston's famed Berklee School of Music.

Gary's been playing professionally since 1958 with local bands, opening on stage for national acts. His most memorable show was when he played with Fabian, one of the biggest stars of the day, complete with surging crowds of teenagers, filling in when Fabian's lead guitarist missed the plane.

We recorded this in my workshop. After a little warmup on the electric guitar he built himself decades ago, he experimented with a few riffs and asked me what I thought. I said I liked it and asked what it was. Just something he made up on the spot, in the Chet Atkins style.

He just improvised and filled bars until it was the same length as the video, making it look effortless. It sounds like 2 or 3 instruments, but that's one guy, one guitar, one take. Amazing! That's what 60 years of experience gets you.

That's what it means to be a master of your craft.

CCAE Fall 2014 Class: Shaker Step Stool

Build this Shaker step stool with hand tools. Note that these diagrams show the wedges oriented incorrectly. The correct orientation is perpendicular to the grain, to avoid splitting out when driving them in.

Registration is now open for the Fall session at Cambridge Center for Adult Education, where once again I'll be teaching a class on building a Shaker step stool entirely with hand tools. Register at this page.

This will be nine Saturdays, 2-5PM, starting September 27. The Center is located in Harvard Square at 42 Brattle St., Cambridge, MA. Cost is $225, plus a $20 materials fee payable to me. I provide all necessary tools, or you can bring your own.


You'll learn stock preparation from raw lumber to precisely-dimensioned parts, plus several joinery techniques. You'll also learn about wood and why the wedges as shown here are oriented incorrectly.

There are two ways to think of this class. First of course, it's a class on how to build a Shaker stool. But another way to look at it is purely as a skills class, where the stool is just the vehicle for developing those skills.

I point this out because some people like to focus on a finished project, but others are more interested in the raw skills themselves, without the pressure of a finished project. So you can approach the class from either perspective. Either way, you'll come out with good skills. Whether you actually want to complete the project is up to you.

Here are the last sessions from the Spring 2014 class.


Matt marking the top step mortise width from the thickness of a side.


Becky chopping a mortise.


Paul chopping a mortise.


Anita sawing a dovetail.


Matt paring a mortise to final size.


Anita planing the top step, her partially completed stool with dovetailed lower step on the bench.


Paul driving the wedges in the top step tenons. Here you can see the correct orientation of the wedges.

I hope to see you there!

JOTMOST: Every Wednesday Is Veterans Day

Captain Joseph O. Thornton, USMC.

For the last several years I've been hearing a series of disturbing news reports on NPR. These concern the difficulties US veterans face when returning home: unemployment compounded by severe injuries, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and difficulty getting care.

Whatever your politics, whatever your feelings for or against the policies or actions of one administration or another, it's important to remember that these are the people who have put themselves in harm's way for us, sometimes at great cost to themselves. These are the boots on the ground, on the sea and in the air.

They've done their part, and it's our responsibility as a society to take care of them. This is my contribution to that. It's also my way of saying thanks and showing my appreciation.

JOTMOST is the Joseph O. Thornton Memorial Open Shop Time, in memory of my father-in-law, Captain Joseph O. Thornton, USMC.

If you're a US military veteran, any service, any era, or active duty, you can come and take free hand tool woodworking lessons or work on your own with the tools, every Wednesday night from 7PM-9:30PM at my basement workshop in Ayer, MA.


The student workspace, two benches on the left...

This is similar to my private lessons, but at no charge. I have room for up to 4 people at a time. For full details about my workshop and student area, see my Hand Tool Instruction page. I provide all the necessary instruction, tools, and materials.

...and two more on the right,...


...with enough hand tools for 4 people.

You can treat this as occupational therapy, or vocational training, or a new hobby, or just a fun way to spend some time. You can follow my standard curriculum, focus on some specific skills, work on a project, or just enjoy the simple pleasure of turning a piece of wood into a pile of shavings.

If you have injuries, we'll improvise, adapt, and overcome. The only limitation is that my basement is not wheelchair accessible, but if you can make it up and down the stairs we'll figure something out.

This also fits in with another news thread, that employers looking for employees with hands-on skills are having difficulty finding people. There's been such an emphasis on the high-tech information-based economy, with concomitant emphasis on college education, that vocational training has all but disappeared.

The result is that according to some sources, some 3 million good jobs are going unfilled, and non-IT US manufacturing companies are having trouble competing. Some of these jobs are just as high-tech as the information economy, building things like specialized parts for aircraft and submarines.

An unemployed workforce and unfilled jobs? What's wrong with this picture? These need to meet in the middle.

I'll let the policy wonks debate the relative merits of one job versus another, with all the political overtones (these issues are so loaded with politics it's a wonder anything gets accomplished). Meanwhile, this is hands-on training. Maybe not building jet engines, but I would argue that building stuff is building stuff.

Whether building out of wood with hand tools or machining titanium with the latest high-tech equipment, it all involves many of the same vocational hand and cognitive skills.

You have to understand the properties and limitations of your materials, and how to perform the production steps. You have to be able to visualize how the parts are joined to form subassemblies, and how subassemblies are assembled into the whole. You have to take and evaluate measurements and tolerances. You have to be able to deal with problems that arise. You have to keep the tools in working order.

If you'd like to join in, send me an email at sdbranam@gmail.com, or leave a message at 978-772-0030.

References

I don't remember exactly when I started hearing about these issues, but here's just a tiny sampling of the news stories and related links in no particular order:

Veterans:

• Sonari Glinton, NPR: Fresh From War, Vets Fill Unemployment Lines
• Yuki Noguchi, NPR: Recent Veterans Find Higher Jobless Rates On Return
• Guy Raz, NPR: Vets Return With Brain Injuries Oft Seen In Football
• Daniel Zwerdling, NPR: Lawmakers Demand Treatment For Troops With Brain Injuries
• Steve Kastenbaum, CNN: Why many vets are struggling to get jobs
• CNN: Thanks for your service, vets! Now try finding a job 

Skilled Worker Shortage And Vocational Training:

• Chris Arnold, NPR: To Fill Job Skills, Firm Brings Training In House
• Guy Raz, NPR: 'Soulcraft' Honors An Honest Day's Work
• CNN: Desperately seeking Americans for factory jobs
• Mike Rowe: Profoundly Disconnected. Mike Rowe, best known as the host of Discovery's "Dirty Jobs", advocates for skills training. Check out his website. It's a lot more complicated than I can summarize here in a few sentences.

Private Classes In My Basement Workshop

The first two benches in the new teaching area in my basement.

I'm pleased to announce that I'm now offering private hand tool woodworking classes in my basement workshop in Ayer, MA.

For full details, see my Hand Tool Instruction page. Other than scheduled classes at specific venues, this will be my preferred way of delivering instruction.

While it was fun running the Close Grain School of Woodworking at a friend's barn in Pepperell, this has better logistics. Classes will be available year-round, with the full range of my workshop available.

Private classes mean that you pick the schedule and topic. You can follow my standard curriculum, or you can focus on specific items, taking as much or as little time as you want. You can make it skills-based or project-based.

I've expanded my workspace to include a teaching area to accommodate the workbenches and tools I had at the barn. This offers space for up to 4 people to work, so if you'd like to bring someone along at a discounted rate for a small private group class, you can do that.


The other two benches.


Yet another reboot of my tool cart, now with enough tools for 4 people.


The hanging bookshelf well-stocked with books and videos.

Shaker Step Stool Class At The Halfway Mark

Anita jointing an edge with a #6. Note the satisfying pile of shavings covering her workbench!

The class has been going well. Everybody's been making great progress. Yesterday was the 5th session, where several students completed their first assembly steps, the edge-glued joints for the sides. The remaining students are close behind.

This joint of course requires carefully planed edges, so the weeks following the first class have included how to handle planes in their different functions of roughing, flattening, and smoothing, the FEWTEL sequence for dimensioning parts (Face, Edge, Width, Thickness, End, Length), and practice on sacrificial stock.

I also covered sharpening of chisels, plane irons, and handsaws. Becky had brought in her father's old Handyman jack plane, so I showed them how to camber the iron on the shop's power grinder, then hone the curved edge by hand.


Becky roughing a face with a #5. More shavings!


Matt flattening a face with a #6.


Paul roughing a face with a #5.


Cheryl taking down a freshly ripped edge with a wooden scrub plane.

These last two weeks have been focused on the project, producing the dimensioned parts. With the stepped sides glued up to width, next we'll start on the joinery. The step is dovetailed to the sides, while the top is attached with mortise and tenon. As before, we'll do some practice on sacrificial pieces before committing to the project parts.


Cheryl cutting a piece to final length with a backsaw on the bench hook...


...then shooting the end square and precise with a #6 on the shooting board.


Paul flattening one of his short side pieces.


Becky ripping a long side piece to rough width.


Anita shooting an end.


Matt shooting.

The benches in the shop are really setup for power tools, not hand tools, so other than a front vise they don't offer many work-holding options, no dog holes or planing stops. A very effective method Paul Sellers had shown me is to hold an aluminum bar clamp stuffed with wood in the face vise, and clamp the workpiece in that lengthwise, another form of poor-man's tail vise. The students did most of their planing this way.


The bar clamp is stuffed with wood so it doesn't get crushed in the vise. This holds effectively for rough planing across the grain or finer planing with the grain; most of the workpiece is supported by the workbench.

However, because the wooden jaw liners in their vises are a foot long, this method doesn't work for shorter pieces. So I made a simple planing board, basically a large bench hook (18"x18") with a 3/8" thick stop strip on the left edge in addition to the one on the back edge. That allows planing small parts in either orientation, to the back or to the side stop. The front edge hook is glued and screwed from the bottom.


With the front hook clamped in the vise, a piece in the planing board. The spacer between the workpiece and the rear stop moves the work up closer to the front. Or you could just make a shallower planing board.


The piece oriented for planing front to back. Or sideways across the grain. Or diagonally into the corner.

This can also be used on a normal table top without a vise, so can turn any surface into an improvised workbench, clamped down at the rear right corner to keep it in place.

Shaker Step Stool Class Started

Prototype step stool complete. There are a few minor joinery changes from the plan (can you point them out?). I've left the cleanup for later so everybody can see the marks and how to deal with gaps.

It's been nearly two months since my last post. Several things have been competing for my time and energy. I got a new job, I've started learning to play electric blues guitar, I'm adding a student area to my basement workshop, and I built the prototype step stool for the class, which started yesterday.

New Job

Changing jobs is a huge investment in time. It requires a lot of study and preparation in addition to going on interviews. Along with a current job, that doesn't leave much energy for woodworking.

It all started when an Apple recruiter contacted me on LinkedIn. I wasn't looking for a new job, but when the most profitable company in the world knocks, you answer the door and see what they have to say. I did the phone interviews, then flew out to Cupertino for a day of on-site interviews.

Unfortunately, they didn't make me an offer, which is just as well, because the real estate situation there is absolutely insane, a financial meat-grinder. While the job would have been cool, the rest of our lives would have been turned upside down, shaken, stirred, and squeezed dry.

But the die was cast, and I've found that once I start thinking about changing jobs, it becomes inevitable. Monday I started at Sonos in Cambridge, the leading maker of wireless speaker systems that stream from your home music library and all the Internet music services. You may have seen their ad during the Super Bowl, which I took as a very positive sign of growth investment.

These Bloomberg articles provide some interesting tidbits about them: Sonos Say Sales Doubled as Home Sound-System Market Grew, Microsoft’s Xbox Product Chief Joins Speaker-System Maker.

This will put my networking, media streaming, multithreaded, object-oriented, embedded system experience to use. Since their controller apps run on Android, iOS, Mac, and Windows, I'll get to work in four different OO languages at once. If this sounds interesting to you, they do have other jobs available.

Blues Guitar


My new (to me) Fender Squier strat (looks black in the light here, but it's blue). 

I've wanted to play guitar almost as long as I've wanted to be a woodworker. I tried to learn after high school on my Dad's old Gibson LG-O acoustic, but never got very far. I didn't have the patience.

You know how I compare learning to work with hand tools with learning to play an instrument? Well, now it comes full circle, and learning to work with hand tools has taught me the patience to learn an instrument.

My wife had wanted to learn to play dobro, and found a great teacher in Framingham, George Ede. George seems to know everyone in the music business in the Boston metro area after over 40 years. Since he also teaches guitar (and anything else with strings!), I was inspired and signed up for lessons. I bought a used Fender Squier stratocaster and practice amp from him.

Unfortunately, the logistics didn't work out, but George got me off to a good start and showed me I could do it. I'm learning chords, scales, and riffs.

My goal is to be able to play at some of the area blues jam sessions in a year, like Sunday nights at Stone's Public House with Pete Henderson. Pete is well-known in the area for encouraging new musicians; when I introduced myself and told him what I wanted to do, he said, "Just let me know when you're ready!"

As you might expect, music is a big thing at Sonos, and it turns out one of the people there owns Smoken' Joe's BBQ and Blues with her husband (where Pete also plays).

I bought a really cheap used Squier strat from Guitar Center that I hope to keep at work so I can practice at lunch with a headphone amp. One of my coworkers told me there are a couple of jam groups there who welcome all comers.

New Student Workspace

The Close Grain School of Woodworking is changing. While it was fun teaching in the old barn in Pepperell, I ended up getting more individuals than groups, and the logistics got too tight getting there from work in Cambridge.

Instead, I've moved the benches to my basement workshop, where I've setup a student workspace. It just needs a little final cleanup and organization.

More on this in upcoming posts, including another use for the space, where every Wednesday will be Veteran's Day.

Shaker Step Stool Class

My class at Cambridge Center For Adult Education has 5 students. I started with hand tool safety (see below) and went over some basic properties of wood, talking about grain, wood movement, and rough vs. fine work, then we got busy breaking down the raw lumber.

As usual, I brought rough-milled white pine from Parlee Lumber in Littleton. Everybody got an 8' piece of 1x8. After cutting around the knots, that leaves enough clear wood for the step stool and various practice exercises in sawing, planing, and joinery.

I explained the difference between rip and crosscut saws, then had them do practice cuts, including deliberately using the wrong saw to see how it feels. Once they had the hang of it, they rough cut their boards on sawbenches and sawhorses.


Paul crosscutting on a pair of sawhorses.


Anita finishing up a crosscut on a sawbench as Becky marks a piece.


Matt ripping a narrow strip while Cheryl crosscuts to remove a knot.

I showed them how to cut the smaller pieces on bench hooks and vises, then demonstrated resawing a small piece. While the step stool doesn't call for any thin pieces, resawing is an important skill to have, so they all cut a piece down and resawed it.


Matt resawing a long piece.


Anita resawing.

I finished up the class with a demonstration of chisel sharpening, using Norton oilstones on my portable sharpening station.

In the next class, we'll start dimensioning the pieces with handplanes in the FEWTEL sequence, and I'll demonstrate saw sharpening. Since several students are interested in setting up workspaces, I'll bring in my folding apartment workbench and the tools I bought for it.

Hand Tool Woodworking Class Safety

General Safety

1. Safety is YOUR responsibility. Your attention to safety is the best way to prevent injury.
2. Handle and use tools in a safe manner at all times. If you aren't sure, ask the instructor.
3. Splinters and small nicks and cuts are common, even for the most experienced woodworkers. Tweezers and bandaids are available in the first aid kit. 
4. Report all injuries to the instructor, no matter how small. 
5. Many hand tools have extremely sharp edges, teeth, or points. Be aware of them at all times.
6. Be aware of the cutting path of a tool. This includes the exit path of the tool.
7. Be aware of the path a tool may take if it slips or the workpiece breaks off unexpectedly.
8. Keep your free hand (the hand not holding the tool) out of the path of the tool. 
9. Keep your body out of the path of the tool.
10. If a tool falls, stand clear and do not try to catch it. A damaged tool is preferable to an injury.
11. Do not use a dull tool. Dull tools slip on the work more easily, and you need to apply more force to make them work, increasing the risk of an accident. Bring dull tools to the instructor's attention.

Chisel safety

1. Chisels are the most dangerous tool because of their long length and fully exposed sharp edge and corners. They are capable of penetrating and cutting skin, muscle, tendons, blood vessels, nerves, and bone. Handle and use them with care.
2. Except when using a stopped grip, do not have your hand or any part of your body in front of the chisel, and do not direct the chisel toward any part of your body.
3. For a stopped grip, choke up on the end of the chisel, exposing only enough length of blade to do the work. Your fingers around the end act as a stop, preventing it from going further.
   
   
   This is a stopped grip, holding a narrow chisel to clean out a dovetail. Even though my left hand is close to the sharp edge, it is safe because it is below the dovetail, out of the direct path of the tool, and my right fingers are wrapped around the chisel, exposing only the end and limiting it to within the thickness of the wood.
4. Control the force and path of a chisel. If it requires extra force, it may be dull.

Plane Safety

1. Plane irons are like short, wide chisels, but only the very edge is exposed.
2. Keep fingers away from the plane iron edge.
3. Do not brush fingers down the sole of the plane from toe to heel.
4. Handle the iron carefully when setting the cap iron.

Saw Safety

1. Keep free hand out of the cutting path, including on the underside of the work.
2. Do not force the saw.

Miscellaneous Tool Safety

1. When using a marking knife, keep free hand out of the path of the knife. This includes when holding a rule down and using it as a guide to mark along its length.
2. When boring holes with drill or awl, be aware of where the point will exit and keep clear of it.
3. When using a mallet or hammer, keep other hand clear of strike point.
4. Be aware of pinch points in clamps and other articulated tools.
5. Avoid sharp points on marking gauges.