Replies

1. 
   9619 | Apr 23, 2010 04:38pm | #1

   Hi Will George,

   I am still here.  I have been on a few threads.  As with many of us Knotheads, I haven't been around as much as before.  The reasons have been stated often by many. 

   Glad you are a NASA fan.   I follow NASA now like you do - in the newspaper and on TV.  Lotsa politics. The president proposed a budget that is meeting a lot of flack in a number of places (as usual).   NASA has come up with a proposal to use that money, as it is supposed to do.  Now Congress will get involved.  Then things get interesting.   I have no idea what will happen then.

   This is a discussion that is better suited for the Cafe than out here in woodworking section, although given the popularity of threads on Knots about the problems with Knots, it may well be that there are more posts on Knots now that have nothing to do with woodwork than there are posts that have to do with woodwork.    In any case,  if you wan't to continue this, we should move to the Cafe. 

   I have been having a little break from woodwork because my daughter will have her second son within a week or so, and I have been babysitting for Freddy - a full time job.

   Big doings tomorrow at woodcraft.  I am going to give a sharpening demonstration.     Short of drawing blood, I wonder what I can do to spice it up.   Sharpening is a dull subject.  Ha ha.   Just like drill presses are  boring.  Yuk yuk.   I believe I will start off letting the folks try a nicely fettled plane with a sharp blade and a unfettled Groz with a dull blade.    Then I'll go through the posibilities of sandpaper, diiamondstones, waterstones, and oilstones.    QUICKLY,   and the need for a grinder or a belt sander to put on a primary bevel (or you can do it by hand on sandpaper).     Then I'll demo how quick it is to us a 1000 and 8000 grit stone to put a micro bevel on, and I'll do it both with and without a jig.     Then we'll put a camber on the bevel of a smoothing plane.  Then we'll sharpen a carving gouge.   I think I will skip the sharpening of a V tool.  THis is only a demo. 

   The demo is supposed to last an hour.  Last time I did it, I told the group that I would stay as long as they wanted more.  I brought it to a stop after three hours.  I was hungry.   Actually there is a lot to cover, and it is fun to let the folks give it a try, so this is more than a "demo".  

   Other than that, I have been studying up on how Kintaro Yazawa made his special dovetails, and I read up on making sliding dovetails with handtools.   I can get some reading done while babysitting.     

   We probably should let this thread die here, and move to the Cafe, if you want to continue.

   Have fun.

   Mel

1. 
   nazard | Apr 24, 2010 11:30pm | #3

   Mel,

   You are becoming famous.  I've already heard about your sharpening class!

   -Jerry

1. 
   9619 | Apr 25, 2010 08:57am | #5

   Jerry,

   "You are becoming

   Jerry,

   "You are becoming famous.  I've already heard about your sharpening class!"   

   Things must be awfully dull down in your neck of the woods.  :-) 

   The class did go well yesterday, although it is really wrong to call it a class.  One usually pays to take a class.  This was a "Demonstration",  which means that you don't charge.       Do you remember the original computer programmers?  Back then a creative piece of programming was called a "Hack", and these guys called themselves "hackers".   Many of them also believed that "SOFTWARE SHOULD BE FREE!"    You should never charge for software. (WOW, that was a long time ago.}

   Well, I feel about instruction in woodworking like the old hackers felt about software.  IT SHOULD BE FREE.  If you acquire some skills, you should be proud and happy to pass the on to others who would like them.  Charging to pass on woodworking skills is, IMHO, obscene.      

   There were about 20 who showed up for the Demonstration, which was scheduled for two hours.   Well, at the end of two hours, the questions were flying.    Things slowed down in the beginning of the third hour.  It was gratifying and a lot of fun. 

   Enjoy.   Let me know the next time you are going to take the big ride up North.  (Virginians hate it when I say that.  They think this is the South.   :-)

   Mel

2. 
   roc | Apr 25, 2010 02:39am | #4

   You are doing a valuable service with your sharpening class !

   It is hugely important that new people get to try properly sharpened tools.  I wish I had had that chance when starting out.  Would have saved a lot of wondering and fretting ' do I have this blade properly sharp ' and if so why am I still having trouble ?  Among other things about sharpening.

   Way to go Mel.

1. 
   9619 | Apr 25, 2010 09:29am | #6

   Roc,

   Wish you were here yesterday for the sharpening class.   I'll bet that you and I could put on a sharpening class that would be  immensely popular.   Heck, I'd bet that some folks would bring their spouses just to enjoy the show.  

   I approach teaching sharpening the same way I used to tutor in mathematics -  help folks get over their anxiety about doing a simple thing.  For some strange reason, learning to sharpen is intimidating to some.  In truth, as you know, it ain't hard.   

   Yesterday, I decided to begin by showing them why things ought to be sharp.  I took out my LV smoother and Low angle adj. mouth block plane.   I took a piece of wood that had just been put throught the jointer.   I took some gossamer shavings, and I threw each in the air, as Rob Cosman does.  Some of them grabbed a shaving to take home.   For some reason, folks are very impressed by those "thousandths".       But then I passed the piece of wood around and had them feel both sides.  Most had never seen a piece of wood that "shiny" and smooth.       

   THEN, THE "PIECE DE RESISTANCE".   I used the block plane to take a full width, full length shaving of end grain.    Some realized that was a quite useful and fun thing to do.  

   THen the real fun began.   I took out a chisel and put my 1000 grit waterstone on the bench, and asked how many strokes across the stone was sufficient to hone the bevel.       It got a conversation started.   So I asked,  "Well, how do I know when I have taken enough passes across the stone?    The obvious answer is "when I have raised a wire.       So I took two passes and then I passed the chisel around.    Everyone could feel the wire.   That was an "AHA Moment" for many of them.   Then I switched to the 8000 stone, and knocked off the wire, and took two passes on the bevel and then knocked off the wire, and did two passes on the strop.      "Finished in less than a minute".     

   So one guy says, "Yeah, but you cheated.   You keep your chisel sharpened, and you had it well prepared."  

   I thanked him for introducing the next part of the class -  How to prepare a chisel or a plane iron.   We went through the flattening of the back and WHY you should do it, and then I got the grinder out and showed how and why to do a "hollow grind".      

   I suggested that everyone go out and get three or four chisels or plane blades at less than a dollar apiece at garage sakes, and practice up.     

   Things really got to be fun when one guy said "I am not a woodworker.  I do Bonsai trees.  How do I sharpen my Bonsai tools?  EEEEEEHHHHHAAAAAA.     Then a girl pulled out a scorp, and ask how to sharpen it.   And another girl pulled out a carving knife, and asked about that.          

   I put the three tools on the bench and told them that they already knew how to sharpen these things, and I got some blank stares.  I asked,   How do you know when you have finished with the rough stone on the tool.   A bunch of folks said in unison "When you raise a wire".     Yup.   Then what do you do next.    Sure enough, they realized that except for some details,  sharpening is sharpening.     I recommended either the Leonard Lee or Thomas Lie Nielsen books on sharpenin to help ith those "details".  

   I could tell thnat the "audience" was having a good time.   I involved them as much as possible in trying things out.   "Hands on" is much more fun than "watching the teacher talk". 

   I'll bet that if you and I did that class together,  the group would stay for three days.  

   Have fun.

   Mel

2. 
   AZMO | Apr 24, 2010 09:33am | #2

   "Other than that, I have been studying up on how Kintaro Yazawa made his special dovetails, and I read up on making sliding dovetails with handtools."

   OK Mel what are reading and what have you found? I drive around visualizing this and think I have a metod in my head. Definately a pin first thing, and some nice coping saw work for the tail. But maybe I am off base.

   Morgan

1. 
   9619 | Apr 25, 2010 10:20am | #7

   Yazawa redoux

   Morgan,

   The website that you sent me,

   http://mastrowoodworking.com/

   was the thing that got me going on Yazawa.   WONDERFUL.     THen I looked up the FWW article on Yazawa,   After thinking about both for a while, and watching the video on the website you sent,  a few things started to make sense.    I have a few things to do first, but I definitely want to give these dovetails a try.

   Thank you for that website. 

   Mel