Renaissance Woodworker Hand Tool School

How do you go about learning new woodworking techniques?  In the “good old days” you’d sign on to be the apprentice of an accomplished woodworker but those days are no more.

When I got into woodworking there was no Internet and there wasn’t anyone around to teach me.  So, I bought books… lots of books.  I still buy woodworking books regularly and feel they’re great value.

While books can tell you about techniques, that’s not the same as seeing and/or doing a technique.  Doing is, by far, the best way to learn something but doing without knowing what you’re trying to do can often create bad habits and be very frustrating.

Some are fortunate enough to live where they can attend courses in woodworking.  Such courses can be expensive and are particularly so if you have to pay for travel and hotel bills.  You can easily drop $1000 learning how to make a drawer if you have to travel to the course and rent a bed as well as a slot in the course.

The Internet is, by far, the best place for actual courses/workshops on woodworking.  Time is not limited as it is when making a TV show or DVD.  You can actually show people techniques in real time rather than trying to explain them in print giving the viewer a sense of time requirements and just how properly fettled tools interact with the wood.  The most important thing, however, is that you can spend time talking about WHY things are done the way they are done.

And if you point the camera at someone who 1) knows the subject really well, and 2) is a very good teacher, who knows what needs to be explained, you end up with THE BEST solution to learning woodworking techniques.  Marc Spagnoulo, The Wood Whisperer, is the best example I know of this.  He simply has a sense of what people need to know about using power tools, designing furniture, or what finish to use.  A membership in the Wood Whisperer Guild is worth its weight in gold for a woodworker.

And it’s finally happened.  Shannon Rogers, The Renaissance Woodworker, has launched his Hand Tool School.  Shannon has demonstrated not only his abilities to use handtools to improve the quality and enjoyment of his woodworking but he’s got that “attention to detail” skill of an excellent teacher.

The best part of Shannon’s school is that you get to come to school anytime you want.  There’s no time to show up.  No tests.  I won’t say there’s no homework but Shannon makes the point that he’s going to cut through the jargon and rhetoric and deal with the doing of woodworking so the homework will be fun.

Becoming a member of The Hand Tool School will cost you far less than any other form of education and if you’re interested in hand tool use it will give you more bang for your buck and time than any other way of learning.  I encourage you to watch his intro video below and then to go to The Hand Tool School and watch the first lesson, that he makes available for free.  It’s simply amazing.   See you in school.

Still struggling…still testing

Just a test to check the RSS feed — Larry

WoodnBits Gets a New Power Tool

Recently I lamented that I hadn’t been in my shop in some time. I’m here to tell you today that I got to spend several hours there yesterday. Sometimes an example of ‘careful what you wish for’ smacks you in the face.

I had a 10AM meeting yesterday. At 9AM I went in to the basement to get a notepad to take to that meeting. I happened to look into my shop. My floor mats were floating on a shallow lake. All sorts of stuff that shouldn’t have been was submerged was. I think I said “Eeek.”

I quickly opened a drain plug and the water subsided – all but a small, slow-flowing “creek” that ran across the room. I hiked upstream to the headwaters, bent down, and found the water warm. Not surprising to anyone reading this, the headwaters were coming from the water heater

Here’s a couple shots of my shop in its current condition. I’m not a happy camper.

Yep…everything has been shoved into two piles.  I’ve got to clean up a bunch of things, break out the jojoba oil and try to fight back the inevitable rust.  But we woodworkers are all about tools, right?  Well, here’s the new power tool in my shop.  It’s humming along fine and it’s so squeeky clean.  Oh fun.

Cheers — Larry

larry@woodnbits.com

Woodworking Celebrities Show Us How It's Done

Steve, over at Woodworking for Mere Mortals has a great sense of humor and does his best to make woodworking fun and accessible. He’s just brought up this wonderful video for Halloween. I think you’ll like it.

Cheers — Larry

Huh? By Magic It Seems To Be Working

My head hurts.  I’ve spent the afternoon banging my head against the wall over this RSS feed thing.  Then, all of a sudden, ALL of the msgs that seemingly were going into the ether showed up AT BOTH FEEDS.  So…please endure another test msg.  I hope you’re having as much fun laughing at me as I am being frustrated (grin).

Cheers — Larry

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