Do You Practice Woodworking?
This is a photo of a Native American flute that I made. If you wanted to learn how to play it, would you assume that you’d have to learn about how it works? Would you assume that to entertain yourself and your friends with the instrument that you’d have to spend some time practicing?
What about if you wanted to make one? Sure, you’d want “a plan.” You’d want to know what kind of wood to use. You might even wonder what size bits to use. But would you practice the required tasks? Have you ever practiced with these instruments?
Most woodworkers don’t practice. They decide “I’m going to build a table” and then proceed to use their saws, planes, etc. with varying degrees of success. But practice sawing, planing, finishing? Not a chance. Who’s got the time, right?
Well this just might be the ultimate ‘haste makes waste’ situation. Think about it. How many pieces will you have to build to become good at using a saw if each piece requires half a dozen cuts? Or even a dozen? And as you go through your woodworking life like this, you must endure the frustration of feeling uncomfortable with the tool. Worse, you have to live with the flaws in your pieces that are a result of inexperience with the tool.
By contrast, if you spent an hour, cutting wood along marked lines, you could make hundreds of cuts, master the tool, feel confident with it, and every piece you create from that day forward would benefit from your practice.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that you should do this with every tool you own. Actually, you’ll find it fun if you do it. I found this piece of scrap and shot a quick photo of it so I could share it.
I’m pretty good at following a line with a handsaw. But when I got my new Wenzloff dovetail saw for Xmas I knew that I needed to make some practice cuts to become familiar with it. Look closely at the cuts from left to right. You’ll notice the deviations from the line and how they became fewer and fewer as I moved from left to right, cutting to the line. That’s the effect of practice.
Cheers — Larry
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BINGO!!!!! Let me repeat that, BINGO
We NEVER think about practicing with our tools. I made a career out of being an “expert” on training and I’m just as guilty as anyone when it comes to my hobby tools. I did a lot of woodworking, as you know, for years and I usually learned by using a new tool on a project rather than putting in the time to practice and then do a project. What was the result? Usually wasted pieces of wood. Apparently I didn’t do as I preached :-\
I wonder if it’s too late to learn
I suspect it’s easier to see the value in practicing when the job involves being shot at
I’ve noticed that soldiers do get considerable practice with their tools before they’re asked to use them in a real setting.
As for woodworking, there are those who do practice. Honestly, I find it fun as I enjoy the feel and sounds of planing and sawing. To me, it’s one of the big virtues of hand tools, in fact.
Gary Rogowski, in a great article in Fine Woodworking suggests that woodworkers “warm up”, cutting a single dovetail joint from a couple pieces of scrap before doing anything on a real project. I suppose that’s different from practice but we ‘warm up’ before we play a game of backyard badminton. Why not woodworking?
Cheers — Larry
Practice?? You sound just like my old piano teacher! But you’re entirely right, of course. I’m off to practice with my new thickness sander now.
The way I practice, is by making small project like serving trayor stool or smal boxes… I think that way, if i do make sme mistakes(and I do), I can go back to it and see them and more important, remember hoe it hapened!
David