Third day of nine done
Another precious day of progress
Day three passed more quickly than two and one and the rest will get swallowed up with work too. We are enjoying the successes and absorbing the failures as we ,move ever nearer to our goals. The boxes are done. Today we start our wall shelves and then we will finally get to the oak tables.
I have of course completed making the mallet and also I completed all the joinery for the woodworkingmasterclasses.com table, which yet again proves pretty much my concept that with three joints and ten hand tools you can pretty much build anything. This Arts and Crafts style coffee table has 20 hand cut mortise and tenon joints to get you in trim for building the Craftsman-style Rocking Chair. Twelve of them are through tenons with roundovers. Eight of them are haunched and the remainder are stopped. The M&T is the third and final joint in my trio of joints that pretty much undergird all joint making universally. My three must-master joints are of course the housing dado, the dovetail and the mortise and tenon, all of which can be made with only ten hand tools.
The dovetail joints on ALL the boxes were excellent and as far as I know they were first-time dovetail joints for everyone, but don’t quote me; I’ll check that tomorrow. The lids got hinged and we’ll critique those tomorrow too. Overall, I think judging by the sense of fulfillment I see, the first three days were demanding and inspiringly successful.
Can it really take this much focus and determination? Absolutely it can, but then comes the pure joy!
And here is my coffee table.
Oh! In a couple of weeks we have a two-day and a nine day course starting at the New Legacy New York school of woodworking too. Looking forward to that.
sounds like more great successes Paul and some great looking tables! Makes me want to push forward on my bench constuction to start on projects like this but all things in time!!
Yeah! Always good to look forward and use the past as a springboard I think. The bench is all a part of learning too. All too often we want to launch into projects without realising the learning curve starts with something simple and builds into more complexity that is made simpler by the simple steps we took to get started.
A bench is essential for hand tool woodworkers. It’s that third hand and the epicentre of the hand tool workshop from which real skill emanates.