I have heard Gary Rogowski, among others, recommend doing hand tool “warm-up exercises” before getting to work in the shop. For example, in a video clip from Gary Rogowski, he states that he has his students cut a set of dovetail joints in scrap.
As a “weekend warrior” woodworker, I was thinking some type of daily regimen to keep my skills sharp would help tremendously. My hope is, by spending 30-60 minutes each day practicing these skills, I will be better at my craft and waste less time fixing mistakes when I really have time to work in the shop. Some of the “exercises” I was considering in my regimen would be:
1. sharpening (planes, chisels, scrapers, etc)
2. hand saw techniques (straight cuts, angle cuts)
3. chisel techniques (mortise, paring, etc)
4. plane techniques (flatten boards, squaring edges)
5. layout techniques (marking knife, scribing)
I was wondering if anyone does this? If so, what regimens/exercises are you using? I still haven’t set anything up a schedule so I am open to any and all input.
If you think I am crazy, I already know that. 🙂
Thanks!
Replies
bossjim,
At risk of sounding snide, I'd suggest that if you can set aside time enough every day for "exercises" to keep your skills up to snuff, you probably have time enough to get a little work done instead. I know how frustrating it is to get your tools all set up just to work for a few minutes, but won't you be doing that anyway? Breaking your current project down into discrete operations, so that you can say, "today, I'm gonna sharpen my chisels, tomorrow I'll cut the dovetails, next day, glue-up, next day, clean up the joints," may allow you to get more done than saying, "I won't build that drawer til I have a half a day to do it, but in the meantime, I'll practice on scrap."
Ray
To joinerswork...While I understand your point, I would prefer not to be making lots of mistake-riddled pieces as I become a better woodworker. My goal is to apply my learning to scrap pieces and my skills to pieces I want in my home. If you saw my hand-cut dovetails from my practice sessions, you would understand. :-)I don't have deadlines associated with my work, so I don't have to use the "learn-as-you-go" method.
"...I would prefer not to be making lots of mistake-riddled pieces as I become a better woodworker."
What I've started trying to do is create multi-purpose practice pieces. For example, at the moment I'm building a simple pegged mortise & tenon frame of sapele with wenge pegs, and with a couple of panels of bookmatched curly soft maple. The intent is primarily to verify the visual aspects of the design and test the finishing strategy, but I also get some joinery practice in, too. The resulting piece isn't going to have any practical utility, but hopefully it will look good enough that I won't mind having it around, hanging on the wall or something like that. And if I make some egregious errors along the way, no one has to know....
-Steve
The different opinions on this subject have been interesting. When I was thinking initially about this subject, I was looking at it from a musician's point of view. For example, no matter how simple a song or unimportant a performance, I always warm up (scales, finger exercises, etc). While I could go out and play in front of people "cold", the audience would probably suffer through a few "warming-up" errors that could have been avoided otherwise. Yes, I could "fix" the error through some tricky change (otherwise known as jazz ;-)), but I would prefer not.However, from the majority of posts, I guess more woodworkers lean towards learning through projects. With that said, let me shift this to a different tack....Any recommendations on quick projects (few hours) that would be good "warm up" projects? Please don't recommend any project books. I am trying to steer clear of that path.BTW...to Adam's post... Christopher Schwartz is AWESOME! His DVD on Forgotten Hand Tools is a blast to watch. I am looking forward to getting his book on workbenches.
When I was thinking initially about this subject, I was looking at it from a musician's point of view. For example, no matter how simple a song or unimportant a performance, I always warm up (scales, finger exercises, etc). That costs you just time, not materials.. OK, some instruments may take more than time.. New string breaks or a reed that cracked..GOD.. if I only could play some instrument. I would be REALL happy, but I have 'tin' ears'....
I am looking forward to getting his book on workbenches...YES.. I have a bench made from Purpleheart I made LONG ago.. That was expensive wood and all had cut joints, Etc. I never use it!I use my bench I made from straight grained fir with a plywood top and a replaceable hardboard surface I can replace for a few bucks!.
bossjimmark,
Interesting topic. I approach the skill development/maintenance issue from several angles. First, what is the proper body position for effective execution. (I've learned a lot from Chris Schwartz and Phil Lowe on that element)So that is the first thing I practice. Second is developing process steps to improve outcomes....aka, disaster mitigation. In other words, If I've got a genetic defect or time constraint with a particular skill then maybe there is a process workaround that would help. I picked up from "Eddie in Australia" the technique of analyzing those dovetails and developing a plan to improve. From a pro I learned new dovetail making process steps that helped.I agree with both Adam and Ray, need to break a sweat sometimes and it should be productive practice. I reclaim, re-process 4x4's and 4x6's that later get resawn into panels and such.
That's a really cool idea. Do you have any pics?
"That's a really cool idea. Do you have any pics?"
Not yet. Hopefully within the next couple of weeks.
-Steve
As promised, here are some photos of my "warm-up" piece.
Background: This is a study piece for something I'm planning to make for my niece, who is an accomplished violinist. It's a music cabinet, basically a two-drawer lateral file with extra large file drawers (to allow for the fact that sheet music is often larger than letter-size). There will also be a built-in music stand on top (a la Krenov). This piece is intended to represent one of the side panels (but is not to scale). It's 15" wide by 12" tall.
Materials: The frame is sapele, the panels are curly soft maple. The pegs are African blackwood. I had originally intended to use wenge for the pegs, but it proved to be just too splintery. Over time, the sapele will darken somewhat, the maple just a little. The blackwood will continue to be black.
Finish: The panels are finished with shellac. The frame is finished with Waterlox. Both are topped off with paste wax. (I can provide the detailed finishing schedule, if anyone is interested.)
What I learned: (a) I used an "amber" shellac mixed up from flakes I got from Tools for Working Wood. They seemed a little pale, hardly any darker than blonde, and indeed the resulting finish is not quite as warm as I was looking for. I will either mix in some garnet flakes or just use some other darker grade of shellac for the Real Thing. (b) I was afraid that the grooves in the frame pieces would be overwhelming, but they ended up being rather inconspicuous, so I will make them a bit deeper on the Real Thing. (c) I had been thinking that I would want to round over the top ends of the stiles in some way, and after looking at the finished piece (with flat tops) I've decided that I do want to put some kind of dome on them. But I also want to maintain the straight horizontal boundary at the lower edges where the grooves are, so it can't be spherical. I will have to devise some way of getting something that looks good. (d) This is something I re-learn every time I make something: The tiniest, most insignificant blemish in the surface of the wood looks like a lunar crater as soon as you apply the finish.
-Steve
That's beautiful. If you added a bit of vertical inlay as a line going up from the right side of the pegs, they would look like musical notes. Be sure to post pics of the final version.
"Be sure to post pics of the final version."
Thanks, I will. Of course, given my track record for these kinds of things, it will probably be some time in 2012 by the time I'm done.
-Steve
I think its a good idea- especially for sawing. I feel I don't do my best work until I break a sweat. I know my first DT cuts are not as good as those I make a half hour later.
I'm also a firm believer in practice. I practice sawing. And I very rarely do any new joinery to a real project. I practice it first. I'm not sure everybody does this and I think they should. For me, I have to force myself to practice on "real wood". I have to force myself to believe that what I'm doing is not "wasting" wood. Its a comparatively cheap education.
I don't practice sharpening or planing. I don't think that's worthwhile for me. And I don't do any restoration sharpening during times set aside for woodworking. When I begin a project, I typically do so with sharp tools.
I read that article though, and I gotta tell you, Dunbar aside, I think Gary Rogowski is my favorite FWW author.
Adam
P.S. I got to meet Chris Schwarz for the first time a few weeks ago at a tool show in Philly. I challenged him to an exercise I do to practice! I try to cross cut a small stick and produce a very thin very uniform shaving. I find this to be a very useful skill. we had fun with this as several guys tried to make the thinnest. John from Bridge City Tools produced the thinnest with one of his Japanese saws. I think the wood was tulip and his winning shaving was .020" or so.
Edited 11/10/2007 10:39 am ET by AdamCherubini
Adam
I would agree with you about cutting with the saw. It is a good idea to make a couple of cuts to a line to check how you are doing. I find this to be very helpful especially when you are cutting at a different bench, under different light conditions. Having said that, I have to mention that I don't like to carve or cut dovetails under floresent lights. The incandesent light gives me a different clarity without the flicker. I don't even comment on it anymore when I walk in another man's shop and that's all I see. I guess I have become more and more sensative to light as I have aged.
To do detailed work to a line, I think you need good cross lighting to capture shadows when carving and you need good steady light on a knife line get it right no matter how many practice cuts one does.
On practice and work: my old mentor gave me one rule to go by. Never work on one thing at a time. When things are not going well on the shell carving stop. Go work on your table project and come back later. I'm sure I'll get some feedback on that one so I'll sign off and wish you well.
My thoughts are more along Ray's post--for myself. Even so, I do often saw what would be practice cuts both as part of my day job and for, well, fun.
Chris Schwarz has a blog entry about sawing one corner of DTs (both pins and tails), once a day for a month and dating them to check your progress. I think that is a good practice for someone who hasn't sawn DTs.
In classes I have suggested to the attendees who wanted sawing pratice to take a 4/4 piece of 2" to 3" wide Poplar or other inexpensive species (softer hardwoods) and mark the face and both sides about 1/2" or more apart. Then using a bench hook (make one if you don't have one) split the line and check for square across the width and thickness. Do several at one sitting. That's it.
If you can get good at that (doesn't take long), sawn shoulders for tenons will become more accurate, DTs--in fact, most requirements of sawing to a line will become routine.
If you entend the marking entirely around the piece, you'll discover and practice the importance of reference surfaces. One edge, one face. That is, mark across the width on both sides from the same edge with the try square (or other square) and down the far edge off the first face. With the square oriented the same way.
I'm also of the same mind as regards sharpening--it's just something one does as needed.
Square boards. All I really care about is that the show face is flat and generally both edges parallel. The non-show face I take to acceptable parallel to the show face. Sometimes it matters that they be uniformerly thicknesses. To do either edge or faces parallel I first work one edge/face as needed and then mark the opposite edge/face using a marking guage. Then it is a matter of sawing/planing to the scribed marks. That to can be an excercise if wanted. Take a 5" or 6" 2' long board and change its dimensions by whatever amount you want.
Myself, I would use the excercises to build something to contain a tool (think box which can pull all the things you want to practice together into something useful) or a "thing" that has a purpose for another. Something small and useful or needed. It's a more productive means of "practicing."
Take care, Mike
exercise regimen?
open a can of Schaefer's and get to work.
Expert since 10 am.
I love to watch him work in his videos.. He is layed back and gets the job done without alot of BS... As far as "warm-up exercises" I'd think he is a school teacher 'first' then a woodworker.. Or is that the other way around? and has his opinions as we all do..
Your list...
1. sharpening (planes, chisels, scrapers, etc)
2. hand saw techniques (straight cuts, angle cuts)
3. chisel techniques (mortise, paring, etc)
4. plane techniques (flatten boards, squaring edges)
5. layout techniques (marking knife, scribing)
30 to 60 minutes a day at each or just one... LOL.. No time for woodworking..
1.
I'd practice in areas where YOU know you have to work on it a bit!
2.
waste less time fixing mistakes .. Nothing wrong with that UNLESS the wood is VERY EXPENSIVE!
Nothing you said is WRONG and you are NOT crazy.. OK, a bit.. (In jest)
I have many skills but far from a expert in any field I work in. I just do my best and ALSO try to enjoy myself at the same time. DO what you enjoy.. Even if you are good OR bad at it.. Skills take time and learned over many years. Even after 100 years, you may be perfect or just OK.. If you had fun doing it.. YOU WON and nobody can take that away from you!
I'll throw in my .02, although it'll only be worth about .01.
It really depends on your skill level. If you're just learning to hand cut dovetails, then you definately would benefit from practice. Some of the guys that are telling you to just get at it are also guys who are professionals, or at least accomplished woodworkers. You have to start somewhere, and it's alot better and wiser to make mistakes in pine or poplar than it is to make them in cherry or walnut.
In my entire life, I don't recall picking up a tool and being a "natural" with it, or any other activity, for that matter. At one time, I was a damned good hockey player, but I remember falling on my a$$ about a thousand times when I was first learning to skate as a 4 year old.
One of the classes I teach in my shop to beginners is hand cut dovetails. I can guarantee you that if you cut one corner joint of dovetails every day for a month, the 30th set will be far better than the 1st.
Once you've developed some proficiency, then get at it!
Jeff
I found it also important to approach all projects with the idea that each project is a chance for learning to better use my hand tools; it's an opportunity for me to practice and improve on what I did on my last project. My projects include making yard furniture, helping my grandson make toys, and making nice furniture pieces for my home. The layout and cuts on a 2 x 4 stud for a yard fence for example can be done with the same care and thought as when working on a walnut chair leg.
I prefer to sharpen my tools as necessary for the job at hand. At first, I made the mistake of continuing to use a dull tool just to get as many cuts as possible before taking time out to sharpen, but I finally realized that the longer I used a dull tool the longer it took me to resharpen it (especially hand saws). A decline in the quality of work also tells me it time to sharpen.
Well, these days, I get most of my "exercise" at the gym . . . but I have in the past developed a few procedures that I used to sharpen my skills and I often show to others to help with technique:
1) Sawing square. Get a scrap of board. and put it in a bench vise, grain horizontal. Take your saw and, by eye, cut 5 kerfs, 1/4" apart, 2" deep, square to the top edge and the face. Check with a rule and try square and see how you did. Repeat until you get 5 good cuts. Adjust your grip and stance until you find one that allows the saw to cut accurately and comfortably. When you master that, try angled cuts, keeping the angles consistent in all your cuts. You'll find that, once you can cut straight and square without lines, that following a line is pretty simple.
2) Planing square. Get a scrap of board about 3' long -- one with a square edge but without all those practice kerfs ;-) -- and put it in the bench vice. Poplar is a good choice for this since it's cheap and generally has pretty straight grain. Take a well adjusted, sharp plane and plane the full length of the board. See how long a shaving you can make. The shaving must be the full width of the edge of the stock to count. Note that if you go off square, you'll have to true the edge again before you can get another try! As a variation, skew the plane and see how long of a spill you can make. (A spill plane was a simple plane with a skewed blade that was used to make "spills" -- long curled shavings that were used to light pipes, etc.)
3) Dovetails. Get an 8' long piece of poplar as your "training subject". Cut off two 6" pieces. Start your clock. Cut a three-tail dovetail joint without using any tool other than a saw, vice, chisel and pencil used only to transfer your cut lines from the first to the second piece. (The skills you developed in Exercise #1 will come in handy here!). Don't worry too much about the clock, just try to work efficiently. Note your time and the quality of the joint. Repeat for another joint in the other end of the test pieces. Tomorrow, cut off another pair of test pieces and repeat. You might find it fun to number the joints and note the time on each so you can check your progress. Frank Klaus has a good video on makeing dovetails that shows how to quickly lay out and cut dovetails by eye.
I can't guarantee any of the above exercises will improve your BMI, but they should help hone your WW-ing skills. ;-)
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
Avoid "analysis paralysis".
For the past four years or so I accumulated tools, fettled planes, learned to sharpen chisels, made a really rough looking bench where I poured glue into the joints until they stopped moving and then I pegged them for good measure.
Aside from the bench, I didn't build anything of any significance. Then one day this past August my perspective changed. It happened while I was in Williamsburg at the cabinet makers shop and they were showing off the work that one of their apprentices did. He had made a tool chest with a gallery of drawers in it. Very beautiful. I asked them how long he had to work there before he moved out of doing grunt work and actually doing joinery. The master of the shop told me the kid had been there 4 weeks and that was his first piece (for the shop). He said they didn't spend a whole lot of time practicing that they just taught how to do things as they go along. He inferred, or at least I took it this way, that the apprentices in the 18th century did the same thing. They learned as they went. With each project their skills improved. It occurred to me then that I was sick of studying and ready to start doing.
I looked at my schedule and decided that the only time I had available everyday was from 4 to 6 am. So for the past three months or so I've kept that schedule and actually built some stuff.... A 32" x 62" tongue and groove board and batten door for a bathroom closet, I 4 squared a couple of rough cut 4x4's for use as a door frame and I built a 15" by 33" breadboard ended "panel" to use as a windowsill in the bathroom and I also built the medicine cabinet shown below.
My skills have exploded as a result of spending time DOING. And, as far as dovetails are concerened, build case pieces without drawers first. The dovetails in those are all covered with mouldings so it doesn't matter if there are gaps;-)
Try a couple of picture frames if you need a small project to start with. Plenty of mortise and tennon joinery adn then rebates for the glass. or build a box to hold your chisels..... Just pick something and do it!
Good Luck!
HB
Avoid "analysis paralysis".
Wise words.
***
I can not knock practice or learning. But HB is right. Unless you have hours to spend in the shop each day, then the practice will be wasted on scrap wood and not furniture.
Too many people want to jump straight into the pro level without building a few amaturish projects.
I am so grateful to all the replies. I am also really happy to see the phrase "Avoid 'analysis paralysis'". As I was reading some of the replies, I was thinking about that same phrase, which I had heard while watching a dvd from Marc Adams. To be precise, Marc has a sign in his shop that says "Beware of paralysis through analysis".While I don't think I will throw out the idea of "warm-up exercises" completely, I think I am going to drop the idea that seems dangerously close to what could be defined as skill building without purpose.On a side note, Frank Klausz has a dvd on tuning and using hand tools that, at the end, provides a good set of exercises geared towards what I was thinking. In his video, he talks about and demonstrates exercises using chisels, planes, and saws. Just thought I would pass that on.Again, if anyone has any projects they feel were great "skill-builders", pass them on. To Buster2000's post regarding amateurs taking on projects beyond their skillset...GUILTY! However, building a picture frame, to me, is like a neophite musician being forced to learn "On Top of Old Smokey" on the guitar. NO amateur wants to play (or show anyone that they can play) that song! They want to play Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven". :-)
Hey -- Ain't a thing in this world wrong with learning "On Top of Old Smokey"!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36kFDzi4D8E
Doing "simple" things with excellence is far better than mediocre flashiness. You may be able to impress an unsophistocated audience easier with the flash, but the pros will be able to spot and appreciate the simple excellence every time and dismiss the poorly executed flash instantly.
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA
Mike THANKS for the music.. OK, so I like Sons Of The Pioneers and The original Hank.. And Old Blues.. also!Earl Scuggs reminds me of a old car mechanic.. You ask the price and he gives ya' a Song and Dance.. And you pay because in the end you get a great work!
I don't know about that! I've been comissioned by the wife to make one 18 by 25 inches and she wants the corners mitered, and then I'm going to put hand cut moldings around the edge of the frame.
I don;t know about you, but the idea of making mitered mortise and tennon joints is freaking me out! Or maybe i'll make a splined miter joint instead......
Picture frames aren't as simple as you think! You can make them ridiculously difficult if you give your wife enough input!
HB
Point well taken. I guess anything can be crazy-complicated if you want.
To Buster2000's post regarding amateurs taking on projects beyond their skillset...GUILTY! However, building a picture frame, to me, is like a neophite musician being forced to learn "On Top of Old Smokey" on the guitar. NO amateur wants to play (or show anyone that they can play) that song! They want to play Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven". :-)
Sorry I just caught this one. It's a very true statement. I'm not knocking trying to go beyond your current skills. That's really the only way we'll improve. All I'm saying is build it to the best of your ability, don't worry that it's not perfect. We're going to cut a loose dovetail, and maybe the tennon will fit a little too loose. But we learn from this just as much as we do from practice.
It's like golf. My brother in law wanted to beat me at golf one year. We trashed talked each other about it all the time. I was playing nightly, he on the other hand visited the driving range every chance he got. He could kill the ball, and was proficient with all his clubs by the end of summer. I had the game solidy in the bag by the 6th hole (out of nine). He did make a good show of it, he hit solid shots for the most part. But any time things went off, he was hooped. Had he spent half his time on the course rather than the range he probably would have done much better.
Following along the lines of what others have said, make your practice serve a purpose. On traditional sailing vessels one of the first projects a new sailor works on is their ditty bag. This is a small canvas sack that holds various tools for working with rope and canvas. In the process they learn basic stitching, grommet making, etc. Make something for your tools and or shop that incorporates practice. A good place to start might be an open shoulder tote to carry tools around. Then maybe a tool chest of sorts. You get the idea.
Make these projects out of pine or poplar, nothing that will break the bank. A secondary benefit is as you progress you have reminders of how far you have come. After a while through use or desire, you will come full circle and make a fancier, more complex open shoulder tote.
Good luck,
Jonathan
Edited 11/12/2007 6:35 pm ET by JKabak
If you have the scrap to practice with, it probably is not a bad idea for a hobbyist. Ultimately it should mean less scrap produced.
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