Hand Planes

there are 2 videos that Ron Hock has made that may be interesting to you; the first talks about steel blades for hand planes and how to sharpen them, the second illustrates how to construct a wooden hand plane from one of the kits that he sells. Check them out of you have time. I'll be showing you the planes that we have in our shop, as well as some wooden planes that I have made.

Seat Carving

This is a video in which Peter Galbert is shaping a sculpted seat for a short stool... I think that it clearly illustrates some of the ways that you can work with the inshave, drawknife, the travisher (a tool which we don't have at the shop), and the spokeshave. All of these tools have their specific strengths, and often they are used together.

Food-safe(?) finishes

this article speaks a bit about the facts (and the potentially misleading speculation) regarding food safe/child safe finishes. We'll talk about this more in class, but it might be helpful for you to read. In addition to the cured state of the finishes, I am also concerned with the relative safety of the finish in its uncured state, as that is when the woodworker has the most contact with it.

Gouge Sharpening

On the left is a link to a Blog called Chair Notes written by a chair maker and teacher named Peter Galbert. He is willing to share information in such an open and generous way... I really have gotten a lot from his advice. One thing in particular that I saw a while back, that directly bore upon what we were discussing today, was the sharpening of gouges. Check out his unique style and we'll talk more about this in class.