I'm excited about this, Mike. Thanks for having me.
I'm writing up a course outline for the Woodworking in America conference. For those of you who have not heard about it, it's a woodworking conference uniquely focused on hand tools. It'll be held in Berea Kentucky next month. I think it was sold out about 4 days after registration opened a couple months ago.
Anyway, Mike Dunbar, LN's factory rep Deneb Puchalski , and I are doing a bench plane clinic. It's only an hour and 15 minutes long. And I'm wondering what we can realistically accomplish in that time. It's a hands-on event. One of the things I'd really like guys to leave with is a sense for how they are doing with their tools. Essentially we'll be coaching, helping individuals improve their techniques from where they are now.
This is something I want to do in your shop. We'll be talking about tools and I'll be doing demonstrations, and giving presentations. But guys will be able to handle these tools and develop techniques with them. We won't be building anything in particular, but we will be making a lot of shavings and saw dust. And this will give guys a chance to learn whether their technique is good or holding them back, if their tools are sharp enough or maybe too sharp; there really is such a thing.
I think teaching folks to use hand tools effectively IS a little bit like coaching an athlete. How you hold the tool, how you stand really can make a difference. This is why I'm happy to travel 1000 miles to your shop. If a person is interested in working with period tools, I just don't think you can get this from a video or a book. We really need face to face time together to work on some of these skills.
Good luck with your school. Hey, I got to meet Garret Hack last January. He's really neat. When you look at his work and the tools he uses, he really is a period woodworker (no matter what he says!
). I love his stringing and inlay. He has a lot of little tricks and specially ground tools for this.
Adam
