Dovetails and good food

[paulchapman]

I had an excellent day yesterday. I went down to Salisbury very early to have a one-to-one session with Rob Stoakley on cutting dovetails. I sort of know how to do dovetails but it's sometimes a bit hit and miss Rob, on the other hand, who used to teach woodworking, is a real master

Rob started off by showing me how he does it





The difference between how he does it and how I'd done it up till now is one of methodology. When you see it done well and in the correct way, it's really quite simple (albeit requiring lots of practice ). It suddenly dawned on me why Rob can get it right first time, every time and I couldn't.

Here I am putting Rob's excellent tuition into practice. First marking out



Then sawing (those Wenzloffs really are very good )



Then paring



At about noon we packed up, jumped into Rob's Land Rover and headed off to Pete and Pam Newton's place to meet up with Phil Edwards and Chisel. Pam had laid on one of her excellent lunches





Here we are tucking in (left to right Phil, Chisel, me and Pete)



Phil had brought down some of his latest hand-made spokeshaves and planes



We call them Phillyshaves ;D



He had superb wooden smoother as well but unfortunately I don't have a picture of that. Pity - it's a real cracker.

We even managed to teach Chisel how to saw a straight line ;D



All in all, an excellent day

Cheers

Paul

[engineerone]

droooooooooollllllll ;D

words like

jammy and bustard come to mind paul

very jealous


paul

[Alf]

So, where's the piccy of the dovetails then...?

Cheers, Al

[paulchapman]

Jun 29, 2008 12:24:11 GMT Alf said:

So, where's the piccy of the dovetails then...?

Blimey, Alf, someone always has to ask the awkward question ;D

Here you go



Not perfect, but it's the first one I've done for yonks, so a bit out of practice - and it will look a bit better when cleaned up.

Cheers

Paul

[Alf]

Wassat den; beech? Coo, didn't make it easy on you, did he? ;D Look pretty good for first ones after a long hiatus.

Cheers, Alf

[paulchapman]

Yes, it was some very hard Beech that he got from Waka - don't think he likes me either ;D

The good thing about it is I know where I went wrong - it was a simple marking out problem and I didn't hold the knife completely upright. That's the good thing about practice - hopefully you remember the silly mistakes and don't make them when it comes to the real job

Cheers

Paul

[robo]

Perhaps you need a new, better knife?? ;D ;D ;D

R

[paulchapman]

;D

[robo]

Paul - I was thinking of one like this:



Cross between a CV & a BS in ebony!

R ;D ;D ;D

[paulchapman]

Trouble was I was using some old knife that Rob had on his bench. Should have used one of the posh ones he made for me



Cheers ;D

Paul

[pedder]

Jun 29, 2008 10:13:40 GMT paulchapman said:

Rob started off by showing me how he does it

Hi Paul,

thank you for the story. Good to see that I'm not the only one gripping a dovetail with only 2 fingers. They would be better with a lower grip angle, wouldn't they?

Cheers
Pedder

[paulchapman]

Hi Pedder,

It's interesting how we grip saws. I think we all do it slightly differently, depending what seems natural for us. Here's a picture of me trying out Pete's Japanese saw



You will see that I had my first finger on the top of the saw. That seemed quite natural for me but the others said that's not how you are supposed to hold them But I was able to cut very straight with it like that ;D

Don't use Japanese saws myself - can't really get on with them.

Cheers

Paul

PS excuse the fag hanging out of my mouth - must give it up ;D

PPS if you look at how I hold my Wenzloff, it's with a three-finger grip so, yes, we are all different

[jaco]

3 Finger grip - really what next!

(probably only thing he can grip with three fingers ..... rest requires half a finger ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D)


I suspect these outings have only one purpose:-
1) Get away from the BOSS!!!!
2) Get free food!!!!!
;D ;D ;D

[paulchapman]

Jul 3, 2008 16:25:48 GMT jaco said:

I suspect these outings have only one purpose:-
1) Get away from the BOSS!!!!
2) Get free food!!!!!
;D ;D ;D

Many a true word....... ;D