when you could call it a board meeting?
My wife required a step stool, so I made needlessly complicated one! I had this slab of salvaged American Chestnut laying around which I thought would contrast well with some leftover black walnut. This stool features 12 mortise and tenon joints, which is certainly excessive and the most I’ve ever done, but it was fun to try!
Things I learned:
- Joinery with old wood is hard
- Flaring out the legs would have provided more stability - angled mortise and tenons are next up for practice
- I should have sanded thoroughly before putting this thing together - so many tight spots!
Thanks for looking!
I want to learn woodworking (primarily furniture making) as a total novice, but as a hobby. I’m struggling to find anything other than full/part time college carpentry courses, targeted at people pursuing a career.
Would be nice to do something that is group based, but I’d be more than willing to pay for private tutorship if needs be. Anyone have any ideas?
Apologies if "help me figure out my life" posts aren't welcome here, but this sub seems welcoming and I could use some advice. Bit of a long read, so if you're interested in giving some of your thoughts then please read it all the way through. I appreciate any/all advice immensely.
I am currently working an office job as a junior editor at a military history magazine. The pay is good (60,000 Canadian), I have a good benefits, the work is usually interesting and I like my coworkers well enough. However, my job is in the city about 50 minutes from my small town and housing is too expensive for me to move, meaning I'm commuting almost two hours a day, five times a week. I'm also finding the sedentary nature of office life to be fairly depressing, and the fact that I write about war, death and mayhem every day, while cool on the surface, is actually unbelievably emotionally draining. And to be honest, my job is an anomaly in the journalism world; if I ever left this place to shorten my commute or better my mental health, I'd likely end up with a 20k pay cut at least. I'm fine with making less money, but it wouldn't be worth it in the hyper-stressful journalism industry.
Anyway, as to how this relates to woodworking: I learned how to do basic carpentry from my carpenter grandfather as a child and have made shelves, boxes and cutting boards, though never with an intent to do it professionally. But there is a really good small-town college that is only a 10 minute walk from where I live that teaches heritage carpentry, joinery, fine woodworking and the basics of construction. My girlfriend took the first year of the program and raved about it, but left early to switch to university. Other acquaintances have taken it as well; one actually started their own custom wood shop and the other builds decks for a living.
I'm not picky about the work that comes after graduation, as I was a butcher before becoming a journalist, which was backbreaking, nasty labour. I'd just like to do some work that is local, somewhat creative and a little bit less taxing on my mental health. The program is two years long and costs 8k in tuition, has an internship and is apparently respected throughout Eastern Canada, but it doesn't count towards an apprenticeship (I don't think? I don't really know how the apprentice system works), which is a bummer because there's a great carpenters union in the city that requires everyone to be at least an apprentice. I'd also have the separate o
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I was watching an episode of The Woodwright's Shop the other night and to my surprise the guest, I think it was Schwarz, was talking about how dovetails were looked down on by the masters. Viewed as a rough and dirty joint.
So I'm wondering, what was considered a top notch joint for the application where we use dovetails?
