Recent Workshop
Stephen Shepherd in the State of Deseret
>I taught a workshop a couple of months ago for 3 thirteen year old boys who were being home schooled. One of their parents had visited my shop a couple of months earlier and we set up a time for the classes, 5 four hour sessions. This was a prototype program to do hands on workshops at the Living History museum I work for.
The cost of the workshop just covered the price of materials; I think it was $35.00, the wood, hardware and paint. I chose a 6 board chest to give them an opportunity to do a variety of woodworking tasks. At thirteen they didn�t have much experience but were eager to build their treasure chest.
After quickly assessing their abilities I decided to have them dovetail the box together, rebate and butt held with cut nails as the other option. They received their boards rough, had to hand plane them, cut them to length and rip them to width. They marked out their boards with a marking gauge, laid out their dovetails and cut them by hand. They learned how to properly use the nib of a saw to make the starting kerf and also used the cranked blade bow saw to finish off their dovetails.
After gluing and nailing in the inset bottom and nailing on the top, the chests were planed smoothed, holes filled and painted and grained to look like mahogany. The boys had a great time, their parents now want to take a class and I had a wonderful time passing along some traditional woodworking to another generation.
The pilot program was a success and more are being scheduled for next year, including the blacksmith, tinsmith and woodcarver working at the park.
Stephen
Here are two of the boys (one had to leave early) finishing their boxes:
