On Working with one's Hands.

I started my new evening class this week: Beginner's woodworking. Just like my welding class, I figured I needed to learn the proper way to work with wood, from picking the materials, proper joining, how to make something square and the like. I made my pilgrimage down to Wellington High School for my first class, and, as I sat down at a bench, looked around. Of the 12 pupils, only 4 of them were guys. 8 women who had all manner of reasons for signing up. One wanted to build the furniture she'd been looking for but couldn't find anywhere in Welly. A few had specific pieces they wanted to build or restore. There was an upholsterer who decided she wanted to expand her knowledge. One woman, whose partner had been to numerous of the Intermediate Woodworking sessions (basically a structured way to use the tools while working on whatever project you want) decided she was tired of waiting on him to finish the projects he wanted done, so signed up herself. The woman sitting next to me decided she needed woodworking to advance her career; she worked in the film industry but because of recent cuts to big movies being made in Wellington, needed more skills to be more versatile in the tighter job market.

We went through the shop basics, safety, a walk through of the tools. It's incredible how much I learned just on that walkthrough. Little questions I'd asked myself about the finer points of making tables and the like, for example how did you join a bunch of pieces of timber and yet get it all nice and flat? Table sander. What was the difference between a C and F clamp? What's the proper way to hold a chisel? I'm sure many of these seemingly obvious things bring out holy wars in the woodworking circles, but for someone who's new at it all, having someone experienced tell you at least one side is a life saver!

I thought back to my schooling and how the one thing Lycee didn't have was any sort of hands on shop class. I picked up some here and there, with family resources close at hand for the most part. Simple things that I took for granted during my basic projects, like how to properly cut using a hand saw, became obvious once someone showed me how.

As I was chiseling out my first housing joint, I looked down and felt really happy that I was finally learning to use some of the tools my grandfather had left me. Every time I figure out a new tool, I think back to him smiling as I was putting the wheels on one of my first model airplanes using proper washers and nuts. It really feels like I'm following if not in his footsteps then at least in his interests.

so 7 more weeks of beginner's woodworking, of which 3 will be building a basic tool tote as a "first guided project" before we move on to projects that interest us. I will be building a set of 4 rolling drawers for under our bed, which, hopefully, I'll be able to integrate into some underskirts to make for a nice finished look. I'm already signing up for the Intermediate's class :)