Reply To: Beginner – where to start?
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Hey Kevin, welcome to the community. There are so many ways to answer your question. Phil has great suggestions. I might also suggest a few things. First, practice sawing to a line. If you’ve got a saw, get a piece of scrap wood and square some lines on it. Put the lines on the end grain and square the lines to both faces. Maybe 10 lines about a quarter inch apart. Try sawing to the lines and evaluate how you’re doing. You can also try drawing angled lines as if you were cutting dovetails. Try sawing to these lines and see how you’re doing. Practice makes perfect (or at least a lot better).
Second, practice using the planes, especially the no. 4. Practice sharpening it – get into the good habit of keeping it sharp. I probably still don’t sharpen frequently enough, but I’m getting better about it. Plane edges and faces. Practice getting an face flat and then getting an adjacent edge square to that face. Practice, practice, practice.
I have Paul’s book “Working Wood 1 & 2 – The Artisan Course with Paul Sellers”. This book starts the beginner out easy. After discussing woodwork, tools, wood and other preliminaries, Paul gets you to start shaping wood – a key skill. Later he gets into joinery and several projects. This book could be a great investment for you.
Whatever, you do, have fun with it. There will be setbacks and times when it seems that you can’t figure out what is wrong with a tool or with a board or with a technique. Keep at it. No skill comes without a certain amount of practice. We’re here for you if/when you have questions.