Reply To: Skill Building
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There’s lot of ways to go. You can just get wood scraps and practice planing, squaring up, sawing straight, etc, until you feel you’re ready to dive into whichever project you want. I still have this approach to an extent — my most recent project required 8 12″ long sliding dovetails which were through to the show surface, so they had to look good, I hadn’t done long sliding dovetails in a while and felt rusty, so I practiced making 15″ long sliding dovetails until I got a few in a succession that all looked nice, then I cut the “real” 12″ ones in the project itself, and they went well.
If you prefer to get your practice via projects, I like following the order in which Paul released the projects to a certain extent, starting with the workbench project. Mainly because it is a workbench — if your joints aren’t the tightest or your planing skills aren’t the best (or as we saw in a recent thread on this forum, a glue-up issue left a gap), it really doesn’t matter. You’ll get good practice without the requirement of extremely tight tolerances, you won’t be risking expensive exotic lumber (unless you want to), etc, etc, and you’ll still end up with a nice workbench which will serve you for many years. You’ll also get a fair bit of practice, since it’s a larger project, and a workbench is a pretty essential bit of kit, so you might as well make one ASAP.
Then I might do most / all of the technique and tool-building videos, such as making winding sticks, edge jointing boards, making a round-bottomed plane, frame saw, clamps, etc. Those have a high payback (tools and techniques are very useful and widely applicable, and you get practice while saving money) but also don’t require a visually beautiful result or expensive wood to be a success.
Then was…the wall clock? That’s a good next project, the joinery is simple and it’s a good introduction to case work, but it also is a piece that will go on display in someone’s home, so it’s a taste of the need for good results, and working to a higher standard.
Then maybe the carrying tote next, and so on.
I sort of followed them in that order, and I noticed Paul was careful to include small previews in the current project of skills or techniques or methods which would be needed in a later, more advanced project, and that’s a great way of inoculating you to the coming challenge, and helping you get better results.