Reply To: Chris Schwarz VS Paul Sellers
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Being in the Army, I’ve never had a real opportunity to take a good, structured woodworking class. Time and money (and the wife) would never allow it…. That is why I’m very thankful for Paul’s push to teach these classes via his book and DVD course (which I very recently received) and via being a paid subscriber to this site.
And while I can’t take classes, I feel like I’ve bought every woodworking DVD produced in the last 20 years – Sellers, Charlesworth, Cosman, Schwartz, Tom Law, Kingshott, Klausz, etc.
I’ve been woodworking for nearly 15 years. Though most of that time has been with heavy machinery of some sort; and as Paul said in his book, I wasn’t much of a woodworker – just a machine operator. Some years ago (perhaps 7 or 8), I had read that sanding couldn’t beat the finish of a smoothing plane. So I went out and bought a Lie-Nielsen #4 (notice I didn’t say I bought any sharpening materials….) – the best you can buy! I brought it out of the box, wiggled some knobs and levers, and started pushing it across the board. That “premium” plane skittered, dug in, chattered, skipped – and gouged its way all across the board. Point is – I had no clue what I was doing.
All that to say, I realized something was amiss. I got back on the LN website, and saw that David Charlesworth had some planing videos. So, I ordered the set…. Those videos forever changed the way I did woodworking. Yes, they may not be everybody’s cup of tea – and his process may seem tedious to others; but to me, I was able to take each small, repeatable, infinitely detailed, tedious step – and recreate it. And end the end, I had extremely sharp tools and can confidently four square a board perfectly…. So, yes – I have to give a nod to David Charlesworth.
In the same manner, Cosman is a very good dovetail teacher via DVD as he is very, very detailed about how a new student can reproduce each step of the process.
On the other had, and trying to tread lightly here, Schwartz has done much for the woodworking community – but I think his DVDs are a bit of a rehash of commonly known techniques…. whereas Charlesworth’s methods seem to be uniquely his. CW I think even quotes DC during his video on the same topic. Dunno – bit of a ripoff….
Frank Klausz – again, I’ve met him in person, have a signed dovetail – and he’s a great teacher. But he’s not a great DVD teacher…. If you were in the shop with him, it would be 1000x better. But he doesn’t really teach – he shows…. “Cut here like this, now here, now here….” Not enough detail of the minute movements that a beginner needs via a DVD format.
Special mention to Jim Kingshott (as mentioned above) – this man was a one of a kind – I probably enjoy watching his videos above all others…. Not necessarily that I’m learned great woodworking secrets, but to see this man work – and his manner – is a true joy…..
This brings us to Paul’s approach…. I’ve just gotten started on the book and DVD materials, so I can’t comment too much on that. However, I think it will be interesting to see which set of classes will be the main effort. That is, in the book – he talks not just of Level 3 (and bandsaw techniques I think?), there is also some mention of Level 4… And on the internet subscription, he mentioned projects that we’d be doing 2, 3, 4 years down the road. I wonder if the DVD course will fade with the internet class, and if not, how they will overlap of complement each other… but, that’s beyond the point.
As far as a video course, there is something that is (“was” prior to Paul) SORELY missing in all the DVDs, books, magazines, classes, etc, etc. Firstly, there was no structure – many times I never knew how little I knew – or where to even begin. There was no need for me to buy dovetailing videos when I couldn’t even flatten a board or sharpen a plane. But dovetails were “Cool” so that’s what I bought… You must start with the boring, non-sexy basics and progress.
Secondly, and most importantly – with no structure, you could never apply your skill to a project. Yes, you can cut dovetails in practice pine boards all day (and I did!), but I couldn’t do anything else…. I couldn’t apply that skill to a real project today, and a larger – more complex project tomorrow. The DVDs taught me some woodworking skills, not how to be a woodworker.
And so this is the huge void that Paul’s courses fill…. He’s teaching structured woodworking. Not just isolated skills that will sit unused in the vacuum of my ignorance.