a new beginning

It was about 40 years ago I began an adventure in woodworking. Buying a variety of hand tools, chisels, saws, vintage wood body planes, Even a nice work bench. Pouring over my books and manuals I set to engage my new hobby. Sadly my efforts were less than satisfying. I put my tools away and forgot about them. Until I met Paul Sellers on my computer. His teaching, as you all know, was excellent. Like adding the breath of life to a long dead carcass. He taught me. He taught me to sharpen my tools. He taught me to cut a dovetail. He taught me to saw a straight line. This and a myriad of small but incredibly important task. How to use a square. The importance of a sharp pencil. The all important knife wall. Thank you Paul.
So last year my eye fell on a limb of white oak in my back yard. My first impulse was to make it into firewood. Then a second option passed my mind. Make something of it. So I cut it up and following Paul’s instructions I produced a small box made with hand cut dovetails. My wide was delighted so I followed it with 3 more boxes as Christmas gift. Very well received. More recently a fallen red oak caught my attention. Using a chainsaw I cut two faces “square” then cut it to length. Using a drawknife I roughed it down to the core then with the jack plane I smoothed and worked all four faces then marked the slab width. Resurrecting my Sandvick rip saw I ripped out four slabs. I will continue and produce enough to build my second of the desktop organizers.
The photo shows in the foreground a rough piece, then a piece in progress, then the slabs ready for smoothing and employing in my project.