Tool chest as a future project

Cool, Ill be looking forward to these projects.

Thank’s for the update Joseph!
Sounds like we are going to have plenty of fun during
2013 🙂

Look forward to all of these projects
/Jesper

What really drew me to this is the statement on the home page,……Learn woodworking through an effective and continuous program of online broadcasts. I suppose the clue is in the title Masterclasses, as the projects seem designed for experienced woodworkers and not for us beginners.
This Is not a criticism in anyway just a statement, as in how I see it.
Ok no offence intended to Paul, or anyone, I just say it as I see it. Trying to jump to far a head to fast, then making a mess of it could kill any progress very quickly.
Very Best
Ken 😉

I’m in the very beginning stages of this road, but I’m very excited about the chair build. I’ve done only a couple of the things in Pauls books and a couple of my own. I’m yet to make a first cut for the clock project (on my list though, wood and clockface already acquired from a fleamarked job; so halfway done, eh?).

I think I’m going to not only attempt it, but also finish it. It’ll be rough, crooked and nowhere near my own standards of what I want it to look like, but it’ll be done and I’ll have learned much more by doing it badly than by watching it being done 😛  😀

And to be completely honest, I kinda trust that Paul has his usual no-nonsense-and-anybody-can-do-this approach that he has shown in just about everything. It’ll be half as hard after it’s done.

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all the comments.

We had to a certain extent anticipated concerns regarding the scale/complexity of the rocking chair project. I will do my best to explain why we think this will work.

The wall clock actually, on paper anyway, is quite a complex project for beginner woodworkers. However when broken down to a step by step project each step seems very achievable. I anticipate that you will find it is the same with the rocking chair. It is a bigger project but have faith in yourselves and us. Each step will be explained thoroughly and simply. I do not anticipate that the individual steps will be that much more complicated than the clock.

Don’t get me wrong it is a far more complex project overall but don’t be intimidated the individual steps are achievable.

Here is our basic logic:

On this project there are a lot of repeated steps. We will show each individual step in great detail once (sometimes twice). There are 48 mortise and tenon joints. We will probably only show cutting about 8 of these but very slowly and carefully. There is a huge scope for practice in this chair. There are 16 joints that make up the frame that goes around the seat. If you cut the first one and it is slightly loose you have 15 more to cut and in the scheme of things 1 slightly loose joint in 16 in not actually much of a weakness.

We want to create a culture of learning by doing and creating projects we can be proud of (this does not exclude in any way the simpler projects we plan to offer).

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With all of that said we are considering creating a second ‘channel’ which could cover smaller less complex projects. We will work with the feedback we get.

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@ken and @jonkilleen,

As said above we hope that this will be a huge jump in the scale of the project but not as huge in the complexity of the steps.

Regarding @ken‘s second post. We hope that you will see no break in the logic or explanation in the next projects despite the above oft mentioned change in scale.

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@psi and @jespiir

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

I too have the same concerns as many have stated.  I have been aspiring to be a craftsman for over 20 years now.  In the early days, information was sparse.  You could go to the library and their limited selection or you could buy a magazine.  Tool selection was limited to local stores and was almost entirely geared toward power tools.  The hand tools that were offered were for carpentry at best and were of poor quality.  Since I could not afford a shop full of power tools I believed that my ability to craft quality furniture projects was limited or non existent.  I struggled through the years and only built simple projects of very little substance.  Then came the internet and I began to see glimpses of what others were doing with hand tools.  Then I watched as the use of hand tools became a movement with a growing following.  There was a lot of conflicting information and no one was demonstrating or teaching a complete system.  But now I had access to online retailers of hand tools, both new and used as well as access to a vast amount of information.  Now my problem was how to filter this information so that I could achieve my goal of becoming a craftsman.  Then I found Paul Sellers web site and blog.  Here is a man teaching a complete system, using simple hand tools and crafting wood the way I have been aspiring to do.  I read in his blog how many people have attended his month long class and went from using a chisel for the first time to creating a rocking chair in just the span of 30 days.  Then he announced that he is offering an online video course.  I signed up, excited about the possibility of achieving my lifelong goal of becoming a craftsman.  When I signed up for the online course I made a commitment to myself that I would let loose of all that I had learned before and all of my preconceived notions.  I made a decision to trust in Paul’s teaching system and take what he presents to me step by step.  I can now sharpen my tools with confidence and speed.  I have built a workbench that is a joy to use.  I have almost completed a wall clock.  Paul’s methods have walked me through all of these things.  Have I made mistakes?  You bet, but in the end I have been successful.

So after all that rambling, if Paul says the next step in my training is a rocking chair, I’m in 100%.

Cyber apprentice
Greg Merritt