Skills over Jigs

A Journey down a woodworking rabbit hole

How one simple course to help me elevate my hand tool skills gave birth to an extra five new Projects two new saws, and a full spoon carving kit.

In November 2022, I bought an online woodworking course called "Skills over Jigs" from Mortise and Tenon Magazine. The course aims to help hand-tool woodworkers like me build precision and speed skills without relying on jigs.

The 5 hours of video and course materials covered Freehand Sharpening, Knife & Hatchet use, Sawing, Planing, Chiseling, Joinery & Finishing. Culminating with the end project of a sliding lid box (pictured)

I started the course with gusto, completing the first two modules along with the exercises done that month. Then, I disappeared down a woodworking rabbit hole.

Lesson two was about round tenon joints and involved carving a round tenon with a knife to fit cleanly in a 1” hole. Since I didn't have a wood carving knife, I used my Kridashi Japanese marking knife instead. While the sharp single-bevel blade did a great job, I realized that I needed a proper knife.

This led me to discover the world of spoon carving, Sloyd knives, and the Sloyd movement in Finland. Resulting in the acquisition of two sets of straight and curved spoon carving knives (a set for me and a set for my son), a new gouge, and a carving axe that I love. While I haven't done much spoon carving yet, I have started carving some replacement chess pieces that our dog ate. I especially enjoy using the axe for quick stock removal.

The third module of the course was about developing fast, accurate sawing.

I faced a challenge when I didn't have sawhorses, so I researched sawhorse designs and construction. After looking at options online, I chose to build a version of a sawhorse popularized by Christopher Schwartz https://blog.lostartpress.com/2008/02/10/this-year%E2%80%99s-model-the-2008-sawbench/. This allowed me to practice making hand-cut-through mortise & tenon joints, and angled lapped joints.

After finishing my first saw bench, I realized I needed another one to support long boards when sawing. I decided to build the second bench using the staked furniture method, following a design from the Anarchist Design book by Christopher Schwartz. This was a great opportunity for me to learn staked construction skills and methods.

I needed a tapered tenon cutter for a project, but I couldn't find the size I needed. This led me to research how to build a DIY one. I settled on the design below, using a section of Jarrah hardwood that can be held in a vice and a spoke shave blade. The resulting tenons are a bit ragged but functional. I need to experiment with angles to get a better cut.

The second part of the sawing exercise was to be able to use my back saws to cut straight, repeatable. The first problem was that all my decent saws were Japanese pull saws. I find these pull saws okay for dovetailing work and rough dimensioning of stock but I find them sub-optimal when cross cuttings dock on a bench hook. Even one adapted for a pull stroke. So I completed the exercise using my 20-year-old plant plastic-handled Irwin backsaw and Saw beautiful new Lee Nelson backsaws on my Christmas list. As you can pay from see from the photo bellow, Santa was good to me last Christmas. :-) Since having these new saws I've needed to retrain my sawing geometry as they are so different from what I'm used to.

The joinery module of the course trained me to quickly and reliably cut dovetails that fit perfectly straight off the saw with minimal pairing. I enjoyed learning and practising this skill because I tend to mess up my dovetails when I fiddle with them too much after cutting. To get more practice, I began building small boxes to organize and store my joinery tools.

I really enjoyed this course and recommend it to anyone keen on developing their hand tool skills and speeding up their hand tool workflow.

We spent the last nine months of 2023 in the hospital looking after one of our youngest sons, and woodworking a few hours per week was great stress relief for me. As a result of this and many interesting woodworking rabbit holes, I eventually finished the course in early 2024!

After completing the course, I acquired numerous new skills and received a fantastic new box to store my auger bits. The course also motivated me to explore various woodworking techniques and undertake more engaging projects, thereby enhancing my skills further.

Now I just have to work out how to get rid of my jagged dovetail baselines in softwood!

Cheers

David