Woodwork hand tool demo. chisel question

[Doug B]

Well I’ve been sharpening tools for 40 years but am still looking forward to the demo, it’s always interesting to see how others go about doing things, every day’s a school day & if it raises money for a good cause at the same time all the better.

Hopefully The Nelson will be open in the afternoon :-k :wink:

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

I've been asked to do a 2 hour demo for a charity fund raising (Alzheimers) -
Obviously start with freehand oil stone sharpening, that's the main item.
Then usage: plane setting up, chisels, perhaps saws, differences between types of tool etc
No prob, except what would you set up to demo chisel use? It occurred to me that in trad work chisels used more than anything for chopping holes; mortices, hinge pockets, dovetail sockets, so that's plan A.
What else might you put on the list for basic chisel usage, am I missing something obvious?

Jacob, I've done dozens of these.

Sharpening is boring after a few minutes. The interesting items are using a plough plane to make a groove, to create a tongue-and-groove joint, to shape a moulding with a plane and with a scratch bead. Hell .. file a scratch bead and then use it to make a simple beaded edge.

Sharpen a cabinet/card scraper and make shavings with it. Demonstrate a brace and bit.

Regards from Berlin

Derek

 

[Phil Pascoe]

A friend, a baker who sells thousands of pasties a day told me his staff were always told to put most of the beef in the first end and the last and sod the middle - they're the bits that sell your pasty. I think demos may well be the same.

 

[AJB Temple]

To spend long on sharpening will be an error. If the audience are inexperienced they will be discouraged if they learn they will have to spend ages sorting a tool out. They need to see that sharpening is easy and quick. And once sharp takes seconds to touch up.

Experienced woodworkers will know that sharpening should be quick, and will regard someone who labours it as inexpert. (The opposite of an expert).

If the aim is to encourage woodworkers, then making something simple and quick is the way forward, making them believe that they can do it too.

If you watch, for example, Rob Cosman videos, he gets his sharpening done in 30 seconds in a very simple freehand way, and focuses on what he is using the tools for, not on how he gets them ready for use. Woodwork is a product oriented pastime.

 

[Jacob]

..... They need to see that sharpening is easy and quick. And once sharp takes seconds to touch up.

That's plan A, then to do a bit of woodwork, including setting up a plane. For people who don't know how to do it quickly and easily sharpening is a major obstacle.
PS Watched Rob Cosman vid. He's using 2 expensive stones (over £200 worth) and having to flatten one. Also he's terrible show-offy showman and I don't believe anything he says!
PPS Actually my question was about alternative common uses of chisels, beyond the obvious (mortices, housings e.g. DT sockets, hinge pockets) but maybe that's it until you venture into carving as per the Sellers vid mentioned above.

 

[AJB Temple]

He's just using a diamond plate (cheap ones readily available) and a fine stone to hone: you can also get cheap ones. Literally 30 seconds. No showing off that I saw - he's down to earth and fast. And he admits his screw ups readily. He is of course aiming to make money from his channel. The example was merely to show that it need not be a big deal.

My point was that you originally said that sharpening was your main event. I was merely remarking that even to suggest that sets up a barrier to people entering woodwork. Glad to hear that the focus is actually on making something. Good luck with your demo, I hope it goes well.

 

[Jacob]

Plenty of food for thought here!
What I most hope to do is to show beginners how they can sharpen (and grind) easily, entirely freehand with just one double sided stone, Typically: https://www.axminster.co.uk/india-ib6-c ... one-134851
Why? Because it's a good place for a beginner to begin but also is a good default skill for people at any level, even though the grit size is only 400 wotsits - still good enough for almost everything, convenient, cheap and lasts for life.
PS and if you do site work, as I have for half my life, then it's the only sensible option anyway.
Nothing to stop people going on to more techie approaches if they want to, but a good starting point.
I've also got very fine Arkansas and other stones but don't often feel the need, only for fine finishing off the tool, if required.

 

[transatlantic]

Why? Because it's a good place for a beginner to begin

I'd completely disagree and you're setting people up for frustration.

Tell them to buy a simple £10 honing guide, so they can actually know how a sharp tool should feel, look and behave. Only then should they begin to attempt freehand sharpening.

They need something to compare against.

Small steps!

Not massive hurdles that can completely put someone off.

 

[El Barto]

Correct use of a saw would be helpful. Holding it, how to get up to the edge of a knife line etc. Sawing is hard.

Planes and chisels (and varieties thereof) only, unless there is spare time - then perhaps do a rip saw cut

Paul sellers did a video recently demonstrating how to cut a shaped template in softwood using only a tenon saw and a chisel. That would make a nice demonstration.

A bit specialised for a beginners demo - perhaps in week 2!

Gotcha. Sounds cool either way!

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

Jacob, as I wrote earlier, my choice would not be sharpening chisels, but rather the use of simple tools to create a result that the audience can appreciate as representing handcraft. Both inexperienced and experienced woodworkers alike recognise a product, such as a moulding. Sharpness is not a product, but remains an abstraction until it is used. Further, all present can imagine using a plane (such as a plough) because it is essentially a jig doing the work. This is relevant because, if you want to hook viewers, they need to participate in some way, even if it is in their imagination.

Everyone has seen and can appreciate mouldings. Not everyone understands a mortice-and-tenon joint. Even dovetails - a staple for demos - may leave the viewers confused .... because only woodworkers appreciate their importance and reputed level of difficulty - no one else thinks this way.

Viewers will find using a handplane more interesting than sharpening the blade that makes the plane work. Sharpening demons should come much later, if at all - they are only for those who seek to become handtool users, not for those just curious about the black art.

Regards from Berlin

Derek

 

[AJB Temple]

Jacob, you could also get a friend (or use a tripod) and video your demo, or parts of it, for You Tube on a phone. Maybe post a link on here too. Basic video editing is quick and easy.

 

[Jacob]

Jacob, as I wrote earlier, my choice would not be sharpening chisels, .....

Fair enough, but it's the topic I chose. My wife did "making sourdough bread" I would have chosen "steak and kidney pies" or something.
So many topics so little time!

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

Jacob, it is your presentation, but when you ask for our thoughts ....

I would be finding ways to use chisels to extend skills. For example, a sharp chisel creating a chisel wall to saw a tenon shoulder, etc.

Regards from Berlin

Derek

 

[Jacob]

Jacob, it is your presentation, but when you ask for our thoughts ....

I would be finding ways to use chisels to extend skills. For example, a sharp chisel creating a chisel wall to saw a tenon shoulder, etc.

Regards from Berlin

Derek

Yes good idea. Similarly - to cut DT sockets without going over the line. I'm interested in absolute basics.
We were also in Berlin a few weeks ago - very interesting place. Found a very German themed restaurant http://www.augustiner-braeu-berlin.de/speisen.html all lederhosen and dirndls - the food was really good. I'd recommend it. Beer, sausages, sauerkraut etc - feeling hungry just thinking about it!

 

[Trevanion]

Why don't you come up with something simple to make that incorporates most of what you want to show but you could easily build in an hour or less? You can allocate the rest of the time to explaining stuff as you're going along and have a finished piece to show at the end of it.

Something that strikes me as a suitable project is one I did when I was doing my level 1 C&G Carpentry and Joinery Qualification, which was the nail storage box. It was very simple, the four corners of the box were different joints which if I remember were a mitre joint, lap joint, cross-grain tongue and groove (barefaced housing), and a dovetail joint, the ones that wouldn't hold themselves in place would be nailed. The bottom panel could be grooved or rebated into the bottom of the box. The inside of the box was divided into four separate compartments with a couple of pieces of softwood which were housed into the outer pieces with both stopped and full housings. A thickish handle is shaped with a spokeshave and tenons cut on the ends, then two pieces of softwood are morticed to accept the handle and then they and the handle are attached to the box..

If you had most of your timber pre-prepared and perhaps only plane and shape the handle this wouldn't take too long to build and it goes through a lot of joints and techniques in one small project, and you have something to show for it that shows the techniques applied to something rather than a bunch of sample pieces.

 

[Jacob]

Well yes that sort of thing is an option - though it wouldn't be hands-on for the audience, not in 2 hours anyway.
I'll see how it goes, I've never done it before.
PS another idea is to have around some odds and ends of furniture or joinery and talk about them. Old low-end hand made stuff is good as you can often see all the mistakes and marks etc. Helps understand what they were actually doing and why.

 

[Hornbeam]

Sharpening chisels/plane blade etc free hand, maintaining a constant accurate angle is not a simply acquired skill. It is one of the most useful skills I acquired at university by hand polishing hundred so of microscope samples totally flat. I would recommend any beginner or person looking to improve their sharpening to use a simple jig. After 30 years I am just trying one and for everyday jobs no real benefit but there is an improvement for more difficult timbers. Using a jig in your demonstration will make it more accessible to your audience. ian

 

[nabs]

why not have a few ready sharpened chisels on hand and let them compare a few basic cutting/chopping with both an unsharpened and sharpened one? Might help keep the interest up on the sharpening demo?

I wish someone had been around to show me how to sharpen when I was starting! Good luck!

 

[Terry - Somerset]

It all depends on the audience and what may interest them. Sharpening may be interesting for a woodworker but of no interest to most if their previous experience is (at most) putting together IKEA flatpacks.

Ask yourself - are you trying to show them:

- how clever you are
- how to use basic tools - saw, screwdriver, chisel, hammer
- how to join bits of wood together - joints, screws, dowels
- how traditional/quality furniture is made
- what types of wood are used for - sheet materials, hardwood, softwood etc
- what are first 10 tools they need to get started - tape, saw, square etc etc

At a basic level to get some involvement - just ask members of the audience to cut a length of wood square - they will almost certainly struggle if they have never done this before. Teach them how to mark it, stance, how to hold it, let a sharp saw do the work and they will improve rapidly.

 

[Jacob]

It all depends on the audience and what may interest them. Sharpening may be interesting for a woodworker but of no interest to most if their previous experience is (at most) putting together IKEA flatpacks.

Ask yourself - are you trying to show them:

What I said - sharpening chisels and planes but the basic one double-sided oil stone way, followed by how to use them, probably on previously marked up samples

- how clever you are
- how to use basic tools - saw, screwdriver, chisel, hammer
- how to join bits of wood together - joints, screws, dowels
- how traditional/quality furniture is made
- what types of wood are used for - sheet materials, hardwood, softwood etc
- what are first 10 tools they need to get started - tape, saw, square etc etc

At a basic level to get some involvement - just ask members of the audience to cut a length of wood square - they will almost certainly struggle if they have never done this before. Teach them how to mark it, stance, how to hold it, let a sharp saw do the work and they will improve rapidly.

No non of those in just 2 hours. But if I don't bore them rigid there could be another session! Seems a harmless and possibly entertaining/useful way of wasting a couple of hours occasionally and raise a bit of cash for dementia, if it hasn't got me already. :roll:
n.b. it wasn't my idea it's a friend raising cash - she wants to get 60 people to set up different little sessions about anything, to which a handful of people (6 to 8 in my case) will pay £10 or so each via an on-line fund raising app, to raise 60x60= £3600. I'll be number 43!