Trees and such.

Week 2 and I'm slowly settling in, getting more used to the madcap, ad hoc method of teaching and feeling less at sea. We had a jaunt in the forest this week for purposes of tree identification (less fun for those who forgot their wellies, i.e. yours truly). As Anselm says, its slightly ridiculous if you're a furniture maker but can't identify wood unless it comes in planks. Fair point, although I think it will take a lot more than a lovely 1 hour walk in the woods before I can safely claim to be an expert. 

Say hullo to this lovely beech tree if you see it in the forest

Scale drawing of my project

 

Working on various joints, cleats and strengthening keys

Elsewhere in the news, we've been busy starting work on our respective projects. A day or two (or three, but who's counting) was lost in preparing full scale drawings and quotations/cutting lists, but then with no further ado or fanfare, we were launched straight into it. There's been a bit of a race for wood, and rather than wait until I've got all the right pieces, Graham, my tutor, has suggest that I just get on with it and start making the side cabinet for now. I haven't gotten very far as yet, but I can tell you one thing, its going to be a heavy fucker once its done. Don't even want to think about carrying it up to the attic where it will live!

This week for our bench skills we've been looking at various joints (rub joints, dowels, biscuit joints, tongue and groove and loose tongue) and accompanying strengthening keys. Its definitely taken me a while (and three passes) to get there, but the end results haven't been to bad - my loose tongue joint was, well, loose (unintentionally!) and my butterfly keys could have been cut neater, but all in all I'm not going to beat myself up too badly about this one.