Newbie Carving Experience
Hi. I Just wanted to share a funny story for anyone who cares to read it. I'm guessing my experience is not uncommon.
Three months ago, I spent 3 amazing days in Southern Appalachia learning to carve a bowl from Drew Langsner at Country Workshops. I had never done anything like that before, but, how many people have? I arrived back home to NJ with a completed bowl, a work in process, an axe, an adze, several gouges and a few knives. Did I start carving when I got home? Of course not. Here’s my recount of the 7 projects I have completed over past three months instead of carving:
Project #1. This one should be obvious. Buy more tools. Spokeshaves, planes, clamps, hammers, sharpening paraphernalia, winding sticks, tools care products, wood finishing products, and countless extras.
Project #2. Build a workbench. With workbench plans in hand, my arsenal of old carpentry tools seemed adequate - a cordless drill, an electric circular saw, a level, and a set of socket wrenches. All I needed was wood, hardware, and some forstner bits - readily obtainable from the local hardware superstore.
My first problem was cutting the 4 x 4 legs with a circular saw. The legs were almost of equal length, but none of the ends were level. After several hours with a wood rasp and sandpaper, I realized it was never going to work. Time to buy an electric hand planer and some clamps. I clamped the legs together and started to plane away the ends to make them all flush. They were close, but not exact. I figured I would just level then after the base was assembled.
My next problem was that my cordless drill couldn’t budge the forstner bit. In fact, none of my neighbors had a drill that could move the forstner bit either. Time to buy a heavy duty electric drill with enough torque to rip my arm off.
My next problem was that, after assembling the base, the tops of the legs were not level with each other. I pulled out the electric planer again and planed until they were pretty level. Then I turned the base upside down and discovered the bottoms were not level. Couldn’t understand it, but started planing away again and then flipped the base again. This time the tops were uneven. Time to buy a Stabila level - gorgeous tool, but the legs were still uneven. I planed some more, sanded, shimmed, and even added rubber pads to the legs until the legs were level on both sides. Never mind that they were now almost 2" shorter than when I started.
My final problem was the discovery that the legs weren’t really level - they were just level in relation to the uneven garage floor. In the right spot, the workbench was level and very stable, but not pretty. The bowed wood and lack of square corners made the table look like it was drunk and about to fall over.
Project #3. Build a box. Frustrated that I couldn’t build something as simple as a workbench with four plumb legs and four square corners, my next step was to learn how to build a rectangular box! As usual, I started with buying more tools - hand saws, more planes, squares, rulers, 90 degree brackets, and lots of clamps. I wanted to build a Japanese toolbox, like I had seen at Country Workshops, which I could use to store some of the tools I had accumulated. This time I measured meticulously, used the squares, hand sawed and planed every cut, and carefully clamped everything into place before fastening it together. The box is not a work of art, but it is a true rectangle.
Project #4. Re-build the workbench. Confident that I had mastered the art of constructing rectangular things, I tore apart the base of the workbench and started all over. I had a local sawmill cut all of the wood to size and used my new tools to make sure the legs were plumb and the corners square before tightening. There were still tons of glitches, but the end result is something that actually looks like a workbench.
Project #5. Build more workspace. The workbench was great, but I needed workspace to keep my tools on while I was working. I always seemed to be searching for some tool that was buried on my workbench. So, I added a tool trough to the edge of the workbench and built two more workbenches that are now attached to the garage walls.
Project #6. Build more boxes. The Japanese tool box is not even close to being large enough to store all of my tools. I wanted several smaller open boxes with dividers to have the gouges, spokeshaves, and planes at hand when needed. After 5 tries, I completed the first box. The 1st box had nails showing through, the 2nd was my failed attempt at using a Kreg pocket hole jig (yes, another purchase), the 3rd had too much glue leakage showing, and the 4th was just ugly. So I built several more in different sizes to accommodate the different sized tools.
Project #7. Build storage space. Just one more thing before I can start carving - need to get all of the garage crap out of the way. I needed at least 100 square feet of storage space, but had used up virtually all of the available eye-level wall space. Time to buy an 8 foot ladder to be able to build shelving up to the garage ceiling.
So, after three months of buying and building, I am ready to start carving again this weekend. My family thinks I’m crazy and that I should have been carving all this time. Maybe they’re right, but I’m not convinced. Besides learning lots of valuable carpentry skills (how to measure precisely, saw in a straight line, drive a screw perpendicularly, use a block plane, and know when the blade needs to be sharpened) it was fun and gave me a great excuse to buy lots of new and exciting tools to play with.
Thanks for reading.
