I returned Monday from a week long course on The Art of Drawer Making at the Center for Furniture Crafrtsmanship in Rockport Maine. The course was taught by Craig Vandall Stevens (see: http://www.cvstevens.com/). Craig is a real talent, an amazing woodworker, and a really nice guy. Best of all, he is a great teacher. The course was probably the most rewarding and productive learning experience I'v had in woodworking.
We began Monday morning with an introduction and welcome from Peter Korn, the Director of the school. Then Craig outlined the Course for us. There were about ten of us enrolled in the class from all over the country and all different skill levels. It was a nice mix. The object was to build a dovetailed drawer to preciesly fit a case he had prepared for the class.
After the Intro, we got into serious free-hand chisel sharpening. Craig has an eagle eye and tolerates NO slack on the sharpening front. I thought I knew how to sharpen until he took a look at my chisels. I'm better at it now.
Next he demonstrated hand cutting through dovetails and turned us loose to practice. After a day of through dovetails, he demonstrated his method of cutting half-blinds and again turned us loose to practice. He was readily available to answer questions, correct technique and offer encouragement - I needed a lot of encouragement.
Craig uses Japanese saws and chisels almost exclusively and recommended bringing a Japanese rip dovetail saw to the program. I purchased one from Misugi Designs for the occasion at his recommendation. It was my first experience with a Japanese pull saw; and I must say, for someone who has used Western push saws for years, it was someting of a challenge. I had included my LN dovetail saw in my kit, but I was determined to get the hang of the pull saw. I eventually did and was able to produce some respectable through and half blind dovetails:
Here's a photo of Your's Truly chiseling the end pin on a drawer front:
On the third day Craig explained and demonstrated the basics of building a drawer to PRECISELY fit a case. The object is to make the drawer a perfect fit so that it opens smoothly with NO rattle and NO binding. There's a lot more to it than I imagined. I always assumed you just build a nice drawer opening and then fit the drawer to it. Not so. The process begins with the precise dimensioning of the drawer opening.
Craig is a Krenovian, having studied under Krenov at the College of the Redwoods for several years. He teaches Krenov's methods. Krenov builds drawers that are very slightly wider at the back than the front so that the action of opening the drawer tightens ever so slightly before the drawer pulls completely out of the case. He calls it "Let go." Craig showed us how to set up the case to allow for this.
Then we got into actually building our drawers. We learned how to dismension the stock to allow for planing the tails and pins to a flush fit and still have the drawer ever so slightly oversize to allow for the final plane-to-fit process. He showed us how he prepared his solid drawer bottoms and allows for wood movement into the the groove in the drawer front so the bottom can be permanently fixed at the back. Here's a photo of Craig explaining the process. You can see how intimate the calssroom setting is - up close and personal:
After the drawer is glued together, he showed us how to plane the drawer sides to fit. By "fit" I mean FIT PERFECTLY. He used a Japanese pull plane that produced the most amazing micro-thin shavings for the job. Here's a photo:
Last, he planed the top and bottom edges of the drawer to fit. He allows a little space at the top for a reveal and chamfers the bottom edge of the drawer front slightly to give the appearance of a reveal. Here's a photo of the final fit:
It became apparent on Friday morinig that we were not going to have time to complete our drawers, so Craig went through the fitting process in great detail, demonstrating every step carefully with lots of explanation. During the week there had been a lot of questons about various aspects of Japanese tools. One of our classmates had purchsed a very nice Japanese plane just before coming to Maine but he had no clue how to set it up for use. Craig spent an hour or more tuning the plane and demonstrating the process for us. When he finished, it was producing the same full width, wispy shavings Craig was getting from his own plane. I got to have one of those!
All in all it was a wonderful program. I learned a lot and I've added some real skills to my inventory. I can heartily recommend the program and the school. October is a very nice time to go to Maine. Someone remarked that in October, all the tourists have gone, but they haven't rolled up the sidewalks for winter yet. It's true, most businesses and restaurants are open and there are no crowds. We had a very pleasant visit. My wife toured the area while I was in school and we ate some great seafood. On Friday, the last day of class, I drove to Lie-Neilesn's showroom during our lunch break and picked up a new medium shoulder plane I'd been eyeing. There's a 10% price break at the showroom.
We put 2900 miles on my Toyota Prius and averaged about 49 MPG overall. It was a great trip.
Hank
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