I taught a woodworking class

[Harlan Barnhart]

Our church has a program on Tuesday evenings where men share what they have learned with the young men and some not so young men as well. I was asked to do a class on woodworking with hand tools.

First you must learn to sharpen your tools. Here I am (upper left, black shirt) explaining the fundamentals of grinding a chisel. (I wish I knew how to flip these images upright)
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A dad/son combination effort at grinding a bevel. I don't have pictures of honing but we sharpened it enough to shave with.
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A plane demonstration. I should have chosen a better panel. That one had some reversing grain.
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Sawing a tennon for the door frame.
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We attempted to put together a small cabinet with a rabbeted carcass a frame and panel door. I had previously cut three of four of all the cuts/operations so it didn't take long. I tried to keep it simple by using as few tools as possible. The young guys were more impressed with the sparks off the grinder than the woodworking.

-Peace,
Harlan Barnhart

[glenn bradley]

But they were impressed at least ;-) The looks of interest are priceless. Good job Harlan.

[Ron Jones near Indy]

Good for you Harlan. Seems like that was time well spent.

[David Weaver]

The young guys were more impressed with the sparks off the grinder than the woodworking.

Must be some sort of male biological thing. when I was little, I used to sneak used tools and junk metal into the shop just to turn the grinder on and make sparks. I was amazed that you could have such a light show without getting burned by the sparks or starting a fire.

[Joe Cunningham]

Bench grinders are like 4th of July sparklers.

That is neat Harlan, good to see.

[Rob Woodman]

Imparting this sort of knowledge to enquiring minds is both a pleasure and of long term benefit to others, with the huge bonus of being fun for those taking part (even if it is due to the 'sparklers'). The memories they take with them will last.
Great idea, well carried out, thanks for posting it Harlan.

P.S. If you edit your photo's in office picture manager(or similar program) you can rotate the picture before uploading it. This often makes the picture seem smaller but all detail remains.

Regards, Rob.

[Jim Koepke]

Looks like great fun and some of those young ones will remember this for a long time.

Making sparks with a grinder is kind of like the big boxes at Christmas.

Sure the work done or the toy that came in the box is important, but, it is still fun to play with the box.

Those aren't just sparks, they could be dragon fire or spouting volcanos. Just like the box can be anything a child's imagination can conjure.

jim

[Bob Glenn]

All the grandkids were going to be home for Easter a few years back. They ranged in ages from 4 to 13. As a project to keep them occupied, I precut boards for bird houses and predrilled holes for the nails. I rounded up five hammers and each grandkid had to work with an Aunt or Uncle. I took them through the assembly process step by step, then provided paint pens for them to decorate their bird house.

It was something to see and hear with all the hammers going simultaneously. I still smile when I see one of the bird houses hanging on a tree in their back yard.