I'm Done!

Well, it's been a long and rewarding six weeks, but I've finally completed my Craftsmanship Program at the Inside Passage School of Fine Cabinetmaking! I've learned a lot, scraped two-year-old rust from my neglected skills, gained a new appreciation for the fine art of woodworking, and met a bunch a cool people to boot!

Here's the stuff that I made during the course. Just in case you're wondering where the cabinets and bookcases and tables and boxes are: this was a course based around woodworking skills and ways of doing things; actually building objects wasn't the goal, although I did come out with a bunch of cool tools.

So what's next? I'll spend the next week or so wandering around the Sunshine Coast and Vancouver Island, and then head inland towards the Kootenays, where I'll be volunteering at Raid the North Extreme. After that...? :-)

The fruits of my labor

Handmade chisels and knife

New plane family: smoother, jointer, and coopering planes from left to right

Cabinet model with drawer

Drawer detail with dovetails and handmade pull

Curved panel

Curved panel marquetry detail

Making Shavings

*Finally* finished my jointer plane, and the coopering plane is coming along nicely. For the dovetail exercise I thought I'd add an extra bit of challenge, so I cut them as "houndstooth" dovetails - as I did them, basically a dovetail-within-a-dovetail. They ended up being a pain in the a** to take apart and re-assemble so I didn't use them in the drawer cabinet we're making in class, but they were fun to do!

Working Wood

Welcome!

Week two of my 6-week Artisan Program at the Inside Passage School of Fine Woodworking: complete! Also complete: a smoothing plane and a "Gumby" table leg. Didn't get around to finishing the coopering plane or the jointer plane though... Oh well, there's always Monday morning at 7:00am!  Sigh... Too bad I'm not a morning person.

I *have* managed to get out on a few mountain bike rides on the trails here in the Sunshine Coast. All I can say is: *WOW!* These trails are a blast! Not really what I'm used to though, what with a whole lot of uphill and subsequent long descent. On one ride near Gibsons, I climbed for about 90 minutes straight up a mountain, and the trail took me straight back down in 10 minutes. Probably one of the hairier descents I've ever done, I could smell my brake pads burning when I got to the bottom. Can't wait to do it again...


Unfortunately, long days perfecting skills and making piles of shavings haven't left much time for adventuring outside the classroom or for taking pictures. I've met some cool and like-minded folks and am learning a lot though, so I'm definitely having a good time!

Making shavings