I cut off a nice piece of pine for a larger boat bottom and then cut up a bunch of smaller pieces of wood (pine, cherry, walnut, mahogany) for use as cabins and such. Then Finley dug through the wood trash box I keep by the door to the shop, which is where I put plane shavings and wood waste at the end of the day, and pulled out some scraps of wood he thought were cool.
I got a coping saw (now his coping saw) and showed him how it can be used to cut curves. It has a nice old thick blade on it that resists snapping much better than the newer blades. I might even touch up the teeth on it with a file to get it back to "very sharp" and just keep that blade on it, because I know he'll snap the newer blades in no time.
By the way, wearing the kilt was completely his idea. I picked out the London shirt, and then put on my own t-shirt that says "London" on it to wear with my kilt. He liked the continuity.
We cut the pine blank into the shape of a boat bottom and then I showed him how to use his block plane to smooth the cut. I was the one doing the planing, because it was an unusual shape, but I'm sorry I didn't take any pictures of it! I was amazed at how well that old block plane works still. Those old blades take and hold an edge very well.
Then we laid out the pieces where he wanted them and I helped him glue them up. For expediency's sake, we used a hot glue gun - they're just quick wooden toys, so I'm not worried about them lasting very long. When we build anything meant to last longer, we'll use Elmer's white glue (which is, incidentally, what I use in my box making - it works just as well as "wood" glue and costs much less. I wait until stores are having Back To School sales and buy it in little bottles, so I don't ever worry about it going bad.
I couldn't get him to not make a goofy face - he was just really excited to be in the shop, making stuff with dad. I can accept that...
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