The Kilted Woodworker - The Next Generation

The other day, Finley wanted to come down into the shop with me and make some boats.  

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...

Shaking things up a bit with a new blog!

So, after much thought and deliberation, I'm going to shake things up a bit here.

I've had an idea rolling around inside my empty head for a few months now - thoughts on how I want to improve my woodworking. Part of it involves skills - practicing to improve skills I have and studying to learn new skills - but part of it also involves my mindset and my general state of mind when I go down into the shop.

After two days of tentatively using WordPress to see how this new blog might work out, I was sold on it. (If you've never used WordPress for a blog, you need to. Now. I love, love, love it!)

Over the next month or so, I'm going to try and figure out how to transition my woodworking out of this blog and into my new one. I'll probably maintain Grey Stone Green as a more personal, non-woodworking blog. Should still be some fun stuff on here, but I'll have to see about making the switch on the Unplugged Shop so you don't see a link every time my little boy does something I think is cute. Until then, I'll post a link in here for new posts over on the other blog, m'kay? (Or you can always just follow the other blog with any one of the various methods available...)

Here's the main Blog page:
thekiltedwoodworker

Here's the first post:
Let's Give This A Try

And here's something that explains more about the title of the blog:
Kilted Woodworking

Hope you enjoy it. I think the last link is probably the most important one for now, though I do already have two posts up on being green that I think are quite snazzy.

Sorry for being such an absent blogger for the past year. Anyone who has had a kid probably understands, but I'm trying to make a focused and determined effort to carve some much-needed "me" time out of each week. It's there. I just need to sharpen my carving knife, so to speak.