Sloyd's Sweden

Use a tenoning jig on the table saw to begin.

At the time Sloyd was invented a typical Swedish parish was described as follows:

Besides the 254 peasants and cotters who owned and lived on assessed land, there were 39 persons listed as artisans and apprentices, 92 squatters, 11 enlisted soldiers, 6 innkeepers, 5 horse traders, 3 house-to-house peddlers. There were also 274 farm servants, 23 bedesmen and bedeswomen, 104 "ordinary poor," 18 sick and crippled, 11 deaf and dumb, 8 blind, 6 nearly blind, 13 almost lame, 4 lame, 5 near idiots, 3 idiots, 1 half idiot, 3 whores and 2 thieves. On the last page of the church book, under the heading "End of the Parish," were listed 27 persons who had moved away and never been further heard from.

The poor, "the ordinary poor," and other old and ill and incompetent people, were divided into three groups and cared for according to special regulations passed by the parish council. The first group included the old and crippled who were entirely incapacitated. They received first-class poor help, or "complete sustenance," which might amount to as much as three riksdaler cash per year—about eighty-seven cents—plus four bushels of barley. In the second group were those only partly disabled, who could to a certain degree earn a living for themselves and their children. They were helped with sums of cash ranging from twelve shillings to one riksdaler a year—from six to twenty-nine cents—and at the most two bushels of barley.

The third group included people who only temporarily needed help. They received alms from a special fund known as the Ljuder Parish Poor Purse, under the supervision of the parish council. This last group included also "profligate and lazy people who had themselves caused their poverty." They, according to the council's decision, "should be remembered with the smallest aid from the Poor Purse, thereby getting accustomed to sobriety and industry." Destitute orphans were auctioned off by the parish council to "suitable homes at best bid." For these "parish boys" and "parish girls" the council sought to find foster homes where the children would receive "fatherly care and in good time instruction in honest habits and work."

Conditions were similar in other parishes in Sweden at that time.

Cut the cheeks of the tenon.

The preceding was from Vilhelm Mober's classic novel the Emigrants, which described the departure and journey of a group of Swedish peasants to resettlement in the US. As you can see, things were not good and the exodus of millions of Swedes for the US, was for them a very good thing. It was in the interest of being of service to these poor and society at large that Otto Salomon developed Educational Sloyd.

Yesterday in the wood shop I cut large tenons for the table I'm making, as you can see in the captioned images above and below.  Pay particular attention to the second photo above. Note that two cuts are made on each cheek, the first being slightly away from the fence. This keeps off-cut stock from being jammed between the blade and fence and subsequently thrown back at the operator.

Make, fix, create, and inspire others to find passion through learning likewise.

Cut the cheeks, step two.

Cut the cheeks step 3.

Clean up with chisel.

A secure connection between parts.