easy handling

The Nääs style Sloyd chisel handles are very easy to replicate and that might make the design appealing to some. Rather than being turned on the lathe, they are simply shaped using a bandsaw and then sanded. To drill for the tangs to fit, I used my ShopSmith set up as a horizontal borer and used a 3/8 in. drill bit to fit the tangs of the Czech made steel blades. The boring set up and finished set of chisels is shown. 

A distinct advantage of this handle style is that it will not roll off the workbench. The flat sides assure of that.

The Narex set of 6 unhandled chisels is available from Taytools.com

Make, fix and create...

Making Nääs style chisels

Today I've made a set of Nääs style chisels like those featured in Otto Salomon's book, The Teacher's Hand-book of Slöjd:

V. –– Chisels, Gouges, Carving Tools etc.

These terms include a whole group of tools which are used in wood-slöjd for the removal of small pieces of wood, in cases where the knife, the saw, or the plane could not advantageously be used.

They consist of a flat or concave blade made of steel, the cutting end of which is cut straight across and sharpened to an edge, and the other wrought into a four-sided tang, which is set into a wooden handle. The tool in working is driven into the wood either by the pressure of the hand, or by blows from a mallet. In order that the handle may not slip or twist round when grasped, it is generally made with four sides, greater in breadth and in thickness, and with the broader sides rounded. To keep the handle from splitting under violent pressure, the base of the tang is furnished with a shoulder, on which the handle rests.

These tools vary greatly in size both as regards length and breadth. The latter dimensions determined by the dimensions of the edge. The broadest tools are generally also the longest. In order to be able to execute all the different kinds of exercises which occur, it is necessary to have a complete set of each description of tools. There are usually 12 to a set, all of different breadths.

The photo at left shows an original Nääs chisel that a friend of mine gave me in 2016. His dad had found it in a flea market in Sweden and he passed it along to me. I rehandled it in the Nääs style.

Woodworkers often spend a great deal of time honing the beveled side to perfection, but the actual sharpness of the cutting edge will only be as good as the surface developed on both sides of it. Once the face side of an old chisel has been honed to a mirror like finish and if it is stored under proper conditions, keeping the edge sharp will be easy, and accomplished by honing the beveled side with only minor attention to the face.

While the handles are made in my own shop according in the Nääs design, the steel is made by Narex and available as a set from taytools.com.

Make, fix, create, and suggest by your example that others learn likewise.

Links: Making Classic Toys that Teach

BeaverCraft Detail carving knife.
 

AI

Elon Musk is claiming that AI will take all our jobs, thus allowing us to twiddle our thumbs and order up from computers all that we want or need (if anyone can afford it)... this while the world is overrun with meaningless stuff and while social media sucks the lifeblood from our mental health and the lives or our kids.

He also warns that social media is addicting our kids to algorithm supplied dopamines, likely turning them to dopes.

The one remaining occupation that's not a hobby will likely be that of psychological therapist who will be needed for our children as well as for ourselves.

In the meantime, if just one job is lost to AI, perhaps it should be his own.

Yesterday I finished assembly of a third toddler sized rocking chair. I can assure you that it was not made by AI, and the wood used actually grew as a tree. The carving, although simple, was done by hand, with far less perfection than Elon Musk's vision of the world could offer, and with more joy.

My essay on AI, Misinformation and Manual Arts Training can still be found and read free on Front Porch Republic.

Make, fix and create. Our very lives depend upon it.

If you haven't done it, how will you know?

An interesting graph from WorkTour.com shows what students consider to be the important factors in choosing a career. You'll note that the two largest factors "I'm good at this" (22%) and "I enjoy doing this"(28%) require  students  to have actually done something. You will not know if you're good at something or that you enjoy doing it, without the reality of having done it. 

I remember an experience in junior high woodshop in which I noticed that I was having difficulty keeping my coping saw cut on the marked like. For just a brief second I looked over at my neighbor's work and realized that perhaps my own work was not so bad after all. His saw cut had wandered far from the line and his work was very much worse.

The very simple graph should illuminate the failure of American education. While it might be focused on students doing real things, it is focused on keeping kids at desks instead.

Make, fix and create.

The way it works

Everything that can be taught, can be taught to deeper effect if taught hands-on. For instance various aspects of history and culture that are normally taught only through books and lecture can be examined by using various tools from various countries and that tool use can offer insight into human history and cultural development from different nations.

The Japanese woodworking tools can serve as examples. While western handsaws made stiff and heavy through an abundance of steel, Japanese saws were made thin and light because steel was a more precious commodity. Japanese hand saws, because they are made so thin and light are operated in the pull rather than the push stroke. Trying to push  a Japanese saw through a cut will cause the blade to bind and bend, whereas on the pull stroke they work fast and efficiently, so the way of working is shifted by such a simple thing. Even a simple, subtle thing can have broad implications on all aspects of development.

We've used Japanese style saws at the Clear Spring School for many years as they are light enough for kids to use, and still effective as the child grows toward high school age. Working on the pull rather than push gives a different slant to Asian culture and history, and the examination and use of Japanese saws offers a simple way to begin a deeper exploration. Use of real tools and their history and effects provides an opportunity for all students to become more deeply engaged, even those who are choosing to go to college, or may be in college at the present time.  This is just one small example of how crafts can be useful to deepen an understanding of a particular subject.

Taytools.com has excellently crafted Japanese saws on sale right now at 30% off. The dozuki saw is the one I use for cutting dovetails.

Another example of the more sparing use of steel can be found in the typical Japanese rasp. Instead of having a heavy steel body with raised cutting edges, the Japanese rasp is made of much thinner materials, reflecting again the reduced availability of steel. Both the Japanese saws and rasps surprise western users with how easy and effective they are to use. Taytools.com also has these on sale. 

If you teach a subject normally taught by reading or lecture alone, use your imagination. Look for opportunities to bring the hands into learning.

Make, fix and create...

getting real

The greatest problems in modern education can be summarized as the 3 Ds: Disengagement, disinterest and disruption. Schools often fail to engage children's innate capacities for learning. In worst cases, students become disruptive of the educational interests and needs of others. At a very early age, children are instructed, "don't touch!" "Keep your hands to yourself!” 

But the hands and brain comprise an integrated learning/creating system that must be engaged in order to secure the passions and "heart" of our youth. It is the opportunity to be engaged through the hands that brings the seen and known to concrete reality in human experience. Without the opportunity to learn through the hands, the world remains abstract, and distant, and the passions for learning will not be engaged. 

When the passions ARE engaged and supportive systems (teachers, community resources, technology etc) are in place, students find no mountain is too high, and no concept too complex to withstand the assault of their sustained interest and attention. You don’t have to take my word for this. You can see it in action, and while I can describe my own observations, I know that you, the reader of this material can reflect on times when your passions have been engaged in your own lives and your own learning has been at its height. So what is the answer to the challenge of engaging the heart in education? a

Get real. Real life engages the intellect and the imagination. Crafts are an excellent way to bring the real world into the classroom. Real tools, real materials, real work, making real objects with real use. The purpose of the woodshop at Clear Spring is to help all the other subjects become real and engage the hearts and the passions or our students in education. You know what? It really works.

When the hands are engaged...

When one's hands are engaged in seemingly repetitive tasks, the mind is neither numbed nor silent. Folks at work with their hands are often engaged in thought and thoughtfulness unapparent to the observer. Just as students in a lecture hall can be surreptitiously engaged in checking their face book pages and the professor will not know whether they're listening, the casual observer of a craftsman at work will know nothing of the inner workings of a craftsman's mind, unless he or she has taken time to make an investment in the development of skill, and knows by extension the depths and complexities of a craftsman's thoughts. Make, fix and create...

An onslaught

Artificial intelligence is going to take most of the fun out of the internet if there's any left. I became (without my permission) subscribed to a substack on artificial intelligence due to my having used the term in an article and post and its use of an AI tool for mining the internet for email advertising targets. The subscription was not voluntary. The substack about AI was promoting a subscription service to greatly multiply your number of sales contacts, which it had used to vastly increase its subscriber base. It bragged about how they'd greatly increased their subscriber base using a tool called Scop. Give Scop a keyword and it will scan the whole of the internet for related contacts, and put them in a format that you can use to blast others without their permission.

The powers of AI may bring a few good things in medical research, but to casual use of the internet, forget it. We'll soon be overwhelmed by junk if that's not already the case.

All that reminds me that there is a real world to attend to in which people do real things... attempting to create useful beauty in service to family, community and self. 

Today I'm getting ready for the White St. Art Walk here in Eureka. It is an annual event and I'll have a few pieces of work set up for sales.

Make, fix and create.

better off?

 

After a wonderful three day class at ESSA, and with a five day class coming up in just over 2 weeks, and while we're in the midst of a presidential election campaign, I'm reminded of the question asked every four years, "Are we better off now than we were four years ago?"

Four years ago, Clear Spring School where I taught woodworking K-12 had been closed down but for on-line classes. ESSA was trying to move its classes online as well. My class making Viking Chests with forged hardware had been cancelled.

At home we'd buy groceries to be picked up and then would carefully wash the outsides of packages before things would be put away, as we were all fearful of catching and passing it on to family or friends. My daughter, soon to be son-in-law, his brother, his cat and their dog had joined us here in Arkansas, as Covid had run amuck in New York City and their healthcare system was on the brink of collapse. Unemployment was spiking out of control as folks could no longer work.  

A bipartisan economic rescue plan was put in place to prevent a total economic collapse. We knew people in our own community that were dying or on the edge of death.

We had a president that claimed that Covid would just magically disappear and that maybe just injecting a disinfectant like bleach in our veins would provide a cure. Some folks tried and died.

That president won twice in Arkansas and will likely do so again in our state. 

Have folks become so tribal in world view that they're willing to put themselves, our communities, and others at risk of death? In my home state of Arkansas this presidential election that will likely be the case. Candidate Trump claimed that one or the first things he'll do if elected will be to eliminate the CDC Office of Preparedness and Response. And if he's not elected, he'll claim fraud and proceed to take over by force.

In the meantime, I received a near final full cover design for my new book Designing Boxes, showing both the front and back and a review PDF for an article in Popular Woodworking that goes to print today... their next issue.

box making jigs

Today we finished a 3 day class at ESSA making various jigs for box making. We made sleds for crosscut and miter cuts, keyed miter sleds, finger joint sleds and router setups, and  a few other miscellaneous devices to make box making safer and more accurate.

It was great to hang out with friends.

Make, fix and create. Assist others in learning likewise.

uguisu no tani watari

In response to my article, "Maybe Even Build A Boat" in the Hedgehog Review, Douglas Brooks, builder of Japanese boats, sent me this article about a boat he and students built at Harvard.

 https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/02/first-lesson-in-japanese-boatbuilding-dont-speak/

Brooks describes a feature that sets apart Japanese boatbuilding: edge nailing. In the West, “we tend to send the plank of the fastening through the planking into a frame or rib. There are no frames or ribs in Japanese boats. We’re ‘edge nailing’ the skin of the boat to itself.”

The percussive hammering method “has a very evocative name,” said Brooks. “It is called uguisu no tani watari, which means ‘the bush warbler flits back and forth across the valley.’ There’s a great risk of splitting the plank. It’s a really frightening way to drive a nail into a plank … It injects a kind of playfulness into the workshop.”

The article is well worth sharing.

you can help

We are facing a crisis in American education. Students are disinterested. If it were not the quelling effect of neurohormones provided through their addiction to social media and gaming, they would be disruptive. At the university level, some are. 

Many schools that serve the poor in rural America are suffering from a lack of teaching staff, as professional teachers are driven from the profession. Instead of teaching, they're faced with challenges of "classroom management." And while teaching has always been a noble enterprise, administrations attempting to comply with right wing political whims have diminished the respect that teachers traditionally received in our communities. Even librarians have been the targets of foolishness.

In the midst of all this, I think I have a grip on things... a handle that could be used to shift things back in the right direction. I keep writing in the hopes of having effect. 

In the Front Porch Republic I wrote a lengthy piece about AI, Misinformation and the Forgotten Value of Manual Arts Training. 

 In the Hedgehog Review, I have a just released essay, "Maybe Even Build a Boat Rediscovering the lessons of craft."  Both the Hedgehog Review and Front Porch Republic are small media with limited reach. Because this is true, you can help by sharing these articles and this blog with your contacts.

Make, fix and create... Assist others in learning likewise.

A grand opening

Yesterday we held the grand opening of the Museum of Eureka Springs Art, attended by over 200. Many were old friends. If you were unable to attend, you may get a glimpse of our new museum through a drone fly through on our museum website. https://museumofeurekaspringsart.net/ 

While many museums host works from places far flung, our museum hosts works from artists deeply connected with each other, and whose works  and work were influential in each others lives. Many visitors are impressed by the diversity, and quantity of museum quality works.

As a founder and first president of the Eureka Springs Guild of Artists and Craftspeople, many of the artists featured in the museum were friends of mine, and it gives me great pleasure to see their works honored.

Yesterday I was quoted in an article about digital technologies in school in the New Republic. 

Unplug the Classroom. Or Reboot It. Just Don’t Do Nothing, by Antón Barba-Kay

Today I have an article coming out online at Hedgehog Review.  Check for it after 10 AM. The Hedgehog Review is published by the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia. 

Make, fix and create...

kids and technology in schools.

 I  and the Clear Spring School are mentioned in this article in the New Republic.

 https://newrepublic.com/article/180497/school-screens-classroom-crisis-solutions?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=SF_TNR&utm_source=Twitter

Welcome to the Museum of Eureka Springs Art

We are celebrating our grand opening today with refreshments and a showing of art from the Eureka Springs High School. You are more than welcome to attend. 3-5 PM May 5 in the Eureka Springs Community Center complex. The museum houses over 400 works by 150 local artists from the late 1800's to the present day.

I'll be there and hope you will also.  In case you can't make it, this link to the museum offers a drone fly through. It's worth watching as a preview of what you'll see if you are able to attend.

 https://museumofeurekaspringsart.net/

The Museum of Eureka Springs Art is a bit different from most art museums in that it illustrates the interrelationships between artists that provides a foundation for the development of community. Go to most museums and you'll find great works from far-flung places. Come to the Museum of Eureka Springs Art and you'll find great works that local artists created that were then influential in the development of one of the most vibrant art colonies in the US. While here you'll find a few examples of my own best work.

The video is one from the 1990's in which various artists discuss their work.

Make, fix and create...

assembled and ready for touchup sanding and finish

With just a bit more work these will be ready to sell.

Make, fix and create...
 

rocker mortises and box latches

 In my woodshop I drilled the last of the many mortises for toddler sized rocking chairs that I'll display (and perhaps sell) at this year's White Street Art Fair. For these mortises, I used a drill press to drill holes and then used a chisel to finish them. 

I've also added small latches to the sewing machine box I've nearly finished for my granddaughter Sylvie. My daughter Lucy sews at her machine with Sylvie in her lap. In about 5 or 6 years they'll be able to sew side by side with this machine that's older than I am.

The small latches are available from Amazon. They operate with ease and appear to be robust enough to last. These are the second latches I applied as the first were not of sufficient strength.

 Make, fix and create. Assist others in learning likewise.

Happy National Teachers Day

Happy National Teacher's Day. We teach by a variety of means... By instruction, but also by example, so those who "teach" are not alone in the enterprise.

The photo shows boxes receiving their second application of Danish oil. I'll let them dry for a few minutes before wiping them down with a lint free cloth. The point is not to dry them and remove the finish but to rub it in, bringing the boxes to a uniform sheen. Timing is critical. Wait too long and the rubbing is difficult.

I have an essay coming out in the Hedgehog Review on Monday at about 10 AM. I'll share a link when it comes out.

Make, fix and create... Share with others.

today boxes

Yesterday I took portable workbenches  and various clamping devices to the Clear Spring School wood shop so that middle school students could test them and provide feedback. They decided that the most recent designed by Mike Taylor was best and noted that it could be mounted to tables of different heights. They liked the way the flipper handles worked and were amazed at how strong the front vise was for holding wood. 

They were most impressed when I pulled some Veritas planes out from storage, as they'd never planed wood before. So I set up additional stock in other benches for them to practice on.

Next week while they are off camping I plan to spend a day with their teacher, giving him lessons on how to keep them sharp. It felt great to be back on the Clear Spring School campus with a few kids.

Today I signed sixteen inlaid boxes, and began applying a Danish oil finish consisting of two parts polyurethane, one part linseed oil and one part mineral spirits. I set up a table under the protection of our front porch so Rosie and I could sit outside and observe a gentle rain. 

An essay I've written for the Hedgehog Review is being edited for publication online and I'll post a link when it's available to read.

Make, fix and create... Assist others in learning likewise.