I have finished assembly of the sloyd knives as you can see in the first photo. All I've yet to do on them is shape the handles so they are comfortable to hold and sharpen the edges so they are ready for use. While some schools may not be able to imagine children working with sharp knives, we know that knives have been important tools through which wood can be shaped towards useful beauty, and that hands-on engagement in physical reality is the foundation of science.Today, the Clear Spring High School students began making furniture from spalted fiddle back maple that I supplied from my storage barn. Just in case they wondered how something so ugly could become beautiful, I invited them to check the price of spalted maple on eBay. I think it was fun for some of them to get so physical in their work.
"Let the youth once learn to take a straight shaving off a plank, or draw a fine curve without faltering, or lay a brick level in its mortar, and he has learned a multitude of other matters which no lips of man could ever teach him" --John Ruskin, "Time and Tide", 1883.The 4th 5th and 6th grade students began work on their rock and mineral collection trays. So it was a busy day in the Clear Spring School wood shop.
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