When an object is carefully and lovingly crafted

A sailboat with minecraft blocks

When an object is carefully and lovingly crafted, it is empowered to express the concerns and character of its maker in a voice that can resonate for generations.

Woodworkers have a unique opportunity to reveal the beauty and value of our native woods in a way that encourages understanding and preservation of our trees and forests.

At one time, the trees of our forests were so well known that the common man, standing at a distance could tell the species being cut by the sound of the axe. His knowledge of each species and its uses was an important factor in his life and even his survival.

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It is ironic that now with our survival linked so closely to the fate of our forests we have become so ignorant of our trees.

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As I began my career in 1976, I was fortunate to discover the wealth presented by the wide variety of woods, and learned that to protect them, we must know their value. Sharing an understanding of this value is the objective of my work.

Making a battleship

With those words, I opened my old website first designed and coded  20 years ago in 1997 and now close it and open a new one that can be found at my old address: DougStowe.com

The old one served well, as long as you were looking at it on your computer. The new one has much of the same information, can be read on a wide range of devices  and I hope it serves just as well.

A boat and a tiny house

Yesterday in wood shop, my first, second and third grade students made wooden boats to carry them on their study of the oceans. An ocean, studied from Northwest Arkansas is an abstract subject. Woodworking is not and the small boats add an element of the concrete necessary for enthusiastic learning to take place. As I mentioned, children have an enormous capacity for the abstract as long as it comes at least in part from their own imaginations.

A chocolate chip rainbow boat!

If you want real engagement in learning, nothing beats engagement in the real world and the opportunity to do real things. That is why my students love wood shop and is why woodworking should be included in all schools from grades 1-12.

Make, fix, create, and increase the likelihood that others learn likewise.

Jingle bells? Why not?

today in the wood shop...

Today in the Clear Spring School wood shop my middle school students will be turning on the lathe. My lower elementary school students who are beginning to study the oceans will begin making toy boats. My upper elementary students will be making tiny houses from wood.

I can give some guidance to their growth through my introduction of tools, techniques, and materials. So total chaos, it is not.

I have been contacting suppliers for the tools necessary for the new wood studio we're building at the Eureka Springs School of the Arts, and since I've no books to write other than the guitar book which enters its editorial phase soon, I've been going through my magazine  article proposals to re-energize that side of life.

Yesterday my wife and I went to two programs at our local UU church. The first was a presentation by a Viet Nam war vet who had gone with his wife and grand daughter to the protests at Standing Rock. It was a moving and emotional experience in which unarmed citizen went up against governmental and corporate thugs. We will see more of that, and must. One of the basic purposes of incorporation is to shield investors from liability, and as the incoming president has promised to eliminate regulations and put corporate interests first, we will watch as corporate malfeasance increases, and the burden falls inevitably on the environment and the poor. Investors without regulation skate away with their expected profits, amassed from the degradation of the earth.

The other program was with Khentrul Rinpoche from Tibet. His talk to a standing room only crowd gathered in the small UU church explored the nature of mind, and offered guidance in turning the mind toward happiness. That can be like turning the Titanic, as the mind  is composed of judgement that separates us from each other and desire centered on things we want that are incapable of offering true and lasting happiness.

The lesson I take is to be of service to others. Desire only that.

Make, fix, create, and provide others with an example that they may learn likewise.

concrete and abstract...

It is fascinating that children even at an early age, have the ability to use metaphor and yet not understand metaphor when it is used by others. To do that requires a foundation for language that's found in an ever expanding realm of doing real things. In other words, the abstract must rest on a concrete foundation.

I have written on this subject many times before, and this is one example.

There are all kinds of classic examples of children using words metaphorically to express things they are not yet equipped to express otherwise. For example, my daughter Lucy  at two years old would say "got some," in place of the less meaningful words, "thank you." To say "got some" acknowledged the receipt of something from others. We would try to encourage her to say thank you, but her response was  still consistently "got some," which to her meant the same thing.  Those words would not be immediately recognized even by adults as meaning the same thing as "thank you."  I think you can understand that the word "got" is less abstract than the word, "thank," and children will use words from their concrete experience in place of abstractions thus making up their own abstract concepts when necessary to communicate. In essence,  even adults rarely fully understand metaphor created by others unless they are prepared for that understanding by experience and reflection.

The key, I think, to building the capacity to use and understand metaphor comes from being engaged in reality, not estranged from it, as is the case for too many children in too many schools.

On Wednesday last week, one of my first grade students wanted to make a house. Did it matter that it had no walls? She came up with the way in which it would be built, using her  own imagination. She took slender dowels to form the upright structure and then asked for help on the drill press to drill holes in thin stock that she selected to form the ceiling and floor.

Then it needed to be furnished. It is a house. Could you tell it is one? The three legged stool, which she designed and made would offer a clue, as would her self-portrait in the form of a block of wood with smiling face sitting on the stool. Now all my other students, even some in high school, want to make tiny houses. Is it something in the air?

Some have also wondered how do you teach something as abstract as literature or history, hands-on. To them I raise the question, how do you effectively teach those subjects without some foundation in reality and real experience and what better way is there to attain that than to engage students hands-on?

Years ago I had an interesting conversation with my old friend Donald Harington, author of countless wonderful novels about Arkansas and long time professor of Art History at the U of A. He urged me to observe the number of metaphors used in his book that made reference to tools and woodworking.

Woodworking must have been one of his favorite subjects at least in life if not in schooling.

Make, fix, create, and allow others to love learning likewise.

table base.

As you can see the trestle table is coming along well, and is ready for the top to be put in place and receive final finish.

Yesterday in the wood shop at Clear Spring School, my high school students worked on Shaker boxes, and learned to sharpen planes. I taught them about primary and secondary bevels, and the reason for them.This lesson should help in the overall care for our tools.

Make, fix, create, and increase the likelihood that others love learning likewise.

nearly complete.

Leg units shown upside down with Danish oil finish

I am nearly finished with the trestle table. The legs, shown upside down have had the first application of Danish oil. When the base has been finished with two more coats, I'll assemble it here in my shop, put the table top in place and finish it with a protective urethane finish for long life.

Today my high school students will be finishing their Shaker boxes, and those who have finished will have the opportunity to turn wood on the lathe. Others will be given instruction in sharpening tools so they can help prepare our new planes for successful use.

Make, fix, create, and encourage others to learn likewise.

hand tools

We received a gift of tools yesterday from a school in New York. These were old planes, chisels, rasps and more, still unused and in original packaging. Of the 5 boxes, one was full of old hammers, and two more boxes containing saws and miscellaneous tools will be shipped soon.

A school had these tools including over a dozen and a half planes for nearly 25 years, put away in a closet and their program had moved away long ago from hand-tool woodworking.  As we opened packages, we put the tools to immediate use. Tools demand use.

The school in New York had learned of our woodworking program at Clear Spring School through an article in the New York Times. We will use some of these tools at Clear Spring School, and any excess will be passed on to the Eureka Springs School of the Arts where they will be kept sharp and put to use.

Is there still a place in education for hand-tool woodworking? Or must things be sped up to fit a faster, less patient generation? If there is value in slowing down for more considerate learning, hand tools may still have a place in the scheme of things.

Chaucer had said of craftsmanship,  "The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne, the' assay so hard, so sharp the conqueryinge." If things are made too easy, how will young people draw satisfaction at the deepest levels.

A friend sent a link to a video Millenials and the risk of social media addiction. 
It is an interesting lesson presented by a millenial to millenials, and raises some of the same concerns that I've expressed in this blog and that I have for our children. We try to make education sexy for them, by adding layers of technology that do the hard work.

In addition to receiving tools yesterday, My first, second and third grade students had a practice day in tool use, but also managed to make a few things. Joe made a fishing pole and coded game controller. Clare made a house, and other girls made tiny stools for their dolls.

Today in my home woodshop, I'll be finishing the walnut base for a trestle table.

Make, fix, create, and extend the likelihood that others learn likewise.

my readers...

I had cleaned my shop and burned some old templates in the woodstove, but found this one as I was trying to help one of my readers face the installation of quadrant hinges. It is not my latest technique for installing quadrant hinges, as now I do it on the router table using a story stick technique. The pencil markings on the template are to help my reader understand the dimensions and making of the jig.

Readers are a ource of inspiration for me. They call on occasion with questions and fresh challenges, that lead me to scratch my head, rethink my processes and attempt to clarify my techniques. Sometimes reader questions suggest articles that need to be written, or things that need to be added when I teach. The point is that we grow together.

Quadrant hinges are complex, interesting and daunting, as my box making readers will attest.

Today students return from holiday break to the Clear Spring School. They will be excited to be in wood shop.

Make, fix, create, and increase the likelihood that others love learning likewise.

Ed Stilley Exhibit of instruments and process.

Ed Stilley's guitars are on display at the Old Statehouse Museum in Little Rock through March as described in this article in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. Along with his guitars, his workbench is set up onsite with some of the tools and bending jigs he used to make his outlandish guitars.

His guitars are noted for their weight, their inventiveness and the challenge they are to play. The strings are often too high off the neck to form a reasonable chord, and the frets are so irregularly placed that each instrument is unique in sound and appearance. On the other hand, they are an excellent example of creative spirit. Human beings may be driven to create, even if untrained, poorly equipped, and without the necessary materials.

I am lucky in comparison. I have a shop full of tools, beautiful hardwoods, and experience in the making of useful things. The photos shown here are of some of Ed's guitars set up during a concert in Ed's honor by Still on the Hill.

Today in the woodshop, I'll be assembling and finishing the trestle base and preparing for classes to resume at the Clear Spring School.

Make, fix, create, and increase the likelihood that others learn likewise.

the snowflake is the mother of the avalanche

A blog reader Kevin sent the photo at left from a display of Froebel's gifts at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC.  It is nice to see a renewed interest in Froebel!!!

A long-time friend and blog reader (friend first) commented that if we just keep at it, bit by bit, consciousness about the role of the hands in learning, and a return to sanity in education will be inevitable. There was a saying at Nääs ( my thanks to David Whittaker writing of it in his book), that "the snowflake is the mother of the avalanche." Otto Salomon kept up a prodigious correspondence with Sloyd enthusiasts from all over the world. It probably helped that he spoke so many different languages, and that many of his correspondents had attended his school at Nääs and had at least a bit of Swedish under their belts.

A snowflake is a very small thing indeed, and what's needed is an avalanche of understanding to give confidence to teachers to sweep aside all that has nothing to do with the hands. This is not to say that abstract ideas are not important, but simply that all things need to be touched upon in the most tactile manner in order to awaken student passion for learning.

Ideally, schools would assess student interest each year (not student ability.) The purpose of the assessment would be to identify areas of special interest. Once those areas of special interest have been identified, efforts would be made to help the student outline an area of study that answers student questions, identifies areas of potential exploration, identifies resources that the school can bring to bear to facilitate learning and establishes a means through which student performance can be measured in a manner relevant to both teacher and student.

Last semester at Clear Spring School, the high school students were required to name areas of particular interest and develop projects that met their own learning goals. Some did solo work and others chose to work in small teams. Their displays of their work at Xmas time were well done, as though they really cared about their work and about how others perceived their work.

Today in the wood shop, I'll do additional sanding and shaping on the base of the trestle table.

Make, fix, create, and increase the chances that others learn likewise.

Happy New Year...

Anaxagoras. The world is in our hands

Happy New Year. This is the first day of 2017.
In some ways, 2016 was good for me. I had three books come out.  I have been in good health, and have had the opportunity to do some lovely woodwork.

2017 promises to also be good on the personal front. I have one more book coming out, teaching to do, and family and friends to share my interests and my life.

Forbes has a great article on why we need to bring vocational training back to schools. The article points out the history of failed understanding about the role of manual arts in school. It was thought that every one needed the manual arts, then those classes became the dumping grounds for the lower class and when that didn't work out so well the powers that be decided that all children should be pushed to college whether they were ready to go, needing to go, wanting to go, or not. In order to attain that ridiculous goal, they removed all the wonderful things from schooling that students loved and that allowed them to  choose meaningful learning for themselves and to become self-directed at it..

The simple point is that abstract learning only works for very few students, and the largest number of them need (desperately need) the opportunity to do real things. Students need diverse ways to measure and mark their success, and to differentiate themselves from their peers. An academics only approach allows only certain students of a particular type to gain success.

Because the all-kids-go-to-college model won in the quest to make education as cheap and uniformly boring as possible, standardized testing became the only means to measure student, teacher and school success, once again, building a layer of abstraction between students and their finding true passion for learning.

When students do real things, whether in history, social studies, music, the sciences, and the arts, they are drawn into real life.

Several years back, I had written a note to Matthew Crawford about the dangers of abstraction in schooling. He used that quote as the opening lines in his first book, Shop Class as Soulcraft, and then as the closing argument in his third book, The World Outside Your Head.

“In schools we create artificial learning environments for our children that they know to be contrived and undeserving of their full attention and engagement… Without the opportunity to learn through the hands, the world remains abstract, and distant, and the passions for learning will not be engaged.”

If we want students to succeed in school and in life, schools must offer them REAL things to succeed at.

Happy New Year to all.

Make, fix, create, and increase the likelihood that others find passion learning likewise.

continuous and uninterrupted learning.

A class of Sloyd scholars at Nääs

I m reading Whittaker's book, the Impact and Legacy of Educational Sloyd. It describes the sometimes contentious relationship between its two fathers,Uno Cygnaeus in Finland, who named and invented it, and Otto Salomon who built a school and taught thousands from around the world to teach it. Cygnaeus believed that two separate schools were required, the folk school, and the Sloyd School. Salomon was always deferential to his senior, but believed that the folk school and sloyd school should be one and the same. Both agreed that education should, as a goal, be a seamless and continuous process from infancy and Kindergarten through the upper grades, but for some reason or another, Cygnaeus suggested they were in disagreement.

Both educators were strongly influenced by Friedrich Froebel who hoped that a single continuous education might be developed. One of his core principles was that of "continuity:"

The Second Principle: Continuity

Just as the gifts were numbered, with each leading developmentally to the next, Froebel intended that education offer a sense of continuity through all grade levels, starting with kindergarten. This second concept of continuity was described by H. Courthope Bowen as follows: “As that which is exercised (whether mind or muscle) grows constantly capable of higher or more varied activity, so must the exercise given grow continuously higher and more varied in character—keeping pace with the development, never outrunning it too eagerly, nor lagging lazily behind— every stage growing naturally out of that which precedes.”

Today I plan to begin finishing the underside of the table top and then proceed with final shaping and sanding of the trestle base.

Make, fix, create, and increase the likeliness that others learn likewise.

This day...

Yesterday I was out of the shop, as we were driving my daughter to the airport in Tulsa. It seemed more important to spend time with her than in the wood shop.

Today I will enlist the help of a friend to turn the large table top over so I can sand and finish the underside. After gluing all the heavy pieces together, they are too much for one man to move or manage, and if I was to do this kind of work on a regular basis, I would want to have some kind of crane or hoist. There is, however, a social calling to work, and we should, as often as is possible, use it to bring us together in mutual encouragement of each other.

When the table top is turned upside down, I will have a full day to sand it and prepare it for mounting to the walnut trestle base.

I have been delving into David J. Whitakker's book, The Impact and Legacy of Educational Sloyd, and note that I have failed to give it as much attention as it deserves. There are some important points that it pulls together from a variety of sources that help to illuminate the history of Educational Sloyd. One is that Uno Cygnaeus' life story and his relationship with Otto Salomon are described in the book. Another is that he describes the role that Educational Sloyd played in the schools of the UK. Whittaker also did an extensive review of current thinking and antiquated philosophers to provide an overview of where Educational Sloyd fits and fit in educational development. It is much more a book for scholars and history buffs than for lay people, but for those interested in the hands, it offers a deep mine of wisdom in the form of quotes, like this one from Honore de Balzac: "A hand is not simply part of the body, but the expression and continuation of a thought which must be captured and conveyed."

Of course the amazing thing about human wisdom is how fully we can neglect and ignore that which we know to be true, particularly when it comes to designing education.

The photo above is from an early Sloyd class in the UK.

Make, fix, create, and put forth an understanding that we all learn best likewise.

shape and sand...

Use a stick to create a smooth curve.

Yesterday I shaped and sanded the white oak table top and applied the first coat of Danish oil to the top side. I made a simple routing template that could be flipped to create a symmetrical shape, first using the saber saw, and then a template following router bit. The steps are shown, except for the sanding which took hours and left my arms sore.

The steps are described briefly in the captions, but here is a deeper review: 

1. Bend wood to create  smooth curves on the template with the template being a few inches larger in each direction than 1/4th the size of the table. Curved lines intersecting a couple inches in from the corner will work. 
2. Use a block plane to smooth the edge after the lines are cut using the band saw. 
3. Lay the template in place at each corner of the assembled table top, paying attention that the final dimensions of the top are accounted for and mark the shape of the finished table.
4. Saw the shape using a saber saw. (in this case, with the table top being too heavy to take to the band saw, I take the tool to the wood.) 
5. Clamp the template in place and rout using a template following router bit. 
6. Then sand and finish. I used a half sheet orbital sander to avoid the kinds of irregularities that can come from a smaller random orbit sander.

Make, fix, create, and insist that others be given the opportunity to love learning likewise.

Use a block plane to smooth the edges

Use a saber saw to cut the shape

Follow the template with the router

Sand thoroughly and apply Danish oil

sequential gluing.

Start with adding a board on each side of center.

Yesterday I was faced with gluing up heavy white oak boards into a table top, and it would have been a daunting procedure to glue the whole thing up at once. So I decided to use a three step glue and clamp process.

Building up from the center, I started with three boards, then added two more and then two more in subsequent operations. This allowed me to make certain that each added set of boards was planed and fitted to glue with no gaps between. It also allowed me to do it with less panic.

Add two more

I used biscuits to help assist alignment and to add some strength.

The other interesting technique I used was to join the edges of boards using a plunge router and straight edge. It is difficult to pass large panels across the joiner to straighten an edge, so the strategy becomes, "bring the tool to the wood" rather than "bring the wood to the tool," as one would do in box making.

The other thing that may be obvious is that my glued up table top will stay right where it is without asking a friend to help move it when necessary.

Today I will begin shaping its edges and cutting it to final size.

I am having a pleasant and productive break from school.

Make, fix, create, and set the example that others may learn likewise.

Glued in sequence to full width

a warm day in the shop

Today I will spend my day in the wood shop, preparing for assembly of a large table top of solid quartersawn white oak. The wood must be planed to a uniform thickness, then the edges of each heavy plank must be made straight and flat so that it may be joined to its neighbor on both sides. As the table top is glued together it will become of enormous weight and difficult to move in the shop. At some point in the day, I'll set up an area in the shop where the top can be assembled, cut to shape, sanded, routed and finished with as little additional movement of it as possible.

I often tell my students that box making can build skills for other areas of the woodworking crafts, but there is a distinct difference between working with small pieces of wood that can be handled easily and accurately on the table saw, and the pieces of wood I am using in this project.

But I have always taken pride in being a "woodworker," and not just a "box maker." Boxes can be made from scrap, or from just any old thing. Furniture of a larger scale, simply takes larger wood,lots more of it and to handle larger wood takes greater strength and often requires different strategies than one would use to cut small stock. This often involves bringing the tool to the wood, rather than bringing the wood to the tool, particularly when the wood is too long, thick, heavy and cumbersome for safe handling.

It is important to have variety and change of pace in one's work so making this table allows me to think in different ways and to take some satisfaction in my continued growth.

My daughter Lucy is home for a brief holiday visit from teaching high school in New York. Her school is an incubator  for New York City of new, better ideas and ideals and she's preparing for a week-long cooking intensive. Besides making food, (and eating it) the students will learn some math, measuring, chemistry and cooperation, while having fun. Boys and girls will take part in the class. Cooking is one of the most popular classes offered during the special week of intensives. This will be Lucy's second year of teaching that particular class. The important thing for all educators and educational policy makers to remember is that all students need most to do real things. Education mired in abstraction leaves children bored, disinterested, and sometimes disruptive.

Make, fix, create and increase the likelihood that others learn likewise.

to be formed a carpenter...

Despite the weather being 30 degrees above normal, we had a lovely Christmas day followed by a wonderful dinner with friends... friends who share our views and our hopes, our level of intelligence and experience and with whom we could discuss strategies for putting our nation back on a progressive track.

If psychologists  have confirmed that donald trump is indeed crazy, then how do we manage to prevent him going completely off the deep end? Is there an effective management strategy for psychosis, and what is it?

Our friends had not heard Matti Bergström's theories about finger-blindness, but one, with his PhD in German, was well acquainted with the meaning of fingerspitzengefühl.

The following is from Emily Dickinson. The idea that when a person makes objects of useful beauty, the self is also formed for higher purpose had been widely understood, even here in the US, during the 19th century.

Myself was formed—a Carpenter

Myself was formed—a Carpenter—
An unpretending time
My Plane—and I, together wrought
Before a Builder came—

To measure our attainments—
Had we the Art of Boards
Sufficiently developed—He’d hire us
At Halves—

My Tools took Human—Faces—
The Bench, where we had toiled—
Against the Man—persuaded—
We—Temples build—I said—
                –Emily Dickinson

I have been planning for my new year, and have several classes lined up at various schools. My box making class at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking is already sold out. I also have a new website going online in the next few days. With the nearing completion of my box guitar book, I'll be considering other publishing adventures, including the possibility of a book about Sloyd. We are in fact, formed, not only by what we think, but by what we do and share with others. As described by Dickinson, My plane and I together wrought. An analysis of her poem suggests that she was describing how a publisher had attempted to get her to modify her poetry for his purposes. But (as is often the case when it comes to a craftsman's engagement in the arts) there were temples to build in which the self is formed in relation to higher purpose.

Make, fix, create and offer others through your example, the inducement to learn likewise, and thus form self in the image of creation.

cut to the chase

Let's cut to the chase.

This year in our family version of the Icelandic Flood of Books, my wife gave me a copy of Urban Forests by Jill Jonnes, and I gave her a copy of a book about Iceland which is where the flood of books began. I heard from a friend that some of my books are under a tree, too. So surely books are one of the better ways for ideas (particularly good ideas) to be passed around.

Twitter, on the other hand has pushed politics to a dangerous edge. The defense minister of Pakistan has threatened nuclear war against Israel over fake news, but then our own American president-elect set the new international standard for stupidity like that– read fake news, then tweet about it, making sure to infect others.

Urban Forests explores the relationship between people, cities and the trees that are able to survive in the midst of it all. Trees actually have a way of humanizing a man-made environment. The irony of the Icelandic book flood is that the landscape of Iceland, shown in so many photographs is nearly devoid of trees, reminding me of how lucky we are to live in a forested landscape, and how much books are particularly needed when things become bleak.

In any case, this is Christmas Day and I wish the very best for all my readers and friends, where ever they or you may be. My friend Hans in Gothenberg (Sweden) says it's green there, which is unusual and an effect of global warming, which the president-elect of the US denies is real. Here in Arkansas on Christmas day it is 55 degrees. Trees are one of our best defenses against global warming that the greedy, the malicious, the ill-informed and the deliberately stupid among us deny is real. Let us read real books, make real sense of things, practice the scientific method in our examination of material qualities, make real objects of useful beauty and set the world on a better path for 2017.

Make, fix, create and increase the likelihood of others learning likewise.

a carpenter's life...

I bought a copy of Larry Haun's book, A Carpenter's Life to read during the Icelandic yuletide flood of books, and could not resist getting an early start. Larry says at the beginning of his book:

My mother told me that I started to take a real interest in the few carpentry tools we had around home when I was seven years old, back in 1938. She said I would sit on the sunny side of the house for hours taking apart orange crates that came to our village once a year. For a boy with nothing but homemade toys, these sweet smelling soft pine wooden crates were the mother lode.

Our curved-claw hammer was missing a claw, so I pulled the small nails out of the crate with a pair of pliers. Once the crate was apart, I fashioned the wood into play objects, a small house, a wagon, boxes and shelves to hold things. It was here that I learned one of my first carpentry lessons: to hold my thumb a good distance from the head of the nail.

This is Christmas eve day. I trust that those who are making lovely things to share with friends and family are nearly done. Lovely things are best not rushed, and it's when we get in a hurry and lose consciousness for a moment that thumbs are struck. Slow down, be mindful in your labors. Enjoy the moment  and the exercise of making.

Larry Haun's book is on very special sale at the Taunton Store, as are some of my own books.  Follow this link. To find my own books, use the search term, Doug Stowe.

Make, fix, create, and increase the likelihood that others receive the gift of learning likewise.

From about 1840 to 1900

Boring large mortises, first the edges and then the middle.

From about 1840 - 1900, about a million Swedes emigrated to the US. Sweden had been a nation of peasant farmers, and as the population grew, farms were passed down to subsequent generations in ever smaller sizes. What had been a single family farm of 80 acres or more, was halved then quartered and then reduced to less than 1/8th  or  1/16th its original size.

So, not only were Swedes suffering from a rise in the consumption of brännvin,  (every small farm had a still) they were overpopulated on small farms incapable of providing enough food. The rise of well-made manufactured goods from Germany and the UK diminished the value of home crafts, and the peasants could no longer support themselves by selling the objects they had crafted during long winter months.

Large tusks lock the mortise and tenon joints.

Emigration to the US provided a much needed safety valve on population growth, and the Lutheran church endorsed Sloyd education to counter the tragic moral effects of a loss of traditional handcrafts.

Sloyd was introduced to raise the character and intelligence of the Swedish people during a time of rapid societal change, and the first Sloyd taught in the US was by Swedish immigrants to Minnesota. If you want more information on Sloyd, this link is to the first article I wrote about Sloyd in 2006: Educational Sloyd.

I also wrote the original article about Sloyd in Wikipedia. It has been expanded by others around my original core.

I've been at work on the table, forming large mortises to secure the two leg sections to the central cross brace. I used my rarely used horizontal boring machine to form the mortises, shaping them to an exact fit. Some minor chiseling was required, so I used my original Nääs chisel, now restored to original condition and sharp enough for another century.

I have been working in heavy walnut to build the table, but the real heavy work has been taking place at ESSA. They used a crane to lift all the heavy timbers into place to build the new woodworking studio. It will be a remarkable structure.

On the national front, donald J. trump now has launched a new arms race with the threat of expanding our capacity to annihilate  civilization as we know it. His minions are now trying to say, "No, he didn't mean that." But he's saying "yes he did." Then China told trump that if he really wants a trade war, they will start by targeting Republican states. Arkansas is one of those, and the Republicans have earned what they get. Incidentally, For all those Walmart shoppers, the Walmart headquarters are in Bentonville, Arkansas, just 40 miles from Eureka Springs. If China targets just the state of Arkansas, Walmart shoppers throughout the US will notice rising prices.

Republican senator John McCain had said you really have to listen to the trump for two days in a row and not take any given tweet as being trump's true position until it's been repeated on day two. The man is truly delusional, has gone into his second day of proposing a new arms race and civilization will suffer from people having been fooled by trump, Russia and the FBI during the last election.

For those who read here daily in the hopes of escaping politics, my condolences.

Make, fix, create and thus increase the likelihood that others learn likewise.

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.

as you can see...

As you can see, I am making progress on the trestle table, and have turned bun feet to lift the leg units slightly for ease of cleaning, and for decorative effect. I turned the four matching feet from walnut, using the new Jet 1640 lathe at the Clear Spring School.

My hope is to have the table compete before the Christmas holiday break from Clear Spring School is over on January 4. I also applied the first coats of Danish oil to the walnut box for a hinge review at Fine Woodworking Magazine. The box will not be so shiny when the finish has been rubbed out. This will be ready to ship for photography on Thursday or Friday of this week.

The following is from an article my friend Hans Thorbjörnsson wrote for Unesco about the life of Otto Salomon.

Salomon looked upon the contemporary elementary school as being too theoretical—and even that in a most insubstantial way since factual knowledge was learned by heart and repeated. This rote learning of pure facts led to the children adopting negative attitudes towards the school and towards each another: vanity, arrogance and bullying behaviour were commonplace. The children also suffered from being seated for long periods without any physical activity.

A child has a desire for both knowledge and activity. These needs are met when manual work is introduced into the conventional school curriculum.

Vanity, arrogance, and bullying behavior! Are those not the best known characteristics of the new "president elect?" Where was manual training when we needed it most?

Make, fix, create, and increase thereby the likelihood that others will be inspired to learn likewise.

planing wood...

Even a small block plane can give pleasure in the process of shaping wood. In the photo, I've bandsawn parts of the base for a trestle table to rough shape, and am using a block plane to flatten the irregular surfaces left by the saw. The massive walnut is not something that I use every day, and was a challenge to shape on my small bandsaw. Fortunately a sharp blade in a plane can fix a line that's not wandered too far from its intended home.

Today I will turn small round foot pads on the lathe and begin adding some additional detail to the trestle parts.

My wood shop will be my sanctuary during dark times, while stupidity and xenophobia reign on the national scale.

We have about 5 making days left before the Christmas holiday. Let it be both a season of making and of giving what we've made. If in doubt of what to give, tools are a good choice.

Craftsmanship and creativity are the two cornerstones of civilization. Let us not wander far from our roots.

Make, fix, create, and propose that others have the opportunity to love learning likewise.

Does being on facebook make you smart?

My wife set up a facebook page, for me and will keep up on it, leaving me time to do real things.

During the presidential campaign I watched a rally in which a woman explained to Mike Pence that she was constantly paying attention to "social media, on facebook all the time" as she next proceeded to ask questions that showed how deeply detached from reality she had become. If you are addicted to social media, it would be best to follow some simple advice.

Get a life. Do some real stuff.

If you are reliant upon social media to gain your view of the world and what's happening in it.

Get a life. Do some real stuff and purposely detach from stupidity.

Today is the day that the electoral college meets to vote on President-Elect Donald Trump. We have a pathological liar on the one hand, and a populace twisted by engagement in social media on the other.

If you go to my facebook page, you may notice there is also a fan page "doug stowe box maker extraordinaire" that is occupied by a troll. At one point, the owner of the page was answering questions as though he was me. If you choose to visit his page, please note that he had promised to remove it months ago and has not done so. We have too much fraudulent stuff in the world already.

The point is that the creation of useful beauty serves in two ways. One is that it provides the individual with powerful cultural objects to share with others. The secondary benefit is that the maker receives a replenishment of intelligence, character and confidence.

In the wood shop, I've nearly finished a box for a review of a particular type of hinge for Fine Woodworking Magazine.

Make, fix, create, and increase the likelihood that others learn likewise.

shop time

 I got in some good shop time yesterday, making a box to use to demonstrate a particular kind of hinge for Fine Woodworking. It is made of walnut, involved using a Gifkins Jig to cut dovetail joints. The only problem was that they fitted just a bit too tight, and I should have loosened the fit slightly, following the adjustment scheme, which requires thin paper shims to loosen or tighten the joint. Too perfect a dovetail joint is when a mallet  (over fist tapping alone) is required to assemble the joint.

I will add a bottom to the box, and cut the lid free and then install hinges, a pull and brass feet and ship it to Fine Woodworking for photos to be taken. What I get paid will be poor in relation to the amount of work involved, but any excuse to be in the shop on a cold winter day is a good one.

I have begun to wonder what happens when a maniac stokes anger in a crowd of folks and then use the power they've given him to act against their interests? We will likely learn more about that in the coming months as dawn rises on the read intentions of the man some of the American people voted into the position of despot on chief.

Remember John Dewey? He wrote a book about education and democracy: that the real purpose of schooling was to build a truly democratic society. Children were to learn the fundamentals of getting along with each other, solving problems through working together, and discovering in each other the common threads of human culture.

If you've not noticed, things have changed. Children in modern American schooling are to be tested and launched into competition with each other, and schools too, are told to compete, not for the quality of their kids and how they get along with each other, but to get the best scores in standardized tests. We are in a trumpian wilderness in which fake news drives the political discourse, and crowds of vicious morons have been encouraged to chant, "lock her up."

Psychologists have been deeply concerned about a trump presidency. Their concern is that the man suffers from acute narcissistic personality disorder that would make him dangerous as commander in chief.  You can read about that here.

In the meantime, this will become a lovely box.

Make, fix, create, and change the whole world of education so that others may gain the opportunity to love learning likewise.

in the wood shop...

I am off from school for the coming week, so will get extra time in the wood shop. I am forming large tenons on the beam that holds two trestles together to form a table base. Because these tenons are 7 inches long, they cannot be formed in the usual way. I've been using the plunge router and guides. One guide is clamped in place and the others are added as spacers to create a series of routed grooves, tha tcan then be easily worked into a flat plane.

I tell people that box making is a good way to build skills, useful in other woodworking projects, and while that's true, there's a distinct difference between working with large pieces of walnut, and the thin materials used for box sides.

I am also making a demonstration box for a hinge review in Fine Woodworking and working on a new version of my website. In addition, it's that time of year to ship a few items to shoppers., so I have just renewed some of my boxes available for purchase on Etsy.com

Make, fix, create, and through your example, encourage others to learn likewise.

An important thing.

Early advocates of manual arts training insisted upon its potential to build the character, integrity and intelligence of a nation and its people. Now we are on the edge of a massive failure in our democratic experiment, due at least in part to a failure in our public education. Where were the manual arts when they were most needed in our nation?

When children learn through their hands, they build a relationship with investigative principles that  serve as a foundation for adult learning. It may come as no surprise to some that Donald Trump would be elected by a very small majority in the electoral college, based on support by those Donal Trump referred to as the "uneducated," "whom he dearly loved." Those persons were trained to believe in right and wrong answers rather than to observe for themselves. Those persons were taught that their opinions mattered over all else, and they were entitled to their own opinions and beliefs, that did not require being tested and proved. These persons, were avid consumers of fake news on Facebook, ready to believe anything they were told. These persons are likely to continue to be malleable in hands of despots.

So we went through an election in which fake news was not only dispersed, it was believed. We went through an election in which a foreign power (Russia) took part to assure their preferred candidate won. That should be considered an act of war against democratic principles.

We are nearing a point of crisis in America. Does the existing, legitimately elected President of the USA turn over power to an illegitimately elected moron, who does not believe in science, believes only in his own power and inflated sense of importance, who was elected by lying, and through malicious interference by a foreign power?

We have arrived at a time in American culture that was predicted by Mr. Charles B. Gilbert, Superintendent of the Newark, New Jersey Public Schools when he spoke about the danger of sacrificing our democracy on the division between academic work and skilled hand work in the 1905 meeting of the Eastern Manual Training Association:

The great function of all public schools, afterall, is not to give specific knowledge or fit for specific things, but to train democratic citizens. The attitude of the teacher toward manual training has very much to do with the democracy of the teacher. Any sort of separation of children into classes intended to go for all time through their lives is exactly antagonistic to democracy--could not be more directly antagonistic; it is the antipode of democracy... What is the great foe of democracy at all times? It is the building up of walls--permanent walls--between classes; is it not? So long as wealth disappears with a single generation or two generations there is not any great danger; but when we get into the position--condition (If we ever do)--that many of the countries of the world are in; if a child is born with the feeling that he is born in a class--that there is a great gulf or a high wall between him and his neighbor who is born in a different class; then democracy is dead.

Unfortunately American schooling does little to create a sense of the dignity of craftsmanship. But there are answers to be found within. Craftsmanship is the foundation of human culture and of democracy. One cannot be a creative and successful craftsman without being intellectually engaged. One cannot be a craftsman without being true to particular values that uplift the community in which craftsmanship is nurtured and takes place. Unlike American politicians who spew small lies and exaggerations right and left with every breath, a craftsman must be true to his materials, his design and to himself.

Now as a further cause for outrage against both Trump and Russian Hackers, Trump is claiming that the Russian Hackers did Americans a favor by interfering in the American Presidential Election. I am not sure how Americans can get out of this mess. But is it the sign of patriotism or treason to welcome  foreign hackers set in motion by a foreign power to disrupt the American democratic process?

Make, fix, create, and insure we thus survive that others may learn likewise.

where does the power to learn lie?

Today I begin my holiday break at school, and apply myself more fully in table making in the shop. Is it Tischler? Today, yes, though at any other time, I may be something else, defined by the operations of my hands and mind and the system they comprise.

I ran across the following yesterday from New Zealand in the in the 19th century. How can that be relevant today?

...so far as the elementary school is concerned, manual training is to be valued not so much for its direct results, important though these may be, as for its disciplinary effects—that is to say, for the contribution it makes towards the development of character and intelligence. I have already alluded to the intimate interdependence of hand and brain. That inter-dependence has long been more or less vaguely recognised, but the recent researches of Ferrier and others have given a new meaning to the phrase. It has been shown that there are in the brain distinct motor-centres, of which those of the hand are specially important; that these motor centres have a distinct but limited period of growth, extending over, roughly, the period from the fourth to the fifteenth years; that their development depends on adequate exercise of the corresponding muscles during this period; that these motor-centres are so intimately connected with other parts of the brain that if they are imperfectly developed there is apt to be a corresponding loss of mental power.

So many of the problems of today are related to an educational misunderstanding... The idea has been that children must be led to learn, whereas in actual fact, they are too often restrained from learning by the failure to use appropriate and readily available resources.

Learning is THE most natural impulse, and yet we've designed schools in which children's most powerful learning resource is restrained from use. There are several simple ways the hands can be put in service of character, and intelligence. Athletics can help, as will music, the arts, and the making of useful objects in service to community, humanity, and the quest for beauty. Still the hands, spoil the child, and spoil the mind of the child.

The photo above is of the new lathe room at the Eureka Springs School of the Arts. The large beams  are ready to install over the machine room in the coming days.

Make, fix, create, and extend toward others the hope of learning likewise.

on the use of rubriks

Yesterday  I received the following comment of particular interest, and it is related to a dream I had in the night.

You've written before about "artificial learning environments," but I would be careful about "artificial assessment tools." I would consider a rubric to be that.

When people go to buy a good or service in the world, they generally do not pull out a rubric and calculate a score. They make a judgement as to whether a purchase provides enough value for the money.

For example, if you were to make a wooden chair for me, I would not grade it on a rubric. I would look it over, try it out, and see if I felt I got sufficient value for the money paid.

This type of assessment is more real-world, and therefore it might fit better within your theme of real-world learning environments.

In my dream... I was talking design and someone insisted that it was best to rip wide boards down into thinner stock so the grain could be alternately flipped and that would allow the stock to remain flat. That can make sense if you are making cutting boards. Aside form the addition work involved, there are two problems I pointed out.The first is that you've introduced several glue joints that could fail, but more importantly, you've taken wood that is wide and beautiful and made it less so.

A rubrik can  be a way of getting students to look reflectively at their own work, and to understand more clearly what the teacher is looking for in his or her assessment of it. In an ideal world, students in school would simply do marvelous things, having been allowed and encouraged to do so, and adults would be observers, encouragers and empowerers of such real engagement. The children themselves and their community would assess the results in real effect.

On the hypothetical chair, I suggest that a rubrik already exists in the form of an idealized chair in the mind of the person who ordered it, and in its maker. Both of whom would assess its value based on a range of objectives, including comfort, look, finish, strength, each of which play into an overall assessment of it and its value. So, its not enough to simply do the work, but we must learn to reflect on its value. So in the woodshop, we have conversations about how things turn out. And fortunately, I am not required to submit grades on student performance. Grading is a number one culprit in artificializing a learning environment.

The image above shows the pride of a Finnish sailor. If you care about your boat (and about yourself), even the placement of lines is intended to show that care, and a sailor might not leave the boat without telling others a few things about him or her self.

We do not live in that ideal world, but we can be aiming in that direction.

Make, fix, create and extend toward others, the likelihood of learning likewise.

11 making days...

We are down to the wire on making gifts for the Christmas holiday. Taunton press is having an up to 80% off sale on some books. Use the code Taunton1 at checkout, as additional discounts may apply.

We had four 80 lb. pigs in the trap this morning. The key is to get one to go in and the others to follow.

The box shown is one finished by one of my students today. He had used some cedar sanding dust and glue to make a filler where there were gaps and he was pleased with the results. It's a keeper.

The pigs, on the other hand, were killed and removed to be butchered.

Each day, I get emails from woodworking suppliers suggesting things I should buy in order to make. The vast number of specialized tools that are intended to make my creative life easier is enormous.

In the meantime, the law of parsimony suggests that simple is good. If you know the use of simple tools and have them at hand, you can get work done while others are searching through too many drawers and cabinets in search of an over-complicated response.

Make, fix, create, and suggest to others the joy of learning likewise. 

Today at CSS

This is our last week of woodworking at Clear Spring School before the winter break, so students will be busy today making gifts. I spent the whole weekend with a bad cold, which gave me the chance to catch up on the last chapter text and drawings for my book on making box guitars.

Taunton Press has announced a one day only extra 20% discount on their full Fine Woodworking Magazine archive from 1975-2016 at the Taunton Store.  That is 41 years of the best content in woodworking publication. To get the discount, you will need to type in the coupon code GREEN20. The archive is available on USB or DVD and contains the various articles I've written for Fine Woodworking Magazine, not including the most recent which falls in the 2017 publication year.

Make, fix, create and use your creativity to inspire others to learn likewise