a comeback for the American chestnut

From the Washington Post and today's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: The mighty American chestnut tree, poised for a comeback
By Juliet Eilperin

If the Chestnut is restored to the American forest, the Ozark chinkapin will not be far behind. In the photo at left,

"An American chestnut emerges from the spiny bur of a surviving chestnut tree in this undated photograph released by the American Chestnut Foundation. A century after blight began to bring down the American chestnut tree, once known as the "redwood of the East," scientists are tantalizingly close to reviving the majestic species. Within a few years, using both traditional plant breeding and genetic engineering, researchers hope to have a variety of blight-resistant chestnuts to repopulate the tree's native range." (Photo Anonymous - Courtesy of The American Chestnut Foundation)

Two men are shown with five American chestnut trees in the foreground of this photograph taken in the early 1900s near Townsend, Tenn. in what is now the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Chestnuts have been called "the Redwoods of the East." But a blight wiped out 3.5 billion chestnuts from Maine to Mississippi a half century ago. (Great Smoky Mountains NP - Courtesy of Great Smoky Mountains National Park Library)

Today, the Ozark Chinkapin is still alive, but never able to reach an age to reproduce due to the virus that eliminated it from most of its range. All woodworkers will rejoice to see (One hundred years from now) the restoration of this wonderful tree to our American forests.

On another subject, Elliot Washor of the Big Picture Company sent me an article about our hands conference at the Maker Faire in Dearborn this summer. The illustration by Rachel Brian above is from that conference. Being from Eureka Springs, and with the conference being about heuristic learning, I told the story of Archimedes running through the streets proclaiming "Eureka." All schools and all learning and growth should be at the heuristic level, that of discovery, and each school should consist of laboratories and workshops for self discovery, leading to such excitement that each student, like Archimedes would overcome his or her inhibitions in sharing it the world. What if children were to arrive home each afternoon, wanting to share what they had discovered in school? I am lucky to live in Eureka Springs and to have the Eureka moment evolve continuously in my work, and thanks to this blog, I can tell what I've learned without running naked in the streets.

In the photo at left, you can see a bit more progress on my cherry wall hung display cabinet, the addition of a lighter colored interior. The wood is basswood, 1/8 inch thick. While the cherry will grow very dark in the coming years, the basswood will remain a lighter color, keeping the interior from becoming overly dark.

what it takes to play ball.

I was talking with a friend yesterday about the notion of keeping one's eye on the ball, and how things work connecting the body with intellectual pursuits and interests. It is fascinating, that with batting practice you simply keep your eye on the ball and let your body do its thing without restraint. Are intellectual pursuits like reengaging the hands in American education in the same ball park? You tell me. I suspect that many interesting things can also happen when you take your eyes off the ball and allow the universe greater participation in desired outcomes. The difference between pushing and pulling a rope is often a matter of timing. And so there is a window. You certainly don't swing (if you are practiced) before the pitcher does his wind up. You scratch your feet in the dust, align yourself in a good stance and maintain a good practiced grip on the bat. Only then, as the pitcher winds up, do you raise your eyes to the ball, and then follow it unceasing on its journey to the bat. You won't watch it go out of the park because you are too busy running toward base.

Reader Larry sent this article from the Atlantic,
The Complicated History of Baseball Stitching Machines It seems that there are still a few things best done by hand, and the video above is about how professional baseballs are still made.

The Mad Hatter Ball last night was a tremendous success, raising money for the Eureka Springs School of the Arts.

Today I am installing knife hinges, which can be a delicate operation requiring a plunge router and chisel. I use a guide block to establish the position for stop blocks to control the travel of the router, and rely on the router table fence to control the distance from the edge and then the router's depth control for how deep the hinge fits into the wood.

We had a strategic planning meeting for Clear Spring School today, and one of the things we talked about was that each and every child become resilient and unfailing in the face of failure. One must be tested beyond one's limits to expand those limits. One of the things we learn from the child as craftsman model is that failure is an important aspect of development, learning and growth.

a busy day

In the photo at left, you can see continuing progress on my cherry wall hung disply cabinet, with the addition of the center stretcher between the top, bottom and doors. Like the cabinet sides this part is attached with dowels. It not only provides center support, it will be drilled with holes for shelf supports and provides a stopping point for the doors as they swing closed. Next will come the fitting of knife hinges to secure the doors.

Today, we had the annual Harvest Party at Clear Spring School. I set up with work benches and tools to make small wooden pendants and shavings from pine. Each class does some form of game to share with the other students, and the whole project is designed to direct the Halloween energy into something more manageable and less focused on costumes having nothing to do with the children's in school learning. All students will come dressed as pioneers or early Americans and it takes little more than jeans, a flannel shirt and a bandana to fill the bill.

This afternoon, and evening, I'll be busy with the Mad Hatters Ball, a fund raiser for the Eureka Springs School of the Arts, ESSA. I am one of those who would rather be in the wood shop than anyplace else, and I am grateful that if I ever have to attend an event where I dress up in a funny hat, I will at least have something to do there. As a founding board member, I'll be involved with set-up and clean up and will keep my camera busy in the meantime.

All hats aside, I am a shy person in general and would not dress up in a funny hat except that I believe that every child and every adult should have the opportunity and responsibility to engage in and support the arts.

On another matter, my daughter Lucy's organization at Columbia University has been named one of the most influential college charitable college organizations in the US for its work in Ghana. You can vote in the Classy Awards Here. Scroll down on the page and look for Engineers Without Borders in the category Most Influential College/Student Organization. Register and vote.

You can find a couple photos of the harvest party below. Each class provides activities for all the other students pre-k through 12th grades to enjoy.

let kids be kids?

What a strange notion? Aren't we as parents supposed to cram things into their lives, wanted or not to prepare them for the 21st century? This article by Brian Gresko, stay at home writer dad, says otherwise. In Defense of Childhood: Let Kids Be Kids! Gresko states,

"I can't see why I would want to deprive my son of these basic childhood, human joys by enrolling him in classes meant to "encourage his cognitive development" -- shorthand for conforming to testable skills. Many of the most important skills are untestable -- imagination, general optimism and lightness of heart, the capability to love another creature, to empathize and demonstrate compassion. These are things a child can't bubble in on a Scantron sheet, and yet cultivating these attitudes matters more in determining how my son will exist in the world and what kind of contribution he'll make with his time on Earth."

Well said.

In the meantime, I'm working on center stiles for glass doors and am nearly ready to glue and assemble. You can see the joint in the photo below. It is cut using the table saw, and drill press, with a small amount of chisel work required to remove waste between the drilled holes forming the mortise. As you can see in the photo below, the doors are now glued and assembled with the edges trimmed. The carcass fits together with dowels.

today at CSS wood shop

Today in the CSS wood shop, the first, second and third grade students made boxes to hold "math facts", which are small cards upon which are written the things that kids need to learn to use math. Teacher, Miss Jenny, asked if we could make boxes that would last the three years children are in her class and that would be used to hold their growing collections of math facts. My own prototype math facts box is shown in the photo at left.

The kids were disappointed at the project. They wanted a free day or creative day to do what ever they wanted instead. Then when the boxes were finished they wanted to take them home, rather than be required to keep them in school.  Joe said, "I want to give this to my mom!" Sorry Joe, one of the things you learn in school is that you may not get everything you want. In the meantime, we had a writer and photographer from the Democrat-Gazette visiting at Clear Spring School and in the wood shop today, which brought a whole new level of complication. Their finished boxes were brightly colored and more distinctive than my own, so they will be easily recognized in the classroom.

The hands are the holographic expression of the full  range of human physical, emotional, and intellectual reality. Or you could state that the full physical, emotional and intellectual reality of man is the holographic expression of the hands. If you have hands, through which to express, it is a toss up. I tinker, therefore I am.

today in the woodshops...

In my home wood shop this morning, I cut and fit bridle joints for cherry doors. The sequence and accuracy was improved by my new stop block. In the photo above, you can see the other use for it... that of preventing "trapping" of cut off parts. The stop block slides to the operator's left to set up the cut, and then moves to the right so the cut off piece not interfere with the cut.

The photo below shows progress for my 7th, 8th and 9th grade students in making band sawn boxes. One of the things they just don't quite understand yet, is how closely you have to observe and check on your own work. Put on one clamp, check the alignment of parts, add another clamp and check the alignment of parts again. Then check again. No, don't walk away from it yet... They seem to believe that a lot of glue and one clamp will do the job, when what is really required is a little glue and a lot of clamps to hold things together as the glue sets. But experience is the best teacher. When they come back and ask what happened I'll try to explain things to them. In the wood shop, making real things there are no guaranteed successes and many opportunities to learn from mistakes.

two position stop block

This is my newest invention, a stop block that is reversible to offer two positions for offset cuts. It is particularly useful for cutting the tenoned rails for bridle joints for glass doors in which the top and bottom sides are offset to allow for the glass to fit.

Can you see how simple the idea is? The surprising thing is that it can take years of doing such things to be in the exact right place and time to discover something so simple and new.

This device is useful because the measurement for the 1/4 inch offset between cuts on the top and bottom is built in. The first cuts on the face sides of the door rails are made with the face sides down, with the shorter arm of the device defining the space between the clamping block and the blade. Then the block is turned end for end without changing the position of the clamp, with the 1/4 in. longer block moving the work piece 1/4 in further from the clamping block. This creates an exactly 1/4 inch offset front to back. The idea is that it should be easy, fool proof and exact.

In the Clear Spring School wood shop today, I watched my 4th 5th and 6th grade students "thinkering and tinkering"as they worked to design toy cars. Ozric told me, "I don't know what I'm doing, but I think it is going to turn out OK."

Teaching and tinkering, teaching to tinker

Tonight, if it works out, or some other Monday  Pasta night, I will be visiting with Professor Alex Slocum of MIT. I had not quite met him at the Furniture Society Conference this summer, but wanted to, after hearing him talk very briefly about the hands. You can learn a bit about him from this site. The photo shows him explaining a method for storing energy on the seafloor to President Obama.

The photo below shows one of Professor Slocum's woodworking projects. You can see Alex at work at www.bigwoodfurniture.com

Today in the Clear Spring School wood shop, 4th, 5th and 6th grade students will begin working on our annual toy making project, and the 10th, 11th and 12th grade students will continue work on their fabric boxes.

working on a first post

I am starting work on a new blog for the new Fine Woodworking website, Start Woodworking.com which will migrate to its new formal address with a launch date of November 16. Happy late birthday to me. The idea is that I will write a couple posts each month along with other contributors, all with the purpose of creating new enthusiasm for younger readers.

It is somewhat difficult to consolidate my opening thoughts. In the meantime, I am making progress in my use of google sketch-up software in illustrating work. If I can get good at it, it should allow me to more quickly illustrate project designs.

An article from the Washington Post describes an alarming decline in the number of young men finishing college. That should not surprise anyone who has been paying attention. As we have made schooling less hands-on, there is far less in school to engage the interests and attentions of young men. That can be noted across the board, from elementary school, through university education. If the hands are not engaged in learning, neither will the heart be.

Today in the wood shop, I've been making parts for doors. I use a sled and stop block to make certain that each part is cut to the exact length required.

race to nowhere?

With all the pressures and waiting for superman, here is another look at education. Watch the trailer... Race to Nowhere. The idea of course, is the question, why do we take all the fun out of learning? When learning is the most exciting thing about being a human being, we have created schools that are almost no fun at all.

Today in the woodshop, I continue work on my cherry wall cabinet, and will begin making the doors.

Toysmith, sent the following from Sir Ken Robinson, a truly profound view that is worth watching:

"We should be waking children up to what they have inside themselves." The Arts.

twiddling and twirling....

Kids these days are busy twiddling and twirling fingers on touch pads, getting good at what has been designed to grow easier with each succeeding generation of hand held devices. Kids these days, holding those devices, have the whole world at hand, excepting of course, the ability to  make something lasting and tangible of it or within it.

I have been invited to begin regular blog posts on a new Fine Woodworking website dedicated to beginners, and it is really about time that we have all begun to take a greater interest in bringing new and fresh hands into the field. I am grateful for the opportunity and my first posts may come in a matter of a few days or weeks, and I will tell you all when it happens.

Most of the readers for woodworking magazines are in the ages of 50 and up, corresponding with the last generation to have had school based wood shop opportunities. It has become pretty common these days to see children instructing their parents in the use of hand held devices. I heard yesterday of a toddler, 3 years old instructing her mother in the use her iPhone. The same report told that iPhones are being used as baby sitters for children in the same manner that TVs once were. Plop your child down on the bed with an iPhone and you can go do all kinds of stuff, cook, clean, sh_t, shower and shave while your child is entertained and distracted by the device.

It used to be that knowledge was transmitted to the young through the loving attentions of the old and elderly as they passed on their skills and techniques. What you would see in homes throughout every land would be the imparting of instructions in the full range of human creative tasks. What we see in the hands on twiddling and twirling of touch pads by kids is a darker revolution, displacing the heart from the relationship between the very young and very old. I'm not sure what we can do about that, as a broad phenomenon. But on the home front we can still take children by the hand and introduce them to the things we love. When we take the time to cook, fix, make, create, as a shared thing, with children at hand, we are doing what parents and grandparents have always done, and there is power in it that lasts generations.

today in my wood shop...

Today I am balancing my time between the wood shop and the computer, trying to learn to use google sketch-up software. I am late on the curve as many woodworkers have been using this software for some time. My objective is to make parts each day for a small, wall hung display cabinet, and each day make the parts also using the 3-d modeling capacity of sketch-up.

Many woodworkers design first and then make. I make first and then design... a bit backwards, but an approach that allows me to make the best use of the materials at hand. Is there a knot in an inconvenient place? I can adjust the design to make use of what I have.

One of the attributes of sketch-up is that I can play with the work as it develops, and check and record the measurements of what I have done, and provide better information for anyone hoping to follow my efforts to create the same piece.

Also, today, I have a call scheduled with an editor at Fine Woodworking, seeking my participation in their new beginning woodworking website.

making foxes

Today, with the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade students at CSS we made foxes in the wood shop. They are studying mammals from the local forest, and the fox is one of my favorites. The kids loved the project, but decided to give their foxes some special decoration in vibrant colors. Here in the Ozark forest, we have silver foxes, and gray foxes in addition to the more often illustrated red variation. Today, I learned that in children's imaginations, they also come in blue and green and wear clothing. It was a fun time in the wood shop.

To make these, the kids cut out the bodies, drill holes for the legs which I provided already cut in the right length. I cut out the faces using a scroll saw, and pre-drilled the nail holes, as I have learned that they split very easily if I do not.

performance and skill

Diane Ravitch has offered an essay on the Myth of Charter Schools that some of my readers will find interesting. It is in response to the movie, Waiting for Superman that actively promotes charter schools without noting that 83 percent perform no better or worse than public schools as measured by standardized tests.

I have been reading The Arts and Cognition, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977, and in particular an essay by Vernon A. Howard, "Artistic Practice and Skill." Howard describes two conventional views of what an artist does... the first he calls the Athena Theory which usually "emphasizes the artist's spontaneous imagination, inspiration, creativity and the like." The other, the Penelope Theory, "stresses more the honed skills and abilities that are also necessary for the making of mature works of art." For the greatest works, both are required. The Athena Theory, is most easily witnessed in its finished product, while the other can be witnessed as it unfolds in the classroom, or in the hands and the senses of the artist at work. Howard says of these two theories,

The Athena Theory is at best, a flimsy first-line defense against faulty accounts of artistic endeavor and at worst a last resort of aesthetic Platonists who would make of the artist a blind seer of his own works.

Unlike the Athena Theory, the Penelope Theory is less an inheritance from philosophy than a distillate from the artist's work experiences. It depicts the artist in his studio as a kind of devoted weaver of works, doggedly repeating the same sequence of motor acts, parts or wholes of works or performances until he "gets it right."

Can you see that dogged determination is what we too often miss in American schooling? And hence why the the development of skill through the arts is essential?

It is interesting being in a wood shop with kids. Even in the isolation of my own shop, as I hone skills and practice the work of making things from wood, there are aspects of performance to it as I observe myself in action and as I bear witness to my own growth. In the school wood shop, the dramatic effect of performance is even more prevalent as students demonstrate their development of skill and artistic vision to themselves, to their teacher and to each other. The "child as craftsman" metaphor sees the child as being someone motivated by the need to demonstrate skill and be acknowledged for its expression. With the recognition of the importance of skill, each classroom in America might become a place in which all children find artistic expression and engagement. Perhaps the superman we wait for, is waiting within each child, and not perhaps what we would expect to find on the silver screen.

Today in the css wood shop, 7th, 8th and 9th grade students began making band sawn boxes using the wood blanks shown above. Each student drew a slip of paper numbered to match a specific blank from the pile of woods. Some are sycamore, some red oak, cedar, or mimosa. Starting with unusual woods will guarantee many possible creative outcomes in making boxes.

The following is a bit more from Vernon A. Howard in his essay, "Artistic Practice and Skills."

"Among the cognitive aims of practice is knowledge not only that one has succeeded or failed to perform up to a given standard, but why. Even where achievement artifacts like a score, sketch or print (or a box for that matter) can be examined at leisure for the levels of skill they reveal, further scrutiny of certain intrinsic features of the skill activities themselves, such as fluency in the use of a notation or improper handling of a brush or chisel, may yield important insights into the causes of one's success or failure."

The important thing here, is that Howard is talking about reaching standards, but known, observable ones, inherent in the task at hand, that can be grasped and seen as relevant to growth of skill, technique, artistry, and more. How different that is from the standardized testing that has become the dominant feature of American education. Imagine standards that also provide evidence of exactly where and what can be improved. The arts have it, hands down. Make, fix, create.

today in the css wood shop

Today in the Clear Spring School wood shop, the 4th, 5th and 6th grade students finished their walnut cutting boards and the 10th, 11th and 12th grade students worked on their folding fabric boxes. Part of the process of working with wood is to begin looking more closely at things. Tiny scratches in the wood are not apparent until the eye has been trained to look closely at the object and the heart has been trained to actually care about results. These things aren't automatic. In order to care, you must first understand that things are within your power to effect.

I am attempting to learn Google Sketch-up to help develop plans for my Small Cabinets book. Have any of my readers mastered this interesting program yet? I have hopes that it will help me in developing drawings of project plans for distribution on the net. If you have tips on the use of this program please share them with me.

skillful hands of science

Watch and listen for this line... "It is important in science to have skillful hands." This short video is another exploring the effectiveness of education in Finland. You will note that it is hands-on and it is about discovery. Anything less is dogmatic and fails to gain the dedicated attention of learners. What in the world about this is so hard for American educators, administrators and politicos to understand?

box making

As many of my readers know, my first published articles and books were about box making, and still, after over 30 years as a professional woodworker, a portion of my annual income is from making small boxes to sell through gift shops, craft fairs and galleries. I got the following email on Friday describing the potential for box making in schools...

"I teach woodshop at a public high school in St. Paul, MN and wanted to write you and tell you that your box making book is taking my school by storm. I recently was told to teach a reading based woodshop class where the students had to read as much as cut wood. The students found it boring to begin with but when I introduced your DVD and the first section of your book to them, including the introduction, my attendance went up and stayed up and the students loved the simple design of your lift lid box. I am just finishing up my first set of boxes today and I have students, whom I don't know, coming by and they ask to build one!

Thanks so much! It's easy to teach to students with enthusiasm! Your book made it possible."

Box making is such a wonderful way to become engaged in woodworking. The amount of materials required is small. The amount of storage space for materials and materials handling is small and far more predictable. You can learn every form of woodworking skill by making boxes, using every tool in the wood shop and learning what it and you can do. You can make expressive heirloom objects that motivate students to learn.

I hope to develop a school woodworking curriculum based on box making in response ot the obvious enthusiasm that students express. Next week, my middle school students will begin making band sawn boxes, so today I will spend some time preparing materials for class on Tuesday, and I plan to have a discussion with Fine Woodworking about it later in the week.

education blame-o-meter

Just in case you've been wondering what in the world is wrong with American education, here is a handy tool to help figure things out. Just cut out the arrow, attach it with a pin at the center of the dial and spin. It helps if you cut the arrow and spinner base from card stock, so it will last for a few years and you can keep playing the same blame game until the cows come home or we completely destruct.

I was reading this morning about "Waiting for Superman" and learned that it comes down pretty hard on teachers unions. You can tell where their spinner went. But you can spin your own and draw your own conclusions. In the meantime, you might learn through the actual making of your own game what we really need in American education. Scissors, real tools and the chance to engage the hands in making real things.

I call it the strategic implementation of the hands. Make, fix, create. Click on the image above to enlarge it to a useful size. Feel free to reproduce this game to share with your friends. You will discover that they are already playing and are good at pointing the finger in at least one or two directions, and the blame-o-meter may be useful in pointing out that there are reasons for failing schools they may not have thought of yet. Please inform them of the wisdom of their hands.

mission cabinet nearly complete

I have been working on my mission style display cabinet and it is nearly complete now that I've added the glass to the doors and Stickley style hammered copper hardware. I am working on the text and drawings to add this project as a chapter of my Making Small Cabinets book for Taunton Press. The more contemporary walnut version is shown below.

craft apprenticeship, in depth learning.

John Grossbohlin sent the following article about apprenticeships at Colonial Williamsburg. Craft Apprenticeship in Historic Site Museums. The article brought to mind a conversation from earlier in the week with my 7th, 8th and 9th grade students. They were finishing one project and I invited them to work on their practice blocks for chip carving. The following is an example of the conversation that followed.

"I finished mine before."
"Did you get really good at it?" I asked,
"Oh, yeah. I did real good."
"Show me what you did and show me your technique."
"Oh, I think I'll start over. I need more practice. Will you show me how that one knife cut again?"

There is truth in doing real things, and the opportunity to learn in greater and even greater depth. "Been there, done that" is what you hear when you have only touched the surface of the subject, and is an obstacle to the development of skill.

Toysmith added suggested reading in a comment below on this subject, Mastery, the Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment, by George Leonard.