Port Townsend School of Woodworking HTH: Intro to the Joiners Craft Lesson Plan Day 1: ● Welcome and Orientation ● Introductory Talk: Working Wood with Hand Tools ● First Project: The Straight Edge: Introduction to the construction and use of a wooden Straight Edge ○ Skills introduced: ■ Selecting wood for stability (reading grain; checking moisture content; etc.) and for hand-tool “friendliness”. ■ Crosscutting at the sawbench (and at the workbench with a panel saw). ■ Creating a flat, mirror-smooth finish with a series of planes. ■ Planing a straight and true edge (using a try plane; using a shooting board). ■ Laying out, shaping, smoothing and beveling a curved (or tapered) edge using a panel saw for wasting, drawknives for shaping, spokeshaves and scrapers for smoothing. ■ Drill a hole with a brace and bit; chamfering hole with chamfer tool ■ Shaping with rasps ○ Tools introduced: ■ Crosscut handsaw and sawbench; panel saw; fore plane, try plane, smooth plane, and trim plane; drawknife; brace and Revised 5/21/2020 Page 1 Port Townsend School of Woodworking HTH: Intro to the Joiners Craft Lesson Plan bit; drawknife, rasp, file, spokeshave and scraper. ○ Demos, Practice and Project work: ■ Demo: Layout of a template on stock to capture appropriate grain patterns. ■ Demo: Coarse crosscutting at the sawbench. ■ Practice: Crosscut practice stock from plank (1x6x two handspans in length.) ■ Demo: Bench plane fundamentals with focus on wasting, flattening and smoothing techniques, Includes plane use, setup and sharpening. ■ Practice: Flatten and smooth one face of practice stock ■ Project work: Surface/smooth both sides of straightedge workpiece. ■ Demo: Plane an edge straight with jack plane; use of shooting board for final truing to square; “breaking” an edge with trim plane ■ Practice: Straighten and true one edge of practice stock and trim corners ■ Project work: True one edge of workpiece. ■ Demo: Layout of curved edge from template (include how template created with sprung, tapered batten). ■ Demo: Using a panel saw to waste corner areas; using Revised 5/21/2020 Page 2 Port Townsend School of Woodworking HTH: Intro to the Joiners Craft Lesson Plan drawknife, spokeshave and scraper to shape and smooth a curve; (includes discussion of sharpening these tools.) ■ Project work: Create curved edge. ■ Demo: Using a brace and bit (includes sharpening discussion); using a keyhole saw. ■ Practice: Drill two holes a handsbreadth (width of fist) apart, connect with saw ■ Project work: Create hanging holes and handle hole; chamfering edges. ■ Demo: Shaping and smoothing with rasp and files; chamfering edges of a hole ■ Practice: Shape a chamfer to either side of a hole; breaking edges. ■ Project work: Drill out, saw, shape and smooth handle area; break all edges. ■ Demo/lecture: Oil (we use non-toxic tung-oil) as a finish. ■ Project work: Apply oil to straight edges. Day 2: ● Second Project: Winding sticks:Introduction to the construction and use of winding sticks. ○ Skills Introduced: ■ Match-jointing and edge-to-edge glue lamination (traditional Revised 5/21/2020 Page 3 Port Townsend School of Woodworking HTH: Intro to the Joiners Craft Lesson Plan rub joint). ■ Adjusting two edges precisely parallel. ■ Planing a surface to another angle. ■ Sawing and smoothing an angled end cut. ■ Making and applying shellac. ○ Tools Introduced: ■ Use of straight edge; marking gauge; bevel gauge; crosscut backsaw. ○ Demos, practice and project work ■ Demo: Ripping at the bench with a “half-rip” saw; Precision planing (match-jointing: truing two edges parallel) ■ Practice: Rip scrap stock in half, plane and re-join ■ Project work: Plane and match-join winding stick stock ■ Demo: Rub joints ■ Project work: Glue up sticks (use titebond or hide glue in a rub joint). When glue is dry, rip and then plane parallel the edges of winding sticks. Day 3: ■ Demo: Re-planing faces to an angle (to create trapezoidal cross section) using foreplane and tryplane; lay out of side angle to ratio relative to thickness of stock. ■ Practice: Plane an angle on practice stock. Revised 5/21/2020 Page 4 Port Townsend School of Woodworking HTH: Intro to the Joiners Craft Lesson Plan ■ Project work: Shape sides of winding sticks to trapezoid. ■ Demo: Precision sawing (crosscuts) and truing/smoothing end grain cut with block plane; lay out of end angle cuts (ratio to either thickness or height of stock) ■ Project work: Saw and smooth ends of winding sticks. Break all edges with trim plane. ■ Lecture: Shellac---all its wonders. ■ Demo: Making and applying shellac ■ Project work: Apply shellac to sticks Demo: Layout centerline and install marker (copper nail or hardwood plug)Day 4: ​ ● Lecture: Construction and use of the bench hook (includes choice of wood and grain to reduce movement; description of optional shooting board modification) ● Third Project: Bench hook/Shooting Board ○ Skills Introduced: ■ Creating story sticks for layouts. ■ Coarse ripping with ripsaws (at sawbench as well as at workbench with a “half-rip” saw) ■ Planing a wide board true “six-square” ■ Creating a rabbet with rabbet plane ■ Creating a dado with a saw, chisel and planes ■ Selecting and setting fasteners to deal with wood movement Revised 5/21/2020 Page 5 Port Townsend School of Woodworking HTH: Intro to the Joiners Craft Lesson Plan ○ Tools Introduced: ■ Rabbet plane; router plane ○ Demos, practice and project work: ■ Demo: Layout of bench hook platform using simple ratios; generate square end cutline using geometry. Use and making of story stick. ■ Practice: Use geometry to create a ninety degree angle from edge of a board. ■ Project work: Create story stick for platform. Crosscut approximate length of platform from stock; surface one face. ■ Demo: Six-square a board (putting straightedge and winding sticks to use!) ■ Project work: Six square workpiece true and to final size. Day 5: ■ Demo: Sizing and making a through dado with chisel and router plane. ■ Practice: Make a through dado in practice stock. ■ Demo: Making a fitting rabbet (includes freehand with rabbet plane; fence-guided and filister plane techniques). ■ Practice: Make a rabbet in practice stock. ■ Project work: Cut out and true up stop and ledger strip from hardwood; dado and work rabbet to fit. (Note that length is Revised 5/21/2020 Page 6 Port Townsend School of Woodworking HTH: Intro to the Joiners Craft Lesson Plan less ¼-in. width of platform to allow for wood movement). ■ Lecture: Designing and assembling structures to account for wood movement. ■ Project work: install stops and ledger strips ■ Demo: Making shooting modification strips (Includes plowing a dust channel). ■ Practice; Plow a groove ■ Project work (Optional): Make shooting mod strips. Optional Add Ons: ● Field Trips: ○ Jim’s 200 square foot all-hand tool shop ○ Edensaw Lumber (hardwood lumber and premium tool dealer) ● Homework Project: Try Square ○ Skills introduced: ■ Making precision rip cuts with back saw. ■ Chop-wasting with mortise (or bench) chisels ■ Shaping chamfers and other profiles with paring chisel and spokeshave. ■ Using coping saw. ○ Tools introduced: ■ Coping saw; tenon (rip) backsaw; mortise, bench and paring Revised 5/21/2020 Page 7 Port Townsend School of Woodworking HTH: Intro to the Joiners Craft Lesson Plan chisels ○ Demo, practice and project work: ■ Lecture: The Try square ■ Demos: Layout and cutting of a bridle joint ■ Practice: Precision rip sawing to a line; cope-saw out waste areas; chop to line with mortise chisel. ■ Project work: Cut bridle. ■ Demo: Shaping decorative stopped chamfers--layout; kerfing and riving; shaping with paring chisel and/or drawknife and spokeshave. ■ Practice: Shape a stopped chamfer on practice stock. ■ Project work: Lay out and shape chamfers on handle stock. ■ Demo: Fitting blade to bridle and gluing up to true (using shop-made squared fixture). ■ Project work: Fit and assemble handle to blade ■ Demo: Pinning the bridle joint (wood dowels; brass pins; copper roves and rivets; inlayed plate overlay. 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