Cicip Working

Recently I kind of stumbled onto something that I think will help me become a better hand tool woodworker and I really want to pass the idea along to others out there who enjoy living shop life thats unplugged, even if its only some of the time.

First a little explanation. With my moms side of the family, no matter what else is going on, there is one universal language that you can always speak. The language of golf. I wouldnt call it an obsession, mostly just a shared passion and past time. As a young pre-teenager I remember one specific summer day spent at my Uncle Rods and Aunt Jills. A fantastic place located on an old tree farm in Northern Minnesota, I have many great memories of being allowed to run the woods until my legs nearly fell off. It has to be one of my top ten favorite places on the planet. On this day I was around for a summer vacation visit and my grandparents and probably several other family members were over as well. Of course the subject of golf came up and someone related how they heard that watching your golf swing on videotape can help you analyze it and see where you may want to make changes.

My Aunt Jill went and hauled out the video camera. I know technology has changed dramatically since then and these days I can even take reasonably good video on my cell phone, but we are talking about the old videocameras here. The ones that weight more than a bowling ball and can swallow up VCR tapes whole. She set it up and we all took turns recording 5 or 6 swings. Even my cousin Tyler who had to be around 3 or 4 years old took his turn. Then we went inside to look at the tape.

I dont remember what that tape told me about my golf swing. My current golf game would certainly be evidence that I probably learned nothing. But the other day I had a experience that brought that afternoon back from the dust of my memories.

I take a lot of pictures when Im in the shop. I dont know how many you would consider a lot but on a full eight to ten hour day with a lot of work getting done I can push it to almost 150 pictures. SOme are test pics and some are just plain mistakes, but I do like to take a lot of pics. I figure the more pictures I have the better it is to find the best ones to include in a blog article later, but I dont just take the pictures for the blog. They are kind of a personal documentation, a pictorial diary if you will, of the day in the shop, the steps I took in building a piece, and the techniques I used.

Recently I added an ingenious piece of technology to my arsenal, a tripod. Laugh if you want at the fact that it took me so long to come around to using one, but this has revolutionized the way I take pics in the shop. Before if I wanted a shot of myself working I had to find the right surface to balance the camera on and spend minutes trying to set the framing to fit everything into the shot. The tripod has sped up my work considerably and this added convenience has made it easier to take more pictures of me at work.It also makes it easier to set the timer on the camera and get some shots of me working.

Recently I took a series of pics of myself ripping a length of white oak by hand. I set the timer on the camera to take a series of multiple shots and went to work. Later on while I was going over the pics, cropping and editing them for myself and the blog, I noticed that in some pics my technique was less than spectacular. The end result of the piece I ripped was not bad at all, but the pictures dont lie and I think that maybe it could get better.

Heres a picture of my standard sawing stance. Yes I know that purists will point out that with sawing you should have only one hand on the saw after you get it started. A long time ago I suffered a pretty bad injury to my right shoulder that it has never completely recovered from. It pops and clicks and makes all kinds of fun noises which are fun when it comes to grossing out my wife and children, but basically translate into not being able to generate enough strength to manipulate a full length saw effectively. So I compensate with a two handed grip.

I completely realize that the need for my two handed technique is probably where most of my personal sawing issues come from, but thats what this exercise is all about, finding what you are doing and discovering what you could be doing different to put it right. Here I think Im looking pretty good.  My body position is set at a good angle to give me success and Im setting my force directly over the handle and into the blade. This is easy to see with the saw driving straight.

Here you can see Ive made an adjustment to my body position, not a big change but Ive moved my hips over, and probably changed the angle of my shoulders too. This means Im also changing the applied pressure to the saw handle. This is very evident in the bow of the saw to my right.

Heres a shot with a longer exposure, showing the blur of my hands as the move the saw through the wood. Here it would seem Ive again corrected my hips and have straightened out the saw as Im picking up speed and gumption to work my way through the board. The handle is listing a slight bit to the right though so that would demonstrate to me that I am probably getting some additional twisting from the waist due to the two hand technique.

Up until now when I saw I pay attention to the drive of my right shoulder as I try to maintain a straight cut. Though it makes sense I havent paid complete attention to the rest of what Im doing with my body. Just like you can change a golf swing with the minor details of where you place your feet, to how you hold your hands, to how you rotate your hips, you can make similar adjustments in how you saw. I would assume that this study of body mechanics relates to other hand tool practices like planing and drilling with a brace as well.

For those of us learning hand tool techniques I think this photo documentation, or even video documentation, could be an invaluable tool to seeing what you could improve on. Years ago when hand tools were still King, you would spend years working under a master, when we talk about this relationship we often talk about the instruction side of learning, and certainly a master would be a fountain of knowledge for effective skills and techniques. But the other side of instuction is evaluation. As an apprentice, the master would have opportunity to watch you work. He could see if you were tilting the saw towards your body on the uptake. He could see if your weight distribution over the joiner plane was flawed. He could see what you were doing that pushed your dovetail lines off square. And when he saw these slight mistakes, he could step in and help correct them.

I make a joke that I am "Nobodys" apprentice, as if my master carried the actual name "Nobody." In truth I consider myself Everybodys apprentice. I learn by watching and reading everything I can from everyone I can. Video from Roy Underhill, The Schwarz, Shannon Rodgers, or Bob Rozaieski and many others. Words from Peter Follansbee, Rob Pocolo, or any of several dozen others whose blogs I follow. But now I realize the part of the master / apprentice relationship Im missing is the evaluation part and I think its possible to fill in that missing piece by closely observing myself and my technique using pictures or video and evaluating myself. Ive seen the masters do it a lot, now I need to take some time to watch myself do it to see how I stack up.

Just like the perfect golf swing, the search for the perfect saw stroke may be elusive, but its out there.

Cheers!

Oldwolf

Making wood working plans work for you is easy but it requires proper planning and thought put into it. Woodworking plans can be used by either a novice or an experienced carpenter. Woodworking plans can be used for a variety of woodworking projects such as building sheds, decks, log cabins, garages, greenhouses, furniture, etc.

All these various projects improve upon the property and increase its value, add additional room or storage space to be used for various purposes. The furniture is used for decorative purposes in or outside the house or other place. Although wood working is a skillful job, various wood working plans are available to anyone regardless of their woodworking experience, to make simple or complicated wood working pieces.

Wood working plans are available widely and a lot are available online for free or at a cheap price if they were created by an experienced wood worker. The availability of these woodworking plans to a non-skilled individual with the desire to accomplish various projects, make these the perfect gift for oneself or another.

They allow a non-skilled individual to make great pieces of furniture, sturdy storage or backyard sheds, carports, decks, dog houses, bird houses, etc. Wood working plans that have been prepared by experienced wood workers are extremely useful to those without the experience who desire to start and finish woodworking projects for non commercial purposes at a fraction of the cost that it would take to purchase the furniture or hire contractors.

When choosing woodworking plans the first thing to consider is the design of the plan. There are a multitude of plans available for a variety of wood working projects so no matter what project you are interested in, there is a wood working plan that you can use for guidance on your project.

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For beginners or those who are not highly skilled, there are various simple but artistic woodworking plans that are easy to follow that are available.

The most important thing however, is to get your hands on good professionally drawn up plans. The quality of the plans makes all the difference on woodworking projects. They should ideally come with good illustrations and diagrams that are easy to follow.

Good wood working plans will come with a materials list, excellent descriptions and explanations to help you follow along with the woodworking plan of your choice. Paying attention to the measurements for each part of the woodworking plan is crucial. If the measurements are wrong, it will only lead to you wasting time and money.

There are various sources of plans such as books. There are also various e-books that are available online that are increasing in popularity and help you can the wood working project accomplished satisfactorily.

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The woodworking plans are useful in various ways. They help you save money with the various woodworking diy projects available. Wood working plans are easily accessible and the cheap prices make them easily affordable to every one with an interest in woodworking projects.

At what time you are trying to decide what and where to go for a bathroom rug, you might want to consider making one instead by hand; they look very nice in bathrooms. This choice you can make it the size and shape you want. As well, you can create your own style, design, patterns, colors, etc, without sweating the market. Of course, online you will find a wide array of products, including oriental rugs, stylish rugs, etc. The choice is yours, however, if you want to make your own, check out our ideas.

Why would I want to make a rug instead of buying one?

You may want to take this in consideration. You will be making it to fit your needs so that choice you can pick out the colors you want, and then decide what size you want also. Rather than choosing online products, you can create, design, and alter the rug at your leisure. The shape of the rug is important as style, this is a plus for your bathroom, since the rugs will match and come together.

Is it hard to make a rug?

It is not hard to make a rug. It takes some time but it is not hard to do. Some people make rugs in a few days while others make the rugs in about a week. This depends on you. How fast do you want to work? You may want to set plans to finish your rug at a time you designate, which will inspire you to finish early.

What kind of material do I use when making a rug?

Most people just use pieces of rags to do these rugs. This choice it looks like a county setting and it will go with everything, I personally like the country look in my house.

How do I make my own rug?

When making your rug here are some steps for you to follow:

First, you have to get the strips of rags you want and cut them at ¼ inches then when that is done you have to put the fabric in a tape maker. The tape maker will fold the raw edges down so that it makes a strip, so it can be used to crochet. Then you press the strips in half to make a double fold, followed by rolling it into a ball and then make sure you chain stitch to join the chain into a ring, combined with a chain stitch from the hook and then wrap the fabrics over the hook crochet. Stitch crochet two single crochet patterns and keep going until you get the size you want.

How can I use my rugs?

When your rug is finished, you can use this for many different things, such as to put the rug in front of the shower, or maybe in front of the sink. You can even put the rug in front of the door.

How do I take care of my rug?

To take care of your rug the maintenance is easy to maintain. Just shake it out and throw it in the washer when you are finished. After washing just hang to dry. I don’t think I would want to put the rug in the dryer to dry, since this may make it shrink. Drying will sometimes fade the color, so I would just hang the rug to dry,

How do I choose material to make a mate?

If you plan to make another rug, choose materials as you did the same rug. You will need the same material.

i was in my outdoor shower the other morning, and was struck by the pattern the sun made coming through the canvas surround ... great inlay pattern, or great veneer patten for a pair of doors (above) on a cabinet, or as you can see below, it might make a great fabric or wall covering. inspirations where you find it ... click the photos to enlarge them ...
fabric
stratton mountain in the far distance, from inside the shower ...
where the pattern originated ...