I received a call from the IBTC: “Could you help out – our joinery instructor is off and we need some cover?” “Starting when?” I asked. “How about this coming Monday?” came the reply.

We settled on a two week stint, as I was not wanting to get tied in for too long – after all, I have some projects to complete, and a boat to build!

So, two weeks ago, Sylvia dropped me off at Victory Gate after my Monday morning GP surgery, with the tool chest I had made just over a year ago, and I walked in to my alma mater, excited and just a little apprehensive.

Nine students, who had done three weeks of joinery before ‘lockdown’ and had now been back a week … a quick round of introductions, and it’s back to work!

It was lovely to be back in Boathouse 4, and I had a great time. I think the students gained some benefit from my limited experience and modest knowledge, which I managed to spread over the two weeks!

I even practiced and demonstrated some saw sharpening.

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Look after your tools and your tools will look after you. Stewart here is taking 5 minutes to carefully sharpen his saw blade with a triangular file. That will keep it in good condition for weeks to come. #tools #joinery #woodwork #woodenboats #boatbuilding #Portsmouth

A post shared by IBTC Portsmouth (@ibtcportsmouth) on Sep 21, 2020 at 5:15am PDT

Bob is taking over for a while now, and I gave him a list of the topics I had covered in my daily tutorials – a surprisingly long one:

Planes
Uses (flattening, smoothing, and removing wood)
Bench planes: numbering and names:- smoothing, jack, fore and jointer
Setting up; Adjustment of frog; Refurb
Block planes, shoulder (incl. Record 311)
Router, rebate (incl. side-rebate) and combination/plough planes
Bollow
Scrub, including how to convert Stanley 4 to scrub plane and use
Wooden: coffin, scrub, shoulder, moulding, plough, jointer etc … how to adjust/use Lubrication wax/oil-rag-in-a-can

Spokeshave
Metal: curved/flat soled
Wooden spokeshave – not sharpening

Chisels
Bevel, Firmer, Mortice (incl. pig-sticker), Gouge

Rasps
General advice; Shinto saw-rasp; (Auriou rasps)

Buying tools
Websites; Suppliers, Tips on choosing/buying

Marking out
Marking knife, knife wall, squaring off

Using tools
Planes; Chisels; Saws

Sharpening
Freehand, use of honing guide, stropping (hand (!), leather on wood paddle with buffing compound)
Plane blades, chisels, and a brief intro to sharpening rip saws, more as an encouragement to try and have a go!

Tips
Removal of broken screws using rolling pin Sprigging holes
Dovetail joints: Marking out; Cutting; Easing

Timber Technology
Defects
Natural – bark, sapwood, borers/fungi, shakes etc
Felling – thunder shakes
Conversion/seasoning – checks and splits, bowing/cupping/diamonding/wind Seasoning – air-dried, kiln

Controlling and targets for moisture reduction
Conversion
Through & through; Quarter/Rift sawn; Wagenschot (a la Triss Stone) Quarter-sawn vs vertical grain
Wane
Characteristics to identify species: grain (incl. medullary rays), density, colour, smell Choice of species for boatbuilding – ‘backbone’, planking, spars … etc. (Intro. only)

Wood finishes
Prep
Types
Rub-in oils; Oil-varnish finishes; Evaporating finishes; Varnishes; Paint; Epoxy Boat soup (!!)

Durability
Tips and buying suggestions

Saws
Sharpening (INTRO)
Hand, Panel, Back saws
Rip vs Cross
Tools required to refurb and sharpen

Will I be back? Well, I may have ‘got the bug’ so, yes, I have offered my services on an ad hoc basis, and hope to turn up again – like a bad penny!

With some help from a shipwright friend, I have finished lofting the 10ft Gartside dinghy, and am pausing to tackle another, rather nautical, project.

The last couple of lines – the Diagonals – were plotted, but I just could not get the required ‘fair line’. The lines just looked too flat amidships. After checking, double checking, even triple checking the coordinates, I was stumped. So, I phoned a friend.

With him giving me a firm nudge, I grasped the nettle and, by moving one nail on each of the diagonal lines – one by several millimetres – we soon had two pleasingly fair lines.

Now, all of the views, with all of their intersections, must correlate with each other. So, I had to use the changes made to the Diagonals to re fair the lines on the other three views. I think I had been reluctant to boldly change those points, because of a dread of having to go through this process of ‘lofting to agreement.’ Happily, with just a couple of points to change, the process went pretty well.

So, here are some pictures of the final result:

And now for something completely different.

I have been asked by a friend to make a display case for his Navy sword. I had already made a start, a few weeks ago, preparing some yellow cedar from the ‘Winchester wood haul.’

The smell of the cut cedar is lovely, and the grain pattern is gorgeous – at least it is to look at – but it’s a devil to work, as the grain direction changes so much!

Yesterday, I started on the joinery. Using a Paul Sellers technique, a simple jig ensures that the dovetails are cut square and true.

I’m aiming to use mitred dovetail joints, particularly at the back, where I need to cut a rebate for the back panel of the case. They are tricky joints, and that rebate may be a bit of a challenge with the wavy grain … fingers crossed!