The 1st of April saw me complete my last practice dovetail joint. Time, at last, to be given a plank from the pile of Welsh Oak stacked up at the back of the joinery shop.

It is said that ‘wood is like life … it has knots in it.’ Certainly, there have been a few ‘knots’ in the last few years in the Practice … and my oak plank has more knots than most!

These woody knots have created some challenges – and not a few curses – with the grain of the wood changing direction all over the place. This makes planing and smoothing quite difficult at times. However, as in life, these knots build character, and I think that the overall result will be the better for them … I hope so.

Having sawn my plank into four lengths, for the two sides and ends, I set to ‘facing and edging’ one of the boards. This involves planing the surface flat, whilst also correcting the twist (using winding sticks); and then getting one of the edges straight and square to the face. It was hard work (hard on my right wrist, with tendonitis flaring again), and difficult … and it took the best part of three days. Thank goodness we only have to face and edge one of the four boards! Week 5 ended with one of the instructors machining my four boards to the required thickness and width.

Like the others, I clamped the finished boards to my bench, for fear of them moving and warping due to the change in thickness. It’s amazing how much, even seasoned wood, can move when a plank is reduced in length or thickness. The loss of the surrounding timber, with its own twists and stresses, releases the remaining wood to take its own direction. I am minded of the way that I feel a change in myself, released from the tensions and the constraints of full-time General Practice … free to move and change, and adapt to a new way of life.

Week 6 was spent making the dovetail joints and making a rebate for the lid to sit in. The knots in my wood create fault lines, which have resulted in about four splits in the boards as I fitted the joints. One split appeared just as I cut a set of dovetails in the board. This without any additional stresses put upon the wood – I hadn’t even tried to fit the joint together!

With the joints all cut and fitted, Bob Hope (one of the Instructors), and I forced the splits open and I pushed in glue, then clamped them overnight.

By the end of the week, the landmark position of glueing up the sides of my box was finally in sight. I worked quickly (unusually so!), to plane a rebate in the four sides of my box, ready to take the lid.

It was now 4.30 on Friday, almost packing up time, but I was desperate to get my box sides glued up. Bob Forsyth (another Instructor), and I set to work, both of us quickly brushing glue into the joints, as he told me how in the times before glue, varnish would be used to give these mechanical dovetail joints a little extra strength. So, week six concluded with my box sides all glued up – a real landmark in my tool chest’s progress.

Week 7 – difficult to believe it’s seven weeks since I started – has been spent fitting my lid to the slightly concave sides of the top of my box; fitting the base; planing off the ‘horns’ of my dovetail joints; and cleaning up the outside of the sides of my box – again, all the more difficult because of the multiple changes in direction of the grain. Then, the nail-biting cutting open the box to make a lid; and the tricky fitting of the lid to the base: finessing the varying grain once more.

Last Thursday was spent starting on the various rails to be fitted to the box but, with my wrist playing up badly again, I managed to get most of these machined after ‘facing and edging’ just two of the six. Finally, feeling cheated by this being a four day week, I started to fit the skirting board to my tool chest.

There’s a good few steps to go, but it’s real fun doing them. Progress seems to be quicker now.

Above all, I can see how much the knots add character to the final result … and to my sense of achievement thus far.