Lecture today was actually a video from a series called "The Traditional Crafts of Japan: Kyoto Joinery". What is there to say? These guys put us to shame. The level of craftsmanship is just unbelievable. Apparently when apprenticing in joinery in Japan you do not pick up a tool for the first three years...all you do is watch a master at work. Also if you happen to step over a master's saw as an apprentice, you are done for good for disrespecting the tool! The appreciation and respect for their tools and what they are doing was inspiring. Here are some quotes: "If the blade is sharp, even an amateur can use a plane." "If your tools are in good condition, they'll even cover up a lack of skill." "People often judge a craftsman's skill, not by the finished product but by his tools." And my favorite, "The wood is a living thing, so it's cruel to the wood itself, if you make a mistake." I think I need to spend more time on sharpening and conditioning my tools based on these quotes!
If you are interested the video can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aRZT0PYhJU
In the shop today I completed one side of my rabbet. We then move on to creating spar gauges in two sizes. A spar gauge is basically a tool used to mark a square piece of stock in order to make it round. It is used in the first step of turning the square stock into an eight-sided square stock. The stock is then cut down into 16 sides, 32 sides and so on, until it is round. Tomorrow I will complete the larger of the two spar gauges and then move onto actually making a spar.
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