New Subjects

The models hereafter described indicate the approximate progression of difficulty rather than the exact sequence of work that should be followed. Each teacher, far better than any one else, should be able to select the models best suited to the needs of his own classes; therefore the subjects for description and demonstration should be decided when the model is selected, and should include, except as review may seem necessary, only the new tools and materials or processes introduced.

It will not be wise to go through the entire list of new subjects at the beginning of the work upon the model. If taken up at this time, very little of it will be fixed sufficiently in the minds of the students to be of value to them when they reach the different stages of the work. A short talk at the beginning of the work each day, as a new tool is taken up, will produce better results.

Stock Cutting

The materials for the first few models of any course should be prepared by the teacher before the class arrives. After it is evident that the students have learned the necessity for making an allowance for working and for cutting, as well as to minimize waste and blemishes, they should be allowed to cut from the board, having first made sure that there are no scraps from which the desired pieces may be cut. The teacher should watch this part of the work very carefully, as within it lies the greatest possibilities of economy or waste. In order that the students may be given a broader experience in stock cutting than is possible in cutting only one or two pieces at a time, they may get out the stock from which several models of the same kind are to be made, taking turns in doing this, that all the class may have the benefit of the exercise. This may be carried out successfully by allowing the advanced students to prepare the stock for the work of the beginning classes.

In general, the material required for the following models may be cut from the regular stock thicknesses. This saves a great deal of time, and there is no real benefit gained by requiring that the student should plane everything to its three dimensions. Usually material that has been cared for properly during the time it has been seasoning will be as fair, or " out of wind," as it is possible for any student or workman to make it; but if its face is not true, which may be proven by the method indicated in "Elements of Woodwork," 30 D, or in "Elements of Construction," 4 D, it should be made so by using the jack plane sharpened carefully and set to cut very fine, after which the piece should be gauged to an even thickness and planed to the gauge marks. This will result in a piece a little thinner than actually required, and if this difference is so great as to destroy the piece for its purpose, it should be discarded. Many young teachers regard the dimensions given upon a drawing as immutable, and they will repeatedly discard material that is a trifle smaller than called for, or will cut stock badly to waste in order to secure the desired size. There are certain dimensions that cannot be changed after the work is planned, and others that need not be observed so carefully ; in making the distinction, the teacher has an opportunity to give a demonstration of the necessity for exercising economy and judgment.

In commercial work it is generally the custom to get out all the material called for by the stock list, or all that will be required to finish the work to a certain stage. In school work this custom cannot be followed so closely as in practical life since, if a large article, or a model requiring a number of pieces, is being made, the work is apt to be in progress for several months before the last piece will be needed. If all the material were cut at once, some of it certainly would be lost or appropriated by another student, unless the teacher assumed the unnecessary burden of giving his personal attention to seeing that all the pieces of the different models under construction were accurately accounted for at each lesson, or of keeping them under lock and key.

Making The Model

When the actual work upon the model has commenced, the teacher should be continually upon the alert to prevent the students from cutting off too much wood, thereby making the model undersize; the tendency to do this will be more apparent upon the parts of the work in which the tools work the easiest, as, for instance, in planing the sides and the edges. It is obviously more difficult to obtain a square and true end than to obtain equally good results upon side and edge wood. The use of the bench hook as a jack board or shooting board (see page 3) should not be encouraged; it is a method of obtaining results rarely used by workmen, though much used in the manual-training work of the grades, but the methods described in "Elements of Woodwork," 44 B, or in " Elements of Construction," 18 B, have stood the test of many generations. A mechanic sometimes will use the jack board if he has many ends to block plane; say, for instance, in making mitered picture frames. " Any fool," as a workman once said, "can make a joint with a jack board." It should be the aim of the teacher to develop the skill which will permit the student to make a good joint by his own unassisted efforts, as a workman has to do.

The difficulty of making a good joint upon end wood is not due entirely to the fact that it is more difficult to cut end wood than side wood, but largely to the fact that the average student persists in cutting a shaving about four times as thick as he should, and in continuing his exertions after the plane is badly in need of sharpening. As Solomon said, " If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength; but wisdom is profitable to direct." (Eccl. x. 10.) After the students have obtained a reasonable degree of skill in the use of their tools, as satisfactory results may be obtained upon end as upon side wood, if the tools are properly sharpened and adjusted.

Tendencies To Be Corrected

If there is one thing more than another, in teaching tool work, in which the novice should be guided and watched, it is in the use of sandpaper, largely because it seems the simplest thing in the world to rub a piece of sandpaper over a piece of wood. The average student has an irresistible tendency to use sandpaper for any and all purposes, and no amount of reasoning or instruction will change this tendency until by experience he learns that he injures more work than he improves, and that the use of sandpaper before all the cutting is done results in dulling the edge tools which are used after it. It is the custom of some teachers, during this stage of the class work, to keep a supply of sandpaper torn to a convenient size, say one eighth of a sheet, and to give a piece to each student as he needs it, requiring that each piece shall be returned to him after it is used. This prevents stray pieces from being used without the teacher's knowledge.

Never allow a student to sandpaper across the grain. In sandpapering a flat surface, no matter how small, always use a block; the smaller the surface, the more need of a block.

The teacher should guard against the tendency of the students to use the spokeshave for every conceivable purpose. Its use should be kept within its legitimate field, that of truing curved surfaces, and never used for making a cylinder, nor in any other place where a plane may be used as well.

Files and rasps, in respect to the disposition of the students to use them for other than their legitimate uses, belong in the same category as do sandpaper and spokeshaves. Very few students have the moral stamina to resist the temptation to use a rasp or a file in place of the block-plane, if the latter does not work easily.. The best way to prevent the use of these tools in places where others should be used is to keep them out of the way. The spokeshave, contrary to the custom of many teachers, should not be a part of the regular bench equipment, but a part of the rack or general equipment, in which place the teacher may easily prevent its wrong use.