My Nemesis, We Meet Again!

 

Wordless Wednesday

Tech Tip Tuesday

 

Sometimes, perfect is the enemy of the good.  This could have been one of those cases.

We deviated at little bit in the method that we used to apply the gunwales to the canoes in my class.  I discussed this in my last Tech Tip Tuesday.   When we constructed the first tapered gunwale samples, we did this at the front of the boat.   When looked at the gunwales at the rear of the boat, we discovered a small issue.  At the 2' form near the stern, the width of the frames was such that the gunwales had a slight hour-glass curve to them.  Some of my students absolutely panicked when they saw this. 

HORRORS!

No.  Not horrors - calm down a bit.  Think.

We solved this issue by tapering the inside edge of the gunwales instead of the outside.  This minimized the hourglass look to nearly nothing.  The boats will look fine.   Is it "perfect? - maybe not.  Is it good?  Yes, it's very good.   Some of the students were ready to try to figure out how to remove the 2' frame from the boat now that it's bonded and screwed or pegged together.  This, however isn't necessary.  We've solved the issue until the point where I can make some minor tweaks to the design.

In future, I will change the form design to totally get rid of this concave curvature - the image at the beginning of this post shows the comparison.  On the left is the original design.  On the right is the design as we've modified it for width.  Not a massive change, but a good one.

So back to the original point.  Some of the students would have let perfect be the enemy of the good in the building of the canoes, slowing down their build and clouding their judgement and causing them to question their confidence to achieve "perfect".   By not doing this, we've stayed with the "good" and will continue to move along.

Full House...

This is what I like to see...  Lots of work going on.

Makes you smile a bit, no?

 

FITZ! NOOOOOO!!!

So, one of my readers and a fellow wooden canoe enthusiast, Fitz, is an active member of the Norumbega Chapter of the WCHA.  I had finally made plans to attend the most recent annual meeting of the chapter in early February - I'd put time aside for it even.

Mother Nature had other plans. 

Snow. 

The meeting was re-scheduled for a week later, but unfortunately, I had other plans...

Maybe next year?

Dang.

Wordless Wednesday

Tech Tip Tuesday

Questions, questions...

One of the things that I find with some of my former students, is that they're not.

This is a good thing.

What do I mean?  Well, very often, my students embark on a new boat or the restoration of an old boat.  Many of the skills that they've learned in my class are transferable to building a new canoe or kayak or restoring another boat.

What I usually find is that in my class my students get a good overview of the building process.  They also get the opportunity to learn from challenges and mistakes.  I get people from various backgrounds with varying levels of experience.  Often, the students are not only learning how to build a boat, but are also learning to be woodworkers as well, learning what the hand and power tools can do.  When they finish their boat and leave the class they've done all the things to build their own boat, but they are still growing.

After the students "graduate" they often call on me with questions about something they've done and forgotten how to do, or would like help doing.  They sometimes ask me questions about things that I may or may not have experience with.  If I have knowledge, I tend to share it if I can.  Sometimes it spurs me to learn something new, myself.  Sometimes it sparks a post here - like this one.

The big thing is that - like me - my students continue as students, polishing their skills and expanding their knowledge, but remain connected.

Never stop learning.

As I said above, this is a good thing - a very good thing.