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Senni Makes a Spear Experiencing the Joy of Woodworking at the Heritage Woodcraft Centre,   October 2017 The Heritage Woodcraft Centre in Canning Vale is the home of The Joy of Wood, where I, a skilled Cabinetmaker/Joiner, offer workshops and tuition for people of all ages in traditional woodworking hand skills and techniques. This includes many programs and workshops for children.  I have been conducting woodworking activities in schools, festivals, public workshops and private workshops for nine years. The private tuition is also used to provide occupational therapy for people with cognitive and physical disabilities. The value of hand tool woodworking for kids. When kids learn to use traditional hand tools, there are many benefits beyond the production of the project which they are justifiably proud of. Creating with the hands is a tactile, sensual process involving both macro and micro muscle movements.   The activity helps build body awareness, hand-to-eye coordina...

Recently we did a woodworking incursion at St Mark's Anglican Community School, in Hillarys, here in Perth, Western Australia. This is the third year I have gone to the school to work with the Pre-primary students. We had two classes of 30 kids - 5 year olds - and they had a ball! It was great to see the amazing things they created. It was our normal set-up for "Free Creative Play" in a school context. Across the 14 small benches we had 30 cross-pein hammers. On each of the benches were a pair of pincers, pencils, and nail containers with assorted nail sizes. The Sawing Station was set up with 8 assorted tenon/carcass saws at various heights appropriate to the size of the kids. There was a big pile of softwood pieces in various shapes and sizes for the kids to use, which we kept topping up. After a briefing/demonstration about safe and efficient tool use, the kids get to make whatever they like from the material available. One of the two tables of completed creations. It ...

At the Perth Wood Show last weekend, I picked up a lovely Canadian-made Disston tenon saw from the second hand tool stand run by the Hand Tool Preservation Society of Western Australia. It's a beauty! However it just needed sharpening... Yep, a very nice Disston tenon saw, with the handle in very good condition. I have a few odd Disstons made in Canada. This is a new addition to my Canadian bunch.  With a three day gig this week at a primary school doing woodwork with the K - 2 students, I needed another sharp saw on hand. I also had another tenon saw needing sharpening for the event -an older Disston saw. So it seemed a golden opportunity to get them both done during a window of opportunity I had on the day before the school program commenced. The older Disston tenon saw, made in Philadelphia USA. About the variables in saw filing - rake, fleam, and set. In a nutshell, RAKE is the vertical angle of the face of the tooth, which also determines the aggressiveness of the cut. If the ...

Today I was doing woodwork with around 110 kids at Roseworth Primary School, spread across 4 classes - mostly pre-primary and Year 3 kids. It was a great day. Nice plane! We were doing what I call "free creative play". I had 16 of my small two-vice benches there, each one with hammers, nails, pencils and pincers. I had 6 tenon saws (technically carcass saws) at the sawing station, freshly sharpened. There were two big bins of wood pieces for the kids to dig into, and they supplied the creative enthusiasm. After I did a spiel and demo about safe and effective tool use, it was over to them. One flying pelican... There was a steady stream of creations through the day, including aeroplanes, boats, bird houses, dolls furniture, birds and more. Another nice plane. For many of the kids, it was their first time handling tools. In these gigs, it's not unusual to find a few kids who spend almost their whole time at the sawing station. They didn't make anything, except a pile of...

At last, I have finally organised the March 2013 round of public workshops. The delay came about when I was unable to secure my normal venue, Earthwise in Subiaco. However I am happy to have secured an alternative venue - the PVI/CIA Workshop space in West Perth. What a great line-up of workshops! The ever-popular favourites are there, including Carve a Wooden Spoon , Make a Kitchen Chopping Board , Making Cajon Drums (Parents and kids together), and Make Kitchen Spatulas & Salad Servers . In addition to these, there are a couple of new ones: Make a Small Picture Frame and Carve a WELCOME Sign will be fantastic opportunities to push your woodworking hand skills into new territory. Make a Traditional Wooden Stool is one of two workshops being run at times which may suit people while their kids are at school - an experiment in accessibility. For those wanting to discover the wonders of planes, there is The Plane Facts: Learn to choose, use and enjoy hand planes - an exciting...