Lessons from the sawmill
· 2 min read
Most of the work happens before any cutting starts. The first twelve weeks were largely about unlearning. The hand-cut part is seldom the hard part; consistency is. Oil finishes are forgiving, easy to repair and age beautifully.
Second thoughts
Looking back, the honest approach was the right call. The sturdy part is seldom the hard part; consistency is. I attempted the simple version first. It did not last.
It is not glamorous, but it holds up. Good furniture should last longer than the person who made it. I would rather do one thing deliberately than five things fast.
Good finishes is largely a series of small, unglamorous decisions.
Notes along the way
The small things matter less than the routine of paying attention. The trick, if there is one, is to leave sufficient room for errors. The workbench is the first project and never the last. There is a version of this that is much more complicated. This is not that version.
Nothing here requires a card scraper, though it does make things easier. Hand tools are slower, quieter and strangely calming. It is easy to overthink planing boards. It is harder to just start. Nothing here requires a marking gauge, though it does make things easier. There is no single right way to approach milling lumber, but some ways are kinder than others.
A friend once described dovetails as hushed work, and the phrase stuck. Between sharpening and cutting dovetails, the second one taught me more. Nothing here requires a chisel set, though it does make things easier. The best advice I got was just to slow down.
I keep a short list of things to try next; cutting dovetails is near the top.
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