‘How Do I Do This Without Making Noise?’
Careful, now. This is still a family-friendly blog!
So…I’m out in the shop, working on repairing some shelving for my wife. I let my 13-year old use the table saw for the first time. I could tell he was nervous, but he did fine. But the noise bothered him. Same with the router. He just doesn’t like the noise.
Anyway, I move on to cutting and attaching some drawer fronts to my drill press cabinet. He’s bored, so he pulls out some hand planes and works on making a toy dagger out of some scraps. (The kids were so impressed with a toy sword I made — complete with a leather-covered handle — that they’ve been begging for more “weapons.”) He decides to add a “scabbard” crosspiece to the blade. So he carefully marks the joint on both pieces. What he’s really after, but doesn’t know it yet, is his first half-lap joint.
Now, remember, I’m minding my own business and not paying attention to what he’s doing. But I pop my head up from behind the bench and he asks very innocently, “How do I do this without making noise?” I bust out laughing.
After I caught my breath, I pointed him to my little joinery hand saws and showed him how to use them. So he made 
several saw kerfs halfway through the thickness of the “scabbard” and “blade” pieces for his dagger. Then I pulled out my Stanley chisels and showed him how to pare away the waste (while keeping the fingers BEHIND the cutting edge). “Wow, this is sharp!,” he said. Finally, he cleaned up the joint with a shoulder plane. He thought that was cool.
Now, for his first hand-cut joint, it didn’t turn out bad at all. It was a little loose, so we made some walnut wedges to fill in the gaps before he glued everything together.
He needs to keep that dagger and always remember the first time he made a hand-cut joint in Dad’s shop. Without noise. And dust. It only gets better from there.
Bert Thompson said,
Great story of Father and Son doing something together!
Well written. Thanks for making this available.
Neat – keep up the good work.
Bert Thompson
(posted on March 9th, 2007 at 12:19 pm)