My seven year old son Nelson, recently watched the final part of the
Harry Potter movies. He’s a bit of a book worm to say the least and ever
since watching the series, he has been determined to make a magic wand.
Yesterday, we spent some time together in the wood shop and now young
Nelson has his wand.The experience from my point of view, was magical to
say the least.
To begin, he shaped a piece of curly maple using a spokeshave and then smoothed the form with some sandpaper. We held the thin piece of maple in place with some elevated bench dogs I recently made for holding work up off the bench top. He then cross cut the stock to length using a fine razor saw and after a quick rub of oil/varnish he was ready to make some magic.
Another young wizard is ready to take on the world~ Expecto Patronum !
“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” – Albert Einstein
Expecto Patronum !
To begin, he shaped a piece of curly maple using a spokeshave and then smoothed the form with some sandpaper. We held the thin piece of maple in place with some elevated bench dogs I recently made for holding work up off the bench top. He then cross cut the stock to length using a fine razor saw and after a quick rub of oil/varnish he was ready to make some magic.
Another young wizard is ready to take on the world~ Expecto Patronum !
“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” – Albert Einstein
A spokeshave forms the curly maple.
Sanding blends the shape.
Cross cut to length.
He's only 7. My grandad turned my older (by one year) brother loose on a lathe. I was 6 years old. By 8, I'd figured out that I had to use the table saw to cut blanks. All limbs intact,
ReplyDeleteNowadays I figure what he did would countenance invictions of "child endangerment" or "wanton negligence", Some of my friends talked about this the other day. And you know, while I know folks of any age can be hurt by machinery, if this day and age, I cannot think of the last time I saw a headline about a child being injured by WWing machinery, although it would make a good headline. OTOH, as I'm typing this, a commercial comes on the turbe about 30% of children being obese.
Like Neil Young says..."teach your children well!"
But if you don't do that for your kids, what then about your grandkids, whose parents ain't tuned in enuf to the workings of the "making" generation, could they ever teach their children (your grandkids)????
What a thought.
Eric