Spring / Summer Course Registrations
For Lower Lonsdale courses the registration date is March 13, 2019 at 7am.
https://www.nvrc.ca/programs-memberships/program-directory/urban-woodworking
For Roundhouse courses the registration date is March 19, 2019 at 9am online and in-person only. All Level 2 courses must be registered for in-person or by phone.
No phone registrations on March 19, 2019.
www.roundhouse.ca for the Roundhouse program guide.
Other News:
We have just programmed a 2 day Spoon Carving class starting March 25 ending April 1. The course runs from 9:30am to 1:30pm both days and is open for registration.
Carve a spoon from a birch tree harvested in the Cariboo near 100 Mile House. Each year I search out and harvest a single small birch tree. I typically cut it into 5-6ft long logs and the wood is stored in a dark damp area of my yard in Lynn Valley in North Vancouver and that single tree is enough for all of our spoon carving courses in the year. The lumber currently has the added bonus of some delicate spalting and of course is green (still full of sap). Carving green wood is completely different from carving dry or seasoned wood, the latter being much harder.
Spoon carving is becoming a popular way to start woodworking requiring very few tools. It can be done almost anywhere and does not take long to complete a project. Spoon carving is one of the best ways to learn about wood as a material giving the carver a tangible way to experience the wood’s grain and its direction.
Learn to plan the three dimensional form and cut the basic outline on the bandsaw. Then using a gouge, knife and spokeshave make as many spoons as you feel like in the time there is. Your spoons can be large or small, functional or decorative. Learn proper technique for whittling and carving as well as a primer on sharpening curved edges. $170
Wood Always Wins
Our students are introduced to this phrase early on in the courses we offer. The words are not only a cool way of saying that wood is wonderful but more meaningful is the fact that is can be an incredibly challenging material to work with. One fact increasingly lost to many people is the fact that wood never ceases to expand and shrink in proportion to changes in Relative Humidity. That means that in summer a given piece of wood in any piece of furniture will get larger in its cross section (width and thickness) and in winter it will get smaller. Its length however stays the same. This movement never ceases and is the reason for many disastrous cracks and fractures in amateur (and some professionally) made furniture. In our courses we focus quite heavily on designing for wood movement and we teach our students the fundamentals on designing for movement.
Did you know that before dynamite and other blasting chemicals were common and affordable that thin sticks of very dry hardwood were used to split granite blocks in quarries and this technique is still used in splitting sandstone due to its gentle action on the delicate stone. These thin sticks are driven into holes in the rock face and driven below the surface a little. Water is then poured into the holes and left overnight. The water rehydrates the sticks, which in turn expand in their cross section forcing the stone to fracture along a line of holes.
Remember Wood Always Wins.