You know, it’s just one of those things. You pick up a new tool and start using it. Oh sure, you read the manual, but only to read how to quickly get it started. There is no thought of proper use or concerns for safety. It’s a tool, it makes lots of noise. Let ‘er rip! That was then.

Now, after using a chainsaw for the past twenty-five years or so, I figured it was time to get some proper instruction on its use, maintenance and above all, safety. Although it’s not a tool that I use everyday, except for the months following Hurricane Juan’s arrival, I do use it quite frequently, especially in the spring and fall. There is always new downfall after the winter and yes, I’m still cleaning up Juan’s mess. Later is better than never and so far I’ve been pretty lucky and had all the gear so it was time.

The Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources recently held a Chainsaw Use and Safety Workshop that I was able attend. This was an all day event that included lecture, discussion, and both indoor and outdoor demonstrations.

The course followed the practices described in The Forest Professional, Guidelines for the Stewards of Tomorrow’s Forest, which, according to our instructor, is the ‘Bible’ for anyone working in forestry or with chainsaws. We received a hardcopy of this manual to take home for later perusal and review.

The instructor was professional forester and certified arborist, Patrick Allan. Patrick began working with chainsaws on his cousin’s woodlot at the young age of 14 wearing only sneakers, shorts, a t-shirt and a ball cap. After many close calls and seeing others get injured he began to focus on safety and proper felling techniques. This, in addition to becoming a professional pulp and trail cutter, led him to becoming an instructor in chainsaw and safety courses in 1985. He was once Bowater’s primary trainer.

Continue reading 'At The NSDNR Chainsaw Safety Course'

In January I had the enjoyment of watching wooden snowshoes being made! I took an early morning drive down to Ross Farm Museum, just over an hour away, and spent the morning in the Farm Workshop, being warmed by an old woodstove, watching as the instructor fashioned a traditional wooden snowshoe.

Lately, snowshoeing has become the number one winter sport, even surpassing snowboarding! That being said, unfortunately the snowshoes of choice today are the modern aluminum and plastic type. Since a pair of traditional snowshoes is another item on my long list of projects that I want to make I thought that this would be a great introduction, and it sure was! What was really unique, and rare, was that my wife and I were the only ones there for this session! It being a wintery morning we figured everyone else decided to stay home in bed so we got one-on-one instruction and answers to our many questions!

At the Ross Farm Museum you learn about what life was like on a Nova Scotian farm between 100 and 175 years ago and how the early settlers and their descendants lived and coped with the land around them. It is typical of the many small farms that existed throughout Nova Scotia when the province was still being settled.

The museum is located on 60 acres of the original 800 acre grant given to Captain William Ross. Five generations of the Ross family have lived and worked on Ross Farm between 1816 and 1970, when the New Ross District Museum Society purchased the property. Even today many of the people who work at Ross Farm are descendants of early settlers in the area!

Continue reading 'Making Snowshoes At Ross Farm'

This past Saturday I went to a demonstration by Rob Cosman, ‘Your Hand Tools Coach’. Rob was in town and at Busy Bee Tools demonstrating his ’4 minute dovetails’, his sharpening techniques and some new tools.

I hadn’t seen a presentation by Rob since I saw him a couple of years ago at a local woodshow when he was working with Lie Nielsen. He was a familiar face at these shows and I always looked forward to seeing him there each year. I also missed him back in 2007 when he spent the day with the Atlantic Woodworkers Association. It was great to be able to catch him here at Busy Bee.

Rob earned a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Technology / Furniture Design at Brigham Young University where he was Dr. Dale L. Nish’s teaching assistant. (Woodturners reading this may find that little tidbit rather interesting, I certainly did! ) Rob has worked some of the world’s master craftsmen, including Alan Peters, Sam Maloof, Tage Frid, Monroe Robinson and Peter Korn. He has operated a custom woodshop in New Brunswick since 1989 and up until a few years ago worked as a sales rep with Lie Nielsen. Now, in addition to offering workshops, seminars and training, he develops and promotes a full line of instructional videos and tools

Rob began his presentation with an explanation and demonstration of his time-honored sharpening method. He honed a plane blade on a 1000 grit stone first and then he created a microbevel on a 30000 (that’s 30K!) stone. This was followed by creating a smaller, finer bevel (a micro-micro bevel?) that he did using a small steel ruler as a jig, which he refered to as the ‘Charlesworth ruler trick’, a technique he learned from furniture maker, David Charlesworth.

Although the actual sharpening process takes only a couple of minutes Rob took the time to clearly explain every step, some tips and tricks and why he was doing something and why he wasn’t doing something. Because sharpening hand tools is often viewed as a mystery there were many questions regarding this which Rob happily answered, ensuring that it was understood before continuing on with his presentation.

Continue reading 'Rob Cosman’s Four Minute Dovetails'

I just got back last Friday from the ultimate winter vacation! Was it in the Caribbean?, Florida?, the Bahamas? Nope, it was in the West Kootenays of British Columbia! Yep, high up in the mountains with the snow, snow and more snow! Those who know me know that I don’t do snow very well so why was it the ultimate vacation? Well, my wife and I, along with our daughter and her boyfriend, spent a week visiting our son and his better half at their lovely new home in the Southeast corner of the province. It was a wonderful week with the whole ‘fam damily’ being together for the first time in a couple of years but what made the trip extra special for me was the chance to do some woodworking with my son. It was several years since we worked on a project together.

He showed an interest in the small boxes that I made and although he runs his own home construction company working on smaller projects is relatively new to him so happily, ‘dear ol’ Dad’ was there to give a ‘leg up’. We decided to make one out of Birds Eye Maple and Walnut.

It measures roughly 8″ X 4″ and is about 4″ high. It was finished with a few light coats of polyurethane.

The Walnut was from a couple of pieces of flooring cutoffs that he had and the Birds Eye Maple was from right here, from the forests of Nova Scotia. That is a story in itself.

He still had an acoustic guitar here at home and my wife decided to bring it out to him and since there was no case for it we wrapped it up in bubble wrap. We needed something to protect the neck of the guitar so what better than to use a 6″ X 1″ X 4 foot piece of down-home Birds Eye Maple running up the back as support? It worked great and got across the country all in one piece! (Sure wish we took a photo of the wrapped guitar. It was wrapped so well that if you dropped it from waist level it would bounce 6 inches off the floor!)

Here are a couple of more photos of the finished box:

Continue reading 'A Winter Woodworking Vacation'