Dovetail Class at PFW

I went to school at Philadelphia University, and I now teach at Philadelphia University...little did I know that not 1 mile around the corner from campus lay the Philadelphia Furniture Workshop, run by Mario Rodriguez, and Alan Turner. This past weekend I got some help on my dovetails, all I can say is that PFW is a great school and their style and teaching methods are great. Here are some photos from the class.

Here's a shot of the teaching space, benches with Record vises and bench on benches. I got to use all kinds of new tools, the Gramercy Dovetail Saw , Veritas Dovetail Saw, and the Lie-Neilsen Dovetail Saw. I also used Shapton water stones, which were pretty cool. They out a great edge on chisels and plane irons really fast. I do have to say though, my favorite tool of the whole class was the Gramercy 12" Carcass saw... I fell in love with it. I need to have one. I have a commission coming up so I think I'll spring for it. I also loved the LN bronze No. 2 plane...super sweet.

Here's a shot of my space, I had to build a few tools, including a cutting gage, a marking knife a fret saw, and some chisel and plane rehabs.

Here's my first set of through dovetails, I have a bit of a gap, but I'm otherwise very happy with how they came out.

And here's the set of blind dovetails, we cut today. I had a chisel slip on the left side, and my houndstooth baseline is a little rough. I'm still happy with them.

I also left with a Starret double square...I love this tool too.