SIMPLE WOODWORK
Children as young as seven can begin woodwork, but the little strength
they possess for sawing makes it necessary to give them prepared wood,
called stripwood. There is no need, however, to begin woodwork in too
great a hurry, so many are the toys which the children can make with
match-boxes, corks, paper and files, and the more familiar the child
gets with his ruler and with simple measurements, the better able he
is to saw to advantage. Woodwork may well be postponed to the age of
eight or nine, then the child can begin to measure accurately and be
introduced by degrees to the mysteries of set-squares, try-squares and
T-squares.
[Illustration: FIG. 192]
The following tools are necessary when beginning easy woodwork with
children from seven to ten years of age; other tools, described in Part
II, can be added as the children advance in age and in ambition:
1. Bench-hooks, against which children can press their strips of wood
and hold them firmly. A simple one is shown in Fig. 192. C is a piece of
hard wood about 8 inches square, A is a strip of hard wood against which
the child can hold her wood, B is a strip of wood that presses against
the table.
2. Try-squares.
3. A brass-back saw with a blade about 6 inches long.
4. A light hammer.
5. Files--these are very cheap. Some must be round; the others should be
8-inch files, 1/2 cut (one safe edge).
6. Bradawls (or meat skewers).
7. A pair of pincers.
Other materials required will be liquid glue, sand-paper, nails--useful
ones are 3/4 and 1/2 veneer pins.
With regard to wood, children as young as seven should be given prepared
lengths (schools are commonly supplied with the so-called satin walnut,
machine-planed, see next chapter), from which they can saw portions for
making simple objects, such as picture frames, ladders, gates, objects
which consist of different lengths of wood nailed across each other.
A word of advice is necessary with regard to sand-paper; this varies in
coarseness from No. 00 to No. 3, every sheet being stamped. It should
never be used until all work with edged tools is finished, as the
particles of sand left on the surface dull an edged tool. When using
sand-paper on a flat surface it should be wrapped round a rectangular
block of wood. All corners should be left as sharp as they are left by
the edged tools and rarely sand-papered. Lastly, always sand-paper with
the grain.
The bradawl varies in size or diameter of the steel shaft from 1/16 inch
to 1/8 inch or 3/16 inch. The legitimate purpose of the bradawl is to
bore holes in wood so as to ensure the passage of a nail or screw in the
right direction, and to facilitate its entrance into the wood.
Three words of advice might be remembered by teachers beginning woodwork:
(1) Don't begin it too soon; don't begin woodwork with children of seven
and eight because others do; wait until they are really ready, until
they have the necessary strength. There is plenty for them to do in
measuring and cutting out paper toys and toys of thin cardboard; they
will enjoy the woodwork the more when it comes.
(2) Simple doll's furniture, chairs and tables, are not easy for the
child to make.
(3) Leave behind as soon as possible prepared stripwood and its
everlasting gates, railings, bridges, or picture frames.
_Suggestions for Teachers who are beginning Woodwork with their Forms._
Let the children measure out and cut a square of wood to support the
merry-go-round, make the stand for the swinging boats and great wheel
(Chapter XIV). Make the Noah's Ark and dog kennel described in Chapter X.
A very simple toy for beginners is a =Flat-bottomed Boat=. A flat,
oblong piece of wood is marked out as in Fig. 193, the bow and stern are
cut as indicated; the three dots down the central line indicate the
position of the masts. These can be made of wooden meat skewers or of
pieces of strip wood (1/4" × 1/4") rounded toward the top.
[Illustration: FIG. 193]
Nails are driven through the bottom of the boat so that they project
about half an inch above the surface; on to these points the masts
are hammered, having first had a little glue applied to the base;
nails are hammered carefully round the sides for railings, with cotton
intertwined. Funnels of red paper, little squares of wood for cabins,
paper or cardboard lifebuoys and anchors, a captain's bridge, etc., may
be added (see Fig. 194).
[Illustration: FIG. 194]
Children delight in tying thread from mast to mast (a ridge must be
filed round the tops of the masts to keep the cotton from slipping down)
and in decorating this thread with flags.
Instead of nails, stripwood (1/4" × 1/4") may be glued or nailed along
the sides, and a piece of wood nailed over the bow (Fig. 195). These
boats will float on water if they are not too heavily laden with cabins,
etc. Fig. 196 shows a fishing-boat complete.
[Illustration: FIG. 195]
A reel will be found very useful as an anvil when driving the nails
through the bottom of the boat to hold the masts. The child should
hold his piece of wood--through which he is driving a nail--in such a
position that when the point comes through the wood, the nail makes its
passage down the hole in the middle of the reel. As soon as the point
has been driven through to a certain distance, the child can lift up
his wood and examine--and if need be correct--the direction of the nail
before fixing on the mast.
[Illustration: FIG. 196]
Hammering must be done with the hammer held with the hand well back from
the head, and each blow struck so that the flat face of the hammer falls
exactly upon the head of the nail. Gentle but firm blows are necessary;
heavy blows are likely to bend the nails. All bent nails should be at
once drawn out.