CHAPTER XI

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.