Every time a police officer heads to work, a spouse, mother, father or child worries. They want that officer to be safe and come home without incident. Police officers have a job to do. That job carries risks that are higher than many other jobs. They are trained to minimize there exposure to harm but they have to put themselves in harms way to do their job. That's the thin blue line.
A civilized society does not exist without law and order. Our police officers are tasks with maintaining that order. That literally ranks their profession near the top of the list of importance to our very well-being.
To all the officers and their families, thank you.
I helped teach a small class of new to the scroll saw students today at Woodcraft. The class was a lot of fun and it reminded me of a few lessons.
The students made great progress in the two and a half hour class. As is normal there was a little frustration in the early going. Here are a couple of things that I think we can all take from watching new students learn.
Cutting with a scroll saw requires a light touch. You don't want to grasp the wood with too tight of a grip. You don't want to push the wood down on the table until your knuckles turn white. You need to feel the feedback you get from the cut and only use as much force as is required to control the board.
This feedback from the blade cutting the wood allows us to make tight turns, follow the line without drifting and not overshooting a turn. It is probably the most important technique we can develop.
The next critical lesson from today is how important it is to learn to use the side and back of the blade to stop the cut while you make a turn. Telling a student about this technique is easy but it's not easy for that student to implement it. None of the students had become consistent using the non-cutting parts of the blade by lessons end. The good news is that they all recognized why and when it was important and tried to correct the issue. It will just take a little more time on the saw to get it down.
I was thinking about the class as I drove home and it made me ask myself if I could become better at these basics if I actively thought about them as I cut a project. Many of us have been cutting sense before the invention of dirt. We go into automatic mode when we sit at the saw.
How many times do we do a warm-up before we start cutting a project? I would bet we have all experienced the cutting mistakes that we make early in a project because we are not warmed up. I know that I get more accurate about five minutes into a cut. I know I should use those five minutes to warm up but rarely do.
I guess my challenge to you all is to analyze your cuts the next time you sit at your saw. Are there areas that could use improvement? I know there are for me. Why not try to correct those weaknesses and become a stronger sawyer.
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your source for Pegas scroll saw blades and craft supplies.
Let me teach you to create a beautiful wooden portrait pattern. I will show you everything you need from start to finish. The video will show you the free software program you can download for Windows or Mac OS. I will show you how to install the program and configure it for best results.
Then I will show you the technique to take your photograph and make a pattern from it. When the pattern is complete we will go in the shop and cut it.
The DVD is $10 plus shipping. This is a data DVD that you will use on your computer to watch the video tutorial
This DVD has 1,964 patterns published from 2007 thru 2016.
The DVD is $20 plus shipping. Ships to 60 countries around the world.
The DVD is $20 plus shipping. Ships to 60 countries around the world.
You can view a video showing use of the DVD on a Windows PC and a MAC at this link
Click here to Order.
Click here to Order.
My two "Wooden Vases on the Scroll Saw" books make it easy.
The books are $12 each and available for instant download after purchase. Click for Video
Demonstration.
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