Card Table Class Wrap-up

Saturday we ended the Baltimore Card Table class at Kelly Mehler’s School of Woodworking in Berea, Ky. Much to my disappointment, no one finished the table completely. That’s not an indictment against the guys in the class, but more of an indication of my expectations, lofty as they might have been. I guess I should have gotten a clue when one of the participants asked me Tuesday afternoon if I worked at this pace in my shop.
 
In my first blog from Berea (click here), we had assembled the brick-laid table bases and had the legs tapered. By the second entry on Wednesday (read it here), we were into the veneer of the base fronts and working toward the string inlay. As you may remember from that entry, I expected there would no problem completing the work on the table by the end of class. Oops!

So on Thursday we began the string work on the legs and aprons, and created the double-knuckle jointed, swing-leg assembly. Things were moving along. I expected we could complete the stringing in a half-day on Friday, then begin the edge banding and string-inlay work on the top, then wrap up the work on Saturday before departing for home.

By noon on Friday, without the apron and leg stringing completed (that could easily be finished up at home), we moved on to the top. It took longer than I thought it would to create the veneer edge band, get it glued to the top and trimmed so we could begin routing for the string. By this point we were into Saturday. Bummer. My hopes of completion were quickly fading.

Before the guys began departing at around 2:30 in the afternoon, most everyone had the string areas cut and a majority of the base and leg stringing complete. No one had assembled his table (that’s the photo I planned to open this entry with), but everything was cut and ready to install except the tabletop string material. And nobody had routed the swing legs to wrap around the back edge of the apron. Unfortunately, that will have to be finished at home, too.

A class observation (besides my distorted sense of what could be accomplished in a six-day class): Woodworkers who are not regularly in the shop 40,60 hours per week are likely to fade as the week progresses (I resemble that remark these days). Everyone came into the class psyched and ready to bust out a table. But I noticed the pace slowing at an earlier time with each passing day. In fact, there were a couple guys who returned to the hotel to nap before dinner on Thursday. And on Saturday, before leaving for home, a few guys asked that I rout the string channel for the top’s edge , they were too tired and had information overload.

I don’t want it to sound like I drove the guys to the brink. It wasn’t a military boot camp. These are a great group of woodworkers and we had tons of banter during the week. We discussed issues surrounding the table and looked for better methods to resolve those issues. We made decisions based on a consensus of opinion and I’ll bet everyone discovered a few new techniques and different methods of work to take back to his shop and use on future projects. And as always, I learned a few things from the class that I’ll take back to my shop and use.

It has been decided that this class will run again at Kelly Mehler’s School of Woodworking in 2010. So if you’re looking for a challenging class and a fun week where you’ll get scads of woodworking information, check out the school’s 2010 schedule. Or contact the school at Kelly@kellymehler.com. We will adjust the work and strive to complete the tables during the six days allotted.

– Glen D. Huey

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