This week has been taken up with finishing the first of my polishing articles for Furniture & Cabinetmaking and preparing the site for the timber framed workshop that my friend has asked me to build for him. Work starts in earnest on that next week, let's hope that the weather holds! The site is greensand on chalk and well drained so a sleeper wall is being built by his landscapers and I will rest 4 by 2 treated timber joists on that. Some have suggested that the 4 by 2s are over-specified but I do like to have a solid floor to build off. Pictures will follow next week.

The polishing article, which is an overview of the main processes and materials that I use needed some pictures. As this was the first of the articles it was really just an introduction not an in depth explanation, but it still needed some pictures to break up the text. So I made up a demonstration panel on a pre-veneered offcut board. It always pleases me how quickly a good surface can be achieved using just shellac and wax. This set me thinking, back in the 1970s when I trained, polishers used to have a "box" that they took out for site work. All it had in it were some bottles of shellac in various cuts, some brushes and rubbers, powder colours and waxes. They would also have some abrasive papers, steel wool, alcohol and white spirit. And that is about all you need for finishing. I may sound like an old codger but nowadays there does seem to be a confusing amount of finishes available when really someone starting off should stick to the simple tried and trusted recipes. All my students are impressed with shellac once I introduce it to them and they never have to learn any fancy spiriting off or other arcane arts unless they want to!

Last week I began a new warm up exercise for the Saturday class - 5 minute dovetails. It is an often made point, musicians and sportsmen do warm up exercises, why not woodworkers? You cannot expect to just start cutting accurately at the start of the day unless you are a pro. So cut a quick single dovetail off the saw to get you going. Set one tail out by eye, saw it and mark the pins from the tail, saw them, pare if necessary and assemble. Easy. Fear of dovetails gone.