A Day With Garrett Hack

Stuart Ablett

Member
Messages
15,917
Location
Tokyo Japan
I got the workbench up out of the Dungeon and into my micro van with the help of my buddy Neil in less than 45 min, that is the whole van loaded ready to go early the next morning.

YIktS.jpg


The van was full, but I was also able to seat Garrett and myself, and Alex, who we picked up on the way to the class.

Q6CG6.jpg


Q6CG6.jpg

The class was well attended, I think there were about 25 people there.

iFDpW.jpg

QZETJ.jpg

Garrett using my old cracked No 7 jointer.

NsIri.jpg

9s9bL.jpg

QBI4v.jpg

And my no 4 1/2 smoother.

It was a great day, I learned a lot and made some new friends, as well as renewing some old friendship.

I'll post some more later, got to run now!

Cheers!
 
Looking forward to your next post, Stu. I see Garrett's inlay sample board laying on your bench. Did he do a demonstration of his stringing technique?
 
Yeah, it was a good day, but a long one!
I was up at 6:30 AM and was out the door just after 7:00 AM, picked up Garrett at his hotel at 7:30 AM and then Alex at 7:45 AM. We stopped for breakfast and were on our way to the venue at about 9:05 AM, then I missed the turn off from the highway, and ran into the tail end of the Sunday morning line up to get into Disneyland!! By the time I got turned around and on the way back to the missed turn off, we got to the parking at about 9:50 AM, whoops! Sugita san was set up and the crowd was waiting, Garrett went up and the first part of the class was just talking about, or introducing the various plane types and what they are for. At the first coffee break I got the bench set up and we were on our way, no real damage done, whew!

As always I learned a lot from Garrett, he is a very good teacher, he boils things down to what you need to know, builds a foundation of knowledge, that I find leads you to ask more questions, which he then answers. This was not a lecture, it was truly a classroom learning type of thing.

Sugita san's daughter, who is a pro photographer, came along and took a ton of pictures, I can't wait to see them!

After the class we came back to my house and unloaded the truck, we had the bench down in the Dungeon and back in it's usual place in less then 30 minutes, not easy, but certainly not impossible! We then met up with Garrett's lovely wife Carolyn and all of us went for dinner, we had a fun, wide ranging conversation, and a few well earned beers.

I look forward to sharing more pics when I get them, and to seeing and learning more from Garrett when I can.

Bill, Garrett showed the inlay boards, but he did not show that technique, the main thrust of this class was all about handplanes, they are NOT popular here in Japan, we are out to change that!
 
About the cracked No 7 Jointer plane, basically Garrett said that they are repairable,.. you can fix them, he has several fixed ones, that he uses all the time. He suggested that I try to fix it, and if if fails, then save the parts, and get another plane, either save up for a LN unit or get another good used one, as I do have the upgraded blade already.

Cheers!
 
Sounds like a fantastic day Stu :thumb:

It was Bob, thanks!

I forgot to mention that Garrett, being the very nice guy that he is, gave me one of his handmade Scratch Stocks that he uses to put an edge of projects.....

OuviP.jpg

... He even gave me a precut bit, or what every you call the piece of steel that one uses in a scratch stock, looks like some old bandsaw blade I guess.

I have a similar one that I made after his last visit, but it sure is nice having one from the master himself!

Cheers!
 
Top