My first 2 weeks at Don Bosco

I decided to take a 1-year sabbatical leave from my regular job as a software engineer in the semiconductor industry to study woodworking. I chose a school in Nice called Don Bosco (After a 19th century priest from Turin, Italy, who took care of poor kids - Luckily the school is open to all religions and does not enforce any kind of religious teaching!).

I have been there 2 weeks already, and I am very happy with the quality of the courses. There are 10 of us in the class (5 youngsters and 5 adults), with varying degrees of experience. Of course we start at the basics: sharpening, hand tools (chisels, saws, hand planes). The tools are provided by the school.

Here are the first joints I made:

Tenons, mortises & half-laps - open

Tenons, mortises & half-laps - assembled

Detail of corner mortise

Detail of center mortise

This week we are learning how to use machines. We have a fine assortment, from sturdy old horizontal mortisers to recent, numerically-controlled tenoning machines, joiners and thicknessers, scary table saws and spindle-moulders.