“Probably not many of you have got it just right. I want you to take off a very thin shaving at first. After one stroke with the plane, you will see how to alter it,” continued the instructor, as the boys made their first attempt. Some of the planes took off no shaving at all, and some dug deep into the wood.
“What do you call a thin shaving, Mr. Brookbine?” asked Jim Alburgh.
“One not thicker than a piece of ordinary writing-paper to begin with. By and by you can
take a thick shaving, when you have learned how. We must feel our way, and not spoil the board,” replied the carpenter, as he walked along by the boys, and looked at each plane.
After a second or third stroke of the tool, the shaving was right all along the line. The workmen were required to plane till they had a smooth surface. Some of them were nicer and more particular than others, and the latter were told to do theirs over again. This discipline soon made them all careful.
“Now, lift the end of the board, and sight along the edge of it,” said Mr. Brookbine, doing as he described with the board nearest to him. “This piece slants, or bevels, on the edge; and very likely all the rest of them have the same fault.”
“Mine does,” added Phil Gawner. “I could slide down hill on it.”
“Is that what the squinting is for?” asked Tom Ridley. “I have often seen carpenters do it.”
“That is what it is for. You are to educate your eye so that you can tell at a glance whether a piece of work is straight, or not. I dare say, you can’t tell now whether the edge of the board
is true, or not,” added Mr. Brookbine, as he passed along the benches, and examined the work of each boy.