Wood Craft

 Time and again I travel back to my School days for we learnt  there much more besides the proverbial 3 Rs. We had a subject called Craft , which was basically a wood craft where we learnt the basics  . In smaller classes we were made familiar with the Fretsaw used to cut plywood with. The Fretsaw was a thin sleek U shaped instrument , of which the loose ends had knob and screw to fix the two ends of a thin delicate blade. The Fretsaw cost anything between ₹2 & ₹3.The blade would cost 5p or 10p. We were required to make cut out of pictures fixed on the plywood, which also required a technique . 2-3 blades had to be kept at a time because being delicate, they broke easily as continued running through plywood would heat them up . Sooner than later we learnt the trick. We would give the saw rest rather frequently. A 5p blade would last through 3 or even 4 medium sized cut outs.The plywood was arranged from known shopkeeper who had these as an emptied packing material. We made cut outs of the pictures of leaders and religious entities.  With a piece of wood fixed at the bottom backside, these would serve as decoration on mantelpiece or a table.