The apprentice year one

My Career began in 1990 at a place called Idar- Oberstein, Germany where I started as an apprentice in the trade of Tool and Die making.
The main focus of the apprenticeship is to teach the history and all the basics of the trade, including the manufacturing methods that are required, this actually starts with: Me, a block of steel, a Vise, a scribe, a ruler, and a file in my hand.
The funny thing is at the time this seemed exiting and I was awaiting my fist lessons in proper use of a file. The excitement wore off after about four months of using files and hacksaw, maybe that big blister on my hand had something to do with it? I also not only learned how to file flat and square, I also learned that one side of the file is convex to compensate for the movement of you arms. This helps to keep the file from taking too much material off the edges of the part and less material off the center. I also did a fair amount of work with a chisel to learn about cutting angles and the result of changing them. The chisel makes an excellent tool to teach this as you can vary angles by just holding it at a different angle or grind the chisel angle to get a quick feedback on forces required at different angles of the cutting edge.