Posted by Paul Sellers on 19 May 2013 in Paul Sellers' Blog | 2 comments

This highly provocative issue is a regular question for me and I usually avoid the controversy. I might be guessing here, but I would say that from my personal experience, most woodworkers who actually made their living from furniture making and woodworking in general cut their tails first. of course everyone is entitled to their opinion whether they are right or wrong. It's a strange new world this world that changes with each typed symbol that others occupying the globe read, judge and pass opinions Read More

Posted by Paul Sellers on 16 May 2013 in Paul Sellers' Blog | 0 comments

Today was the fifth day of challenging work but progress brings new confidence, a few jokes, some kickback to absorb the changes and a sense of genuine wellbeing that's hard to match on a computer keyboard. The days past fast now we all have the second project done we are ready to tackle the oak table. We dished out legs for surface planing and most everyone went straight to the diamond plates to sharpen up their number four Stanley planes. Some already have it. They have followed my training on Read More

Posted by Paul Sellers on 15 May 2013 in Paul Sellers' Blog | 0 comments

Sometimes there are classic designs that somehow defy time. This is of course an Arts and Crafts design I make in my classes. I just saw a beautiful chair design on the back of the latest Fine Woodworking magazine and it made me conscious of just how many designs have come about through the decades and centuries. We were talking about the simplicity of Sam Maloof's design today in class and indeed the simplicity of making what is essentially a simple design that's as simple to make as the design Read More

Posted by Paul Sellers on 14 May 2013 in Paul Sellers' Blog | 1 comment

A New Nine-day Workshop Changes the Lives of More People Tomorrow we will be on the 4th day of our nine-day Foundational Woodworking course here in Upstate New York. When I arrived two weeks ago the trees were in bud and now with outspread leaf a green tinge softens the rays, goslings rest on the edges of the pond and the swampy woodland beyond is vibrant with spring life. Since the success of the pervious two-day workshop we have started out latest course. The correlation between woodworkingmasterclasses.com Read More

Posted by Paul Sellers on 10 May 2013 in Paul Sellers' Blog | 3 comments

Of Course They Do - and Exceptionally Well Too. Today I read an article that stated that, "We invented iron quick-release vises, which won't hold much of anything relating to woodworking." Bemused by this, I wondered why it was said and then I wondered why hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of woodworkers used something that didn't, according to the author, "hold anything relating to woodworking". The quick release vise has indeed stood the rigours of testing for a century now and has sold over Read More

Posted by admin on 10 May 2013 in Paul Sellers' Blog | 2 comments

...determines the outcome It's said that the one who frames the issues determines the outcome. With frame saws that may not be so predictable and so I found myself drifting with thoughts of frame saws these past few weeks and the thought crossed my mind that rigid plate steel saws like the ones developed in Britain and further developed in the USA by people like Henry Disston might seem to be a more advanced methodology than say the mainland European frame saw. It struck me then that thin plate Read More