Harrogate’s North of England Woodworking Show

The first day of the show is over and all went very smoothly with non-stop demonstrating from 10am to 2pm with no breaks and no slow down. Right from the start it was very much wall to wall people and wanted to know more and more about real woodworking at the bench with hand tools.

I was demonstrating hand planes from both Lie Nielsen and Veritas in fairly equal portion and people really like the way they work. Phil Edwards and I partnered demoing throughout the day and we did knock their socks off with everything from shooting planes to high angle (York pitch) planes, bullnose and shoulder planes to the new genre bevel ups form both camps. Great! These makers have put a lot into their products to make the best and against all odds have brought tools to market I can only ever regard with great respect.

 

Now for those of you who don’t know Phil Edwards, he is a planemaker of renown in his own right and specialises in traditional wooden planes. They are very beautiful and work wonderfully too.

 

 

I demonstrated my 2-minute dovetail in 1.5 minutes; my fastest time in front of an audience yet and everyone really loved my new book and videos so I think it was a successful day all round.

Tomorrow I will tell you about a furniture maker named Richard McGuire who makes very fine workbenches from hardwood as well as medieval furniture using riven wood and only traditional hand tools such as froes, axes wooden bench planes and such he researches his pieces to discover their origins and features. You will really love the real woodworker.