Flying in to another new year

My bags are still unpacked and this is no rinkydink schedule coming up. The winds here are frightening, but hopefully they will subside before I fly early Sunday morning. Joseph and I took a good walk a couple of days ago and we are excited for the opportunity to again share our vision for the future of woodworking with the thousands visiting The Woodworking Shows over the next few weeks. We just finished filming the next series, so that frees me to travel before the next month of filming for our woodworkingmasterclasses.com and that excites me all the more.
In a few days we start making dovetail joints, the through or common dovetail, which is of course another of the three most important joints used throughout woodworking. Hopefully you have completed at least the first two projects we designed for your training, even though the projects themselves may not be the projects you want or need. You may well realize that it isn’t so much the project itself that matters, but first the joinery and then the joints in relation to one another. Working accurately now holds more depth and breadth than previously and thereby very different meaning in that it, accuracy, no longer relies on a preset machine with guides and stops or programmed CNC equipment but your personal wholly attentive involvement. You now determine your own level of sensitivity to the elements surrounding outcome. You engaging sense equips you and enables you to perform tasks that now rely on the information transmitted to your brain directly through the senses in the minutest fractions of a second. You now adjust your body to ensure accurate presentation of the tool to the wood, and then apply measured pressure and self control to enter the wood without bruising the wood or allowing miscuts through carelessness. How you set your plane and sharpen the tools you use becomes intuitive as you repeat exercises, rehearse a particular action and practice by adjustment to what you see, hear and feel happening in your hand and at your fingertips.

For those who missed our important opening projects, you can easily catch up at any time to suit your schedule.

You don’t have to make the projects even though we recommend that you do. You can simply create the joints in shortened lengths of wood and treat them as exercises. We will have them available soon and so they will be downloadable for catchup.

 

 

Beyond that, upcoming training through the exercises and projects we’ve designed quickly expand your working knowledge and skill . Following our masterclasses training plan, within a few months of evenings and weekends, you will be able to build projects that hitherto you may have only ever dreamed of. We focus on hand tool methods first because they really empower you to take total control. It’s a real upper body, mind coordinating dimension for exercising yourself in working wood and thousands of your fellow woodworkers are discovering the art of traditional hand work.

The projects shown at top rely on one joint alone. In a few weeks we will be building one of my toolbox designs. This joint becomes simpler as you make each of the projects and it’s through this rote repetition that the joint then begins to make total sense. That being so, we can safely introduce some very unique concepts for guaranteed half-lap dovetails for tills, drawers and much more. Stick with us and you will find the skills no machine can ever give you and you will be making heirloom pieces in just a few short weeks.

 

 

I know that you may not feel ready, but here too are two more projects we have planned for the online broadcast at woodworkingmasterclasses. and if you haven’t yet made your workbench go to our Youtube account here to see what it takes to build your own bench for under $100. It’s a lifetime bench you will never want to leave behind and it will match any bench you ever care to name bar none.

Meanwhile, for those going to the Baltimore show 4-6 January, I will see you there. Stop by the bench with your friends for demonstrations that will knock your socks off.