When One Tampa Show Closes…

…there is Atlanta Georgia
It has been ten years since I was in beautiful city of Atlanta Georgia and tomorrow I will hopefully touch down there for the Atlanta Woodworking Show’s last show of the season if not the year. I truly enjoyed the warmth of the Sunshine State and I am not talking about its sunny warmth but its woodworking people and those that make Tampa tick as a whole.
On one side of me at the show I had Roland Johnson of Fine Woodworking fame and he taught a variety of workshops to demystify woodworking on many levels including the hand plane, bandsaw and scrapers. On the other side of me I had my friend Paul who’s known more as the Crazy Canadian for some of the craziest things you have seen in woodworking. But beyond the crazies, Paul has developed a series of mechanized support holders that relate to the bandsaw and make resawing, bowl blank cutting and many other bandsaw operations safe, accurate and trouble free. Using his dogging system enables you to take limbs from trees and even tree stems and convert them from what might be only firewood to usable lumber without buying a more industrial set up like a sawmill.
Directly opposite I had Legacy CNC Woodworking who have an amazing CNC setup that unites your computer to a mechanized system for producing and or replicating machine turned components for production parts. Legacy is a USA-based company manufacturing their equipment here in the USA and watching how they operate was fascinating. Anyone who needs this form of production or replication should connect with them because they are not new to the world of CNC set-ups and they know their onions.
On the other side of them, and again facing me, was Craft Supplies who I am certain have taught more turning workshops and workshops on pen blank turning than any other organization I know of.

I watched Kirk DeHeer of Woodcraft Supplies turn a hand chased lidded box from some burl right before the show started and I was so sorry not to have my camera to hand for a photograph of it for this blog. It was just stunning, and the threads were absolutely pristine. This just shows you what’s behind some of the scenes at The Woodworking Shows and the valued experienced Bryce brings to support woodworkers in the USA.
My R&R takes me to the Museum of Science and Industry here in Tampa this morning. I will report later today if there is something interesting there.