My Month’s Working Wood – Besides the Month-long and the Foundational Courses

Well, this is indeed a good conclusion to a seven week stint training new-genre woodworkers. My posts have showcased them and  their very fine standards of workmanship. This top pic shows what I did behind the scenes too, and sometimes in front. One of the wonderful thing about lifestyle-woodworking is that nothing stops the creative flow from flowing and I think that though my work was multifaceted, I was still able to make my designs productively. This of course inspires those in the class,and by multi-faceted I mean many faced, it’s the faces in different phases that I recall.

Whereas my work was by-productive in that teaching and training took prime place, I kept on making as I worked with everyone and guided them through their projects

The tool chest of course paralleled their tool chest and I obviously used my making one as the demonstration piece that developed into a useable chest. It also parallels the current woodworkingmasterclasses.com series the fourth episode of which I just watched here at Philadelphia airport.

I boxed this up and paid for a second piece of luggage on my plane and it came it right at #50.8 with the curly maple board I bought and the seven spoons. Pine weighs 25% less than oak so I was glad I chose the pine for my wood. The crate was 3/4″ ply skinned on the large faces with 1/4″ ply.

In my other checked bag is the Craftsman-inspired table that matches my coffee tab;e of the last woodworkingmasterclasses.com series. This drawing/writing/laptop/dining table has a lift up tabletop that stores my drawing book, pencils and my iPad and notebook. Size can be adjusted for larger laptops. I use none slip shelf liner underneath the tech-stuff so I can elevate or not. Same for my journal and other books. It works great.

This iPad dock has a sliding dovetailed bar and through tenons from the dado. I find it works great in the shop and also it would be ideal for recipe following in the kitchen too. Cards, books and kindles will work as well as the iPad.

The canes of course are little trickier, but they need so few tools and I liked the Auriou rasps I used to make them happen.

Of course they are not cheap, but boy you should see them motor through rosewood and oak.

The spoons are a favourite with everyone and recently I was in a US supermarket and saw some beautifully finished ones made from beech. Time was when US models were so cheap and nasty because they had no competition and they wanted them for $1. Now the Asian ones are selling for $8 and they are made completely by machine to excellent standards. That said, there is a demand for finely made ones and I have sold spoons since 1987 for between $18 and $35; never less than $18.

I made these saw horses because we needed some in the shop. It’s a pattern I learned as a boy and they are always made in pairs. It’s an afternoon’s work to make two and we will be doing a woodworkingmasterclasses on this, the spoon making and the cane and staff making soon.

The tool carrier we already filmed. I made this to show how fast and efficient hand methods were.