Closing the Work Year
As the close of another year arrives and we enjoy a holiday break to celebrate and rest in, I want to thank you all for the incredible support you’ve given to the work we do throughout the last year.
We may have felt that the year was somehow incomplete, I think that that would be understandable because conclusion usually results in our seeing something standing in front of us that we have fashioned by our work and we can indeed see it. Brexit seems to be working through the finer details towards something of an agreement. Who knows what that means? I’m not worried though. Europe is and will always be my neighbour. Having lived as much of my adult life in the USA as I have in the UK, I have learned the importance of one thing, people are amazing everywhere and love overcomes all kinds of failures! The same can be said of the COVID-19 pandemic with the development of the vaccine to end its efficiency. This occurrence seems to be ever-evolving and we’re not done with it, so who knows what’s yet to come? I admire the tremendous effort to develop an answer to a worldwide problem. I am sure those involved feel tremendous satisfaction in crafting an answer.
For me, standing at my bench last night, I felt the satisfaction only possible for me through making with my own hands. My Brazos rocking chair rocked fully constructed, sanded and done but not glued up because I want to put on two or three coats before the last finish coat. Additionally, 21 items made from mesquite and oak to give as gifts to my family were completed and I enjoyed wrapping them for family presents. I wanted cutting boards that would be hygienic, resilient and long-lasting. I doubt that many woods will give the resistance to distortion and cracking more than mesquite.
My message to everyone is that making is a special gift to any and all. My methods using hand tools have and are my greatest reward in woodworking. Why? Because it’s what I learned having tried all other methods. My quest in life has been to encourage men and women, children too, to not merely try hand methods but persevere for a period long enough to feel confident skills come into their lives; I have learned not to give up too soon and lose what could have been gained. I wish that more women would pursue woodworking and that there had never been a culture that prevented women from enjoying my woodworking craft. And I mean the art and craft of handwork, not machining wood. I have trained several women in my craft and seen only success. Hannah has been apprenticing with me for four years and is an amazing woodworker. But it is still difficult to get the kind of support that’s needed to see a significant turn and especially is this so in hand tool realms.
With a healthy stack of completed work concluded around me and in front of me, and the shop looking a little more wrecked than I like, I felt thankfulness rise inside of me for the skills in my hands and the work I do. The physical dynamics of hand-making have always been good for my physical strength and mental wellbeing which is that incomparable something I call simply ‘completion‘. Thank you everyone for all that you have contributed to my efforts and I hope many more will see that skill will come to everyone who perseveres in the early days with the support of others.
Enjoy some peace and rest my friends. You are the future of hand tool woodworking. Without you, woodworking as we know it will die. We cannot rely on the professional realms nor me anymore. I plan to spend the rest of my life teaching and training, writing and making videos, but your enthusiasm and passion for hand tools and woodworking that way relies on you using the skills and passing on what was once called ‘the trade secrets!’
A new year comes once again and you look back on your journey with all the hand woodworking you’ve done over the year and feel real satisfaction. Thanks to you paul for reminding us all it is possible.
This year has been a strange one, but in woodworking aspects has been very interesting for me with all those things I’ve learned from you (by the way, my english has become better since I watch your videos, so benefit is double for me).
I’m sure that 2021 will be even more interesting. Merry Christmas and a happy new year, Paul and team and family, and thank you again for all you do.
Paul, I can’t thank you enough for the support, encouragement and knowledge you so kindly pass on. All of those have given me the much-needed courage to take on projects, big and small, and over the months of this weird pandemic isolation, my baement workshop has transformed from a mess of unfinished projects to a place of order, refuge and sustenance. You and your team rock! Have a restful and joyous holiday!
Hi Paul. My Paul Sellers book arrived last Thursday and while I was expecting a quality book I have to say it has exceeded my expectations totally. I look forward to learning from it and practicing my new found skills. In years to come most people will review 2020 as a very bad year and rightly so. For me the big silver lining will be that it was the year I started woodworking. Mostly thanks to your work. Thank you. Brian.
Hey, are you in the USA? I’ve ordered my book on December 4th and haven’t gotten any updates on when it will arrive. All requests for update to Rokesmith have went unanswered…
I can’t answer this personally because obviously, I don’t ship books as well. I will look into this for you, Stan. I doubt that your request has ever been ignored as we answer queries on a daily basis, the exception being over Christmas, so something may have slipped.
Thanks Mr Sellers. I always appreciate everything you do for us little people 🙂
Hi Stan. I am in Dublin, Ireland which probably explains why I received my copy quicker. I ordered at the same time and it arrived last Thursday.
I have struggled for years trying to make pieces to a standard that is personally acceptable. In past times I thought machinery was the way to achieve that, how wrong I was.
I have made more progress towards that goal in the last 3 months than in a decade of hard and costly lessons. Paul, thank you so much for your efforts on our behalf.
Hi Paul, I would like to start by thanking you for all the knowledge you have passed on to us. You have inspired me to get into hand tools and since then have perfered them over my electric tools. I even got my dad into watching your videos and he said for the first time in his life was able to understand how to properly use a hand plane. He has even gone out and bought one. Hope you have a great holiday season with your family and cant wait to see what the new year brings us.
The final picture, of the Bezos rocking chair, had me confused for a bit. Then again, it illustrates that it’s all a matter of perspective.
Perhaps the person who built the chair thought the blueprint was specified in cm, not inches. Metrical or imperial. Even NASA projects have failed because of confusion in that regard.
Knowing the crafstman, though, and his fluency in both metric and imperial measures, the most likely explanation is that, somewhere, a little girl is now very happily rocking her doll in a unique doll chair.
Best wishes for 2021.
Well, “Captain”, it’s also quite possible that rocker was built for a “Wee One” as I have a similarly sized one I bought for my son shortly after he turned six. (Of course he out grew it almost overnight, or so it seemed.) Now, while Jeff Bezos may sell rockers on his Amazon website, I’m sure Texans know where the Rio Brazos is in their state. Hope your Christmas went well and may we all have a much Happier New Year.
2020 will stay in my mind as the year I spent in the shed. The year I learned, finally, how to set and sharpen a chisel. How to restore an abandoned tenon saw I pulled out of the grass. The year of eventually mastering the clean cut, tight fitting mortice and tenon and for the first time truly appreciating how my old Stanley #4 is supposed to work (and why it didn’t).
The year I made more bits and bobs than I ever remember making before. Unobtainable parts for prewar cars. Cleats, fairleads, anchor chocks and tillers for old boats, and some not so old. Garden furniture and shelters and handrails for an old friend with arthritic hips. Almost all made from what someone else decided was scrap. Broken down Victorian mahogany furniture, offcuts of stainless steel and aluminium and the ends off some square oak beams which taught me a little about carving and a lot more about patience.
The year I made friends who I have never met in person and probably never will.
So I can’t say 2020 was a write-off for me and your teaching has been a good part of the positive side of it. Thank you.
Also if I may, thanks to Hannah for the kind note she sent me. The one human quality I prize over all is good manners and I was delighted by the card.
Best wishes to you all for the coming year.
Paul, stumbling upon your videos and instruction at the beginning of the pandemic have set me on a path of lifetime woodworking, I’m sure of it I made nine cookbook/tablet stands for my family members for Christmas and can’t wait to start on a proper workbench soon. Thank you so much for passing on your knowledge and making it approachable for all. Happy holidays!
Thanks for enriching our lives and abilities Paul. Among the many banal offerings on YouTube, your work shines out as different, interesting and accomplished, yet accessible.
Yes, 2020 has been something of a Year. Laid off on April Fool’s Day, I decided to put a positive spin on it and retire – at 69-1/2 yrs old it somehow made sense. Stumbled onto your blog, which led to your YouTube videos, which led to your Masterclasses. It inspired me to clean up my shop, clean off my workbench, and taught me the difference between ‘sharp’ and ‘SHARP!’ As an engineer, I watch each segment of your videos 3 times – the first time, with sound off, taking in the overall scope – second time with sound, listening, and tying it all together, and the third time again, trying to pick up the subtle nuances in the work. Very easy to sequence the episodes – 1, 1-2, 1-2-3, 2-3-4 etc, right through to the end. And I’m not ashamed or afraid to go back to a previous episode to finally understand what it is that you said and showed us. Many thanks, and best wishes for a Blessed New Year for all.
Hi Paul.
After a lot of time in the shed i can now sharpen all the key hand tools, dimension wood and do the basic joints. I just finished the tool tote on common woodworking and now I am half way through the dovetail box. In your youtube xmas broadcast you mention skill building and with every project I do I improve my skils. Hope you are doing well. The rocking chair looks class. Happy Christmas to you and your family Paul.
Have loved ALL your ytube articles and encourage to restore the old tools have and enjoy working with them again. All the best for 2021.
Thank you Paul and team for sharing that old knowledge of hand tool woodworking. Where I live, it is nearly impossible to find someone to teach you these skills. Even the old tools are rare.
I feel priviledge to learn from a people like you that share so much! Happy new year!
Happy New Year to you Paul and your family. Thank you for what you do. You have really helped make 2020 more bearable for me. Looking forward to 2021 and what it may bring. Now off to shop for me to sharpen up. My wife has kindly asked for a bread box. Who am I to refuse such a kind request. Sincerely, Joe.
Paul, was just wondering the difference between the Stanley 1-12-137 low angle and the 12 -137 low angle? They are priced different but I can’t seem to find any thing explaining the number 1 in the first designation.
If you know or can find out I would sure like to know! Watch your videos
And enjoy every one. My email is
[email protected]
Thank you Paul
I saw an interview of a paraplegic and he spoke of how he had to reinvent what he thought a man was after losing his physical strength.
I don’t resolve much but I know it’s making a peaceful space for people you come in contact with and care for, and showing how with persistence and some skills u can do things that seem very hard (I need to demand more from myself mainly to reach that place).
This is pretty much written here in “I hope many more will see that skill will come to everyone who perseveres in the early days with the support of others.”
So as my mum told me, you will reap if you don’t tire out, and Nikki Lane tells me, sometimes…you’ve got to try a little harder.
And stop doing things that break your heart.
Also…Paul, don’t imply you are mortal. That’s not funny…
Dear Paul
Thank you for the time you spend teaching a nearly lost art.
I have worked my whole life repairing.
I was a building engineer for a commercial property, if it was broken it was mine and I loved my work.
Now that I am retired I had nothing to repair and I was lost until I found your teachings.
I now spend my days making with some repairing restoring old hand tools. This was a way I could obtain the tools for hand work that I could afford.
My life now has purpose.
I wish you and yours a fabulous new year and a long life of teaching and making.
Paul,
Happy New Year to you and your family. Thank you for all you have been doing for woodworking and the woodworking community.
Dear Paul,
A very Happy and Healthy New Year wish to you and your family.
Thank you for all that you have taught me through your videos and books since I started following you over a decade ago. I am always learning new techniques from your projects whether I build them or not. At age 78 now, I started handtool woodworking later than most 15 years ago, but it has become my default woodworking method now despite having a full compliment of power tools in my shop that sit mostly idle.
You are a superb teacher and a fine person that I admire very much. An early Happy 71st Birthday wish to you for January 4th, 2021 as well.
Thanks you.
Cheers,
Michael O’Brien
Alabama, USA
Paul, thanks for your teaching. I’m still working on the workbench. It is interesting how each mortise I chop gets better, I look forward to each new blog and video. Wishing a happy new year to you and your family.
Thank you Paul for your Craftsman contribution to us all. Looking forward to getting serious with hand tool work and machine work combination. Have an amazing New year and I personally look forward to your new content.
Warm regards,
LaMont King Jr.
I was thinking of you as I wrapped my granddaughters Christmas gifts on the work bench I made recently and as I wrapped thought, I wonder how Paul would wrap this gift without all four delineated corners and still have it look good. Same thought after I took nipped the corner off my Moxon vice project working the end grain then looked through your Y.T. vids for insight (only had to glue repair that first corner having gained enough so as not to repeat that loss of concentration) Thanks Paul, for your more cerebral knowledge and sharing where it was all derived.
Thank you Paul.
I discovered your YouTube video channel after clearing out my shed of all my granddad’s tools which I inherited quite some years ago but had never got round to using.
Your videos showed me how to sharpen and use them correctly, and how to make the three basic joints properly.
I’ve now got to replace my dilapidated shed with a new one, as I have a new found desire to start making things in wood, using those old tools.
Wishing you, your family and your team a much better year in 2021 than 2020.
Cheers to you and all. Keep up the great work. I NEED your tips.
Paul may God bless you and your family. You have been an inspiration to me this past year. I’m 65 and retired in July. After a 15 year break from woodworking (mainly power tools) I rebuilt my shop in the basement of out 100 year old Victorian home. This time around I wanted to learn how to use hand tools. I purchased several used Stanley/Bailey planes at various yard sales and restored them. The joy I’m getting from using hand tools is priceless. Thank you for your videos and your inspiration, I have learned so much.
Thank you sir and your team. I have just started working with wood since June this year and through all the noise and over-abdundance of information on the internet, I have settled on calling you my teacher, my guide, my inspiration and my ultimate source of how-to’s. With the overwhelming and sometimes nonsensical information on the internet, it has been a difficult start to my woodworking journey and my quest for perfection and knowledge was not satisfied until I found the contents that you and your valuable team make. I truly appreciate the work you guys put out and I truly enjoy learning and listening to what you say and do and I am looking forward to more learning through you and your channel. I have just made the chisel tray of which although is a simple project, took me much longer then I would have expected because of the best I try to put in. Everytime I pick up a chisel, plane or saw, a particular sentence you said rings constantly in my head “It is not what you make but how you make it”. This has become sort of like my mantra and guide. Now when I cook or do anything else, this saying constantly reminds me of how to get it done. Even if this was the only thing I have learnt from you, I will have been indebted to you for the rest of my life. My wish is that one day, I will be able to proudly say that I made your rocking chair with my own hands. I am grateful to have been able to cross paths with you and your team in this life and I will strive to continue working and hopefully eventually hand down the skills I have picked up to my daughters. With this, I would like to wish you and your family and your team a very Happy New Year and all the best in the years to come.
Dear Mr Sellers,
Looking at your video’s, tutorials and so forth. Listening to what you say in the blogs and blogs, it is about woodworking. It is about lifestyle. My attention was drawn through my interest in woodworking about a year ago. in the meantime I have realised this is not the goal but the means.
I wish you a happy and healthy New Year. and for the coming Monday a Happy Birthday.
PS would like to see more progress in South Avenue.
Paul , I did some Christmas reading about steel production and found a wonderful youtube video from 1949 called “Steel Making by Hand “showing how crucible steel was made . Also made by bare feet by the way .
I wanted to ask you if this Crucible steel was better in some ways than Bessemer steel for edge tools . Nobody worked harder than a Sheffield steel worker .
Hi Paul.
Thank you for all you do. I see our connection as mutual support, particularly over the last year. I have made some amazing projects this year thanks to your teachings.
I hope you and your family have a wonderful and safe new year.
Dear Paul,
I couldn’t agree more with your sentiments regarding hand craft. It is essential to the well-being of all as it is precisely what we have evolved to do.
Kindest regards,
Phil
Paul
Born in Glossop not far from your native Stockport , at school my most inspired course at school was woodwork. From a working class background the emphasis was on University education and now retired that has provided a living……… however I always remember the hours spent in the school workshop on my favourite subject and still remember the basic skills taught by my wood working teacher for which I am forever grateful ….it’s amazing how things like fingers behind chisels sticks in your mind . The skill set I learnt has really helped in the various house projects I have competed over the years . Now retired and with the benefit of a small workshop , I am thoroughly enjoying your masterclasses and developing my skill set …..your tutorial approach is fantastic and I really appreciate the real time evolution of projects.
Best wishes for a happy and safe new year
L
Hello Keiran: I spent much of my youth in Glossop on Sundays where the Peak Park Wardens met at 8am before going out onto Bleaklow moor. We did the circuit to Bleaklow Head, round by Shelf Moor and down Doctors Gate back into glossop for debriefing before my bus ride home. Very good for my young years in my mid to late teens. I promised myself a return one day for a walk on the moors once more!
Paul
Thanks for the reply. I also have spent many happy days walking around Bleaklow moor and Doctors Gate, a rugged and beautiful part of our countryside…..like everything else you don’t fully appreciate it when it’s on your doorstep….nothing like a walk along the old Roman road to put the world in perspective!
Kieran
Thanks for another great year Paul.
What you are still attempting to do is one of the most valuable things a person can do.
Really can’t stress enough how much it is important and appreciated.
Thank you so much Paul for sharing your personal feelings with us. I’m still working on my work bench and hope to complete it by the end of this year. I find your books and videos very helpful. Happy New Year to you and your family.
Many thanks Paul for your inspiration, great ideas, hand skills, great projects and tips. I am currently teaching some home schooled lads at Skillway Godalming, to make your 3 legged stool. The last time I taught lads to make one was in a workshop on Katanga slum in Kampala Uganda. So your teaching has and is invaluable.
Many thanks once again.
Paul and Team Paul,
Belated Merry Christmas and best wishes for a Happy New Year! Paul, you’ve been a considerable inspiration to me this year. Thank you very much.
Best,
Bob
Paul,
Thank you so much for stirring within me a desire to continue to learn another skill to pass on. I may, or may not, ever reach a level of what may viewed as true craftsmanship. But as we know the desire to do one’s best, even if the work has some warts, is always the end goal. I just helped my 7 year old grandson build a rather simple bird feeder for his parents for Christmas. Does the work belong in a fine art shop? Absolutely not (I put a nail through the wrong spot on the roof). But as I write this I begin to well up inside and know that the smile on his face as we constructed the feeder absolutely belongs in a fine art shop! The post from which the bird feeder is hanging is an old porch post that came from his family’s first home that I saved and sanded the paint off. My grandson helped me to apply the new boiled linseed oil finish making the post a pure “work of art” as well. Your approach to making old new is one I have embraced long ago. If not only out of necessity, but also out of pure desire to see the beauty of long ago production techniques live on. May you, and yours, enjoy a new year of joy and love. Tim
I want to thank you for sharing your knowledge and skills with the world. I have found your work and instruction not only inspiring, but so valuable. I have spent a fortune buying every electrical tool and gizmo on the market only to find a lot just sit on the shelf, the rest used very infrequently. The real skill and hence self satisfaction has come from using hand tools. It has not always been pretty, but it has always felt like I have achieved something.
Your instruction on keeping tools in good condition has been an eye opener for me. I now have so much confidence to tackle a refurbishment rather than throwing old tools in the bin!
Thank you again and may you and family have a safe and healthy 2021.
Paul, please accept my many, many thanks for reviving my love of woodworking. In the seventies I was taught some basics at school by post-war teachers in Scotland and then in my new homeland Australia. Your gentle tones and guidance are reminiscent of those simpler times before technology and over population. Life wasn’t easier but not harder either…just simpler it seems. Now with your tutelage I have revived happy memories of working on projects with my brother during Summer holidays. We’d use Dad’s broken dawn vice and cut hardwood by hand (Redgum is pretty tough!) We’d chisel out simple joints and build billy carts with ball bearings for wheels that we’d scavenged from the local garage … we were always trying to improve the designs and 11 and 9 year old boys can be creative as you know! I went on to the Army and then became a Scientist mastering in robotics and artificial intelligence. Now I am doing woodworking again that reminds be of those happy days; building your plywood workbench, restoring a 1930s Record 52 and a half to its former glory. I am re-discovering the art of woodworking under your guidance and it is bringing zen that will accompany me for many years. Happy New Year from Melbourne Australia.
Greetings Paul from North Carolina. I came across your You Tube videos a couple of years ago and got hooked on working with hand tools. It is a work in progress. I have gotten better but still make too many mistakes. My family doesn’t see my errors on the finished products but I do. I became a dues paying Woodworking Master classes member about 6 months ago and it is a great investment. At all most 72 years old wish I would have started years ago.
Best to you and yours in 2021.
Still, well done, Kenneth! I am a year behind you and things do get a little harder to pickup on. Mine is keeping up with the technology side of things.
Paul you are an inspiration. I am working my way slowly thru many of your videos. Took an old lousy ( i thought) Stanley plane and fixed it as you did in your video. Well i did ok for first time because it actually works very well now. Thoroughly enjoying the quiet woodworking with no power tools. Made all the gifts this year and must say thanks to your excellent instruction that everyone was very impressed that not one power tool was used. It is a challenge which is what i love.
Thanks! Looking forward to a great 2021.
Paul. A few years ago I inherited a vast collection of old band tools from my grandad. He had been an avid amateur woodworker most of his life having inherited the same tools from his father in law. Your videos have helped me hone my abilities which started as a young enthusiastic boy in my grandads shed who just wanted to saw things to an amateur furniture maker with the confidence to keep trying whilst I learn a grow my skills. Thank you so very much.
Your book is an encyclopedia and already I am enjoying being enlarged on a few subjects that I thought I had a good knowledge of. (I am finding the type matter a bit small but then at 75 years of age it is to be expected.) Very well done Paul, I look forward to exploring more of the many subjects you cover.
Thank you Mr. Sellers for the encouragement. I took a Furniture & Cabinet Making 3-month intensive at the North Benett Street School in Boston that was life-altering. I learned this is what I will do for as long as I can. was one of 3 women of a group 7. I loved every single minute of it. Your You Tube videos are a great continuation.