The hammer strikes and then withdraws To strike again it’s second blow The saw thrusts deep and then returns To thrust time and time again The spokeshave shaves my wood, the wood resists. I press hard, firmly I push forward. The wood grabs still. I withdraw from the fight, turn my spokshave…
Ashe Juniper I worked this wood for two decades when I lived in Texas, cutting hundreds of trees throughout that period. Most people called it Cedar or Juniper because Cedar looks the same unless you are familiar with the differences. Ashe juniper is highly aromatic and so you can be forgiven for calling it cedar,…
It’s early morning yet my pulse races for the unknown day yet to unfold. And light rises with its steady rays filtering through the swaying trees and I wonder: Yesterday is gone. It no longer exists. Tomorrow is not become, yet we hope for it. But today unfolds its seconds and minutes with each footstep,…
Mesquite restrains my falling axe tight within its wet jaw And wedged there it waits, gripped in stubbornness. I catch my breath; the axe waits more ‘neath fingers traced Along the hickory helm smoothed by yet another coarse and sweat-filled hand A second swift, falling cut bites deep within the mesquite Chips, nay chunks now,…
Oak grows and bends against its will By wind it yields beyond its strength to resist And so the crooked brace forms within the branch I shape beneath my adze. The stem lies cut beyond the axe head blow Upon the woodland…
European Woodworking Show #3 Spent time prepping demo wood and sharpening some of my tools for the European Woodworking Show next weekend. Masterclasses are important instructional events where we pass on what we know and include those who want to gain what knowledge we have. I intend to make this one will be different to…
John’s rocking chair Those who follow this bog know that John Winter is my apprentice. I have trained many young people like John through the years and the rewards though varied have been greatly beyond any financial gain. Fact is, I have never received a penny in renumeration from any product or pay resulting from…
There can be no doubt that one contrast between craftsmanship and the machine-maker woodworker is not so much the difference between hand work and trying to produce the same thing by machine, but the mentality of the workman. Having worked in both camps I can comment on both. Firstly, I quite like the certainty of…
The art of work as I have known it these past 50 years has drastically shifted I know. When Henry Ford launched his first conveyor-belt assembly plant even as a visionary of mass manufactured goods as advanced as motor cars, it’s unlikely that he could have understood how demoralizing and degrading those baby steps of…
Can you come? In order to preserve the craft of woodworking and ensure real woodworking has a future we need to support ventures like the upcoming European Woodworking Show. Sometimes we look only at our own needs and what that cost implications are to us. Did you know that the cost of such show is…