Soon we will be launching our website for the Real Woodworking Campaign, which we plan to open as a worldwide endeavour to promote the art and craft of real woodworking for all. You have heard me talk of the Real Woodworking Campaign (RWC) for some months and it started out by provoking my audiences to…
I’m thankful for the work I do. I have been making the hope chest for a few days now and on Saturday I have a two-day workshop so I will postpone some of the work until next week. Sharing my workspace has become increasingly important as I grow older and whether it’s teaching, apprenticing or…
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…
I recall these words from time to time and dwell on them for reflection. Quotes taken out of context somehow become diminished because the value relates to the whole and written text usually gives a context by which the words find meaning. The quote above has a certain expectation to it for me. Children soak…
Just a few thoughts this morning. A few days ago I was in the UK pondering a question. How can I, getting ready to go to Vegas in three days time, with a half dozen important things yet to do, I needed a workbench 5,000 miles away in Las Vegas for me to demonstrate. I…
My hands pulled the plane from the cardboard box, lifting it from the bubble wrap and parcel paper some might say like a newborn from its soft, clean blankets. I had held many planes like it before, hundreds of them. A note dropped to the table as I levelled the sole and gripped the front knob with…
I love all of my tools, but the ones I love the most are the ones I use and rely on. Not many woodworkers use hand planes compared to say a hundred years ago. The pinnacle period for planemakers was in the mid 1700s. Imagine that if you will. “The earliest known plane, with a…
Pine, spruce and fir I’ve worked with many different types of pine throughout every one of my 48 years since I picked up my first piece of Russian redwood to carve a boat from. Whereas people generally consider pine (and other such softwoods) second-rate soft wood, or, worse still, junk wood, I consider pine…
My Creative Workspace A short time ago I posted about a shabby looking mahogany box I found at a car boot sale here. I say found but a better word might be rescued had the abandoned box had any life left in it really. As pulled the box from other junk surrounding it a…
My day started in my home workshop working on some old oak I recycled from an old oak gate-leg table made from quartersawn English oak stock. It planes so beautifully and the quartersawn oak figuring is stunning. I really like the idea of making something recycled from old pieces that seem not to fit with today’s lifestyle….