Yup! I binned the other three. Too politically driven! international jingoism just got too much for me! Then I realised that those of us with our feet firmly planted on the ground seemed somehow apt to just keep going. A year ago today we saw the COVID roll itself out with a seemingly unstoppable force.…

Making a footstool-cum-toddler seat sometimes comes from free wood, as do many other small projects. Oak, ash, cherry, walnut, just about any wood will make a good stool, including the most basic of softwoods. When my daughter-in-law asked me to take a damaged chair with missing parts away to discard I didn’t at first think…

I still receive an occasional comment from someone who knows me not at all and knows nothing of my work beyond just having seen me saw down a dovetail angle. With my gent’s saw still poised, they’re advising me that a power router will do this or that better, faster or whatever other adjective they…

What hand tool woodworking gives me. I remember passing John’s workbench one evening a week or less ago. It was dark, but the light from my work area cast a soft blush on the end of his toolbox carcass. I wasn’t examining his dovetails, it was a certain level of perfection that caught my eye.…

Two and a half months have passed already, imagine! We makers just keep making and making keeps us both safe and sane. I’ve got three rockers under my belt, together with all the 12 new episodes it takes to make one. Plus, I also have one of my Brazos rocking chairs which I just completed…

It started with a few lines of graphite on the first page of a plain drawing pad. I never use graph paper to draw on. Too many little squares and lines. I don’t need scale at this point, just my own lines and shapes. The shapeless moved from straight lines to curves and square angles…

Working on the four rocking chairs I’ve just been making made me conscious of exavctly how often I reach for not one plane but four, not one saw but seven, not one spokeshave but four, maybe five, and I could go on. Of course, I could manage with one or two or possibly one of…

I recall someone telling me that I had to teach to make a living from my craft because I couldn’t and no one else could actually make a living from working with their hands. He didn’t know that that was the case and nor could he. He simply assumed that because he couldn’t, no one…

When I arrived in the USA the first thing I did was purchase a shop full of power equipment. Like most in the trade, woodworking was mostly about efficiency and efficiency comes by using machines for every cut. Though I too relied on power to expedite my work, in some ways I am likely one…

When the world of making collides with pride it’s time to reflect. Taking pride in the work of another is an equal danger to pride in ourselves and what we achieve too. Should we be prideful in achieving a high standard of workmanship or is it simply that pride is the wrong word to use?…