Veritas Tools Canada #2 What would you do if I told you that the design team at Veritas spend time thinking seriously about special tools for people of small stature? How about getting youngsters back in the woodshop? It’s a serious issue for me and for people like Veritas. The staff at Veritas care genuinely…
Working wood for 47 years has left its impression on me. My hands work differently than other people’s hands and my mind wrestles through critical issues others never have to contend with. Had I never worked with my hands I could only present you with one perspective and that would be that power tools replaced…
Canada is beautiful and surprisingly different than the US. As I passed through the interior of Ontario countryside towards Ottawa I tried to imagine what it must have felt like to cross these vast regions of openness, forested lakelands, mountains and deep valleys. Deer tumbling down through the woods in a wildness 90% of the…
My fingers push, the leather resists the sharpness of the needle point, but then the leather yields though I press no harder. The loose thread trails after the eye as it passes through and I catch the eye glistening for just a moment. The tight skin draws up sharply as the thread yanks and yanks…
So good to taste American coffee again and not the coffee the UK sells as American coffee. It’s nice to sit amongst American friends and listen to their different accents. Busy people come and go and here I am eating breakfast and starting my day at 10am. It’s nice to get your cup refilled at…
On my way to work this morning I found myself driving from North Wales to Manchester Airport, boarding a plane and sitting amongst two hundred people headed for the US. I’m on a whirlwind trip again in similar fashion to the AWFS Fair in Las Vegas in July of this year. I never relish travelling….
Threading the needle takes two hands. One holds the needle steady, the other pinches the thread just behind its leading edge and guides the point through the eye of the needle. Drawing from my journal Two hands work side by side. One pushes the thread, whilst the other transfers the needle to other threading thumb…
I just finished two articles for magazines, one in the US and the other in the UK. My writing them makes me think about the past and the future. Beginnings are important to us all and I think often of my first days in the workshop transitioning from boyhood to becoming a workman. Most writers…
When I went to Scotland I bought a couple of machines from a raptor centre that rescued wild birds and restored them to the wild where possible. Thought you might like this.
How I started the UK school This is my second school to start from scratch. I would that I could say I launched New Legacy from the freedom of excess money, you know, disposable income and such. I remember clearly the cold snowy January I chose to make my benches with…