Mesquite grows throughout vast tracts of Texas rangeland. I’ve worked its substance for two decades to date and no other wood I ever used has more stability than mesquite. Living in South Texas in 1987 I picked up my first chunk of mesquite. It looked like mahogany, but the denseness was heavy in my hand….
Vocational callings I hear fairly frequently that craftsmen advertise for an apprentice only to find that the person applying doesn’t really want the job but must apply to get state benefits, or, equally sad, no one applies. We bandy around the term “apprentice” with alacrity in this new and recent era of austerity, hoping…
The blue sky over my house this morning and thoughts of the work I must do now that we have the book finished and at the printers reminds me that space and time correspond with each other to provide my creative space. I often ask myself why, in our troubled economic times, crafts like…
Perhaps my last Paul Sellers blog on the AWFS Fair in Las Vegas for this year, not sure. As you know, I have spent the past few days trying to understand exactly how the AWFS Fair impacts a world working wood and I came away with mixed but positive feelings. Of course I am here…
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…
Unbelievably busy today, meeting old faces (and young ones). It’s a different show than The Woodworking Shows that travel the length and breadth of the USA in that it appeals to the high output manufacturers as well as the small hobbyist without having the hobbyist suppliers there. I think there would have been high sales for hand tool…
The show went well yesterday. Very successful. So many people stopped by the booth to see the film and watch demonstrations and many highly motivated woodworkers from around the US and Central America in the south and Canada in the north too. Sooo, is this woodworking? My demonstrations went really well and I should say that many…
Yesterday seemed almost surreal. Just as digital cameras don’t make many of us photographers and computers cannot make every individual a printer or publisher, massive machines will never make us woodworkers. Getting to the core of woodworking will be difficult for any attendee at this show because, even at its most base level, it’s primarily about…
The shop was empty today, with all the students now returning home. John put the tools away in the drawers and I started building more storage cupboards to store the filming equipment and some of the recent tools I have acquired for the classes. I decided to include #4 1/2 smoothing planes and #5 1/2…
Sports training, endurance and duress Talk to any sports psychologist and they will likely tell you that good sportsmen and women, those who know the highest limits of exertion and the accomplishment that that brings, train both the body and mind to accept the physical and mental torture it takes to go beyond certain limits. To…