I just read a book written by someone trying to establish a sense of belonging. Throughout the pages, the writer strove to establish the reality of being isolated in communities by the communities in which the writer was “born and bred.” There was a cruelness to it as is mostly the case with bigotry and…

Assumptions often mislead us; our own and others. In a world more and more devoid of crafting artisans, men and women making to live by, working as I have and in some measure still do, it seems logical that, as with my using the term new-genre woodworkers, we see emerging a micro-mass of new-genre artisans…

As I walk through the streets of Oxford, before the lunchtime food providers open their doors, I am always fascinated by the lines of upturned exposure of the undersides of chairs and stools used for cafe seating lining the windows. Things like this, along with art of every type, bookshops too, always stop me mid-stride….

That’s to say I am doing well, great, better than I thought I would be by now, my hands have been fixed by the surgeon and staff at Pulvertaft Hand Centre and so I thank them and thank you for all of the support and well-wishing over the past few weeks. The Dupuytren’s contracture on…

It’s my seventh day since my hand surgery and the advice sheet from the Pulvertaft Hand Cebtre in Derby and Burton NHS Hospital said, ‘Plan to avoid activities which involve strong grip for one to two weeks after the procedure as the hand [s] may be a little tender. However, you will not do yourself…

I wrote recently on beech wood and spoke of what I might see and describe as more soulless methods of making in the sense and mix of it giving very little if any sensory feedback. It wasn’t to open a conversation so much as to try to explain why we hand-tool woodworkers handle our materials…

It’s still dark now as it’s just 6 a.m. I still do not feel nervous and that is because for several days I did and that’s over. I booked my taxi to the hospital for 6.30. It’s a 20-minute drive and I wanted a hedge as a margin for traffic or something else going wrong….

. . . . at least on the outside! Confronting doubts and fears can be for outward appearances when inside something is churning away and you’re not altogether sure why. I slept well, opened my eyes at my usual; 5.15 A.M. start to my day, but it wasn’t to be in my usual direction for…

I think sometimes, often, we fail to see the unionising of different joints, failing to devise our own types but then how best to combine them in projects. My research spanning six decades has taught me many things and especially with joinery. Principally, I always wanted to see inside furniture to understand, yes, how something…

Throughout history, making tools of all types has always been a part of many a woodworker’s life. The ones that were skilled enough to produce levels of excellence surpassing other woodworkers became tool makers. they established patterns of work and design that exemplified levels of refinement other woodworkers wanted. Instead of being just carpenters they…