At the end of this week, the biggest hand tool woodworking event in the world is happening in Amana, Iowa. If you don’t know already, Handworks is legendary. Woodworkers and tool makers are traveling from all over the world to convene in a barn (and various outbuildings) at the Amana Colonies in Iowa. These folks are serious, passionate tool nerds. Every boutique tool maker and their mother is going to be there. When the organizer, Jameel Abraham, emailed us to ask if we wanted to participate, Mike and I were stoked. Yes. Yes. Yes. No matter what hurdles we had to jump over, we would be there. We started making arrangements for the big journey a long time ago....
Roy Underhill's books, I believe, are vastly underrated. It seems that every page contains not only loads of useful information about hand-tool woodworking, but historical context, interesting anecdotes, folklore, and typical Roy hilarity. Really, stuff that you can't find anywhere else. Paging through one of his books (The Woodwright's Companion) recently, I stumbled upon a short chapter about whetstones. The popular opinion of today is that we need a wide array of dead-flat, precisely-graded sharpening stones in order to keep our tools sharp and usable, but this isn't the case historically. Roy mentions that in many old towns in Europe, the stone step of the stairway of a certain house was often discovered incidentally to be a good whetstone, and...
Saturday’s ‘Build a Box’ workshop at Haystack was fun. If you haven’t been there, the campus is gorgeous in its tucked-away water-front location. The story goes that, back in the 60s, they chose this location based on its remoteness and solitude. They wanted to find a place where no highway would ever be built. I would say this little island off the coast of Maine was the perfect choice. Off the beaten path is an understatement. I had a great variety of students: male and female, young and old. There were 10 students, most of whom had little no experience using hand tools. We started the day off discussing proportional design with dividers and then decided on dimensions for...
I will be spending all of tomorrow at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine teaching a one-day workshop. The class is an intro to hand tools class in which we will be building a small pine box. Depending on experience and comfort level, the students will be joining it with either rabbets and nails or dovetails. I truly believe that taking on small projects in inexpensive wood is the best way to learn. I’ve probably only ever made a dozen “practice” joints in my life. It always seemed like a better use of my time to make a “practice” project. Small boxes and tables are great for developing your marking, sawing, and planing skills in the context...
I am working to make sure Peter Follansbee is proven wrong. When he and I were chatting at Fine Woodworking Live, Peter told me he was sad to see blogs beginning to fade away from the woodworking community. I agree with his assessment but hope we’re just being pessimistic. Although I think social media is useful for its regularity, the snapshots and one-liners will never compare to fully developed thoughts, even if they are only 500-1,000 words long. (Blogs used to be criticized for their flippancy and brevity! Go figure!) When I migrated my blogging activity from my old blog to here, I began a gradual process of fine tuning the features so that everything functioned as I wanted. Although...
We’ve heard back from all our customers that ordered a “Craftsmanship is Risk” sweatshirt and everyone said they are delighted with their purchase. That means the extras we have from the print run are up for sale now. We don’t have many: 2 L, 2 XL, and 2 XXL. We will not be doing another run of these so if you were bummed you missed it the first time, this is your last opportunity.
You can order yours here.
Mike and I got back last night from Fine Woodworking Live 2017 in Southbridge, Mass. We had such an amazing time catching up with and meeting a few new woodworkers that we look up to so much. The show was Friday through Sunday with several presentations each day. With the possibility of my wife delivering our third baby in the next few weeks, Mike and I decided to take separate cars in case I needed to head home early. The drive down was a nice quiet before the storm of endless faces and fellowship. We arrived Thursday night at our super sketchy Days Inn hotel so that we’d be ready to set up at the conference center the next morning....
It began innocently enough one ordinary weekday. It was quiet in the studio - I was planing some stock while Joshua sharpened a few chisels. I’d sat my plane on the bench and walked away for a moment to grab a pencil, but when I turned back I found that my plane was sitting on its sole. I always lay my planes down on their sides, the CORRECT way. Carefully-constructed and articulated arguments to the contrary aside, placing a plane on its side while not in use at the bench is the historically approved and most advantageous practice. But clearly, somebody in the room disagreed. Exhibit A. The defense rests, Your Honor. The tension in the air was thick as...
Note: In celebration of “PYE” Day today (3/14), we’ve decided to offer Free US Shipping on all our “Craftsmanship is Risk” merchandise (i.e. Shirts and Stickers). Today and today only. I must admit that I am a latecomer to the “Real Craft” conversation. Many words have been written and many ideas exchanged over what exactly constitutes craftsmanship. Is it simply the act of making an object “by hand” (whatever that means…)? Is it running a CNC router from your laptop? Is it the practice of only recreating traditional forms with traditional tools? It seems folks have some strong opinions on every side of this debate. The term “craft” has always carried me back to my childhood. Back then, my mom and...
Below are the events we have scheduled for 2017. If you’d like to take a workshop we’re teaching or chat with us in person, look below to see if you can make it out to any of these events. We hope to see you this year! Center for Furniture Craftsmanship – March 10th Presentation: “Why I Cut the Cord” I’ve been invited to present this coming Friday to the Furniture Intensive students at CFC about how pre-industrial methods has informed my furniture making. Read about the school here. Fine Woodworking Live 2017 – April 21st - 23rd – Southbridge, Mass. Fine Woodworking’s live event. We’ll be there as a vendor. Looks like a great show with top-notch...
