A Good Thing But Not The Next Best

The next best thing to attending Woodworking in America if you cant? Hardly.

Ill say it here, it is now very likely that I will miss WIA 2011. Im still hoping to go, but forces well beyond my control (also known as life) are conspiring against me. I cant complain though, because I was able to stop in breifly for WIA 2009 & and I kicked it with the cool kids all wekend long at WIA 2010.

Ill have my homework in tomorrow, Mr. Schwarz.

For anyone who hasnt been lucky enough to attend, dont let this blog post from Popular Woodworking fool you. The hand tool techniques you pick up at WIA are great, yes. And these are great DVDs to suppliment the instruction. But they are not what make the weekend great. Neither is the market place filled with its tool porn and fantastic deals.

Ahh! Woodworkers everywhere!

What makes Woodworking in America the MUST ATTEND Woodworking event of the year are the WOODWORKERS!

Marcs as entertaining in person.

The highlight of the 2 hours I spent at WIA 2009 was my meeting Tom Iovino. What made WIA 2010 one of the best weekends Ive ever had was meeting and hanging out with not just Tom, but Kyle Barton, Rob Bois, Nik Brown, Matt Gradwohl, Kari Hultman, Adam King, Allen Lindsey, Ian Mackay, Aaron Marshall, Mike Morton, Marc Spagnuolo, Steve Taylor and Matt Vanderlist (a many, many others).

Youll leave any woodworking event with great friends.

If you can’t make it to WIA, be sure to make it to a local woodworking event and meet you’re fellow woodworkers. They’re a great bunch. You’ll be glad you did.

Read More..

WIA11 We Came We Saw We Kicked Its Bad Axe!

The marketplace gathered around the Hand Tool Olympics booth.

Well, my friends, another Woodworking in America has come and gone. This was certainly the most frantic and fun WIA I’ve yet attended (it’s my 2nd full WIA and 3rd overall).

Panorama of the party.

The festivities began with the Blogger Community Party. It was an absolute blast. Thanks, Nik for setting it up. For me the party ended a very long day (12 hours of driving to get to Covington) with a very long night. A night that was to set the stage for the entire event.

Charles Brock talks chair joinery.

Friday began with the sun glaring through the hotel window (I had forgotten to close the shades at 3:30 am). Somehow I dragged my butt to a 9:00 am class and I settled in for “The Maloof Leg-to-Seat Joint with Charles Brock”. The class was interesting, and Charles is a nice, considerate southern gentleman. Unfortunately, I’ve already seen this joint demonstrated by Andy Chidwick, and having listened to Shannon Rogers’ interview with Charles Brock during my drive to Cincinnati, I had already heard all the anecdotes.

"Find the hidden drawer."

After Charles Brock, I headed to “Secrete Drawers and Hidden Compartment with Chuck Bender”. Though camera issues frustrated our instructor for the first two thirds of this class, Chuck soldiered on and told us about how it was so boring in the  18th and 19th centuries that secrete compartments were built into furniture in order to play the “find the hidden drawer” game. No matter why they were built in, they provide some very slick hiding methods and this was definitely and interesting class.

"This is how you cut it" says the Hand Tool Headmaster.

By the time I had finished looking for hidden drawers, I was dragging my butt. So I skipped out on the next class and headed to the marketplace. There, the first thing I did was visit the Hand Tool School booth. And based on that visit I can now confirm for you, my dear reader, that Shannon Rogers is in fact, a real person. I touched him and everything.

Matt records Rob making a dovetail joint. No pressure.

After chatting with Shannon and Chris & Garth of Time Warp Tools (with whom Shannon was sharing a booth) I ran into my Penultimate Basement Workbench teamate, Tom Iovino and was blown achoice by the speed and accuracy with which he had cut his dovetails. Egged on by Tom, I headed to the Hand Tool Olympics booth and cut some wood.

Vic gets a little "illegal coaching" in the Hand Tool Olympics.

After dominating the boring and crosscutting Hand Tool Olympic events, I chatted up Richard Hummel of Woodpecker’s for a while (and bough a new story stick). If you’ve never talked with Richard, or used Woodpecker’s tools, you must. Richard is as passionate about milling aluminum as we are about wood and the tools he turns our are absolutely beautiful.

You MUST take a class with Adam Cherubini

By this point I was dragging my butt, so I went back to the hotel to drop off the story stick and take a shower. When I got back to the convention hall, I ran into Shannon and followed him to “Nailed Furniture of the 18th Century: The Other Traditional Style with Adam Cherubini”.Following Shannon to Adam’s class was the revelation of the weekend for me. Though Adam’s traditional 18th Century methodology isn’t the choice I work wood (did I mention I own 9 routers?), he is a fantastic speaker and educator. The detail he goes into, the historical perspective he brings and tangents he goes off on are all amazing to watch and listen to. Even if I would make it with a table saw and Domino, the 18th century nailed furniture style piece he discussed was a beautiful cabinet.

Silly, Tom. Dancing is allowed on the seats, not the tables.

How many woodworkers can you fit at a table?

When the Friday classes were done, we went to Hofbrauhaus. There, they served delicious 1 liter mugs of fine beer. We had a nice time.

Another great class with Adam Cherubini. Did I mention you must
take a class with him?

Unbelievably, I received a work call on my cell phone at 8:20 on Saturday morning, and then there I was, on time for “Rabbets, Dadoes & Grooves by Hand with Adam Cherubini”. As with the previous day’s “Nailed Furniture”, “Rabbets, Dadoes & Grooves” was a witty and informative class, even if I would make the joints with a router.

With speed and accuracy like that, howd we lose?

From Adam’s class, I went down to the marketplace and did my duty at the Hand Tool Olympics again. Thanks to equally impressive performances by my teammates, Matt Vanderlist and Tom Iovino, we failed to win.

His plane making makes up for any deficit in public speaking.

Following lunch, Saturday afternoon was spent listening to “Tradition Improved: Lie-Nielsen Toolworks with Thomas Lie-Nielsen”. This was an interesting (if dry) account of how the Lie-Nielsen toolworks came to be and how they make some of the sweetest hand tools around.

Matt Gradwohl, hand model to the stars.

I cut out of Thomas’ talk a little early with Matt Gradwohl, and we headed over to Adam Cherubini’s final talk of the conference: “Chisels Through Ancient Eyes”. This was a great primer on chisels though the ages and had many lessons relevant to chisel use and purchase today. It was also fun to see Adam use a piece of MDF and to discover that Matt is a world class hand model.

Nothing to add. Just a great bunch of guys.

After Adam’s final talk there were no classes left needing to be taken, so I headed down to the marketplace again and met up with my blue shirted brethren. We managed to amuse a few spectators (and maybe even Charles Brock) when we shooed folks achoice and took our group photo in front of the fantastic Sinclair Tool Museum.

Yes, we can dominate a dining room.

After the photo I bid the conference farewell and we headed over to Pompilio for what this New Yorker would say was a great Italian dinner. After dinner we managed to frighten the poor woman who was on the trolley when we got on, mostly by telling her how nice we were and how we weren’t frightening.

See you next year, my friends.

Saturday night, and Woodworking in America 2011, ended at the Behle Street Cafe. It was great drinks, great woodworking and great friends. I hope to see you at Woodworking in America 2012.Oh, and did I mention that Rob Bois won a tenon saw?

Rob Bois: Tenon Saw Winning, Woodworking Underwear Model.

Read More..

BooYah!

BooYah was a typical war cry of mine after I schooled an opponent in 3 to 4 turns with my Goblin Deck. I’ve not said it for years.I said it today. Many times. BooYah!I said it over and over because, you see, contrary to earlier reports I will be attending Woodworking in America, 2011.Getting here has been a long road, and before I get too excited there are two things I need say:First, I owe a great deal of gratitude to many people for allowing me the opportunity to go. First on that list are the Pediatric Oncology and Oncological Surgery units of the Long Island Jewish Medical Center. Then, of course, my wife. She’s taking on the burden of the kids for four (4) full days (Thursday & Friday are school holidays). Finally I need to thank my family for stepping up and taking care of the kids on the nights my wife works (and taking them to Cub Scouts, Bowling & Soccer) when my wife works.The second thing that needs to be said is a big shout out to all that will be unable to make it WIA. Great woodworking friends such at Jon McGrath, Aaron Marshall, Scott Meek, Al Navas, Marc Spagnolo and Josh Ulloa will be missing it.

After last year, the thought of missing it this year (especially on top of all that is going on) was a serious downer. I’d been in a funk for days. To all my friends who are going to miss it, I know how life intrudes. We’ll be thinking of you and we’ll all be doing out best to attend WIA 2012 also. So put it on the calender now, and we’ll call it a date.

In the mean time, if you are going to miss WIA this year, be sure to join in Google +. Al Navas is setting up a Hangout for all to join in. It’ll be a lot easier to schedule than WIA, and it’ll feature the best part of WIA . . . the people.

Woodworking Bench I Whats Your Style

This is a guest post by Chris Adkins of High Rock Woodworking.  It originally appeared at highrockwoodworking.com.  Feel free to check back there for more of Chriss woodworking rambling.

Hoffman & Hammer Workbench

What is the best woodworking bench design?  Well, I could end this here and say whatever is best for YOU, but I won’t.

In short that is the answer though, many of us get hung up on the style of the work bench we use whether it is a traditional woodworkers bench, carving bench, a door slab with legs under it, or maybe even a couple of saw horses to hold your work. 

The traditional style woodworkers bench such as the Hoffman & Hammer Workbench shown above with its shoulder and tail vise, bench dogs for securing your work in place, and a solid heavy top for years of wear and tear is what I think of as the standard.

Scott Landis

The Workbench Book

But even a traditional workbench has no standard set of plans that all must follow, but great ideas can be gathered from books such as The Workbench Book by Scott Landis or search the internet to find hundreds for sets of plans, but styles vary depending on the primary purpose and what the woodworker wants.

Veritas Bench Hold Down

Every woodworker has different needs that their workbench must meet.  You may be a new woodworker that only builds basic bird houses and just need a flat surface to work off of.  Or maybe you need a shoulder vise for clamping you work in place on occasion.  Or you could mill all of your own lumber by hand and need a shoulder and tail vise to secure your boards in any number of choices to ensure you can plane and joint all faces of the board no matter the length.

For my own personal needs, I currently get by with my shoulder vise and a little help from my Veritas Bench Hold Down.  But as I grow as a woodworker I can see where my needs are changing and requiring more complexity in the bench I use.

Tomorrow I will post part 2 of this series, until then keep woodworking!

Chris Adkins

Read More..