2013 Was About Working Methods

It’s that time of year when we look back and see what we did for the last 365 days. It is interesting to me to see where I spent my shop time and where was my focus. Here goes!

• I published 101 blog posts and 26 videos.
• I published over 40 hours of Hand Tool School content
• I built 4 lathes, 3 saws, 3 tool boxes, 2 tables, 4 cabinets, and more turnings and carvings than I can remember
• I got on my soapbox several times about lumber and dared to broach the environmental elephant in the room.
• I restored several old tools and replaced the last power tools in my shop
• I went 2o rounds with a thickness planer, lost, then further embraced my hand planes when I kicked it to the curb.
• I resawed over 200 linear feet of 12 and wider stock, 20 linear feet of 20″ and wider, and about a mile of 6-8″ wide stock
• I climbed the Empire State building many many times at my treadle and spring pole lathes
• I spent more than 50 hours woodworking outside my shop using a tiny collection of tools trying to understand workmen of yore.
• I chopped, rived, adzed, axed (is that a word) 8 logs and turned almost all of the projects on the lathe
• I carved 5 signs, 8 leaves, 1 Golden Retriever, 3 logos, and 4 hand tools
• I broke free from 90 degrees and explored compound angle joinery.
• I spent an interesting late night in a hotel room with my two of my best friends

I’m sure there is more but the above is what I actually took the time to chronicle here on this blog. 2013 was about experimentation for me. I tried new things and spent a lot of time practicing those new techniques or using the tools I had built. Honestly I had hoped to build more furniture but it seems this was a year for me to focus on building skills and abstract woodworking. The sample joints, carvings, and turnings strewn around my shop and that have gone up my chimney are a testament to a year spent examining work methods and trying to discover some long lost secrets from my hand tool forefathers. I don’t know if I found any secrets but I’m sure I deepened my knowledge of woodworking and found a method of working that uses fewer tools and relies heavily on understanding wood and listening to my tools as I work. I have adopted a philosophy that is less about the tools and more about fundamental technique and the physics of wedge and edge.

I haven’t quite figured out how to put this philosophy into words and am a long way off from being able to teach it, but I can honestly say I have never been more excited about anything. It is a liberating way of looking at woodworking that is incredibly empowering as it makes everything doable.

Honestly I feel like a better woodworker today than I was a year ago. What more can you ask for right?

So what happens in 2014? While I will continue to explore new techniques and investigate older methods of working, the next year is about applying some of my philosophy. At the risk of putting to paper some specific goals only to risk documenting my failure when I don’t reach them, I feel I need to throw out some projects on my radar.

Roubo Marquetry Donkey

• Finally redesign my workshop and eliminate the last vestiges of my power tool past
• Completely finish my unfinished projects (2 tables, and a Windsor chair)
• Turn my surplus of Cherry in to furniture including: a shop cabinet, king sized bed, blanket chest, side tables, and a dining table. (I’ll see what I have left after that)
• Build a double chaise lounge for my back yard
• Play with my ever growing stack of commercial and self sawn veneer by incorporating it into projects and test pieces
  (maybe I’ll build a Chevalet, scroll saw attachment for my lathe, or Roubo Veneer Horse along the way)
• Build a chair that isn’t of Windsor design
• Build another Windsor chair

And with all these things I want to integrate the turning and carving skills I worked on in 2013. Of course I want to continue to average a Renaissance Woodworker video every 2 weeks while hitting the road with some teaching opportunities and showing up for WoodTalk every week. There will be some web site redesigns along the way as well with some major functional changes to The Hand Tool School.

This is an ambitious list of things no doubt but a list that is achievable. What is most important to me is that it is a list that I am really passionate about and I have no question that this passion will carry me through it…until I get distracted and go off in an entirely different direction.

Happy New Year!

What is on your to do list for 2014? Please share it in the comments below.