Creative Design Process![]() With day one of Woodworking I firmly tucked away and my boards happily glued together, I couldn’t wait to get back into the shop, but man....I had to wait an entire week before the class reconvened. But when it did, believe me when I tell you that days two and three of Woodworking I class went by in a blur, hence why they are getting combined into one telling. I didn’t want to wait a week to start shaping my curly maple and walnut into my idea of the perfect side table. But wait...what was my idea of the perfect side table? Um…um…crumbs, I had no idea. No idea other than a side table that doesn’t wobble and can hold things without collapsing, I felt those are two very important table qualities. As for what my “perfect” side table looks like...that’s an excellent question. Guess I should try to sketch that out. Well, okay...here I go. To the drawing board! A Piece of Functional Art![]() When you buy a piece of custom wood furniture, you aren’t just purchasing another piece of furniture; you are investing in a piece of functional art for your home. This isn’t just a buy it because “well, it fits” purchase to fill a space. It is a process, planning and searching until you find or help design exactly what you want. You are investing in a piece that fulfills your needs but also makes a statement and looks good while doing it. This piece is perfect in every way possible. But now… Woodworking Class - Proper Power Tool Use![]() Good Morning class! Here is your lumber and some giant power tools that could all easily remove your fingers and a lecture on the myriad of ways that you could do that. Oh gee! Good thing I wasn’t already nervous about trying my hand at building custom wood furniture. Only joking...sort of...there really are over a hundred careless things that you could do that would result in the loss of finger or at least a really big boo boo. Good news is that I’m not undertaking this unsupervised, and Brian is there to tell us all exactly how not to do that. ![]() As promised, I am blogging today about a new piece of equipment that I just purchased for the shop. It will amaze some to know that I have never owned a jointer. It was never a matter of not wanting one; no, it was that I wasn’t able to find the one I was after. What is the one? A Porter 20” Jointer, and I have been hunting for it for the past 15 years. During that time, I have come across a couple of them. However, something always seemed to interfere with the actual acquisition of one. So, I continued to do all of my jointing by hand. Not a bad way to do it, but a jointer sure would have made life easier. ![]() For 20 years now I have been teaching classes of all kinds through my local Woodcraft store here in Colorado Springs. Over this period I have developed a fine woodworking curriculum that I teach through a series of classes, Woodworking I, II, III, and IV. Covering everything from wood science to bent laminations, I designed these classes to be very extensive in knowledge and skills acquired and to be completed in a succinct few weekends. The most recent additions to my woodworking courses are the Hand Tool Mastery series I, II, III, and IV, where students learn comprehensive hand tool applications to precisely build fine furniture. Starting with the basics of setup and sharpening we explore a vast array of hand cut joinery taught through exercises and small projects. |
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