One of my favorite exercises to keep my mind sharp while also feeding my spirit is to memorize God’s Word; specifically some of the Psalms. Since there’s 150 Psalms and I’ve memorized like 7 I’m hardly in line for a medal; however as I do get older and my mind becomes more selective, memorizing things that matter is part of my “activity” to age gracefully. A favorite of mine is Psalm 92 and specifically how it compares the righteous (God’s people) to the growth of a palm tree, and that it still bears fruit, even unto old age (Ps 92:12-15). I remember reading this verse to my mother a couple years ago when she was questioning why she was still...
I don’t subscribe to a lot of woodworking blogs because sometimes too much information makes matters more confusing rather than clearer. That said, I have subscribed to Paul Sellers blogs, as he is one of the real online pioneers (IMO) of woodworking. A recent blog post of Paul's called “Election Day” talked more about his woodworking ideology than about specific tools or products (https://paulsellers.com/2017/06/thursday-8th-june-2017/). In his blog Paul identified a certain passion that I immediately related to: the concept of “It’s not what you make but how.” I don’t want to take credit for anyone else’s work so I encourage anyone reading this blog to check out his. That said, the concept of “how” over “what” is something that attracted me to...
For the past 6 months we have had our products on display at a local retail marketplace with mixed success. The upside has been the compliments we’ve received on the design of our space (thank my wife), the maximum usage of that space (again, my wife’s doing) and finally the beauty and quality of our products (drumroll please..... the carpenter’s kudos). Whether receiving input directly from customers or indirectly through other vendors and/or employees; our product line has been praised for being both unique and of superior workmanship. We have been very appreciative of the feedback Unfortunately, with the upside there often comes a downside; and that has been sales. We opened our space in January so we were expectant of the...
Every woodworker knows that once friends and family know you have a shop and a few tools, all sorts of random requests come your way. Everything from, "could you remodel my kitchen" to " can you repair a drawer in an old chest". For a carpenter, every request is a bit like a challenge issued.........we hate saying "no" to any project because "sure, I can do that":). It's a blessing and a pitfall. The blessing is that you get the pleasure of helping out a friend, solving a problem, or "fixing" a treasure. The pitfall is that we "wood guys" can end up taking on projects that are either beyond our shop capabilities or that divert our focus. Did I...
After making dozens of end grain cutting boards over the past couple years I wanted to share a bit about which woods I consider the best (and most available) for constructing boards. We’ve said, time and again, that end grain is the premium construction method for cutting boards because of it’s antibacterial properties and kindness to our knife edges. A crucial basis for determining the wood we use is in it’s hardness. I’ve found the best online source for wood characteristics, including hardness is: http://www.wood-database.com/ When looking through the database, try to select wood in the hardness range of 850 - 1700; You also want to look for a hardwood with a relatively tight grain pattern, free of knots and other blemishes. The most common...
