One of the best parts of this job is getting to meet great woodworkers, guys who have managed to make a living doing what the rest of us do for fun. We feature woodworkers now and then in Popular Woodworking Magazine in articles we call “Great Woodshops.” One of my favorites is a gentleman I mentioned in a post last week, Brian Boggs. We did a story on Brian in the February 2005 issue, when his shop was just down the road from us in Berea, Ky. Since then Brian has relocated to Asheville, N.C., and expanded his horizons with what he calls the Boggs Collective. I came across this video this morning, and thought it worth sharing. If you’re not familiar with Brian’s work, it is well worth a look.
Brian combines tradition and innovation and makes chairs that sit well and look fantastic. If you’d like to spend time with him, pick his brain and go home with a great chair, he teaches a few classes at his shop in Asheville.
We’re always open to ideas on articles about woodworkers. Leave a comment below to let us know about your favorite woodworker.
I study woodworking, I now make a living from it (albeit a humble one), and none of it would have been possible without Marc Spagnuolo and his video blog series. I loved watching Norm Abrams but his shows never gave me the courage to try – Marc’s did. I credit the man every opportunity that I get and point people to him every time I get asked how one should go about getting started.
I agree with many of the aforementioned, however overlooked so far has been Jameel Abraham, woodworker, luthier, “Benchcrafter”, author, photographer, tool maker, videographer, Iowan, religious artisan and Renaissance man!
my favorite woodworkers are Marc Adams and Michael Fortune
James Krenov
Franklin Gottshall
Those guys who fabricated for the Greene Bros.
Sam Maloof
Gary Bennett
Thomas Chippendale
Duncan Phyfe
Thomas Sheraton
Tage Frid
Frank Klaus
Daniel Peart
The Stickly Bros. [all of them]
Charles Rennie MacIntosh
and my dad…
In this order:
Wallace Gusler
John Bivins
Roy Underhill
Lonnie Bird, Andy Rae, David Marks and Gary Rogowski are the ones that come to mind first.
Chippendale,Sloyd,Maloof,Thomas MacDonald, St. Roy, Norm, The Schwarz, David Marks, Greene and Greene, Roubo, Nicholson, Chris Pye. How can you have heroes when there are so many heroes?
Neil Erasmus – Fantastic designer/maker, great teacher and an even better bloke.
Glen Huey, hands down. His furniture is spectacular, his use of figured wood is unparallelled and his finishing is perfect.
I love his historical inspired pieces and hope to get to that level of woodworking one day.
Norm Abram was the one that got me (and probably a lot of us) interested in woodworking and inspired, so I owe a huge debt of gratitude to him and The New Yankee Workshop, too.
George Vondriska
I guess I should expand. George has very practical advice. His demonstrations are simple and effective. I’ve learned a lot from his videos and articles.
Roy Underhill – Woodwright’s Shop
Charles Hayward – How to make Woodworking Tools
Frank Klausz – Your first toolkit and his dovetailing
Christopher Schwarz – Lost Art Press – With a writing style that challenges you to learn and to make your style your own. “Disobey Me”
Megan Fitzpatrick – I can do that projects
Kari Hultman – The village Carpenter
and
My high school shop teacher – Mr. Harter (Harter Casket Company) who is now semi retired.
When I told him I was getting back into hand woodworking he put his hand on my shoulder, looked me straight in the eye and said “We have power tools that do that now” – lol