This week I’m in Bavaria to teach two woodworking classes at the workshops of Dictum GmbH. (And to visit my favorite coffee machine in the entire world.) However, instead of pushing the machine’s buttons over and over, I’m teaching in a different workshop and making friends with a different coffee machine. Because of heavy rains … Read more
While I have used a lot of bowsaws in the last two decades, I’ve never made one. But during the last few weeks, I’ve made five. The reason is that I fly to Germany on Friday to teach a couple woodworking classes. One class on building Roorkhee chairs, plus a one-day class on building a … Read more
With this class in building Roorkhee chairs, I bit off way less than I could chew. After the second day, we just have to finish up a couple details on the leather and metal work before we start finishing the mahogany. Tomorrow, I hope we will finish all the chairs with shellac and black wax … Read more
Most classes I teach end up being a “dovetail death march” (in a good way). There is a lot of traditional joinery, late nights, sore feet and little hope of finishing the project in five days. But this class on Roorkhee chairs at Kelly Mehler’s School of Woodworking promises to be different. If we don’t … Read more
I leave for Germany in a couple weeks to teach classes on making Roorkhee chairs (piece of pie!) and bowsaws. Yup. Making bowsaws. You’ve probably seen my international treatise on bowsaws: “Bowsaws: An Anthropological View of Three Sticks and Some Cat Innards.” No? Well that’s because I haven’t written it. I’ve used and owned many … Read more
In some high technology circles there is an expression they use when engineers move too quickly to launch a project. They have “go fever” and are willing to overlook horrible mistakes in order to launch a product. When teaching woodworking – especially casework – I find that most students need to take down their protective netting, … Read more
While I like and appreciate strict reproductions, I’ve always preferred to design my own stuff. How do I design a piece? In the only way I know how. It’s not easy. There are no formulas or rules or ratios. It is by a process I call “saturation and feedback.” Step 1: Absorb everything you can … Read more
