We may receive a commission when you use our affiliate links. However, this does not impact our recommendations.
For me, the highlight of 2010’s Woodworking in America conference was The Feast of André Roubo, a dinner held high above the city of Cincinnati. And I was not alone. One attendee stopped me as I was leaving the feast to tell me this:
“I’m not interested in history, old stuff, André Roubo or old texts,” he said. “But that dinner was the most interesting and cool thing I’ve seen in a long time.”
The reason the dinner was such a hit was because we paired up Roy Underhill, who gave an emotional, sad and fascinating presentation on Roubo’s death, and Don Williams, who is spearheading the translation effort of Roubo’s 18th-century woodworking masterpiece: “L’art du Menuisier.”
This year, Roy and Don will be back for the second feast, which we are jokingly calling “The Annual Meeting of the Roubo Society.” There is no society (yet). The feast is at 6:30 p.m. on the Saturday night during Woodworking in America.
The feast will again be held at the Metropolitan Club in Covington, Ky. – it’s across the street from the Northern Kentucky Convention Center. The club is a bit swanky, so you have to wear pants. But don’t let the whiff of swank scare you off. The club is cool. You get to stand above the entire Ohio River Valley at the top of a skyscraper, watching the rivers snake through the city.
The adult beverages are good. The food is excellent – probably the best food of the conference.
But the entertainment is the reason to come.
Roy promises a presentation about Denis Diderot’s dressing gown. Huh? Diderot was a contemporary of Roubo, and he was one of the authors of an groundbreaking encyclopedia of the trades (which is still in print!).
And Diderot’s dressing gown is important to the overall story of Roubo and the current hand-tool renaissance. I cannot really say more.
And Don has spent the last year immersed in the physical and mental world of Roubo. He has been building the tools and jigs outlined in the text and put them to use in his shop. Though Don has been in the trades his entire life, he describes several of Roubo’s tools as “life changing.”
Oh, and I’ll be speaking as well. I’m going to fill everyone in on how the publication of the first volume of “To Make as Perfectly as Possible” is coming along.
I can tell you this much: These translations are going to become landmark books. And you don’t have to just take it from me. Everyone who attends the feast will receive a handout that samples some of the cooler stuff that Don and his team have unearthed.
So come to the dinner. Be a part of woodworking history. And buy me (and Roy) a beer.
You can register for the conference here. The dinner is an extra $50.
— Christopher Schwarz
