This weekend I was making sawdust … of a sort. Our laundry room will shortly be outfitted with melamine cabinetry, made by yours truly. I used a bunch of skills that are based on woodworking (measuring, sawing, gluing and clamping), but a question that I have is this: Should I call it woodworking? I'll be facing the edges of the melamine with cherry. But the question remains. And if it is not woodworking, what is it?

When you tell someone that you're going to "do some woodworking," my guess is that hefting 90-lb. pieces of plastic-covered particle board is not the mental image that comes to mind. But at the same time, when folks look at my cherry-veneered kitchen cabinets, they say "Oh, you're a woodworker … did you make these?" (Yup!)

So what do you think? Where do you stand on the definition of "woodworking?" Does it just describe working with solid wood? Maybe a combination of solid wood and plywood would still make the cut? This is your chance to help solve a question of the ages … or at least, August. Drop me a note, and we'll post some of them in the Reader's Response section of our next eZine .

Sincerely,

— Rob Johnstone, editor: Woodworker's Journal

P.S. Some folks have recently noted that when photos of me appear in eZine articles other than this editorial, I look different than the image on this page. Hence, my new mugshot.

P.P.S. Last Sunday night we had a great online chat with Scott Phillips. If you missed it, click here to check out the transcript of the chat.