Weekly Editorial
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Pushing Your Limits
Last time out, I asked all of you which woodworking style rang your bell, and it did not take long before my email bell was chiming away. As usual, you were free with your opinions: you can peruse a sampling on the Feedback page. While the variety of answers is no surprise, it is inspiring.
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Which Style is Yours?
Somehow I got on a clothing email list called “Your Style.” Now, I don’t want to be hypercritical, but none of the clothes that I’ve seen there actually are my style (such as it is), and most of them don’t look like they’d fit in any case. It makes you wonder why they send me the email at all. But in the convoluted workings of my mind, it did spark another question that I have for you all. What style of woodworking do you find the most pleasing?
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Outdoor Woodworking
It’s warming up outside, and I’ve got a couple of hot projects on my list of things to build. The first is a stand for my little gas grill. I live alone and often grill my dinner out on my deck during the short summer season. My kids bought me a really small gas grill that is perfect for those gastronomic episodes — but it needs a stand to get it up to counter height. That’s number one. The second is a picnic table.
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Woodworkers Who Lend a Helping Hand
In this issue’s Industry Interview, Chris Marshall profiles a program from Craftsman Tools wherein woodworkers use their skills and tools to help out people in need. Woodworker’s Journal often donates tools used in our magazine’s tool tests to Habitat for Humanity. Woodworkers, it goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway), are good people.
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Relief at Last
This has been — and I say this without the least bit of reservation — the most miserable, drawn-out, bone-chilling, mind-numbing and just plain icky winter I have experienced in my 57 years on this planet. Every time it looked like we were done with the snow and ice, we were sucker punched to the tune of 8 inches of wet, heavy snow. Spring could just not beat the winter back.
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Staying Power
Last time out, I asked you, the eZine faithful, what was the oldest tool you had lying around in your shop. I thought to myself, “Self, I bet they have a few oldsters lying around.”
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What Old Saw (Or Other Tool) Have You Kept Going?
One of the woodworkers in our Q&A department is rehabbing an old saw (the kind you find in your woodshop; not the kind of pithy saying your grandmother used to spout at the dinner table). And, while I might quibble at his definition of “old” (It’s from the 1980s! It’s hardly as old as some of my children!), I admire him for trying to keep a good tool going in the service of our craft.
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Inspired by Inspired Woodworkers
It has long been a pleasure for me to be associated with woodworkers. We are indeed a diverse group of folks with a wide scope of experience and focus. But while we are in no way a monolithic group, we do share some characteristics.
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How Tweet It IS!
OK, I’ve done it. I’ve started a Twitter account. This may lead you to a series of questions … which I will do my best to both ask and answer.
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Beauty as You Behold It
While watching the Antiques Roadshow (the program which asks the question: why didn’t your parents give you a Chippendale highboy?), I was once again struck by the way that all humans attempt to surround themselves with beauty. From folk art to fine furniture, the desire is the same — to make the space we live in more pleasant. (And, of course more functional, but even there, beauty occasionally trumps practicality.)
