Last weekend, I spent some time near Paducah, Kentucky. It is a beautiful part of the United States, with lovely people to match the locale. While there, my wife and I spent several hours looking at and for antiques and, once again, I was struck with how central to the lives of our ancestors the craft of woodworking was. Kitchenware, toys, chests, animal feeders, farm implements — and, of course, furniture of all types and descriptions.
These days we may depend less on wooden objects in our day-to-day experience. I, for one, do not have a single pair of wooden shoes. But as I viewed those antique wooden objects, they gave me a singular feeling of connection with the past. And as I saw a couple of rolling pins that looked nearly identical to the pins we feature in our November/December issue of Woodworker’s Journal print magazine, that connection was further secured.
So here is to our craft, and here is to woodworking. Historic and contemporary.
Rob Johnstone, Woodworker’s Journal