Thanks to everyone who donated money to help toolmaker Rob Hanson recover after losing everything to the recent Camp Fire in California. Your donations to this raffle raised $4,040 that went directly to Rob – no middleman.
The winner was Wolfram Herzog, who was a student in my most recent class on building a staked stool in Munich, Germany.
I am always amazed at the generosity of the people in our craft. Thanks so much for helping a fellow woodworker and toolmaker recover from an unspeakable tragedy.
I will be one of the demonstrators at Fine Woodworking Live on April 26-28, 2019, along with four other Lost Art Press authors – Christian Becksvoort, Matt Bickford, Peter Galbert and Nancy Hiller.
As you would expect from FWW, the roster of teachers is top-notch – check it out here. I am honored, humbled and entirely nervous about the whole thing. Will I be able to make eye contact? Will I inadvertently rub my nipples during my demonstration? Will Steve Latta call me out as a fraud?
I’ll be happy to discuss the topic of my class when it is announced. For now, however, mum is the word.
Surprise, it’s Fine Woodworking
I’m sure that some readers will be surprised that I’m signing on with Fine Woodworking. But to be honest, most of the woodworking press has hung together during the last couple decades. We were not in competition with each other as much as we were in competition with extinction.
Plus, I’ve always admired Fine Woodworking. It was the first woodworking magazine that I read back in 1993. And, also out of respect, we always tried to take Popular Woodworking in its own direction.
So will you start seeing my byline in Fine? I can’t say. I’ve been approached by several magazines about contributing to their pages. And I have not said “yes” to any of them. What I have said is that I don’t want to jump in bed immediately after leaving Popular Woodworking as a contributing editor (my tenure ends on Dec. 31). Also, I don’t think that my writing these days would suit an advertising-based magazine.
Some magazines (not FWW) have pressed me a bit. One magazine said: We are ready to try something really different. What ideas do you have?
I sent them a proposal for seven-part series I have been working on for many months about setting up a workshop. It’s good enough to be a book, but I think it should start as a magazine series. Here was their response.
Crickets.
So I suspect that my series will end up as a serial on the blog (such as “Sharpen This”) or a book. Stay tuned.
