Grille
After a few attempts to bend fine strips into curves, I gave up and resorted to the scroll saw.

After a few attempts to bend fine strips into curves, I gave up and resorted to the scroll saw.

Simple Machines Blogging takes time and my recent past has involved a sick wife and a new grandchild. Suburban life is rich with texture. It can make blogging take a back seat. Following is a report of a nice afternoon in my shed with my son! My disabled friends haven’t been ignored, the next blog…
I Broke a Promise… …but I also made a discovery. When I began doing wood projects among my disabled friends I made some promises to myself. The promises were a personal, but unwritten, statement of policy. I promise to: do work that is engaging because the thing we make is interesting, never to do all…
Wooden hand plane aficionados (ambiguity intentional) make much of the fact that they can use words like “frog, cutting angle and throat” with confidence. That confidence is proof that they must be experts! If you add complexity to the activity then great reverence must be assumed. Much is made of achieving chisel cuts at particular…
My friends wouldn’t stop playing with this toy. For me, that is enough evidence to call the project a success. Most of the workers in my group do not interact easily with other people, so their play didn’t consist of shooting each other. They found enormous satisfaction in the challenge of loading a ball and launching it…
Enthusiastic, beginning woodworkers look for a place to discover their skills. They read about traditional benches; material costs and required skills are both intimidating. Such great fulfilment can be had when woodworking that I hope the people to whom I talk feel encouraged to go out and experiment with their own creativity. How simply and…