Taking the twists out of life

You recall that I promised a video on making winding sticks when we hit 100,000 subscribers on YouTube which happened this morning so here are two of them. Thank you for nudging us over and being such a support to our Real Woodworking Campaign. You are the reason we do what we do.

This video is about making a pair of winding sticks, instruments that guide us as we plane sections of wood to a twist free conclusion on our component parts. It's a hand tool support strategy we hand tool enthusiasts rely on during any given week to help guarantee what we make, doors, drawers and other frames are twist free too in the continuum of work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EToMNxJ4-vw

I recall the first time I realised that life was just like wood in that wood comes with knots in it and so too life itself. Add into that awkward grain and shakes, fissures, cups, crooks and bows and you might wonder why we work it, but then remove the flaws and look deep into the sub fibres and you discover eddies and swirls, whorls, confluences, crotches, dormant buds and a million other divergences that just defy description to stun us all the more. When the parts are refined and you see what you made standing there you realise life is as much about character building as it is about working wood.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqw1lqZO6CA