Closing the Work Year

As the close of another year arrives and we enjoy a holiday break to celebrate and rest in, I want to thank you all for the incredible support you've given to the work we do throughout the last year.

We may have felt that the year was somehow incomplete, I think that that would be understandable because conclusion usually results in our seeing something standing in front of us that we have fashioned by our work and we can indeed see it. Brexit seems to be working through the finer details towards something of an agreement. Who knows what that means? I'm not worried though. Europe is and will always be my neighbour. Having lived as much of my adult life in the USA as I have in the UK, I have learned the importance of one thing, people are amazing everywhere and love overcomes all kinds of failures! The same can be said of the COVID-19 pandemic with the development of the vaccine to end its efficiency. This occurrence seems to be ever-evolving and we're not done with it, so who knows what's yet to come? I admire the tremendous effort to develop an answer to a worldwide problem. I am sure those involved feel tremendous satisfaction in crafting an answer.

For me, standing at my bench last night, I felt the satisfaction only possible for me through making with my own hands. My Brazos rocking chair rocked fully constructed, sanded and done but not glued up because I want to put on two or three coats before the last finish coat. Additionally, 21 items made from mesquite and oak to give as gifts to my family were completed and I enjoyed wrapping them for family presents. I wanted cutting boards that would be hygienic, resilient and long-lasting. I doubt that many woods will give the resistance to distortion and cracking more than mesquite.

My message to everyone is that making is a special gift to any and all. My methods using hand tools have and are my greatest reward in woodworking. Why? Because it's what I learned having tried all other methods. My quest in life has been to encourage men and women, children too, to not merely try hand methods but persevere for a period long enough to feel confident skills come into their lives; I have learned not to give up too soon and lose what could have been gained. I wish that more women would pursue woodworking and that there had never been a culture that prevented women from enjoying my woodworking craft. And I mean the art and craft of handwork, not machining wood. I have trained several women in my craft and seen only success. Hannah has been apprenticing with me for four years and is an amazing woodworker. But it is still difficult to get the kind of support that's needed to see a significant turn and especially is this so in hand tool realms.

With a healthy stack of completed work concluded around me and in front of me, and the shop looking a little more wrecked than I like, I felt thankfulness rise inside of me for the skills in my hands and the work I do. The physical dynamics of hand-making have always been good for my physical strength and mental wellbeing which is that incomparable something I call simply 'completion'. Thank you everyone for all that you have contributed to my efforts and I hope many more will see that skill will come to everyone who perseveres in the early days with the support of others.

Enjoy some peace and rest my friends. You are the future of hand tool woodworking. Without you, woodworking as we know it will die. We cannot rely on the professional realms nor me anymore. I plan to spend the rest of my life teaching and training, writing and making videos, but your enthusiasm and passion for hand tools and woodworking that way relies on you using the skills and passing on what was once called 'the trade secrets!'