Magazine Interview

I spent some time with UK woodworking magazine editor, Nick Gibbs who is co-founder of Quercus, which dedicates its content to articles on working wood by hand. Nick contacted me to see if he could arrange to interview me about my life working wood as a full-time lifelong woodworker. Nick is one of the few magazine editors to pioneer a magazine away from taking advertisements and take an active pursuit of hand-working wood. I've known Nick for several years and recall my first encounter with him in 2007 or 2008 when I found someone who works as many hours in a day and as many days in a week as I do. As kindred spirits, I did something I usually shy away from and Nick came for a visit to discuss my woodworking life.

In the pre-internet days, magazines were more plentiful and in recent years I have watched them drop off one by one as people favour on-the-spot information at their fingertips. Pioneer? Well, I just don't know of a new magazine start-up by a lone entity that's occurred in these recent times with a monthly output and that was quite so close to the point of a pandemic overtaking the world.

Nick Gibbs asked me lots of questions and here are a couple you might want to know the answers to. He asked me whether mesquite would be my Desert Island timber and whether I was escaping the British class system when I moved to the US. The answers to these questions and more are in the next issue of Nick's magazine and here is the link to get your January edition of Quercus! I know you'll find it interesting. Well done, Nick Gibbs!