On a recent visit with my friend and mentor, David Marks, we decided to make a little video together. Initially the idea was to simply show David my video production process. But as things started to progress, I knew we had the makings of a great video and this was something I wanted to share with the woodworking community.

The goal was simple: let’s turn a bowl! But as easy as that sounds, properly filming a bowl turning from start to finish can be quite tricky with just a few hours to play with. I had to catch a plane that evening and this was something of a last-minute idea. But we managed to pull it off, amazingly.

Anyone who has worked with David knows that the man is a perfectionist by definition. He regularly achieves a level of quality that I can only hope to some day match. So with David Marks, even a “quick and dirty” bowl deserves a perfect spherical profile, an absolutely tearout-free finish, and a crisp decorative band. And forcing him to produce a David Marks creation under those conditions proved to be a challenge and an important learning experience for me. When David works, there is really only one way to do things: to the best of his abilities. So there’s really no such thing as “good enough”. Its either done properly or its not. This is something I really admire.

David shows you a number of tools and techniques in this video. You’ll see some of the more standard options like the bowl gouge, the parting tool, and the pyramid point tool, as well as some interesting offerings from Easy Wood Tools. In this video, David shows the Easy Rougher and The Easy Finisher. You can purchase the Easy Wood Tools, including the David J. Marks Pro Series featuring beautiful Bubinga handles at David’s website. The advantage of buying the David J. Marks Pro Series in addition to getting a signed bubinga handle, is that the handles are longer than the standard Easy Wood Tools which gives them better leverage.

I hope you enjoy this special episode. Maybe this will help fill in the gap left by my severe lack of turning content! And for those of you who miss the good old days of Woodworks, this is going to be a real treat!

After taking a couple days to catch up on stuff, I am finally ready to share my Woodworking in America experience with you. This was my first WIA and my expectations were building all year long. I even vowed to skip IWF (the big tool show in Atlanta), just to make sure I could focus all my attention on this education-focused conference. And am I ever glad I did!

The Marketplace

The show consists of two main areas: a marketplace and the educational sessions. The marketplace was approximately the same size as the show floor at the traveling woodworking shows, only the vendors here were much more engaged and of a higher caliber. Even if you didn’t attend a single session, you could get some quality hands-on right on the marketplace floor! Somehow, I managed not to spend a dime but many of my comrades weren’t so lucky. In fact, I wound up helping some folks spend their hard-earned cash. And while the marketplace could easily eat up a full day, I filled most of my time with the sessions upstairs.

The Sessions

I originally had a nice schedule set up, but its amazing how quickly that all changes when you start meeting up with friends and going to sessions together. Here are some of the highlights from the sessions I attended:

Michael Fortune:
I went to Michael’s discussion on cutting veneer. The funny thing about a class like this is that there is very little discussion about actually cutting veneer. 95% of the talk is about setting up your bandsaw. Obviously you won’t get very far if your bandsaw isn’t set up properly. I enjoyed hearing Michael’s perspective on the bandsaw and some of the things he considers to be myths. These are things that directly conflict with some of the conventional wisdom that I learned from some very knowledgeable folks, like David Marks. It just goes to show you that there is always room for more than one right way to do something. To sum up, Michael says that by using low tension and setting the blade in the middle of the tire, there should be no need to adjust for the drift of the blade. And if you use an aggressive blade for resawing, a 1/3HP machine should be powerful enough for just about any resaw task. He also says the whole coplaner wheel thing is crap. This talk truly made me re-examine a number of things I simply accepted as fact.

Frank Klausz:
Frank’s demonstration was on the secret mitered dovetail. I don’t have a picture but I’ll try to explain this. Imaging a drawer with a mitered corner. But behind that miter, hidden inside is a set of dovetails. The process involves cutting a short miter into the adjoining piece first, then cutting a half-blind dovetail inside the new edge. Sounds more complicated than it is but Frank’s humor and accent would make watching him play a game of ball in a cup fun and entertaining. I’m half Hungarian so maybe that’s why I like him so much. Anyway, after watching the demonstration, I turned to my buddy Aaron Marshall and asked him if he would ever bother. Imagine going through the trouble of cutting a dovetail by hand only to hide it behind a miter joint? Luckily, a passerby overheard the discussion and explained that a real practical use for it would be in a bracket foot. You don’t want anything more than a miter visible from the outside, but a dovetail would give the foot tremendous strength. The light bulb went off! Makes perfect sense. Thanks random woodworking dude!

George Walker:
You guys have heard me talk about George many times by now. I love how he teaches design. But after watching his DVDs, most of the session was review for me. He covered all the standard ratio business and classic forms and all that jazz. He also went into some detail on the use of dividers, which works very nicely with my personal adherence to Relative Dimensioning. The most compelling part of the session for me was when an audience member asked George to address the Golden Rectangle and how it relates to the whole number ratios. After all, the Golden Ratio is NOT a whole number ratio. George’s answer was pretty straight forward. He basically said that the Golden Ratio is sexy to talk about, but if you really look at old furniture and forms, you’ll see that the prevalence of whole number ratios is undeniable. He had many examples to support his position. Good stuff!

Chris Schwarz:
Chris did a number of sessions throughout the conference but I could only make it to two of them. The first was on one of my favorite hand tools: the router plane. Chris gave us a bunch of background and usage information as well as tips on maintenance and sharpening. The second class was on scraper planes, which was a little less interesting to me. Frankly I was there simply because I was following Matt around and that’s where we ended up. But, the session was packed with good information. The take-home message there was don’t waste your money on the big expensive scraper planes when a $30 Stanley #80 will not only suffice, but actually work better than most other options. As an owner of two of these beauties, I agree 100%. I love Chris’ presentation style and it was a pleasure to learn from him in person.

Marc Adams:
I have been a fan of Marc Adams since I first started woodworking. A buddy of mine let me borrow some of his woodworking DVDs, and that includes a number of Marc Adams titles. Marc is a very clear and concise presenter and he has the added bonus of spelling his first name the proper way. He covered a few simple jigs for making circles and ellipses. I have made/used circle-cutting jigs for the router in the past, but I never had to cut an ellipse. Marc shows us a simple fixture that works in conjunction with the circle cutting jig to create ellipses of pretty much any size. I may not have picked up all the details but he said the entire thing is covered in his DVD, which I believe I still have in my collection. So I’ll be checking that out later. Marc’s enthusiasm and teaching style make me wish I had more disposable income so I could take a class at his school. Its one of the best in the country and I have yet to attend. Someday…..

The People

Between the sessions and the marketplace, it was a very busy weekend. But there was another thing to factor into the experience, and that was the people. Frankly, this was the best part of the event. It was like being back in school with a bunch of my old friends. I had a chance to put faces to names as well as catch up with some old friends like Tom Iovino and Matt Vanderlist. At some point, our little group grew to about 10 somewhat rowdy guys who were clearly having more fun than they were supposed to. Walking to White Castle with a bunch of goobers all wearing “May the Schwarz be with You” shirts was a sight to see! Watching them all scramble back to the convention center to address the resulting bowel issues was even funnier!

The very last thing on my schedule was the Guild BBQ on Saturday evening at Allen’s house. When we initially planned this, I assumed there wouldn’t be enough Guild members going to the event to actually make a real “get-together”. Holy smokes was I wrong. I think Allen’s final RSVP count was 30 people and if I’m not mistaken, they all showed up! That many people squeezed into Allen’s house was hilarious and quite a bonding moment. It really made me pause and think about the power of what we are all creating here with not only the Guild and TWW, but the woodworking community on the whole. Powerful stuff my friends…..powerful stuff…..

The excitement and buzz was infectious all weekend long and there was never a dull moment. If we were laughing in class or causing trouble on the marketplace floor, we were drinking beers and trading war stories from the shop. Certainly an event I’ll remember for a long time. Thanks to the folks at PopularWoodworking.com for creating this event and helping to push the woodworking community forward!

For more coverage of Woodworking in America, check out all the content in the Woodworking in America Round Up thread in the forum.

In March, the Guild will be embarking on our very first “Guild Build”: a simple Shaker end-table. I am dedicating the entire event to Guild-member Duane Moore. You remember Duane right? He’s the guy from the Steamer Trunk Series. Duane received some difficult news recently concerning his battle with cancer, and I am doing everything I can to help out. For every Guild member who builds this table, and sends me a picture of the finished product, I will donate $5 to the American Cancer Society. Now if you would like to help out, but you aren’t interested in joining the Guild, we have included a donation button below. Please spread the word about this event. This isn’t just about woodworking as a job or hobby, its about woodworking as a lifestyle, and woodworking as a Community. I want people to be inspired by what our woodworking community is doing, and perhaps even contribute to the cause themselves.

“The 2009 Fresh Wood Student Competition highlights outstanding construction and design achievements by students from the best high school and post-secondary woodworking programs in North America.” That’s according to the AWFS website. But the competition is so much more. There were so many fantastic pieces on display and unfortunately I couldn’t film them all. But I got the vast majority and I hope you enjoy the footage. Some of the talent in this competition is simply mind boggling.

Music courtesy of MusicAlley.com. The first track was Juxtaposition by B.D. Lenz and the second track was Phideauxs Strut by Brian McRae.

AWFS is always a blast, even though this year we could see the effects of the economy in both corporate presence and attendance. But there were still some great products to see. In this video, you’ll see the following demos:
Rockler: Tapering Jig, Box Joint Jig, Bench Cookies
Tenryu: Festool Blades, Silencer series
Kreg: Beaded Faceframe System
DeWalt: New Lithium Ion Battery technology
SawStop: Professional Cabinet Saw
Gorilla Gripper: The Gorilla Gripper

We just got back from another great AWFS Fair in Las Vegas. If you aren’t familiar, AWFS is the Association of Woodworking & Furnishings Suppliers and its a show that occurs every other year at the Las Vegas Convention Center. This is just a quick video to give you an idea of what the show is like. Booths and product displays as far as the eye can see and lots of neat stuff to drool over. I even have some footage of the all wood sports car, “The Splinter”, as well as a quick look at the Belt Sander Races. And as if that wasn’t enough, the one and only Matt Vanderlist from Matt’s Basement Workshop makes a guest appearance at the end of the video! Tool demos and the student furniture exhibit will soon follow.

Darrell Peart is a furniture-maker, author, and instructor living in the Pacific Northwest. His work is heavily influenced by the work of the Greene brothers and as you can see on his website, Darrell likes to put his own spin on it. This interview took place in March of 2009 at the William Ng School. I took Darrell’s Aurora End Table class and he was kind enough to sit and chat with me about all kinds of things: influences, design theories, copying other works, and Greene & Greene. Darrell also gives a few tips to help bring out that inner designer inside of all of us (if it isn’t coming out naturally).

If you are interested in learning more about Greene & Greene history and techniques, you have to check out Darrell’s book. You can pick it up directly on his website and he’ll even autograph it for you!

A quick look into David’s latest creation. Its a massive disc-shaped turned piece with a big marquetry image on the front. David gives us a rundown on his process and some of the challenges he is facing with this piece. Its almost like an episode of Woodworks…..sort of.

Want to see more from David Marks? Check these out:

David & Victoria Marks Interview
David Marks Shop Tour
David Marks Gallery Tour
A Guild Chat with David Marks

David Marks finishes up his tour with a review of his wood boiling apparatus (used for drying out turnings), and his art gallery. The gallery contains many beautiful pieces by David as well as other amazing woodworkers. David caps off the tour by showing us his skills on the drums! And believe it or not, we have a few outtakes!

Also, David recently released his Scrapers DVD. It contains everything you need to know to properly sharpen card scrapers, cabinet scrapers, and gooseneck scrapers. I watched the DVD a few weeks ago and I instantly felt like I was watching a new episode of Woodworks (only more REAL!) You can pick the DVD up here.

Want to see more from David Marks? Check these out:

David & Victoria Marks Interview
David Marks Shop Tour
David Marks Project in Progress
A Guild Chat with David Marks

Last summer, on our Gadget Station delivery trip, we decided to stop and visit the one and only David Marks. If you’re not familiar with David, he is an incredible woodworker, and used to host a show on HGTV and the DIY Network called Woodworks. But the show has been over for nearly 5 years and David has moved on to bigger and better things. While we were there, he was kind enough to give us a nice shop tour. This is pure gold for any big Woodworks fans out there!

Also, David recently released his Scrapers DVD. It contains everything you need to know to properly sharpen card scrapers, cabinet scrapers, and gooseneck scrapers. I watched this for the first time last week and I instantly felt like I was watching a new episode of Woodworks (only more REAL!) You can pick the DVD up here.

Want to see more from David Marks? Check these out:

David & Victoria Marks Interview
David Marks Gallery Tour
David Marks Project in Progress
A Guild Chat with David Marks