The Shop Rambles are the work — not extras, not afterthoughts. They’re the result of a lifetime in the shop, told in stories, craft, education, and a bit of fun. Everything starts in the shop and finds its way here to knottydaves.com.
Explore the Rambles — featured stories below
Ash is still healthy in Manitoba. Walk a windrow, a shelterbelt, or a river trail and you’ll see it — solid trunks, full crowns, and none of the hollowing that’s reshaped forests in other provinces. Green ash still anchors prairie windrows, white ash remains a reliable hardwood in the lumber trade, and black ash continues its long cultural lineage in basketry and traditional craft. The emerald ash borer is here, but the decline is early, quiet enough that most people don’t notice. Manitoba’s ash stands strong for now, but once a species begins to slip — whether it’s the commercial white ash, the cultural black ash, or the everyday green ash — the story widens fast across the prairie landscape.
Woodworkers search all the time for how to do photography for woodworkers — how to light a project, how to make grain show up, how to take a simple shop photo that actually looks like the work you built. This Ramble walks through that in real examples: tools, tables, nightstands, and the same kind of shop light every woodworker already has. Controlled flashes, diffused sunlight, shallow depth of field, backlight, silhouettes — all the ways light can reveal the craft. It’s not about the camera. It’s about learning to see.
