Shop Notes & Rambles
Welcome to the quieter corner of the shop — the place where sawdust settles, thoughts wander, and stories take shape. These rambles capture the rhythm of the work, the lessons learned, and the craft that holds it all together.
Shop Ramble Mailing List
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Shop Ramble Mailing List 〰️
Join the legacy
Hardwood vs Softwood
The real answer isn’t about needles or leaves, cones or flowers. The real answer is a story — one that starts long before humans, long before forests, long before soil. A story about how trees built the world we live in.
Rarity of Wood
We saw billions of trees on the road to Cape Breton, yet the lumber pile tells a different truth. This is a reflection on old growth, young forests, and the quiet rarity of the wood our ancestors once took for granted.
Understanding Wood
Every board has a past. This is the story of how wood grows, changes, and carries its history into the shop — and why understanding that history matters.
Old Machines, New Machines, and the Quiet Math of a Working Life
A winter drive, a mobile lathe kit, and a look back at the machines that shaped my shop — the wins, the regrets, and the quiet math behind every tool I’ve ever bought.
Mini Kitchen
The stove came back to life in a blue flame, and with it came memories, stories, and the quiet reminder that I needed something to keep my hands busy.
Old Cedar
What began as a stack of rotted deck boards turned into a lesson in craft, patience, and teaching my son his first set of chairs.
The World Runs on Pencils
A shop can have fifty people and five hundred pencils, but somehow the one thing nobody can ever find is a decent sharpener. Funny how the smallest tool can bring the whole place to a stop.
How to Arrive at Perfect
Wood has a way of humbling you. One clean pass, one crisp cut, and then — tear‑out. A small reminder that perfection in a woodshop isn’t what the world thinks it is.
The Power of Lazy
A memory from 1988: dusty prairie roads, long hair, and a teacher who taught me the real meaning of “lazy” — a lesson that stuck for decades.
Knotty Dave’s Fine Woodworking
Where heritage, chaos, and craftsmanship collide.
Knotty dave
Craft, heritage, and a life built one honest cut at a time.
🔥 THE HEARTH ROOM
“It’s where you gather, where you laugh, where you thaw out after the day has taken more than it gave.”
🧱 THE CRAWL SPACE THAT’S GOING TO BREAK ME
“If you’re into dead wasps and mouse turds, I’ve got something you’ll want to see.”
HERITAGE RESTORATION
A hundred years, two wars, and a gravel road later, this house still refuses to quit.
THE SHIFT — LIFE DOESN’T WAIT
Cancer may have gravity, but it doesn’t get my story.
PHOTOGRAPHY
When I have a camera in hand, anything is possible.
THE SHOP
This is where I feel most like myself.
THE PAVILION PROJECT
This ain’t no she‑shed. This is a pavilion — Knotty, but wholesome.
SHOP PROJECTS
A real shop runs on jigs, fixtures, and forgotten brilliance buried under dust.
CABINETRY
You know what a cabinetmaker hates about cabinetmaking? The cabinets.