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 〰️
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What Woodworkers Really Do When the Power Goes Out
When the power goes out in a woodshop, everything changes. Machines stop, lights fade, and the whole crew shifts into cleanup mode, safety mode, or story mode — because a power outage in a woodshop isn’t a break, it’s a whole different way of working.
Cedar
If you’ve ever wondered why cedar is so light, so aromatic, and so naturally rot‑resistant, the answer goes back 70 million years. This story explores the science behind cedar’s behaviour, its deep‑time evolution, and why it remains one of the most forgiving woods in the shop.
Fast Hardwood — Reader Question
Hardwoods don’t all grow slowly. This follow‑up explains the fast pioneer hardwoods — poplar, willow, and soft maples — and how forest succession shapes the difference between hardwood and softwood growth.
THE SHOP
A look inside my one‑person heritage woodworking shop in Winnipeg — built wall by wall, bench by bench, and now shared with my son as he learns the craft. This Ramble explores the upgrades that shaped the space: the Walnut Wagon, the precision MFT bench, and the second‑generation lumber rack that finally worked. It’s a story about evolution, problem‑solving, and the small shop where chaos becomes clarity and every project finds its place.
The Knotty Year‑End Scrapstravaganza
A year of jobs leaves a year of scraps — walnut, maple, oak, elm, all piled up in the shop once the work is gone and the projects are living their new lives elsewhere. Every November, those leftovers get a second chance. Scrapstravaganza is the annual tradition of turning off‑cuts into a tight batch of end‑grain cutting boards: sorted, glued, planed, sanded, and finished into lifetime pieces that were almost firewood.