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
〰️
Shop Ramble Mailing List 〰️
Join the legacy
Understanding Wood
Wood behaves the way it does because every board carries the memory of the tree it came from. Leaning trunks, shifting riverbanks, floodwater, wind pressure, scars, tension wood, compression wood — all of it becomes grain, movement, and character in the shop. This piece explains how trees grow, adapt, and survive, and why those hidden forces show up decades later when a woodworker planes a board and the wood reacts. Understanding wood begins with understanding the life it lived.
Old Machines, New Machines, and the Quiet Math of a Working Life
Every machine in a working shop carries its own math — the cost, the risk, the payoff, and the lessons learned. This Ramble looks at the old cast‑iron tools I rebuilt, the new machines that expanded what’s possible, and the decisions that shaped the way I work. From a tuned General 490 to a SuperMax drum sander to the Laguna Revo 24|36 that opened the door to bigger, more creative projects, it’s a story about choosing the right tools, understanding their limits, and letting them push the craft forward.
Shop Life
Shop life is a mix of smooth mornings and sudden chaos — lost tools, kickbacks, forgotten plans, and the small moments that shift a day from normal to “oh, fuck.” This Ramble looks at the humour, frustration, and timing that shape a working day, and the quiet skill of knowing when the day is done.
The Power of Lazy
“In 1988, my autobody teacher taught me the smartest lesson I ever learned: lazy workers do the job right the first time. Four semesters restoring a Canadian‑built Pontiac Parisienne proved him right — every bolt, every panel, every mistake avoided. That mindset followed me into woodworking, into life, and into every project since.”