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
Shop Life
A normal morning in the shop can turn on you fast. One missing tool, one bad cut, one inch‑short mistake, and suddenly the whole day shifts. That’s shop life—ordinary right up until it isn’t.
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.
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.
HEIRLOOM FURNITURE BUILDS
Built for a century. Built for a family. Built for a story.
The Knotty Year‑End Scrapstravaganza
A year ends. The scraps remain.