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
Oak vs Oak
White oak built the early 1900s. Red oak built the 70s–90s. This story explains how two oaks shaped Prairie homes, why their reputations split, and how an era—not the wood—created “grandma’s kitchen.”
Red oak
Red oak is open‑pored, fast‑growing, and honest. This story explores how its earlywood–latewood contrast shapes its behaviour in the shop — from tear‑out to finishing — and why it remains the wood so many of us learned on.
White oak
White oak is the hardwood that defined durability — from its tyloses and tannins to the generations who trusted it. This story blends memory and science to explain why white oak still carries a reputation built over a century.
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.