There have been a bunch of folks who have had a major influence on Tom’s Workbench over the past five years. I wanted to take the time to recognize a few of the folks with which the blog would have never happened.

Today, I send a shout-out to my advertisers! These folks have taken a great chance on my site. By helping to underwrite my site, they are betting:

1. I am going to keep up the pace of four posts a week
2. My posts are going to be at least semi-lucid enough to make sense
3. I’m not going to embarrass myself by doing something incredibly stupid. Like this.

(No  chickens were hurt during the writing of this post, but a few shop monkeys could not stop laughing and may have pulled something in the process.) There, now I got that out of my system.

Without any further ado, I want to take the time to thank my sponsors each in turn:

Bell Forest Products: They have been a sponsor for several years now, coming online in November of 2008. The folks up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan have treated me like a prince, supporting my wood junkie habit (hey, man, can you spare some tiger maple?). Eric Poirier has been my chief point of contact, and the entire organization has thrown themselves behind me and other online woodworkers. Remember – no wood, no woodworking, right?  These guys will go out of their way to pick the board you need for a project. I am most grateful for their support.

Infinity Cutting Tools: David Venditto called me out of the clear blue one day to offer to become my advertiser. Since then, David has been a great supporter of the site. Now, as I get ready to hit the 1,000 post milestone, he coincidentally is moving into his new warehouse setup.  Not sure if it’s karma or kizmet, but hey, it can’t all be bad!  🙂

Tormek: Our friends over in Sweden make what has to be the easiest sharpening system out there to master. And, the darned thing is rugged, to boot. I have been working with their United States distributor (more on him later) during our sponsorship, and I have heard from the home office is that they like my writing style (voice, humor and the like) and they want me to keep promoting their product. I send my thanks for their support and encouragement across the Atlantic.

Bora Tools: The newest member to the team is Bora, an brand sold by Affinity tool works (they also make some great work holding tools I will feature in future articles). When a mutual friend recommended that the manager – Craig Ursell – give me a call, we immediately hit it off. Craig is a very personable guy with a great vision for the future of his brands, and an imagination and an enthusiasm that knows no bounds.

A few readers have commented recently that they think the blog is becoming a little too commercial. To them, I can understand their concerns. After all, a huge chunk of my blog is about my experiences in crafting wood. However, I also want to say that these four companies offer high-quality products that I am proud to use in my shop, and I would gladly recommend to my friends without hesitation. I also want to assure you that if something comes across my bench from one of these companies that isn’t top notch, they will hear from me before I write the review to see how we can work to improve the offerings. It’s a great relationship that we have forged, and the trust level is high between us.

This is post number 997. I will have a regular link of the week this week (post 998), and Sunday (post 999), I will be announcing the winners of the Great Thousand Post giveaway instead of the quick poll for the week. I hope you join me this weekend and this coming Monday as I cross the thousand post threshold. We’ve come this far together, and I’m getting used to your company!