This time of the year, everyone likes to take a peek over their shoulder to see how far they have come over the past 12 months. The kids are a little older. You are really starting to appreciate the home improvements you made in the spring.

And, as woodworkers, we see just how far our skills have advanced.

“I think it’s only natural for folks to see how they have progressed through the year,” said Eric Poirier of Bell Forest Products. “Whether it was that first veneer job, the cradle you built for your grandchild or that chair you built that doesn’t wobble – each project is a great accomplishment for you to celebrate.”

While we tend to look only at our progress, Eric and the folks at Bell Forest Products have an interesting perspective. “When someone looks back at his or her woodworking accomplishments, that’s good. Then there is the joy we find in looking at the successes of our customers… and we are floored.”

That’s the reason why the company proudly features a customer gallery on their site. “The idea started when some of our customers wanted to show off what they had done with the wood they ordered. We thought, ‘what the heck?’ and posted a few of them online. Since then, the gallery has grown to one impressive collection.”

And, what a collection it is. Guitars. Tables. Chairs. Pens. Floors. “If it can be built out of wood, you’re bound to find a photo of it in the collection. I am impressed with the creativity shown by our customers. The wood is spectacular, but we are only part of it. It’s that skill that takes the projects to new heights.”

Eric confessed that he often looks at the project photos for inspiration. “When we are rough milling the boards in our workshop and warehouse, it’s easy to see the wood as just a commodity – something like paint or butter or pillows. But, when you see the results of someone taking the time and care to carefully craft a work of art out of it, that makes our work a little more interesting.“

While there are many pieces on the site that will take your breath away, some really stick out for Eric. “I am a big fan of functional furniture – so I really enjoy seeing custom built pieces using highly figured wood.  Our customers are very talented, and they do a great job selecting and utilizing these unique pieces.  I enjoy seeing contrasting woods, figured accents, and live-edge slabs.  The projects that are most special to me are probably the ones where I hunted down a specific piece of wood for a customer for their project.  Several projects that come to mind are:

If Bell Forest Products stopped taking photo submissions today, the collection would be impressive. “But, we’d miss the excitement of opening those e-mails from our customers and seeing what they have done. What has been built is something to look at, but we’re most excited about those projects yet to come. Who knows what is cooking in each of our customer’s shops? I just can’t wait to see what’s next!”

“From the folks here at Bell Forest Products, we want to wish all of you a very happy and healthy holiday season with visions of sugar maples – and other woods – dancing in your heads!”

Oh, yes, it was SO good in 2010, you know I just had to come back for more!  I just can’t get enough of the Great American Teach In… even  though some of the questions were a little more pointed… 🙂

My day began last Thursday by driving my youngest son in to his school, where they had some great coffee. Jet fuel for the soul. There, I delivered three talks to two fifth grade and one fourth grade classes. Unlike last year, where I just spoke about tools, this year I cut several samples of joints, showed how they worked together and even showed off my blog.

After the third session at my youngest son’s school, I packed up my materials and headed down the road a ways to my oldest son’s middle school. I was surprised when I got there that I had a lot of time available before my first class… and I was going to be fed lunch.  The food was delicious, but it was a little intimidating being in a room with about a dozen SWAT officers from the Pinellas Park Police Department.

After I ate, a student helped guide me down the hallway to where I set up for my next classes – the science lab. It was a great room with plenty of space for me to spread my stuff out and really get into things. I also set up my little video camera and had my son Dominic operate it. Yes, you can hear him piping up from time to time during the talk.

After a full day of seven classes, working with more than 300 kids, I was totally whipped. Next year, I need to wear my athletic shoes and bring some Advil.

Now, after talking about tools and joinery, I’m going to have to find another topic to talk about next year….  But, at least I have a full year to think about it.

So, yesterday, I spent the day going around to my two son’s schools to talk about woodworking at the Great American Teach In. And, for the most part, I had a great time. Talking to seven classes and more than 300 kids about joinery was a blast.

For the most part.

There was this one student. After I had spent the better part of an hour explaining how joinery, glue, nails, screws and dovetails worked, she piped up and asked me, “Why do I need to learn this ‘stuff?'” Only, the word she used was a little stronger.

While this was obviously done for effect, it did leave me wondering what I was bringing to the kids.

I mean, most of them were never going to get involved in woodworking. The only contact that many of them would have with wood would probably be a few chairs, a table or some other pieces of furniture. What the hell was I trying to communicate?

I stammered. I struggled. Then, six hours later, it struck me like a bolt out of the blue.

What does a twelve year old kid know about life?

When I was twelve, my life revolved around the New York Giants, the books I had read and the TV show M*A*S*H*.  I had a few close friends, didn’t particularly care for girls and had yet to decide what I wanted to do when I grew up.   Maybe an astronaut. Maybe a race car driver. Maybe a cop.

Since that time, I have seen so much more. High School. College. Girlfriends. Trips to different cities. Building a resume. Reading books. Watching the Internet grow. Getting married. Playing golf for the first time. My children. And, discovering woodworking, a hobby that I enjoy tremendously.

When I was twelve, I’m sure I knew everything there was to know in the world. I had it all together. If, at that time, I was never exposed to new things, how poor the quality of my life would be. How narrow my focus.

She asked the question not because she was being sassy, but because she had yet to see the world beyond her small sphere of influence. My job yesterday wasn’t to get the kids jacked up about starting to woodwork on their own (although, I am sure that some will be for sure), but it was to show them something else worth seeing in life. To expand their perspectives.

Yeah, it was a challenging question.  But, for sure, my job wasn’t to provide answers. Those will come for those kids later in life.

I love going to get my hair cut. With my short ‘do, I need to do it quite a bit.

Why is it so enjoyable? Well, I get to wake up early and head to the barber by myself (most times) on a Saturday morning. I get to crack some funny jokes with the barbers while they snip customers’ hair. I get to stop at the local bagel place and pick up breakfast for everyone  – before they wake up!

And, I get to swing by the local pharmacy to buy a pack of my favorite mints while getting some cash out for the cut. Yes, I loves me some peppermint Mentos!

I don’t know why I am so addicted to these soft and chewy peppermints. Maybe its the nostalgia angle… I used to buy these when I grew up in Jersey. Maybe it’s the fact that you can make them do incredible things when you drop them into Diet Coke.

Quite possibly, it’s  the infectious jingle that went with every ad. Mentos – fresh and full of life. Even if I jabbed a carving fork through my eye, I could never get that out of my head.

Why bring that up now? Well, since my post about online woodworking being dead, it would seem that quite the opposite is happening.In fact, you could say that online woodworking is fresh and full of new life!

Mark your calendars for tonight (Wednesday, Nov. 2) at 9 p.m. Eastern (that’s 8 p.m. in the Central time zone and 6 p.m. in the Pacific). That’s when you will see the triumphant return of #Woodchat!  What the heck is #woodchat?  It’s a Twitter-based discussion on all things woodworking. Yes, you may have seen this in the past, and it was good, but it’s back – and we’re back with a team approach. Folks like Dyami Plotke, Matt Gradwhol, Vic Hubbard, Chris Adkins and Dale Osowski are all on board, helping to spread the moderating duties in order to keep Woodchat a vibrant event.

While you can play along on your twitter page, it might be easier if you use a Twitter chat website such as Tweetchat. Just click on that link, and you will be able to see the conversation as it develops (while avoiding all the nonsense tweets about the Kim Kardashian wedding fallout).

And, I know this is kind of early, but now is also the time to mark your calendars for the week of February 5, 2012. For years, people have bemoaned the loss of shop classes and have questioned the future of woodworking.  Well, this once-considered-dead online woodworking community is doing something about that as well. That week, I am lining up support among the online blogging and woodworking forum communities to bring you a week based around getting to the shop.  We’re tentatively calling it Let’s Woodwork Week.

The purpose of this event is simple – encourage potential woodworkers to dip their collective toes into the water to see what it’s really like to build. Some writers will focus on the basic tools needed to get started in woodworking. Others may focus on basic projects that someone with beginners skills can tackle. Others may showcase some one-on-one training they are doing with some budding woodworkers.  It doesn’t matter… The whole idea is to focus our energies to get people out and  get them working!

I dunno, but if I was a betting man, I’d say the reports of online woodworking’s demise were greatly exaggerated. There’s a lot of spunk out there.. and I think we can tap into it!

I’m scared to go into my shop. I think there may be SOMETHING in there!

It all started when I was cutting parts for my rocking horse project. Everything was going to plan, and it looked as if the project was going to be done with absolutely no issues.  I had to cut the last piece of the project, and I went to the band saw to make that ceremonial last cut. I turned on the saw… it made a funny shudder…

And I let out a blood-curdling scream!

The upper wheel spit out the blood-red remnants of its stock urethane tire right onto the table!  This was worse than that scene in that horror movie where that guy with the knife attacks those young co-eds who take too many showers for their own good…

Those red clots of belt on my saw were terrifying to look at. Fortunately, rather than grab my wife and go kissing out in the woods far away from the other campers, I had a better idea.

I scooted up the highway to the local woodworking shop and bought a new Carter urethane band saw tire. Of course, I checked to make sure the coast was clear when I got to the shop, and I broke out a bowl of hot water with a little dish soap in it (per the instructions). After just a few minutes, the new tire was slack enough to stretch over the wheel’s rim and slip on.

After just a little adjusting, I got the tire centered on the wheel. I let the tire cool down for a good hour before resetting the blade. Now, well, it looks awesome and works just like before the slasher went psycho on the original tire.

Now, I just need to sleep with one eye open lest that horrible slasher comes calling again. Fortunately, I think the threats from ghouls and goblins will be over after tonight’s Trick or Treating.

I’m not sure why this claim was made, but a rumor was going around at Woodworking in America that online woodworking is dead. Deceased. No more.

What a strange thing to say, because the folks I met who blogged about woodworking and marketed their tools online seemed to have a very lively and robust exchange, and they relished the thrill of posting what they were doing for all the world to see.

In fact, I think two more blogs were born in the short time between the end of the conference and this posting, with a few more folks looking to get in off the sidelines.

And, I don’t think it would take much more to convince others about the power of online woodworking. In fact, there are a few opportunities coming up that just might help get more folks involved in the craft and enthused about building.

The first opportunity was created by my friend Chris Adkins at High Rock Woodworking. He and several Atlanta Area friends have been meeting at some local woodworking haunts. This inspired the idea of creating the Modern Woodworkers Association.

It works when woodworkers get together with other woodworkers in the area to build, source lumber, shop or just shoot the breeze. The only thing you would really need to do to be listed would be to take some shots of the event and … well.. we’re still working on a way to get those babies uploaded. But, imagine if we had ‘chapters’ of the Modern Woodworking Association around the country – and the world. Wouldn’t that be a total blast to see what Chicago, London or Sydney woodworkers were doing?

The other opportunity comes with the Woodworking Shows. Yes, it’s that time of the year again, when the Woodworking Shows makes its rounds around the United States. It kicks off this weekend in Dallas, Texas.  Demonstrations, classes and cutting edge products always draw woodworkers from miles around. My friend Jim Heavey of Wood Magazine is also out yukking it up with the crowd while teaching some valuable shop tips. I know that last year, Andy Chidwick and his wife Shari were working with the show managers to get the online woodworking community out in force. I spent my time at this year’s Tampa show working the crowd at a booth of my own, and had a great time talking to central Florida woodworkers.

There are 19 stops on the show’s route this year, stopping in major cities from coast to coast. Again, wouldn’t it be awesome to get a bunch of woodworking folks together at each of the stops for a little camaraderie, fun and telling some big fish shop tales? If you know that you are going to be coming out, why not e-mail the organizers and let them know you’ll be out there in force?  After all, if they know you’ll be there, maybe they’ll help roll out that red carpet for you! The e-mail address is info@thewoodworkingshows.com.

I don’t know about you, but if we’re going to demonstrate that the people  who write online woodworking content and watch it to gain valuable insight into the craft are alive and well, they just may believe the hype that online woodworking is overrun by woodworking zombies.

That would be kind of frightening…

I have to pay all due respect to Nick Brown of the Digital Woodworker. He’s the guy who took lots of photos of the happenings this past weekend at Woodworking in America, he came up with the title of this post and he is one hell of a great guy.

So, we were there at the Hand Tool Olympics – a great place and opportunity to strut your stuff and show everyone how well you can handle yourself under pressure. Yes, there are plenty of hecklers out at the event trying to throw you off your game. (OK, not for everyone who participated in the events – Mike Siemsen and the volunteers who were helping at the events were very eager to offer help to newer woodworkers who had never done these tasks before.  Everyone at that booth was exceptionally helpful when someone asked for help.)

I had done OK on the boring with the bit and brace. Fairly well on the ripping and crosscutting. Not so bad on the edge planing and tenon cutting. But, the one I really wanted to succeed on was the dovetailing. Oh, how I wanted to do well on the dovetailing. Desperately. Recently in my shop I had been having a lot of success cutting straighter and more easily with my hand saws. Both with my Japanese and western saws. I finally got so that I wasn’t squeezing the handles with a death grip, letting the saw do the work.

As I set up at the workbench, I had some seriously impressive tools to work with. A Lie-Nielsen dovetail saw. Something that looked like a Blue Spruce chisel. A nice Marples marking gauge. A sweet titanium Knew Concepts fret saw. Just about everything that anyone with half a bit of talent might want to use to be able to crank out gorgeous dovetails all day long. Saw in hand, tail board in clamp, I counted down and started getting to work.

I’m going to let you guys in on a little secret now. I like to talk. A lot. So, as I moved to the next step in the challenge, I would look up from the bench with my best carnival barker voice and start yapping up the event. I got so boisterous, I was told to ‘put a sock in it’ by one of the nearby vendors. Eh, who cares? I was having a blast.

The tail board went very well. I was able to get things cut nicely with the saw… my arm relaxed. Heck, I MIGHT even put on a good showing. Unlike the previous three years…

Well, that’s where things went south in a hurry. Let’s just say marking pins is not my strong suit. Wait… that’s too generous. Let’s say – instead – that I completely stink at marking pins. It’s a tragedy of epic proportions.

So, when it came time to cut the pins, then remove the waste, then pare to the lines… well… things were bad. VERY bad…

I mean… I mean… I MEAN… calling it a train wreck would be an affront to train wrecks across the world. These things were just so bad, well, I had to smile. After all, if I established the worst case scenario… how could anyone do worse?

I was proud of my lousy attempt. I showed those crappy dovetails to Ron Hock. His wife Linda laughed so hard, she took pictures to share with the recipients of the Hock newsletter. Tomas Lie-Niesen got a peek. As did Kari Hultman. And, all of the heckling bloggers got their turn to beat the crap out of me as well.

Heck, I went to David Keller of Keller Dovetail Jigs and showed him. “Thank you for inventing the through dovetail jig,” I said. He took these abominations of dovetails in his hands… examined them… handed them back to me and said, “You are welcome, Tom.”

What did I learn from my crappy dovetail experience? Plenty.

We all mess up… and the only way to fix things is to set time aside to practice.

The joy of woodworking is the thrill of getting better at tasks so we can use these elements to build great projects.

And, when things go horribly wrong, well, a quick walk down the street to the local Hoffbrauhaus for a few libations with woodworking friends is priceless. Oh, and be sure to dance on the benches. That means a lot, too!