Some things that I watch on TV can get me very excited.  The recent negative political ads before Election Day made me completely angry and frustrated. A  close football or basketball game can get my heart pumping.  Watching the nightly news leaves me  feeling disgusted many evenings.

But, there are also shows that leave me totally relaxed. On the PBS Create channel, I recently rediscovered a show I hadn’t seen in decades – Bob Ross’ Joy of Painting. I’m no painter, but the late Bob Ross’ voice was exceptionally soothing, and it’s amazing to watch him paint realistic looking landscapes in less than half an hour

The show is airs twice a week here in my market, and I’m even getting my wife and two sons into watching it.  Tonight, as Bob painted a serene sunset, I began to think about some of the things he said and what he did, and how I can apply them to woodworking.  For instance:

• Bob can paint the majority of his paintings with a 2″ trim paint brush.  Tonight, he must have hit 80% of the painting with that brush you or I might use to paint the baseboards.  Bob could make that brush do just about anything… How many times do we as woodworkers stop ourselves from trying a new technique because we don’t have the ‘proper’ specialized tool?  It took me a long while before I cut my first mortise – using my plunge router – because I believed I had to have a dedicated hollow chisel mortiser. Read up on the tools you already own… you might be surprised what you can do with them.
• “Here’s your bravery test.” Bob said this just after he had completed some gorgeous landscape but before he painted a large looming tree in the foreground. For most of us, when we get the structure of a project built, we tend to complete it with many of the same techniques we are used to. Maybe it’s one particular kind of door pull or finish we’ve used several times with success. Why not put yourself to the bravery test and push beyond what you are comfortable with?  Something like an inlay or a hand cut door pull made of a contrasting wood can bump up the style and take your work beyond the expected into the realm of stunning masterpiece – and it will help you grow as a woodworker.
• “Beat the Devil out of it.” Bob would say this as he cleaned one of his brushes before he would work on a new part of the painting. He would swish them in the paint thinner and then rapidly beat them dry on the leg of his easel. He always smiled when he did that. (Bob would also remind his viewers to use odorless paint thinner when cleaning brushes. “If it’s not odorless, you’ll find yourself working alone very, very quick.”).  Lately, I have discovered myself dreading the basic shop tasks that we all have to do.  Sharpening chisels and plane irons, sweeping the shop, cleaning up stacks of wood. But, when you think about it, aren’t those mundane tasks part of what makes woodworking great? Is there anything more pleasant than paring a joint perfect with a honed chisel or sweeping up the remains of a hard day’s work?  You made all of those pretty curls with your own hand plane… and each of those means you have made your project boards that much more ready to be finished.  Just like Bob, I’m going to try to take more pleasure in those more routine tasks.

• “We don’t make mistakes, just happy little accidents.” Bob always encouraged his viewers to overcome their fears and just relax in front of the canvas. He realized that many of his viewers would freeze like frightened rabbits, brush in hand, because they believed that every single stroke of paint they laid down had to be perfect. In every episode I’ve seen, he’s always reminded the viewer that if the paint went onto the canvas and didn’t look right, a quick swipe of the palette knife would erase all traces of the mistake and they could start over.  In my shop, I often come down hard on myself for miscuts, splintering boards and other miscues.  Yet, I’ve been able time and again to either erase the mistake or to simply mill up another piece to replace what went wrong.  And, that old woodworker’s adage of “It’s not a mistake, it’s a design feature,” comes into play as well, as many happy little accidents have allowed me to improve the final product.

• The heck with critics. If you do an internet search for Bob Ross, you’ll find plenty of detractors. His work is too simplistic. He’s painting from his imagination, not painting accurate recreations of actual landscapes. He doesn’t paint like ‘The Masters,’ by doing painstaking subject studies and taking weeks to produce his final piece. I call BS. Each artist – each painter – each woodworker – is a person unto his or her own, with their own unique styles, quirks and ways of learning. Feeling you have to spit out authentic reproductions of Shaker tables, Chippendale highboys or Krenov-style cabinets just because someone says that’s the way it’s supposed to be done is ridiculous.  Heck, Krenov became famous for breaking from traditional forms to create a unique style of furniture. To stifle creativity in the name of doing things the ‘right’ way is crazy.

Will I ever lay down my saws to pick up the palette?  Not sure… Painting does look like a lot of fun. But my medium is wood… and I’m having a lot of fun with my happy little projects.

With Thanksgiving tomorrow here in the United States, I wanted to start today’s post by listing some of the things I am thankful for…

I’m thankful for  my family for putting up with the time I spend in the shop and on the computer running the blog.

I’m thankful for the folks at Eagle America, for giving me the support and setting me up with some sweet tools.

I’m thankful for the fact that y’all didn’t laugh me off the blog when I cut my finger with the hedge trimmers back in May:

I’m thankful for the folks at Bell Forest Products, for your support and the wood… the beautiful, beautiful wood!

I’m thankful for having met the Wood Whisperer, Marc Spagnuolo, and for him helping me get this blog off the ground more than three years ago… and for still standing behind me – and so many other bloggers bringing you high quality woodworking content.  Special thanks also  go to his wife Nicole who helps to make the Wood Whisperer a great community.

Thank you to Matt, Shannon, Kari and the rest of the folks who make Wood Talk Online so much damned fun to listen to.  Heck, Roberto, I’m thankful for your interesting phone calls!

I’m thankful for talented woodworkers like Mike Siemsen, Jim Heavey and Gail O’Rourke (there are dozens more) who have taken the time to help me figure out some woodworking head scratchers.

I’m thankful for all of the woodworkers I met at the Woodworking Show in Tampa back in March and the Woodworking in America conference held in Cincinnati back in October. My eyes were opened to the incredible talent, humor and knowledge possessed by the folks out there building in their basements, garages and dedicated shops.

I’m thankful that my niece didn’t just laugh at me for building her something without an LCD touch screen and 4G connectivity for her 16th birthday:

I’m thankful for Wood Magazine, for your continued support and helping the legend of the Shop Monkey grow.

I’m thankful for talented tool makers like Ron Hock, the folks at Lie Nielsen, Veritas, Festool and so many other companies for creating quality tools so woodworkers can build their creation.

I’m thankful for my friend Paul, who showed me what patience was all about as we figured out how to build that huge home office system and disrupted the harmonious flow of his home while we installed it.

And, most importantly, I’m thankful for  each of you for stopping by Tom’s Workbench and taking a look at what I’m up to.  By the way, the entire crew of Tom’s Workbench – Me, my wife Rhonda and my two sons Dominic and Steven, have a message for each of you:

Now that we are officially in the holiday season, I guess I need to tell you that I was given excused duty this year for building holiday gifts.  That’s right, no cutting boards, no wine racks… Nothing.  After a few seasons of racing to beat the clock, Rhonda took some pity on me and said I had the year off.  I have a few projects on the table, though, so I plan on getting a little time in the shop after the big feast.

As I raise my glass tomorrow to toast the family members at the table, know that I’ll be raising one for you as well – the members of the Tom’s Workbench family.

Every year, the local school board hosts the Great American Teach In.  This program is similar to the good old career days, when people would come to school to talk about what they do and tell the kids how they got the positions they did.

The event is open to people who want to talk about their vocations and avocations as well. So, you will see people talking about all kinds of things – firefighters, police officers, chefs and medical professionals were joined by volunteers with animal rescue organizations, glass blowers and part time musicians.  Heck, reporters from the local news stations come out in droves to get in on the act to tell the kids about careers as a journalist.

For the past six years, I have gone to the schools to talk with kids about hurricane preparedness. It’s always been a fun way to spend a day, and the kids have seemed to appreciate the information.

This year, though, I took a day off from work and went to the schools to talk about my favorite hobby, woodworking. I woke up early this past Thursday to pack the tools into the car and got dressed in one of the Show Me the Monkey t-shirts, and remembered to bring my little video camera.

I went to my youngest son’s school first, and was greeted with breakfast, lots of coffee, bottled water and a cake decorated for the occasion. I spent the first hours of the morning talking to groups of fourth and fifth graders, who asked a whole bunch of strange questions. “If you threw your saw at someone and it hit them in the neck, would it cut their head off?”  Yikes.  Fortunately, I was able to keep the content more in line with woodworking, and the kids seemed to enjoy it. My youngest son’s teacher even said the kids enjoyed my talk more than that given by the lady from the ASPCA… and I never do better than the people with animals!

After a delicious lunch at the first school, I went over to my oldest son’s school, where I spoke to sixth, seventh and eighth graders. That’s when I had an opportunity to set up my video camera and capture my talk to bring to you. Now, this isn’t the greatest video quality… I had to set the tripod so I could get myself, so the focus is a little wide.  And, at the end, the top of my head disappeared. But, I hope you get an idea of what I spoke about.

At the end of the day, I was bushed. My oldest son and I loaded the car and made the drive home.  I was hoarse, but I couldn’t stop smiling. That is the way to spend a day… talking to a new generation of kids who just might one day want to take up the craft and build something impressive.

I hope you enjoy my first attempt at doing a video with my blog…  I have a feeling that I might try it again in the future.

When you think about the Jersey Shore, you might think of boardwalks, sand and sun.  Or that crazy TV show with the obnoxious, ill-behaved teens. But, at the southern tip of the of the Garden State, there is a treasure to behold.

Cape May is one of the oldest seashore resorts in the country. One of the best known features of the town is the unique Victorian architecture. When it comes to Victorian, if it’s worth doing, it’s worth OVERdoing…

Here’s just a quick sampling of the many ornate buildings you can find on a quick walk through the shady tree-lined streets.

Some of these buildings are bed and breakfast inns, so if you were looking for a place to get away for a while and admire some of the fanciest woodworking available, Cape May might be a good place to visit.

At dock in the Charlestown Navy Yard in Cambridge, Massachusetts is the oldest commissioned warship in the US Navy, and one of the few remaining wooden warships in the world.  Laid down in 1794, this ship was part of an order of six frigates authorized by President George Washington. She took to the seas in 1798 and fought brilliantly in operations during the War of 1812 and along the Barbary Coast.

Today, she rests at anchor in Boston Harbor where visitors can come aboard to see her in all of her majesty.

This is a view of the stern as you prepare to board. The ornate woodwork on the exterior of the ship captures your attention. The windowed areas along the back are the location of the captain’s cabin.

This is one of the cannon positions on the upper deck.  Unlike the guns below, which were designed for range, these upper guns are known as carronades and were designed to fire much larger shells a shorter distance to smash opposing ships hulls.

This is the ship’s wheel, but it didn’t start as the ship’s wheel.  The Constitution originally had a single wheel to steer her over the high seas. During the war of 1812, the ship battled the HMS Java.  A shot from the Java splintered Constitution’s wheel, but the Constitution gave better than she got, leaving the Java as a total loss.  Before sinking the Java, the crew of the Constitution retrieved Java’s wheel and installed it on Constitution.  That’s where it is today.

This is the ship’s capstan.  It was used by sailors to gain mechanical advantage over the massive lines used to rig the sails.  The bronze cap helps to protect the wood.

A view up the ship’s bowsprit.  Imagine shimmying up that…

When the Constitution needs some serious work, she comes to the dry dock.  This huge facility allows yard workers to bring her in, close the gate, drain the water and have the ship’s keel settle on the blocks.  Once there, workers can gain access to the hull for repairs and maintenance.