If you were playing along this week, you probably noticed that I was not my typically verbose self. I was at the Emergency Management Institute in Emmitsburg, Maryland, helping to revise a public information officer class. It was important work, as the class becomes a standard which many of my colleagues must meet at their jurisdictions. So, I was one of four public information officers flown in from around the country to offer my services.

It was a real honor to be there, and it was a blast.

While I was up there, however, it didn’t stop me from paying a visit or two to some popular museums. I had to visit the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. to check out the awesome items there…

And, I had to pay my respects at the World War II Memorial. It was a sobering experience, especially this close to Veterans Day.

But, by far, one of the most impressive exhibits was at the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History. Called Within these walls, the exhibit is a  home that was relocated to the museum from Massachusetts. The building was built more than 200 years ago, and the story of the building is how the families that called it home lived there through changing periods in American history.

For a woodworker, the exhibit was just breathtaking…

There were tools there, such as this molding plane, and a hand’s on exhibit showing the difference between simple and more ornate moldings. Of course, they had to have period furniture that decorated the home. This table and chairs from the front parlor were beautifully crafted and showed some stunning workmanship.

And, the structure of the building was art in itself, giving the viewer a chance to look back in time to see how buildings were made more than two centuries ago.

If you get a chance to visit the Museum of American History, I would strongly recommend you take the opportunity. There is a lot there for a woodworker to see.

So, last night, I was at the meeting of the St. Petersburg Woodcrafters Guild, and I was asked if I could give a quick presentation on a topic of my choosing.

Since I had just spent the weekend working with my Dutch Tool Chest at Heritage Village, and I had already talked about a ton of other things at the meetings, I thought it would be a good idea to talk about the chest at the meeting.

So, I brought down the iPad, hooked up the microphone, and recorded this video. It’s about 14 minutes long, and it really goes into great detail about what’s in the chest and how I use it. I hope you like it!

It’s good to be back home after a long weekend at Woodworking in America. Yes, the marketplace was great, and it was cool to be around all of those tasty new and antique tools. It was also a real trip to be in the classes with such luminaries as Roy Underhill and Don Williams. It was even better to see new instructors such as Wilbur Pan and Will Neptune.

But, there was so much more. For instance, I met some new friends who apparently didn’t measure twice before cutting. Who knew that was such a serious offense?

And, there was this matter of a few people absconding with tools, such as this shady Frank Klausz character walking off with a Saw Stop fence.

How could we forget the strange case of the chained up Lee Valley cases, which apparently was some type of Build-A-Bear setup for woodworkers.

We took the time to set up a recording of the Modern Woodworkers Association Podcast live from the conference center floor, which worked out very well.

We even dragged awesome wood carver Mary May (kicking and screaming) into the world of social media by goading her into getting a twitter account. Go figure…

While the hijinks were a ton of fun, as always, it was great to see so many woodworkers from around the country (and the world, Chris Vesper). Being able to pull together a gathering of more than 50 woodworkers on Thursday night in just a few hours through the power of social media.  Hearing about a few new workbenches that are going to be built. Drinking at the local microbrew place across the street from the hotel.Watching Steve Ramsey’s MeMo Get Together draw tons of folks.

And, as I had predicted last week, I am back feeling totally jacked about woodworking. I need to get back to the shop!

Tomorrow, I am off to visit the guys and gals that put on Woodworking in America, and I am totally excited. Not just because it’s a great place to visit with friends (and dance on the tables of German-themed drinking establishments), or that there are awesome classes taught by talented woodworkers or that the marketplace is full of drool-inducing tools.

No, it’s because something about being in that environment ignites a spark in me.

Last year, as I was getting ready to head up to Covington, Kentucky, I was totally stoked. I had worked with the rest of the gang at the Modern Woodworkers Association planning a meet up. I had been in touch with the folks at Wood Talk Online about setting up a big get together. I was drafted into helping Roy Underhill run his audio-visual presentation (i.e. hauling a huge log around a conference room while he chopped at it with an axe).

But, I was totally blindsided by what was about to happen. You know, when you get a new woodworking book or magazine, you might bookmark a page about a particular project you might want to build. There is a totally different feeling, however, of looking at an example of something you want to build in person. That’s the feeling that overcame me when I saw Mike Siemsen’s Nicholson woodworking  bench in person. That’s the feeling that also overcame me when I saw Chris Schwarz’s Dutch tool chest in person.

Being in the room with these pieces, touching them, looking at them from different angles… it fired the right synapses and really brought it home for me.

So much so, in fact, that within a few weeks of getting back to the shop, I had started on my iteration of the Dutch tool chest, and, by the first week of December, I had my new Nicholson bench in place, ready to work. It was a veritable building boom!

I’m not making any promises this year that I will tackle the world, but the progress I have already made on the table in my shop this past weekend was definitely encouraged by the fact that I was going to be back in that environment.

It was Stephen Covey who wrote in the book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People that one of the important steps was to ‘sharpen the saw.’  In many ways this is exactly what the annual pilgrimage to be among my peers is for me…a chance to take a new look at my craft and recapture the excitement…

Here in the United States, today is Labor Day. Most of us are relaxing, enjoying barbecues and contemplating the end of the summer and the beginning of the – gasp – blizzard season.

But, that doesn’t mean that everyone is off. I mean, police, fire and emergency medical types are on the job today. Reporters, videographers and news producers are on the job. And, as we all know, even superheroes are on the job.

Do you really think that if the bat signal is given that Batman would neglect the call?  That Spiderman would let Doc Oc run amok while he sat at the beach? That Wonder Woman wouldn’t spring into action if Cheetah was out causing issues?

Well, here in Florida, another superhero is hard at work… Handyman!

Fighter of grime.  Tamer of wild lawns and landscaping. Fixer of broken items. Yes, there’s nothing this brave mutant wouldn’t do around the house given enough time off from his day job.

Why, recently, his arch-nemesis, Old Cheap Dining Room Chair came to visit, splitting along a poorly constructed glue joint.

Just look at that!  A potential posterior pincher if there ever was one. This had the potential to endanger all of the residents of Chez Iovino.

Fortunately, the call went out to Handyman, and, faster than paint can dry, he was on the scene with his necessary equipment. Just as important as the Lariat of Truth or the Batarang, Handyman reached into his bag of tricks to find the Gorilla Glue of strength and the Bessey Clamps of power!

Pow! Bang!  Ooof!  Before Cheap Chair knew what hit him, Handyman had squeezed a bead of glue into the split and spread it with a shim, evenly coating both sides of the seat. Knowing that the end was near, Cheap Chair tried to spit out all of the glue that Handyman used, but to no avail.

Once the Clamps of Power were applied, it was all over but the crying. Cheap Chair caved under the pressure, and the split was fixed, promising pinch-free sitting for years to come.

While citizens were able to see Handyman in action, he disappeared shortly afterward, unavailable for comment. Funny, that’s when my family found me, asleep on the couch… I had missed the whole thing…

But, I know, somewhere out there, Handyman waits for the next call, tools at the ready, when trouble rears its ugly head.

I love to do some home cooking. And, as with the woodworking thing, I like to get my two sons involved in the process. It’s such a great thing to watch the boys get into the creation of their meal from beginning to end.

For instance, yesterday we made some homemade pasta. I showed them how to build ring of flour on the table, and to crack the eggs and drizzle the olive oil into the middle before they mix it with their fingers, creating the dough. We kneaded it, and then used our pasta maker to roll out sheets of pasta before slicing them into ribbons. Sure, it was hard work, but I told the guys that it could have been tougher – we could have made the pasta the real old fashioned way.

Now, I have waxed poetically in the past about the combination of wood and food. And, I know that there are plenty of wooden gadgets you can build and use in the kitchen. Cutting boards, tortilla presses, knife handles and pepper grinders come to mind, and I have seen dozens of awesome examples proudly built in woodworking shops. But, how many of you know about the pasta guitar?

Yes, you heard me right – a kitchen guitar, on which you can make spaghetti alla chitarra. Basically, this kitchen implement is a wooden frame across which a series of thin wires is tightly stretched, and it makes some of the most unique pasta you have ever tasted.

How is it used? Flash back to the Abruzzo region of Italy on the eastern Adriatic Sea coast in the mid 1800s. In the days before automated pasta machines, the housewives of the region would make a standard pasta with eggs, durum and soft wheat flour and a pinch of salt. After kneading the dough, she would roll out the pasta with a rolling pin into thin sheets that would fit on top of her pasta guitar.

After moving the dough on top of the wires, she would then use her rolling pin to apply pressure to the sheet. The wires would then slice the sheet into individual strands. Since the individual strands might not fully release from the chitarra, the housewife would – and I love this – play an arpeggio by strumming her fingers across the wires of the chitarra to ensure that the individual strands would fall free. 

A quick dusting with flour to keep the strands separated, and they would be ready for a three to four minute dip in salted boiling water.

The pasta itself is unlike a round extruded pasta. In fact, it is square in cross section, and quite porous, which aids in holding on to sauces.

The process is pretty cool to watch in action. Here’s a video showing exactly how it works:

While my woodworking plans don’t have me making a chitarra any time soon, I wanted to make sure that 1) you were aware of this totally awesome wooden kitchen tool, and 2) I cataloged it, just in case I wanted to make one in the future!

A whole week, and not a single post from Tom? What happened?

Well, you can call off the dogs. With all of the stuff that has been happening this summer, the family decided that a trip out of town would be a tonic for us. And, was it ever. We turned the car loose northbound on Interstate 75 and headed to Atlanta for a long weekend. I got to watch my son Dominic drive… On a highway.. for the first prolonged amount of time…

And, we caught up on the news…

And, we even caught some air at Stone Mountain.

So, I was a little preoccupied to tend to the blog. But, that doesn’t mean that improvements weren’t made. In fact, some work we have done at the office has given me an idea on how to incorporate more video in the blog.

Let’s start with the basics… It used to take an incredible amount of time and money to get into video production. But, as the technology has improved – and the price has dropped – professional quality video editing and recording tools are finding their way into products we see more and more of.

Take for example the humble iPad. Sure, it’s a great little tablet computer that also serves as an e-reader, gaming console and about a hundred other uses. Did you also realize that the camera on the iPad is very high quality?  In fact, it shoots in HD quality, better than the shoulder-carried cameras we use in our office. With the proper lighting, they can shoot some impressive video.

I also bought a $15 tripod mount for my iPad, which means I can attach it to a standard tripod with a 1/4″ bolt mount, providing me a stable way to mount the iPad for quality video.

I also took delivery of a wireless microphone setup. With a receiver and a transmitter that can accept a hand held or lavalier microphone, it means I can get some high-quality sound for the videos. I also had to buy an adapter which allows me to plug the mic right into the earphone jack. It works like a champ!

I am even using an editing program on the iPad that allows me to edit the video and upload it right to YouTube – no fuss, no muss!

Now, what does the quality of the video look like coming off this rig? Here’s a video we shot at the office we did on an iPad mini. Not too shabby…

This means, of course, that you are going to be looking at more of my mug in the future. But, that’s OK. I promise to use this for the power of good!