In my experience during the past decade, I’ve found that woodworkers are an exceptionally generous bunch.  Most of the time, you can find them building gifts for friends and neighbors or volunteering their time to work on a project for their local school, scout troop or place of worship.

This past weekend, I met a group of woodworkers called the ToyMakers of East Lake at a community event, and their story was a heartwarming one.

Back in 1982, a woodworker named Jim McCullagh was alarmed to hear that his grandson had no toys to play with while staying at a children’s hospital.  Knowing that play can at least help keep little minds occupied, he and several friends began making small colorful wooden toys.  That was the beginning of the ToyMakers organization.  As the years past, the effort gathered momentum, and today, there are 101 chapters across the United States and four in Canada.

I met with Gene Watson, Mac Russell and John Little of the ToyMakers’ East Lake, Florida chapter, who graciously offered to take me on a tour of their spacious workshop.  Situated in an abandoned garage on some land owned by a nearby Methodist church, the space allows the nearly 50 members and associated volunteers the space to work.  Donated tools – band saws, table saws, sanders and drill presses – line the walls and occupy the shop floor.

Even the shop cabinets were donated to the effort.  In fact, they were actually custom high-end kitchen cabinets in a home until a chemical spill during a counter top installation went wrong, staining some of the cabinet doors.

I arrived during one of their Saturday work sessions (They also have Tuesday morning sessions).  Stacks of donated wood from area hardwood suppliers were stacked in shelves.  Even though some of the members were away exhibiting the toys at other community events, the reduced crew was very busy cranking out parts for wooden ambulances, fire trucks, helicopters and other pieces.  While some of the workers were cutting, many other were sanding, painting and assembling the vehicles to prepare them to go to kids in the community.

Because of the ToyMakers’ non-profit status, high school students who are required to do volunteer service to qualify for state scholarships often sign up for service with the group.  Given that the fate of their scholarships rides on their volunteer hours, working with the ToyMakers is a pretty enviable assignment.

 Some of the toys do go to kids in area hospitals, while others go to other critical contact points with the community – organizations that shelter families from domestic abuse, centers that help parents break drug addictions – wherever the need is most critical.

While building the toys is a satisfying way to spend a Saturday, the real reward comes when the toy deliveries take place.  The group aims to have four toy deliveries a year.  Three months’ work can result in nearly 1,000 completed toys for area kids.  In fact, the group’s motto is that they, build smiles, one toy at a time.

As I left the shop after one of the group’s coffee breaks, the members were right back to work. After all, the holidays are coming quickly, and there are so many more toys to build.

…

 P.S. – The members of the group asked if I could post the following:  For other individuals or groups interested in starting their own group of ToyMakers, we would be most privileged to furnish  patterns, methods and suggestions that we have found to be most appreciated by the children and the centers where we deliver.  

When you think about woodworking tradition, thoughts often turn toward the masters who worked years ago with hand tools and an eye for the craft.  One very talented woodworker who comes from that lineage is Bob Smalser, a frequent contributor to Fine Woodworking and Woodenboat magazines.

Bob’s upbringing in woodworking started with many of his male relatives.  From a line of hard working Mennonite farmers and tradesmen, his dad was a shipwright, grandfather a farmer, sawyer and mason and uncles who also worked in the craft.  “I worked for all of them as a kid just as soon as I could hold up a broom and later the end of a plank.  Because of the Depression and World War II, I came along a bit late and these gents were all older than is typical today….I came to age at the end of their careers.”

While it may have been near the end of their careers, Bob’s relatives were exceptionally talented and willing to share their knowledge and trust this up- and-coming worker.  “The notion that such skilled craftsmen were fussy about a kid messing with their tools was mistaken.  These gentlemen were there to work, not romanticize.  Once they trained me to sharpen and tweak they were perfectly happy not to have to do all that themselves at the end of the day.”

The shops that Bob’s relatives worked in did have power tools – band saws, planers and jointers.  But, the hand tools were – and still are – some of the most important tools in any boat builder’s arsenal.  Bob has taken his years of working with these tools and can finely tune any chisel, plane or saw to do its best work. And, while premium tool makers such as Veritas have brought the quality of today’s tools to a new level, it’s the lack of basics that leave Bob puzzled.  “I remain gobsmacked that sharpening tools the way their grandfathers did – without power tools or training wheels – is so difficult for so many to master.  Don’t Cub Scouts learn to sharpen pen knives anymore?  And looking at their work, it suffers for it.  If you can’t look at the flat you made on the bevel with the stone and change your hold to move that flat where you want it on the blade, how do you ever expect to do the same thing with the cutting edge on wood?  Sure, we can talk about coaches who can help guide us along, but in the end all of us are really self-taught by trial and error and practice.  Do what’s necessary to acquire this most basic of skills, as it will positively effects every aspect of your woodworking.”

Bob has worked very diligently through the years, and the variety of jobs he has held has helped to improve his woodworking skills.  “I’ve restored antique furniture, reproduced it in various styles and restored antique firearms for museums. I can consult on forestry, land and habitat management, and I grow, harvest and mill my own wood. Custom sawyering alone could easily be a full-time job if I let it, and I often turn down work to maintain the variety of jobs I prefer.”

It’s true that Bob’s interests are wide ranging and varied, but his heart still belongs to the water and his passion – boat building.  “I can’t think of anything I don’t enjoy about logging, sawyering and woodworking….even the sweeping.  But I much prefer the sweeping curves and eyeball work required in boats.  That’s where the craft truly shows itself.”  Indeed, to see one of Bob’s creations is almost looking at a piece of sculpture – the way the fair lines come together in a sleek, durably built craft that can take to the water for many years, if properly maintained.

While many woodworkers won’t have the opportunity to come up through the ranks as Bob has, he insists that shouldn’t be an impediment to learning the skills to master the craft.  “Go your own way.  If forums set the tone, there is an amazing amount of snobbery out there without much of the merit I’d think would accompany it.   Methods are hardly an end unto themselves.   Learn your tools, study proportion to get the sizes and relationships sweet, learn to use sandpaper to get the tool marks out, learn power tools as well.  One of the most important tools in my shop is the Porter Cable belt sander.  Use the tool that makes the most sense for the job, and keep working.  It’ll all come together soon enough.”

For centuries, the venerable craft of carpentry and furniture making has been a rather secretive affair.  After all, trade secrets needed to be guarded jealously by master craftsmen and passed down through a long and arduous process to the apprentice and journeymen workers who longed to learn the craft.

In more modern times, you will typically see the lone hobby woodworker toiling away at his or her craft, learning and practicing the skill sets along the way.

But, with the evolution of the Internet, there has been an explosion of sites run by woodworkers who have flung open the virtual doors of their shops to teach others what they know.  One of the first – and most successful – to do this is John Lucas of WoodshopDemos.com.

John’s journey to sharing his woodworking knowledge started as many do – learning from his dad. “I remember at age 10 or so I was very interested in photography and wanted to build a dark room in the basement.  I talked to a builder who was putting houses up in the area into letting me clean his site every night.  The pay wasn’t great, but I did get to keep the two by fours that were under 3 feet.   From there, my father taught me how to do half lap joints. I had the sturdiest dry and wet benches of any darkroom I knew. It was fun and they looked damn good.”

From there, John’s development as a woodworker got a boost from a shop teacher who drilled him relentlessly in cutting joints.

And, yes, John spent a significant part of his honeymoon at Willaimsburg, Virginia watching the cabinetmakers ply their craft.  “I considered it excellent practice.  After all, my wife would pick up a furniture catalog and ask, ‘can you build this?’  For a while, my stock answer was, ‘sure, with the right tools!'”

Before long, John felt confident enough to start building projects which were documented step-by-step and published in Workbench magazine.

Fast forward a ‘few’ years – OK, maybe closer to 40 – and emboldened by his successes, he opened a shop where he was going to start building English Country furniture reproductions.  Things were just starting to get interesting when, while nudging a 4 x 4 post with his foot, he broke it in three places.  “The doctor told me I was on limited duty for the next six weeks. I was very disappointed to hear that.”

Not one to just sit idly, the accident provided the opportunity for John to review some of the new woodworking websites that were just making their debuts on the fledgling Internet.  “The sites I saw didn’t really have the depth of content I was looking for.  Rather than waiting for someone to come up with the right site, I started WoodshopDemos.com.”

The objectives for the site are quite simple and still reflect back to those  early days. First, John wanted to review new products that can help woodworkers, from newbies to the most experienced.  Second, to show step-by-step pics and captions so that readers can really follow and even print out and use to follow in their shops. Third, John wanted to use the most up-to-date products, jigs and processes to make real things. Finally, he wanted to show some clever tips or methods that may be of interest to all… such as sharpening blades or keeping a planer in tip-top shape.

Today, Wood Shop Demos has some 1,500 pages of step-by-step content.  From the dovetail shootout, which featured a dozen different methods and systems to detailed reviews of modern joinery methods such as BeadLOCK and pocket screws, the site goes into tremendous detail.

“It’s amazing to see, but still, as long as we’ve been around, more than half of my users every month are brand new to the site, coming in through search engines or other links.  It’s pretty incredible when you think about it.”

Beyond just the basic how to, you’ll find John’s blunt, unvarnished opinion about tools and techniques, some clever time saving advice….

And, that he shares his shop with several helpers.  The fact that many of those helpers are attractive young women has not escaped the notice of many of his visitors.  “My flip answer is wouldn’t you rather see them than the old bald guy?”  The tradition of these shop helpers actually has a very innocent – and accidental – beginning.  “Where I first set up shop, I was renting the facility and had several very attractive neighbors. When one of them stopped by to say hello and see what I was making, I suggested that she get into the picture and liven up the site. She did and enjoyed having her pictures on the website.  Later, she went on to become a lawyer in Los Angeles.”  Since then, he has had a dozen assistants, ranging in experience from brand new to exceptionally talented, and John enjoys passing his woodworking knowledge on to these newer woodworkers.

John is the first to admit that he lives a rich and rewarding life, and that he’s getting to follow his passion.  However, time is starting to catch up to this dynamo.  “My wife has to remind me quite occasionally that I am a 71. Readers note that I do quite a bit of the shop work sitting on a stool. That under fortunately will only get worse. But, I plan to get as much woodworking in to my life as I can.”

And, as long as he can get to his shop, he’ll continue breaking with tradition and passing his knowledge on to as many virtual apprentices as possible.

Starting out on any new undertaking can be a pretty intimidating – and exciting – experience.  Think about your first day at a new job.  The first time you go to meet your future in-laws.  The first time you bring a new baby home from the hospital.

For new woodworkers, what better place to start your woodworking journey than at a place that caters to the newest to the craft?

Tom Hintz, the mastermind behind the long-lived NewWoodworker.com website, can still vividly remember his first few tentative steps into woodworking.  “After buying my first home, I needed a workbench.  I built it myself over a day or two…  It wobbled and had too many nails in it, but I was bitten.  I loved building it!”

Even though his first experience with woodworking wasn’t the finest piece, the fire had been lit.  The only problem was that 30 years ago, there wasn’t the depth and wealth of information on the craft that today’s novice woodworkers can turn to.  “The instructional materials that were available then (30 years ago, pre-New Yankee Workshop/This Old House and no Internet) were either overly simplistic or assumed I knew way more than I did. Either way, I had to figure out lots of things on my own through an often long, occasionally dangerous and frequently expensive trial and error process.”

When the Internet came into being, Tom decided that he could use a few of his hard-learned lessons to teach others just starting out.  Eight years ago, Tom launched NewWoodworker.com, and shortly after that, realized that perhaps his aim was set a little too narrowly.  “Yeah, it immediately became apparent through the viewer response that my demographic included nearly as many veterans as novices.”

While NewWoodworker.com focuses on how-to and technique articles, his readers started asking for some more detail on just what tools he was using and what he thought about them.  Soon, tool reviews became a staple on the site as well.  The scope of the tools Tom has reviewed is very impressive – table saws, dovetail jigs, books and videos and woodworking machinery of all types.

While some criticism has been thrown Tom’s way regarding a seeming lack of ‘bad’ tool reviews, his rationale is pretty sound.  “I just don’t have the time or the budget to review everything out there. I also believe that concentrating on good tools is a better plan anyway since viewer requests for reviews of bad tools hovered somewhere between few and non existent.”

Despite his seemingly ‘good only’ reviews, Tom has come across a couple duds and has yet to pull any punches.  “I did buy a nail gun in response to a rash of emails telling me how awful it was. That input proved to be true and it really was a piece of junk. In fact, it failed so miserably that to date, it is the only tool that I smashed into little pieces with a sledgehammer just to be sure it didn’t accidentally fall into the hands of an unsuspecting woodworker.”

While running NewWoodworker.com is a very time consuming enterprise for Tom (some days, he’ll work 16 to 20 hours to hit critical deadlines), it’s a labor of love which he believes is doing a service for the woodworking community.  “The best reward for all of the work is when a viewer writes to tell me how one of my stories saved their day, helped them to finish a project or to successfully try a technique they thought they weren’t capable of. That’s what NewWoodworker.com has always been about so it is very gratifying to hear that people can take the information to their shop and use it effectively.”

It’s been said that the devil is in the details. And, in woodworking, the tool that typically cuts some of the finest details is the scroll saw.

To truly master that tool, you have to have intense concentration, a very steady hand and an eye towards the big picture while cutting the intricate.

Enter Verna Schultz, an Indianapolis, Indiana woodworker with the ability and patience to make the scroll saw sing.

As with most woodworkers, the purchase of her first house triggered the very important need to do basic household repairs. Sure, she got the requisite circular saw and drill, but the third tool she bought was a jig saw. “I could cut really curvy lines with the jig saw. That really allowed me to express myself, rather than cutting all of those straight lines.”

Today, Verna has three scroll saws in her arsenal – two DeWalt 20” and a Delta 16” model. Watching her work last October, I had a chance to see how skillfully she could handle the precise cutting blades. “With these saws, you can cut inside curves, outside curves, fine veining lines. In fact, you can cut an entire picture in a piece of wood and – when you are done – you can actually see what the picture was to begin with!”

Verna’s flat scroll work is exquisite, but her mastery really shows when she works in 3-D. You see, Verna makes baskets from solid wood. “I just started making the baskets about three years ago. I sold the first basket I made and I’ve never been able to keep any in stock since then! With the exception of the vertical slats, each basket is made entirely from one piece of wood.”

After applying the pattern to the wood, Verna cuts the handles and top rim free. Then, she sets about cutting a weaving pattern for each layer of the basket. Each layer is 1/8” thick and angled at 9 degrees. Each layer is identically shaped, but by rotating the layers end for end, the basket weave pattern is developed. After inserting vertical pieces in the weaving voids, she signs the work and another masterpiece is born.

Having seen these baskets up close and getting one for my wife last Valentine’s Day, I can say they are a sight to behold. Delicate yet sturdy, the solid wood weavers give an appearance that can’t be matched by any normally woven basket.

So, since Verna is into very delicate work, you’d figure she would never try her hand an anything tougher than – say – ripping a few boards in preparation for a new scroll saw project.

That couldn’t be any further from the truth.

That’s because Verna is also a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity. Many Saturdays during the spring and summer, you can find Verna swinging a hammer and cutting construction lumber on home sites around the greater Indianapolis area. Sure, the work is tough and about as far from scroll work as you might imagine, but the work she does gives her great satisfaction, especially as she helps to improve the lives of others who need a hand up.

“My favorite memory is a homeowner’s dedication from back in 2005. The new owner was so moved by knowing that she and her son would finally have a safe place to live that she was barely able to control her emotions to be able to accept the house.”

With Verna soon to retire from her position with the phone company, you might expect she would plan to start taking things easier. Not so.

Her plans include doing even more work with the Habitat for Humanity folks and setting up a website to sell her baskets and boxes. “And, I might also allow my brother who lives nearby to sell some of his stuff on the site as well.”

Legacy. That’s a powerful word.  It calls to mind the passing of tradition from generation to generation.  You might think that in today’s fast paced, on-the-go world, that keeping a legacy alive could be impossible.

If you had a chance to talk with Matt Vanderlist of Matt’s Basement Workshop blog and podcast, you’d be sorely mistaken.

You see, Matt got his woodworking start spending a few weeks each summer at his family’s farm working with his grandfather.  “I would stand there for hours watching him, asking questions and opening and closing his bench vise – the only tool I was allowed to touch.”

When his grandfather passed, Matt inherited his entire tool kit.  Besides carrying on his grandfather’s work, there’s another pleasure that goes along with owning the tools.  “The best part about owning them for me is that I finally get to use them. Even as I grew up, my grandfather still insisted on doing all the cutting and having me just stand back and hand him the pieces.”

As with most woodworkers, Matt’s skills developed once he bought his first house.  At first, it was just the ‘home improvement’ bug that bit him, but soon after, he tried his hand at building furniture.  From some pretty humble beginnings, Matt turned his basement workshop into a great place to woodwork.  Of course, as all basement wood shop owners know, maneuvering materials into the shop – and finished projects out of the shop – can be a real challenge.  “The closest my wife and I ever came to divorce was over removing our entertainment center from the shop and into the finishing stall of the garage.  It turned out that I completely miscalculated the height of the project and when we moved it into position at the base of the stairs, there was no good way to tilt it to clear the finished ceiling so we could get it up and out.”  Matt laughed,  “my kids learned some very colorful expressions that night that have on occasion been echoed on the playground and thus brought to our attention at parent-teacher conferences.”

Matt’s springboard into woodworking education started when he was given his first iPod as a birthday present in 2005.  After downloading songs, he first started hearing about ‘home grown’ radio shows called podcasts.  That’s when the wheels started to turn. “I was convinced it was possible to talk about woodworking in a manner that could translate into a radio like experience, I mean car repair is a visual thing but somehow the ‘Car Talk’ guys have been broadcasting for years and people really like it.  When I first floated the idea of doing a show I kept hearing from all these skeptics that it wouldn’t work, still I kept thinking that if other woodworkers were anything like me all you have to do is mention the term ‘woodworking’ and their ears would perk right up and they’d want to maybe take a listen.  So after about six months of sitting on the fence I decided to jump right in, feet first.  January 26th, 2006 the very first episode of Matt’s Basement Workshop was posted and I slowly started to build a listenership and discovered I wasn’t the only one who thought it would work.”

Once Matt became a fixture in the world of podcasting, he caught the attention of Marc Spagnuolo, the Wood Whisperer. Both were producing podcasts, and they started comparing notes. “Every time we’d talk, one of us would mention how cool it would be if we got together and did a joint show.  We ended up kicking this idea around for awhile before we took the big plunge and started Wood Talk Online.  Right from the beginning, WTO was more fun than two woodworkers should be allowed to have.”

The care and feeding of a blog and website can become an all-consuming task.  Fortunately for Matt, he has the support of his family.  “I have been reminded from time to time that it’s another hobby and that somethings are more important, but all in all they’ve always been willing to let dad have his nerdy time at the mic and keyboard.”

Oh, and about that legacy.  Now that Matt has been doing his woodworking education for a while, what does he expect to leave as his legacy to future generations of craftsmen and women?  ” I just hope to be considered by those I’ve heard from since starting the show as one of those guys they talked to about a problem they were having with a project and I helped them out.”  Matt paused for a minute. “Other than that I just hope that my two kids will someday be fighting as passionately over that entertainment center, or anything else I built us, as my wife and I were trying to get it out of the basement!”

Mention the world ‘veneer’ to some woodworkers, and they may turn their nose up at you. “That’s for cheap, mass produced furniture. I only use REAL wood!”

Well, surprise. Veneer IS real wood, applying it is a venerable woodworking skill to master and there’s a website that can show you just how impressive veneered projects can look.

Joe Gorleski, Jr, – known far and wide as Joe Woodworker – is a retailer of fine wood veneers that can take a woodworking project from nice to Woah!

Joe’s beginnings in woodworking were pretty humble. “I had inherited a used jigsaw that was gathering dust in my parent’s basement. One evening, we were cleaning out the basement and I had to decide if I wanted to keep the jigsaw or toss it out. I saw this pine board lying on the floor, grabbed a pencil and drew a pig shape on the board. I cut it out with the jigsaw and I discovered that I loved it!” Within a few days, Joe had plunked down some of his hard-earned cash and bought some other essential tools. The woodworking bug had bit him hard, but the biggest discovery was yet to come.

“Veneer is definitely cool. It has dramatically affected the way I look at wood. I used to spend hours at our local saw mill looking through hundreds of freshly dried boards to find anything unusual. The hard part was finding enough lumber with character to make a project. Now when I buy lumber, I look more often for perfectly un-figured boards so I can highlight any veneered portion of a project and keep the visual focus on these truly figured parts.”

 And, what figured parts they are! The selection of wood species available is stunning. Walnut burls, fiddleback maple and sapele pommele are just some of the stunning offerings on the site. It seems that you can find exactly what you need – regardless of your requirement for wood color, figure or even cost. Some breathtaking veneer lots can be found for cheap – offering multiple sheets for book matching or other eye-catching effects.

For his first projects, Joe cobbled together a vacuum pump from plans he found online and by talking with other woodworkers. Since he was learning on his own, sometimes these early projects worked, other times, they didn’t. “Sure, there was trial and error. But, some of the techniques I’ve picked up from our gracious customers who very frequently share their success stories with me. One of the greatest things about woodworking is the incredible amount of sharing that goes on between woodworkers.”

From those humble beginnings, it didn’t take long for Joe to realize that he had way more veneer than he could ever use. “When I got to the point at which I was storing veneer under my bed, my wife and I realized it was time to let some of it go. Between veneer and vacuum press parts, we figured there was enough to get a small business going.”

Today, Joe’s commercial site VeneerSupplies.com provides quality veneers, equipment and – most importantly – know how to thousands of woodworkers around the world. “Our customers are quite varied. We have a lot of customers who are not woodworkers. They just want to veneer over something unsightly. I’ve had strange questions about veneering everything from refrigerators to turtle shells. I don’t recommend veneering your turtle!”

Veneering might sound intimidating – and expensive – at first. However, there are some affordable options that the hobby woodworker can look into. First is a glue called Heat Lock. By using this glue, veneer and a clothes iron, the average woodworker can get good results. The ancient art of hammer veneering is also an option. But, for woodworkers looking to really expand their veneer options, vacuum pumps are the easiest – and sometimes the best – option. Some build it yourself kits start at $150, and complete systems can run about $400.

 “Our website often conveys the image that we are a huge company. There’s a fine line between an average website and a professional one. I prefer to have a professional website but it’s not easy to communicate that we are still a small company consisting of just my wife Christine and myself. Our customers like the personal attention they get from us because it means that our answers and comments to their questions are always genuine.”

While Joe’s website is impressive, his personal approach with customers can leave some people a little off guard. “I always smile when someone calls to place an order and asks my name. When I say “Joe”, they always reply “the Joe?” I can’t help but smile because I’m thinking who else would answer the phone in my shop?”