I haven’t been woodworking very long and like most North American’s when I think of a saw I think of a traditional western push saw, and when I think of a plane, a picture of a Stanley #5 comes to mind.

As I dove into this new hobby a couple years ago I stumbled across a plastic handled Marples pull saw while perusing the aisles of my local Big Box hardware store. I’m not sure what possessed me to grab that saw instead of a more traditional western saw. I had no idea about the origen of a pull saw concept, so I can’t blame my decision on my martial arts background or my love of Asian aesthetics… There was just something about that saw that seemed to make sense to me.

It certainly wasn’t the greatest saw in the world, but more and more I found myself gravitating toward that saw over my circular power saw during every construction project. Read more…

So as Ron Hock so eloquently put it in his latest newsletter:

“Here’s the story: It all began with visionary and passionate woodworking bloggers who — ahem —  were drinking together  one evening in Covington, Kentucky, during Woodworking in America 2011.

Imagine the bar, please. Imagine the bloggers, beers in hand and orders up. Together they fret and cry aloud.

     “We are concerned that the appreciation of finely-crafted furniture will be lost in this disposable world we so love to hate! If we do not cultivate a new group or even a whole new generation of woodworkers, who will we bequeath our tools to once we’ve planed that last plank!”

So we came up with a small way we could help “get folks off the sideline and into woodworking as a hobby.” Since I was one of those bloggers — drunkards — I figured I better contribute something.

Tom Iovino, from the blog Tom’s Workbench, is coordinating our efforts. Many of us will be posting articles all week regarding first tool selections and good starter projects. This is a great opportunity for anyone to jump in and get there hands covered in sawdust. So please participate and post your results!

You can find out more over at  Tom’s Workbench. I personally plan on doing 1-2 articles on getting started with Asian style tools and setting up a basic shop. So tune in next week for those. Ok I’m out to the shop to make those projects.

I generally talk woodworking and bit of technology here but recently more and more of my time has been devoted to our “farm”, as anyone that follows me on twitter or google+ will attest.

This summer has been occupied by 3 major projects: a 55’x50′ garden, a flock of ducks, and a couple alpacas.

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Day two of Woodworking in America was as good as expected! Much was learned and much fun was had. Hand tool Olympics, done, with much heckling 🙂 Read more…

A few months ago I somehow got conned into participating in the Hand Tool Olympics at WIA, and whats more I’m part of a blogger team; I’m sorry Ian and Steven. Seeing as most of my hand tool woodworking involves Japanese saws I’m kind of the team handicap. (did I mention I’m sorry guys?)

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