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Homage

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When I first began woodworking, back in the late 1990′s, Norm Abram’s “The New Yankee Workshop” was by far the most popular woodworking show on television.  Once I discovered the show, I couldn’t get enough of it.  Here was this regular joe, (ok, regular Norm) making such beautiful projects that almost anyone would want in their home.   And Norm made it look sooo easy!  Of course, nothing is as easy as it looks on television.  But that didn’t matter because I had been bitten by the “I can build that….” bug.  

Actually, my love of woodworking goes back a bit further than that, at least two generations, you might say.  My father was once a carpenter and is still a woodworker.  When I was a kid, during November and December he would always be busy in the garage building projects to give away at Christmas.  I was always amazed at the things that he built.  I still use the desk he built for me when I was a teenager.

Although I have never seen anything that my grandfather has made, I do have a couple of his old wooden planes.  They are in pretty rough shape and someday I might try to restore them.  One of them may not be restore-able, so I may just make a replica of it.

Eventually, new woodworking shows became popular as well.  “Doing It Yourself” became the “in” thing and a larger variety of shows became available.  Among those was “Woodworks” with David Marks as the host.  His work on that show inspired me to a whole new level of woodworking.  Terms like “bentwood lamination” and “inlay” became a part of my vocabulary.  On the show, David also inspired me to look at the work of the woodworkers who inspired him, such as Sam Maloof and James Krenov.

All these people have inspired me throughout the years.  Even though Maloof and Krenov have passed on now, and the New Yankee Workshop has closed its television doors, their work is still around and will continue to inspire for years to come.  My father still makes things that amaze me as well and I thank him for the love of woodworking that he passed on to me.

Sam Maloof has a quote on his web site that pretty much sums it up for me:

“The reverence that the object maker has for the materials, for the shape, and for the miracle of his skill transcends to God, the Master Craftsman, the Creator of all things, who uses us, our hands, as His tools to make these beautiful things.”


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