My name is Steve Schuler, and professionally I am an English professor working at a small liberal arts university in southern Alabama, where I live with my family. In addition to working wood, I enjoy gardening, as well as reading many types literature, hence the name of the blog. I work almost entirely with hand tools, and my main shop looks like this:
This is not your typical blog. I don’t add new posts every day; in fact, you’ll be lucky to see a new post once a week. But when I do make a new post, I try to make sure it is interesting, original, and thorough. I often use this blog as a public archive for information on woodworking, hand tools, and related topics. I will try respond to comments relatively quickly, and I am always happy to discuss my projects further with anyone who is interested. If you would like to contact me, you will find me in the Hand Tools Forum at WoodNet where I am a moderator, posting under the screen name Bibliophile 13. I encourage you to sign up for a free forum membership and send me a PM (private message). Or you may e-mail me at lastwordsmith AT gmail DOT com.
I am sometimes asked whether I sell my work. I am not in the woodworking business, and I work primarily for myself, my family, and my friends. While I occasionally sell wooden spoons and spatulas, as well as tobacco pipes, I seldom do any other woodwork for pay. I would much rather help you build a project yourself than do it for you.
I retain the copyright to all pictures and text on this blog. While I offer the information as a public service to other woodworkers, please do not copy or re-post my pictures or text without my prior permission. If you see something you would like to duplicate, please leave a request in the comments, and I’ll respond. You may use brief quotations from this blog, provided you clearly attribute them to their source (i.e. give me credit for the information and specific wording). Please include a link back to the original source here on my blog. I don’t patent my work, and I encourage others to adapt any of my projects’ design features to their own work.
The Literary Workshop Blog 
I was searching for info on building a scaled down Gutenberg Press and saw your old post (2006) on WoodNet with some neat pics of the Gutenberg press replica.
Do you have any more pics, details you could send me?
Any suggestions, books, articles on building a Gutenberg Press would be appreacited.
Thanks
Reply sent via e-mail. One of these days I’ll put up a blog post about that replica press I saw in action.
I saw your comment on Logan Cabinet Shoppe and had to see where in the deep South you are. I live in the Birmingham area and write a blog at http://www.woodfever.net. I am just now getting excited about hand tools, so I am going to add your blog to my RSS reader and follow along.
Jeff
Followed yoir link from Woodnet about the dovetail marker. Im a Paul Sellers student also. Very nice site Steve.
Brent
Hi Steve,
My name is Philippe Steele and I run a group on Face Book called Spoon Carving, Green Woodworking and Sloyd. I’m always perusing the internet to find people of similar interests. And I’d like to invite you to join our group on facebook. Our carving methods are a bit different from yours but I’ll bet you will find them interesting.
Steve, I really enjoy your posts. Well-written and interesting. And it’s cool the way you include your kids in one of your passions.
Hi Steve,
I am interested in your thumb ring page holders. What do you charge for them?
Thanks!
Hello, Aimee. I charge $5 apiece for them, plus shipping. They come in large and small–large fitting the average man’s thumb and the small fitting the average woman’s thumb. E-mail me at the address above to place an order.
Dear Steve,
What a great blog to read, counting parts is something I have heard of before. ‘’The fewer parts, the less there is to go wrong’’, that is true but I think that doesn’t mean that the tool actually breaks less. There are less ways of how it can break but I don’t think it has a lower chance of breaking. Now that I read the quote again, it doesn’t actually say that a tool has a lower chance of breaking, it just has less ways to break. Anyway, maybe I misunderstood the quote … or think to much. Let me know.
By the way could you tell me what kind of wood the hammers and chisels are made of? They look terrific!
Kind regards,
Koen
Hi Steve. I used to edit Living Woods magazine. We were about the publish an article by you about making spoons. We might even have published it, but I rather lost touch of the content after the cycle crash you may have heard about. I am now launching a magazine for hand tool enthusiasts, called Quercus, and am wondering if we could use that article? Perhaps you could email me at nick.gibbs@quercusmagazine.com? Thanks. Nick
Steve, I am enjoying your blog very much .I am a long time pipe smoker and am interested in hand carving my own pipe. I would appreciate any info you information you can share re: a reputable source for pipe kits, briar etc. I live in rural Minnesota and have no resources locally.
Thank you Ted
Ted, thanks for the kind words. You can buy great kits from Vermont Freehand, which is one of the foremost pipe-making suppliers in the country right now. You can also look at Raw Krafted, which may also have some kits available.