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Category Archives: Musings
How to Do Woodworking on 24 Hours a Day
There is ample historical evidence that at the beginning of the 20th century, many people felt that their lives were so rushed that they never had enough time to do the things that they really wanted to do. Back then, … Continue reading
Posted in Musings
Tagged arnold bennett, cal newport, clutter, deep work, mortise and tenon, podcast, smartphone, smartphone addiction, social media
7 Comments
How to Not Grow a Business
Most successful businesses have a growth mentality. But I don’t want to grow anymore. I want my craft market enterprise to shrink gracefully. Continue reading
Posted in Market, Musings, Wood and Woodwork, Woodenware
Tagged business, craft market, farmer's market, farmers market, growth, Market, price, pricing, production schedule, production time, shrinking gracefully, spoon making, time, value, vendor
1 Comment
Don’t Destroy Yourself
I sometimes hear dedicated hand-tool woodworkers praise the way that woodworkers of yore built splendid pieces of furniture without the aid of power tools, with the implication that we, too, should work in that totally “unplugged” way. I used to … Continue reading
What’s in a Name?
Since middle school, most of us have hesitated to let other people give us names. Name-calling is a basic tool in the toolbox of bullies and leaders of cliques. And even though our parents mostly gave us nice, socially-acceptable names, … Continue reading
Posted in Musings, Wood and Woodwork, Woodenware
Tagged business names, name, names, naming, Schuler Woodenware, the spoon guy
2 Comments
Literary Workshop is 10 Years Old Today!
Ten years ago today, I launched this blog with this single-paragraph post: Another Woodworking Blog? Really? Yes, another woodworking blog. Why? I started working wood only a few years ago, and I quickly began to chronicle my progress on WoodNet, … Continue reading
Posted in Musings
Tagged 2010s, anniversary, decade, internet forums, retrospect, retrospective, WoodNet
7 Comments
The Gift of Time: 8 Ways to Use Extra Time in the Shop
Time is the greatest of gifts. None of us knows how much of it we will have over our lifetime, and once it’s gone we can never get it back. That’s why I’m not much bothered by the prospect of … Continue reading
Posted in Kids, Musings, Sharpening, Storage, Teaching
Tagged cleaning, coronavirus, covid-19, deferred maintenance, maintenance, pandemic, quarantine, teach, Teaching, teaching woodworking, time
6 Comments
Want to Carve Spoons? Use a Template
On a spoon-carving forum I read, the question of templates comes up frequently. A lot of spoon carvers say they “just wing it,” or as others put it, “just see what the wood wants to be.” Now, there’s no question … Continue reading
Posted in Carving, Musings, Wood and Woodwork, Woodenware
Tagged freedom, pencil, spoon carving, spoon template, succeed, success, template, templates, winging it, wooden spoon, wooden spoon template, work
1 Comment
The One Essential Hand Tool
I have a favorite hand tool, one which has been with me (in one form or another) for most of my life. It’s my most-used hand tool, and the one I would be most reluctant to part with. It’s … Continue reading
Posted in Musings
Tagged basic hand tools, Benchmade, essential hand tools, hand tool, hand tools, handtools, pocket knife, pocketknife, sharp, Swiss Army knife
3 Comments
Crafting (in) the Home: Passing on Your Skills to your Children
I just returned from a conference on community building called The Urban Village: From Cloud-Castles to Blueprints, sponsored by The Servi Institute in Oklahoma City, OK, where I gave a presentation on passing on manual skills to children by letting … Continue reading
The Parable of the Homemade Wine
Once there was a man who had a garden and an orchard. He grew many kinds of fruits–plums, figs, blueberries, strawberries, and grapes. His fruits grew so well that he needed something to do with them, so he began to … Continue reading
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