Category Archives: skills

The Gift of Time: 8 Ways to Use Extra Time in the Shop

Posted on March 14, 2020 by literaryworkshop

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, skills, storage, teaching | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Want to Carve Spoons? Use a Template

Posted on July 31, 2019 by literaryworkshop

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, handicraft, Musings, skills, Wood and Woodwork, Woodenware | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Why Make Your Own Drawer Pulls?

Posted on July 25, 2019 by literaryworkshop

I had finally assembled this dovetailed, built-in shoe cabinet for my kids shoes, and it was time to consider the hardware.  (This post is not about building the shoe cabinet, though I give a few construction details at the end. … Continue reading →

Posted in skills, Wood and Woodwork | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Hardest Part of Learning to Sharpen

Posted on December 20, 2018 by literaryworkshop

The other day, I was teaching a friend to sharpen his plane iron, and it got me thinking about sharpening.  Of all the skills I have learned while working wood, sharpening has been the most life-changing. It started with chisels … Continue reading →

Posted in sharpening, skills, teaching, Wood and Woodwork | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

Crafting (in) the Home: Passing on Your Skills to your Children

Posted on October 27, 2018 by literaryworkshop

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 →

Posted in Kids, Musings, skills, teaching, Tutorials | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Carving Spoons, Building Community

Posted on June 4, 2015 by literaryworkshop

A week ago my wife and I got in a car and drove to Austin, Texas, to teach two days of classes on making wooden spoons.  We weren’t sure what to expect–what the facilities would be like, what wood or … Continue reading →

Posted in handicraft, skills, teaching | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment