Category Archives: Teaching

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, Storage, Teaching | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

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, 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 →

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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 Teaching | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment