Notes from WIA

The Woodworking in America show for 2014 was a lot of fun and it was great meeting many of you for the first time. It was also encouraging to see many friends from previous shows and fellow toolmakers.  If you did not get the chance to make it this year plan to make it next year. Here are a few pictures and comments from the show:

Arrived a day early for set-up. Previous WIA goers or blog followers know that I usually make a workbench on-site for use at the show. This year I was not inspired enough so I took another approach. I scrounged around town until finding a nice, sturdy, homemade desk at The Habitat for Humanity Resale store.  It was a tight “stuff” into the trunk but managed to get it to the convention center without losing it.

It performed well and some lucky person walked away at the end of the show with a nice desk/bench.

I took a few prototypes of upcoming new tools and received a lot of good feedback. We will soon be releasing a pair of shop knives. One is a Sloyd pattern and the other is a smaller joiners or marking knife. Both have blades of 1095 high carbon steel and are coated with a ceramic coating for protection and good looks. The handles are curly maple infused with acrylic resin.  Other tools in the works include dovetail marking gauges, squares and other layout tools.

Here are a few random pictures from the show:

Scott Meeks explaining the finer points of wood bodied planes, Patrick Leach setting up “tons” of antique tools, The Fred West commemorative tool box, and Robin Lee from Lee Valley showing off their new line of Configurable bench planes.

Our next show is with Lie-Nielsen at the Crucible in Oakland, CA  this weekend, September 19th and 20th. Stop by if you can!

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