Woodworking show: first post!
I just went to The Woodworking Shows yesterday. No, that’s not a typo. You don’t go to the woodworking show, you go to The Woodworking Shows. Don’t believe me? See for yourself. In any case, all the rest of the contributing editors either went or are going, so you may see a few more posts about the whole affair before we’re through.
In any case, the show was a hoot. Now I go to a lot of shows; it’s a part of my job. Generally they are a pain. The goal is to find something that passes for being interesting on the show floor, while spending as little time as possible listening to inane sales pitches for things you don’t care about and wouldn’t take for free let alone pay money for, all the while dodging card-swiper-snipers who try to swipe your visitor’s badge. It’s a game where the losers are deluged by junkmail forever.
The woodworking show, though… it ain’t like that. First off, everyone’s trying to sell you something. But not sell you on the idea of something, actually sell you something! Imagine going to Rockler where every tool had someone, often the inventor, standing right next to it. They’ve got a full powered setup, and would like to do nothing more than take 15 minutes to show you exactly how the thing works–even try it yourself in some cases. But it’s not just the usual array of stuff; in addition to the usual tools, you get laser woodworking straight out of star wars, electronic sub-mil precision digital height gauges, and magical pocket hammers that make it completely impossible to smash your thumb.
As if this wasn’t enough, they do hour-long workshops all day long. While the presenters are technically sponsored by various companies, they do a lot more than shill products for their corporate masters. The Kreg demonstrator went beyond pocket-hole joinery to talk about and demonstrate biscuits, dowels, and other joinery types. The Jet tool guy talked about general power tool buying techniques. These “classlets” were worthwhile in and of themselves.
For me, the high point was talking to the guy who invented my Incra router jig, then getting a personal demonstration of a half-dozen joints that I’ve been messing around with. He showed me a trick that will literally cut my finger-joint-making time by 4–that is, you can cut all four boards at once. I’ve always loved my Incra, but this was the bee’s knees.
Check out the calendar and drop by one near you–you’ll thank me for it.
(You might want to subscribe or follow me on Twitter so you don’t miss new articles)
