Logan Cabinet Shoppe

So there I go again. Thinking! It's always dangerous when that happens. But there I was reading "The Woodwright's Guide" and thinking. Thinking about wood; thinking about tools; thinking about furniture. But what really stuck in my mind this time was the format of the book, of all of St. Roy's books for that matter. His style of writing is so very well thought out and continuous (and witty, smart, etc.).

When you read any of the Woodwright's books, you are taken from the basic beginning and up through projects or processes with increasing complexity as the book progresses (e.g. from felling the tree straight through making a piece of furniture). As I contemplated this, it occured to me that this is what is missing from a lot of woodworking instructon media. Sure, there are tons of books on tuning up hand tools, how to use a table saw, how to build shaker furniture (with measured drawings of course). But I've yet to see one source that takes you through these things from start to finish. You are left on your own to put all the pieces together from several different sources. This includes most video instruction and classes as well.

So I had this silly idea that I could put together something using several short videos (maybe 10 minute each). Each video would build on the previous one like a mini apprenticeship but centered around an actual project. I could put the videos right here on the web site so people could check them out whenever they wanted, for free. I wouldn't just show how to set up a plane or sharpen a chisel. Rather I would actually walk through the recommendation I have made numerous times to folks seeking hand tool advice on several of the message boards. Specifically, I'll pick a project, acquire and tune the tools needed for that project and then build it. I'll use the process of building the project to demonstrate the techniques rather than just showing a video of a technique (like hand cut mortise and tenon for example) without applying it to an actual piece of furniture.

Of course this would be geared toward those just starting out in the craft or power tool folks wanting to incorporate more hand tool work. I certainly don't claim to be an expert by any means so experienced folks might not learn much from the videos (but you never know).  It might be something that the seasoned wodworkers might like to watch just to get a good chuckle though. If anything, you'll likely get to see me bleed and be able to tell your kids "See kids, here's an example of what not to do". It would probably be more entertaining than prime time television anyway.

So what do you think? How silly am I being? Would anyone actually be interested in something like this or am I that out of touch? Leave me a comment if this is something you'd be interested in seeing. If there is enough interest, perhaps I'll persue the idea after I finish my current project. If there isn't a lot of interest, that's ok too. There are plenty of other foolish things I can come up with the next time I get to thinking.

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