Craft Genealogy & the magazine

Fine Woodworking as a wampeter

carved box, Oct 2024

In the shop I keep going back and forth between making chairs and carved boxes. This carved box started as a demo piece during the September class I taught - made from quartersawn (not riven) oak. The carved lid is something I’ve only done for maybe the past 4 or 5 years. From a practical point of view, it’s a horrible idea - a dust-catcher of the highest magnitude. But it’s such a great “canvas” for carving these patterns. I’m sure the idea came from a photo of an English box sent to me by Paul Fitzsimmons. 

I’ve been training for the position of old grizzled curmudgeon for a long time and am settling in quite nicely. When my daughter struck out trying to get Taylor Swift tickets I made sure to tell her about buying tickets in Boston to see Jerry Garcia the night of the show. (Legion of Mary, spring of 1975) And about how we complained in general when rock and roll tickets went from $6.50 to $7.50 (I think it was Clapton first…) And I know there’s older-timers than me with stories that mine pale against. It’s probably universal; “things ain’t like they used to be…”

What does that have to do with anything about woodworking? Well, last week Anissa & Ben from Fine Woodworking were here groveling around.

Ben & Anissa

Shortly after that visit, I went to see Rich Starr and both those visits got me thinking about my craft genealogy project - well, the visit with Rich was specifically about that project. But the piece I got to thinking about is the role Fine Woodworking had in the way things played out. 

In 1976 I made a trip with my mother to visit her childhood friend living in Bucks County Pennsylvania. My first time out of New England. A completely new woodworker, probably wouldn’t even call myself that at that time. But on that trip a few things happened - we went to the Mercer Museum in Doylestown where I no doubt saw, but barely registered, the huge collection of tools on display. We also stopped in the showroom of George Nakashima - I barely remember it - all I recall is that it happened. One thing on the trip that did click was someone showed me an early issue of Fine Woodworking. Even though it was over my head, I subscribed when I got home. And that’s how the world of woodworking made its way into my head in those early days for me and the magazine. 

I couldn’t let these go

If someone had told the circa 1978-mid-80s version of me that I’d be working with the staff from Fine Woodworking there’s no way I could have believed it. The significance and importance of the magazine on my woodworking, maybe American woodworking overall, in that period is maybe hard to fathom if you didn’t see it. I searched back through some of the early issues prior to going to see Rich - I even have several of the black and white issues still. And I was thinking about how I used to devour them when they came in the mail - I’d read everything - the articles, tips, letters, ads - the works. A lot of it I’d read and re-read. There were several reasons for this - one, I was new to woodworking and needed all the input I could find. Another is that there wasn’t much out there of that caliber.