Woodworks 2014 conference - Presenters
I just came back from the WoodWorks 2014 Conference held in Perth, Ontario. I had previously posted about the conference here. After looking at the web site when the event was announced, I had a pretty good feeling that this would be a great event and I can say that it was, at least from my part.
The Site
The algonquin college in Perth, ON is a fantastic site to host this type of event. Very nice installation and a special tanks to the student that help during the event. Very nice campus and modern to help out the next generation of students.
The Organisation
Kudos to the organisation from the OWA group that work on this event and were able to get this flying off the ground. To secure the site and speakers that were there all week-end, you guys did an awesome job and please, make this happen for at least another year.
The Speakers
What can I say here. Packing this list of speakers in this type of event, specially the first year, you guys rock.
Chris Schwarz
I was able to meet Chris in person and get a copy of the Anarchist Toolchest signed. Chris hosted 2 sessions, one on chip breakers (Saturday morning) and the other on nails (Sunday early PM). Murphy had to be part of the whole experience, where power outage had to hit on the first session. Learnt a lot from both session and I think it opened other can of worms....
Ron Barter
Ron Barter owns and operate Rosewood studio, also in Perth. I followed there a week long class on hand tools. I must recommend getting this class for anyone that wants to get better or getting started in hand tools.Ron gave a talk on finishes, which he took a very nice approach in the way he categorized the types of finishes and presented his content in this manner. Basically, not to sound to generalist, each type of finish offers advantages and disadvantages and using a particular finish or category of finish is balance of the strength and weakness of a particular finish. There is no best finish and the answer on what type of finish to use : it depends
Garrett Hack
Well, I certainly hope that you know who Garret Hack is, at least by reputation. He has been woodworking for the past 35-40 years and has tons of knowledge to share. Garrett hosted 2 session on design and tricks to facilitate construction of a pieces, things to think while in the design process to help out to make your life easier but keep it vey nice. I can take away from his 2 sessions is to keep options opened and get inspired from others work and natures element. Go out and see things, get inspired.Garrett has a web site that you can go see if you are interested to see some of his pieces. You can do a search on fine woodworking.com to find some articles and some work in the gallery.
Tom Fidgen
Tom is known from his blog at the Unplugged Woodshop and uses exclusively hand tools. Tom is a very great guy and his session was very inspiring on how to tackle woodworking and some other situations, to offer better success :
Know the goal, acknowledge the goal
take small steps
Note the change
Get to see others.
Prepare the fix
I think these steps can be applied to many situations and sure will try to keep track and follow through on some situations.
Mark Harrell
Mark Harrell is the owner of Bad Axe Toolworks and manufactures magnificent hand saws of many sizes (more on that in another post). Mark's session about saw restoration was amazing. Great tips about how a saw is built and how to cleanup a saw that you might have and would be in a need of a little cleanup. I wished that this session could of lasted longer. Too bad I could not stay for the sharpening portion. Definitely a place to look for saws if you are in the market.
Linda Manzer
Linda presented here work on the topic of Inlay. I really admire here work, but had to skip here session, not because of lack of interest, but had missed a part of the session for other little emergencies. Please go see here web site for here amazing work I'll conclude this post on the note that the conference presenters were great, great humour and great audience participation with all the sessions I was able to attend.
One missing person was Konrad Sauer, which was held home for family emergency. Hope all is well. I will cover the other parts of the conference in later posts.