Well, it’s a little after midnight and AGAIN I find it hard to go to sleep. I just spent almost 12 hours on the Popular Woodworking campus talking about the Jointmaker Pro. Although this trip was all about business, I would not dare call it work, only because there was free food, and plenty of dead cicadas… DETOUR: We don’t have cicadas in Oregon (if we do I am sure someone will correct me) and this much dead biomass is fascinating. And loud. Before they die that is. Do the math here–17 years as a hibernating nymph buried next to a big, fat tree root, wake up hungrier than a teenager without a refrigerator, munch on tree sap until the libido overwhelms, spend a couple of hours at the screaming mimi cicada bunny ranch and then croak from exhaustion… This isn’t so bad when you think about it…no SAT tests, background checks, or exit polls–just an incredible, one week, no-strings-attached love fest. Reincarnation requests anyone? How about a Jamba Juice Tree Sap Smoothie?

I digress. Approximately 60 people ventured into Cincinnati to eat free pizza and listen to my Silent Woodworking spiel. (Not quite as bad as one of those guilt ridden timeshare meetings…I hope.)

It is hard to tell if people had a good time, but I found it fun. As many of you know, Chris Schwarz claimed that the cut from the Jointmaker Pro was the cleanest saw cut he has ever seen–by any method. Of course the Woodworking Taliban pilloried him for such nonsense and I believe, if any of the attendees step forward, his critics will join the cicadas in the belly of a street sweeper.

After my presentation, the Jointmaker Pro was moved to the shop and all interested were allowed to make cuts. There were plenty of smiles–and frankly that was worth the trip. I am leaving the prototype with the Popular Woodworking crew for the next month for further play and testing. Oh, and a small detail — nobody lost any digits.

I was treated like a dignitary (I am not, and NEVER want to be) so I had four pieces of pizza, two of which were onion–without which we would still be talking about the Woodworking Taliban at a local watering hole. Smart people, those Popular Woodworking folks.

–John