Silent woodworking is alive and growing.

The folks at Popular Woodworking magazine have conceived and orchestrated a woodworking event like no other. Woodworking in America promises to be an extraordinary gathering of hand tool enthusiasts and tool makers in Berea, Kentucky.

Today I spoke with Megan Fitzpatrick at Popular Woodworking and she offered the following;

“Our goal is to provide an unparalleled gathering of some of the biggest names in handtool woodworking, from tool makers to master woodworkers, and in a variety of traditions (western and Japanese). “Marquee” names include…well, just about all the speakers. The most well-known are Roy Underhill, Frank Klausz, Mike Dunbar, and Mike Wenzloff.

In addition to the 40 sessions, the “marketplace” is more than just a venue for makers to sell their wares — it’s more of a “show and tell” atmosphere, where attendees can stop by the various booths and ask questions, use the cool tools, and get personal instruction from the actual makers.

We’re very excited, gratified (and very pleasantly surprised) about the immediate and widespread interest, and hope we’ll be able to offer many more of these types of gatherings in the future.”

Michael and I are excited to exhibit our tools and I am honored to join the other speakers to help make this a very memorable weekend for all. There are 37 unique workshops (and 3 repeats) and as of today, approximately 400 woodworkers have signed on! The list of exhibitors is impressive–and there is not a router in the bunch!

As part of the awareness for this event, The Woodworkers Resource is hosting a series of interviews with the guest speakers. As of this writing there are two posted, one with Michael Dunbar and the other with that guy from Bridge City Tool Works talking about their tools and the Jointmaker Pro… click the link to listen.

All the hotlinks above are a wealth of information and registration is still open. I think this will be the most talked about woodworking gathering of the year and if at all possible please consider joining us–this is going to be fun!

–John