Tomorrow the Jointmaker Pro will debut in Japan. I hope I make it.

I checked into my hotel last night completely exhausted. Room is small but very clean and features a cowboy-hard bed which I like. The furniture is small–really small. How small? Thanks for asking–I watched part of the Olympics and can confirm the cantilever of my legs off the end of my bed is about the same length as the three meter spring board. The desk chair seat is shorter than a paint can and the first time I sat down I almost dislocated all three kneecaps. If you are in the right mood and without jet lag I suppose this could be fun.

The problem is the bathroom.

There are more buttons on the side of the toilet than on my kitchen blender. Therefore, I have intelligently decided to forgo using this device–too many mental images for someone who forgot to bring their anti-anxiety pills.

So today I am going to drive around and look for a construction site and find the Japanese equivalent of an American blue room.  Nobody needs a fancy toilet–what were these people thinking?  I don’t care how much gas costs or the value of my time and fully understand the door may not close. My mind is made up.  This should prove once and for all to all eight people who read my blog that deep down I am a full pedigreed American woodworker.

Spread the word please.

I would write more but I’ve got to go.

-John

The August weather in Atlanta last week was unseasonably cool–pleasant actually. Then IWF began.

“Check out that thing–it is the biggest waste of cash in the builiding.”

“What is it?” his friend asks.

“It’s an upside down handsaw that costs $1300 bucks–you can accurately cut wood for $20 or less.”

I had heard enough.

“Have you seen this thing work?” I asked.

“I watched videos on the internet and nobody can believe the price. The guy that invented this must be crazy.”

“Well, I’m that guy and I am crazy–but not when I work. Would you like to see it live?”

His friend steps forward and spills the two most expensive words in the English language, “I do.”

Over the next 10 minutes I demonstrated compound miters, dovetails, and showed a couple of new discoveries that I want to video in September. Then I grabbed a 1/2″ diameter dowel and asked the judgmental skeptic if he would like to try the Jointmaker Pro. He came around to the other side of the saw and I described what he needed to do to cut the dowel without clamps and to keep it from spinning in his hand during the cut.

His first cut was awkward and I stopped his cut before he could trash the blade. But the second cut was perfect, and so was the third. Right before his fourth cut his friend asked to try. His first attempt was without flaw and neither could believe the smoothness of the cuts. Both were smiling.

We talked about applications, creativity, and my thoughts about the conception and the prototype design cycle. The crowd around the saw was now five.

One of the newcomers asked, “Have you sold any of these saws to schools for the blind?”

“Not yet.”

He handed me his attendee card to swipe for follow-up information and that prompted the remaining four to fish attendee cards out of their badge holders.

After I processed all five, the skeptic asked me how long our $995.00 special would last.

“September 15th.”

As he was walking away I barely heard him say to his buddy; “My wife is going to kill me.”

-John

…and that is posting blog entries.  But I have a good excuse (I learned that line as a teacher. OK, I used it as a student one or two…dozen times too).

I have been working on Commemorative Tool #15 for the past couple of months and have been completely absorbed with my muse. Obviously I am done or I would not be typing away at the moment.

A couple of associates have peeked and each asked what prompted the conception of this new tool. A better query might have centered around why I am always late with the Commemorative Tools (this one is for 2007).

Blame it on Alfred Dunhill.

Although I have never smoked, Alfred Dunhill’s maxim is the the only guiding light I use when designing our Commemorative Tools–and most of our other tools as well. You may find value in it as well;

“It must be useful. It must work dependably. It must be beautiful. It must last. It must be the best of its kind.”

This quote is a brutal taskmaster–and the best of its kind.

-John

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

Years ago there used to be an amazing lumber store in Los Angeles called Penberthy Lumber. Steve Penberthy, rather than stay in Los Angeles to work in the family business, moved to Portland and started Woodcrafters Lumber Sales–which to this day is the largest woodworking store in the Pacific Northwest. They carry just about everything a woodworker could ever want or need, including a few select Bridge City items. They are our favorite resource for wood used in photoshoots and assorted projects.

Steve Penberthy has been a business friend for over 30 years–even though he is the reason I had to quit my furniture making career (he sold me the exotic wood that made me hyper allergic to wood dust). It would be more honest to say this was a result of me not wearing a dust mask, but this is America where somebody else must take the blame… Regardless, it was one of those life changing moments that was meant to be, for which I take full credit.

This morning I hopped over to Woodcrafters to buy some scrap wood for our next Jointmaker Pro video and spotted Steve at the checkout counter.

“I have something for you” he said, and retrieved a pile of Polaroid images.

Sifting, he spotted what he was looking for and handed me an image of John Economaki (that would be me) attending Bridge City’s very first woodworking trade show. The venue was the Cow Palace in San Francisco in early 1984.

I only had two tools to show, the TS-2 Try Square and the SA-2 Scratch Awl. There was no fancy booth, just a table, a 70’s mustache and a story to tell about two tools.

The image has deteriorated but it is the oldest known image of me actually doing something, although that is not obvious either.

-John



Bridge City Tool Works officially began with an ad in the 1983 Nov/Dec issue of Fine Woodworking magazine. As weird as this sounds, that does not seem so long ago to me but this image proves that I must be delusional. Our first full year of operations was 1984. Here it is 25 years later–hmmm, I smell some special events around the corner……