I was able to attend a few hours of Lie Nielsen’s event at the Philadelphia Furniture Workshop. It was several hours very well spent. Lie Nielsen, Chris Scharz, Bridge City Tools, Alan Turner and Mario Rodriguez from PFW were all in attendance and giving constant demonstrations and countless minutes of great conversation. Any thing you want to use is out on the benches. Anything you want to see demonstrated will be done so by a pro. This is a ‘must go to’ event for anybody in the relative area. Tomorrow is the last day here.
Chris Shwarz gave a 40 minute lecture on card scrapers despite the fact that it only takes him a minute to put a burr on one. I would have to guess that it was 80% of his DVD. He was quite thorough. He was also pleasure to listen to. Deneb from Lie Nielsen was at the bench burning 100s of calories effortlessly. Mr. Lie-Nielsen himself was constantly lurking, often behind their counter. I also had several great conversations with the scores (over 100 at one time) of woodworkers in attendance.
The coffee was good too.
Replies
I'm going this afternoon. If any of you are going, be sure to come over and introduce yourself. I'll be out of uniform, so just look for the only guy bigger than Chris Schwarz!
Adam
Yes, it was a good show indeed yesterday. All gave good demonstrations and I learned a great deal. I'd have liked to attend both days, but drove in from central Maryland and had to get back. Lie Nielson was also giving a 10% discount on purchases over 350. And if you let them ship the order from Maine next week, it's free shipping and no tax (purchases at the show require the PA sales tax of 7%).
How about doing one of these shows in central Maryland. I know the turn out would be good here, too.
jack
Adam,You're going to a LN woodworking show???? But, LN makes metal handplanes. They make NEW planes... are you feeling well? Will you be walking or taking the dog cart?Finding you at a WW show of modern tools is like getting an email from Ben Franklin...Glaucon
If you don't think too good, then don't think too much...
Glaucon,
I don't care who ya are, that's funny!
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Hey I got an email from Ben Franklin last week! He sends me these stupid spam-like messages forwarded from John Adams (they don't really get along, but Adams sends all the dirty jokes to Franklin who loves the dirty ones). And Ben's got a really annoying signature file with these hokey sayings. The last one was signed:Ben Franklin
"Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, and happy" I thought that one needed a bit of work and told him so, but I don't think he reads my emails. He just forwards them to Jefferson who sends them to the rest of the world. He must have a cell modem on that laptop he keeps in his portable writing desk, because I get like 15 emails from him a day. But half are in French and I can't read French. I should forward them to you, as I didn't see your name on distribution.Adam
Since you seem to be in touch with Franklin, Adams, Jefferson et al, perhaps you could ask them for their political advice on how to right things in our country for the present... we could use their help.P.S. Please don't increase the dose of your medicine until after you get a reply from them and post it here. It's too important...Glaucon
If you don't think too good, then don't think too much...
Hey that was a really cool event. I never met Tom Lie-Nielsen before. He's neat. I bought some floats! See? There's always something to buy no matter what sort of woodworker you are! I brought my LN #-5! (one of the jack planes from Pennsbury Manor). I sharpened it on my sandstone wheel before the show. Worked pretty great, guys liked using it. TL-N brought over a piece of curly ash (?) and quietly set it on the bench and left. That jack plane tore that ash to pieces, lifting huge divits out of it. Took Schwarz a couple minutes to fix it with his LN planes. Of course with straight grained stock, you can get away with a plane with a 3/16" mouth. John Economaki was there from Bridge City tools with a little vee cutting plane that I really liked. Good for the little vee grooves in secretaries. Worked fine cross grain. I was really impressed.I also tried all the new LN saws. I really liked the gent's saw. Its long and thin. Just all fun woodworking stuff. If anybody gets a chance to go to one of these, by all means do it. You can buy stuff at a discount, or just hang out with the guys doing demos and learn stuff.Adam
It was a fantastic event and it was great to meet you Adam (and of course Chris, Tom, Deneb...). Adam and Tom in the same room with a Larry Williams DVD looming in the background... who would have thought!A few pics below:
I particularly enjoy the photo of John Economaki of Bridge City Toolworks studying Adam's plane with a quizzical look.By the way, Adam is a load of fun even in his 21st century garb.Michael
Hi Adam,
Where'd that nifty plane come from, the old viking ship? Looks like one of those medieval Euro things--I like the swoopy tote, and the volutes, too, tho I can see the front curlycue (I'd make it a dragon head!) eatin a hole in the uncallused palm of my tender hand. Do ya hook your thumb around it? Cool.
Ray
Its a copy of those depicted by Felebien in 1676. I tried to copy the engraving as best I could without regard for ergonomics.I made 4 of these (I didn't make the plane, just the handles, and fitted them to beat planes) and we've been using them for 2 years in Pennsbury Manor. They are remarkably comfortable to use. You are exactly right, we find we just hook our thumbs around that horn thing in front. Ditto in back. We tend to push the plane from the butt and just hook out thumbs around the tote. I find this gives me a better feeling of control. That tote also offers many over comfortable ways to hold the plane which is nice.In all, that plane offers two lessons:
1) You don't need a tight mouth to do good work and have a satisfying experience with a plane.
2) The design of the planes we have today is not necessarily the best ergonomically. If we removed the need to mass produce planes, we might well find different shapes suit us better. Adam
Matt summed the event up quite nicely...and it is worth reiterating that this is a "must go to" event next year for anyone interested in hand tools not just LN or BC.
I would like to further add, however, that Deneb from LN was just absolutley fantastic in every operation he demonstrated. He performed any joinery operation or tool demonstration at the hint of a request with a complete yet concise enough explanation that he covered many different topics and answered so many questions. One thing I particularly liked was the hints and tricks he noted while performing each basic operation. Many special thanks Deneb!
Edited 10/14/2007 12:58 pm ET by Robert L
Edited 10/14/2007 12:59 pm ET by Robert L
Edited 10/14/2007 1:06 pm ET by Robert L
Just for the record, it's D-e-n-e-b, and he's TLN's son-in-law. You're right, he is the guru and spends many hours each week using the entire range of hand plane types. He is an untapped resource for written instruction and really should publish or video his knowledge so that more could benefit from it. Hear that TLN?
You are abosultely right! He speaks very well and is an overall excellent communicator. He even picked up on the subtlety of one's facial expression if they were not "getting it".
I have not been to many woodworking events but attend many seminars in my profession - it would seem that he is at the very top of his game.
I learned quite a bit from everybody there, however, I gravitated to Deneb most of my 10 hours while there...worth every minute and even wish I had more time.
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