Shop Time
Over an extended holiday break, I was able to spend a bunch of time in my shop. Much of it was cleaning up and recovering from the Christmas gift-making rush. In the process, I put a new blade on my band saw and learned just how far the old blade had dulled.
Taking the time to clean the saw, reset the guides, and install the new blade served as a metaphor for what I was doing in the shop in general. Tidy up, reset, and focus for a new round of woodworking during the year.
I have several projects nearing an end, a few in the works, and plenty of time to allow some new ideas to get made.
Travel & Woodworking
Later this year, Logan and I will be taking a group to Denmark and Sweden. The trip will be September 20-28 — we'd love to have you come. On last year's trip to England, I took so many photos of projects and details. To be fair, I do this pretty much every where I go ... even on trips to visit family.
I like seeing historic houses and vintage furniture and carved items. I'm inspired to build something in that style or figuring out how to incorporate those motifs into the projects that I make. It's similar to learning how to use a new ingredient in cooking.
Around new year, Logan was in Sweden and Italy. He noticed this painting in a museum that was done on boards that were joined with dovetail keys (bow ties). Over time, the keys stand out from the surrounding panel.
Burls, Burls, Burls
As a sawyer, Logan can't help but notice trees. Here's one of the burls he noticed in a old neighborhood.
Transcript
All the news that fit to sprint.
Phil Huber (00:03.17) Happy New Year everybody, if I can still say that. Nine days in, it is the Shop Notes podcast. I'm Phil along with John and Logan. Starting off the year with a nice little recap of the past year. Got some exciting things to talk about for what's going on in the woodsmith and popular woodworking world in 2026.
No sponsor message today except for a generous and heartfelt thank you to all the readers and the listeners who subscribe to Woodsmith and Popular Woodworking and especially to our membership platforms that allow us the time and the resources to be able to do this podcast. So thank you very much. Also, if you haven't, please consider joining
as a member of either Popwood Plus or Woodsmith Unlimited to check out all the great information that we have. Stuff going up all the time on both websites that you can stay connected to and learn a lot more about woodworking and as the stuff that's going on around here. So with that, we'll check in with some feedback from the last episode from in December and then get started.
Phil Huber (01:33.72) All right, Puppy Doc says, you guys are killing me. Denmark and Sweden have been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember. Plus a trip to New England and Maine and a repeat to the UK. I can't do all of them, but I'm determined to at least do one of them. If you do Scandinavia in October, what about woodworking in America? Logan, you want to address that one?
Logan Wittmer (01:57.956) No.
Phil Huber (01:59.682) Hahaha!
John Doyle (01:59.815) This sounds like October problems. We're in January.
Phil Huber (02:04.632) Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (02:06.762) So yeah, so basically, my team's this close right now, so I don't have the dates in front of me. Basically, what we were trying to do is we were trying to separate out.
in America from Handworks that is also happening here in Iowa in I believe September, early September. Yep, so we were trying to push Woodrick in America into November is what we were trying to do. However, turns out that the Iowa State Fairgrounds is a very popular venue so we are limited to two days and those two days are early October.
Phil Huber (02:27.704) Yeah, Labor Day.
Logan Wittmer (02:48.583) I believe right Phil is that what we decided we decided it was going to be like I'm opening my calendar right now It's October 8th and 9th So that is the soft announcement I guess of Working in America dates. We're looking at October 8th and 9th for that We are then looking at this Sorry, bingo 9th and 10th exactly like I said
Phil Huber (03:08.75) Ninth and tenth, my bad.
John Doyle (03:14.119) Sorry to the people that just booked their hotels on the eighth of May. That fast.
Logan Wittmer (03:16.863) Yes.
Yep, the Sweden trip we are looking at late September.
Phil Huber (03:28.952) September 20th to the 28th, I believe.
Logan Wittmer (03:32.155) Bingo. Exactly like I said, late September. Those emails I think will probably start coming in the next week or so. For those. I have a weird suspicion that the Sweden trip will sell pretty quickly. That's kind of my thoughts.
Phil Huber (04:01.42) Okay.
Logan Wittmer (04:02.406) I have been contacted by several people on Facebook asking about it like dates or asking reserved spots So I'm like who like this is gonna be cool. Maybe like this is gonna be fun like So we'll see
Phil Huber (04:17.59) Is it the venue or is it the hosts that are going with it? I don't know. Like, yeah.
Logan Wittmer (04:21.399) Mean we yeah, like we don't have to say it. We don't have to make those final working guys feel bad if we don't have to so But yeah, so we are spacing them out just a hair I sure hope that in between the the week of Sweden and the week of Woodworking in America that either wood Smith or pop wood is due because that would just be the topping on the cake
Phil Huber (04:27.714) Right, yeah, yeah.
Phil Huber (04:46.658) Yeah, Woodsmith is definitely gonna be due right in that timeframe. So I'm very excited about that.
Logan Wittmer (04:51.173) Super great.
John Doyle (04:52.965) It'll probably be that week of woodworking in America, won't it? Like that first or second week in October?
Phil Huber (04:57.39) Something like that, yeah.
Logan Wittmer (05:00.484) Nice. Yeah, so we are spacing them out ever so slightly.
Logan Wittmer (05:08.972) and there it is what it is.
Phil Huber (05:11.842) Maybe my presentation for this year's Woodworking in America will be reading through proofs the woodsmith style.
Logan Wittmer (05:17.414) Yeah, here's how you make a woodworking magazine from the inside. mean, this seems like great free labor. Actually, they're paying us to be labor. This is great.
Phil Huber (05:20.979) We're just going to hand out articles. See what you find.
John Doyle (05:25.383) Live editing.
Logan Wittmer (05:36.838) It's just like our sawmilling weekend. Get people to come here and pull lumber and pay us to do it.
Phil Huber (05:42.606) Pen9363 says, you know, if you wanted to learn fusion, Ben Strano has a course offered through Fine Woodworking to teach woodworkers fusion in 3D printing.
Logan Wittmer (05:56.484) I'm not giving them any of money.
John Doyle (05:58.319) you
Phil Huber (05:58.435) which feels a little snarky, and I appreciate that.
John Doyle (06:02.759) Thank
Phil Huber (06:05.006) Hugh Milton says, where can I find the episode details? Can't find anything after 2.42. Should all be on thewoodsmith.com slash podcasts. Everything will be on there.
Mini6s says, regarding your discussions of vendor lock-in, does anyone have experience with battery adapters that allow connecting one vendor's tool to another vendor's battery?
Logan Wittmer (06:36.261) So what I'm picturing is that like snarky video where some gangster comes out with a handgun with a 45 inch magazine attached to it. That's kind of what I'm picturing because you're all of sudden extending the battery out and then you got the Peyton Manning of Power Tools where its forehead's this tall. Sorry Peyton.
John Doyle (07:02.553) Wow, eight man and catching strays on the shop note podcast.
Logan Wittmer (07:05.613) HA HA!
Phil Huber (07:11.692) All right. Yeah, I was picturing that or some kind of like a Ghostbusters sort of thing with like battery packs on a backpack and then like all these jumper wires coming down and round into.
And then you just toggle back and forth between like DeWalt, Milwaukee, Bosch.
Logan Wittmer (07:32.974) Yeah.
Phil Huber (07:33.419) I have not.
heard of or seen any adapters. That would have to be like a Google search or something like that. But I'm not aware of those. So if anybody on the internet has tried that, along with the cheapo batteries, because I have some family members that have done that with the Bosch 12 volt line, found some higher capacity batteries that were not OEM.
and have used those successfully. So I get the fear out there and yes, I do not want any of my batteries, chargers or tools to burst into flame and or cause other things to then burst into flame. However,
It also feels like.
Logan Wittmer (08:30.562) Yeah, I think I said this last time. It's been a long time since we've podcasted, so I don't remember, but like, I am hesitant as somebody who is more or less in the Milwaukee platform now, I am hesitant to trust another manufacturer's batteries, especially a non.
Milwaukee battery like like Bosch batteries the wall batteries no problem like whatever But trusting like a white label battery Having been to to Milwaukee in Milwaukee and seen their battery lab Like they put a ton of effort
behind their batteries. they have, and I might've said this, they have like server racks in this room and it's like a thousand degrees in there because all these batteries are in there being charged and depleted and operating in sub-zero temperatures, operating in 200 degree temperatures. Like they put a lot of effort into their batteries. So I feel like I just trust those a lot more.
I have bought a few white label tools that use the Milwaukee batteries. I bought a heat gun that uses the Milwaukee battery and I bought a tire inflator that uses the Milwaukee battery. I love them, absolutely love them. The batteries, little more hesitant on that.
Phil Huber (10:00.047) All
Phil Huber (10:05.496) That might be our theme for the first part of this year is just being able to vent about cordless tools, both the fact that they're great and that they just drive you up a fricking wall.
Ian McCullough says Paul Sellers has done several videos and blog posts on the Aldi chisels. I got a set and I like them a lot. Almost as much as I like my Narex chisels. Although that might have something to do with the fact that I followed Paul Sellers blog post and reshaped the handles myself. So they feel right in my hands. I get that.
Phil Huber (10:47.03) And then Stiegs7 says, as far as shop tour videos goes, John could show off his shop and monetize by creating an only shops profile and upload new photos and videos.
Logan Wittmer (11:00.418) except then the problem is he'd be in the shop with no shoes on like it'd be like barefoot shop and I'd mmm mmm
John Doyle (11:03.281) Great. Yeah.
Yeah. Feet Finder crossover with with I don't know. Shop only. I don't know. We're looking to make money in 2026. Sell out and bro down. No. I'm in the transfer portal. Going to the highest bidder.
Logan Wittmer (11:11.338) You
Phil Huber (11:32.024) There you go. There you go. I really have no words for that actually.
John Doyle (11:37.115) Yeah, call my agent.
Phil Huber (11:39.564) Yeah. Speaking of shop tours, I think the fourth and final segment of my shop tour drops sometime in the next few days here. So I think John's got it on the schedule.
John Doyle (11:51.173) Yep, it's locked and loaded.
Phil Huber (11:56.527) Totally not the forum, but only because it applies to Logan. I saw Mike McDaniels is out that just came through.
Logan Wittmer (12:03.85) Yeah, I saw that before we started podcasting. Mixed emotions. Yeah, like the guy as a offensive coordinator. And allegedly. Miami has been tied to Harbaugh, so we'll see. I don't know. Hey, when you're on the floor, there's nowhere else to go but up.
Phil Huber (12:09.912) Yeah.
Phil Huber (12:24.449) Okay.
Phil Huber (12:30.306) Right, right, you can't fall off the floor.
Logan Wittmer (12:32.637) No. So.
Phil Huber (12:38.168) I have a text thread with my siblings and my sister had just posted about Mike McDaniels. And then my brother, one of my brothers says, I bet Miami is going after John Harbaugh and they'll steal the Packers assistant GM.
Logan Wittmer (12:53.333) Yep, I mean, yeah, again, when you're on the floor, there's nowhere to go up, but nowhere to go but up, you know, so.
John Doyle (12:59.175) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think this time of year, every fired coach just moves one seat to the left.
Phil Huber (13:11.17) Ha
Logan Wittmer (13:12.417) You're not wrong. so I, a little bit of a rant for a second. As a lifelong Miami Dolphins fan, Miami Dolphins fans are the worst. The fan base is so freaking toxic that I cannot even comprehend it.
John Doyle (13:14.855) Mic.
Logan Wittmer (13:40.115) And I think it just speaks to the Southern Florida attitude. And I would love nothing more. Like people just can complain about any player, any coach on the Miami Dolphins. And I get no greater enjoyment than that person leaving the Dolphins and excelling somewhere else. Like it just makes me so happy. Like Wes Welker left Miami.
became one of the best receivers in, you know, New England history. So like, I just love it. I don't know. So I hope, that said, McDaniel goes somewhere else, once the Super Bowl. Because to me, I'm just like, yeah, screw you toxic Dolphins fans. As a toxic Dolphins fan.
Logan Wittmer (14:41.404) Rant over.
Phil Huber (14:41.528) All right, there we go. Off topic segments, always appreciated here on the Shop Notes podcast.
Phil Huber (14:51.394) Alright, circling back to the Sweden trip that we have upcoming in September. Logan, you did a little bit of a scouting trip to Sweden.
Logan Wittmer (15:03.392) Scouting mission. Yep Yeah, so my wife and I just got back a couple days ago from a personal trip to Sweden and Italy And it was great. So I think I sent you guys a picture of one of the giant burles I found in Gothenburg. I have no idea what country it is thinking. It's a Norway maple But I'm not 100 % sure
Every, so it was my wife and I and one couple friend of ours went with us. The whole reason we stopped in Sweden was just, was to take delivery of a Volvo. Like that's why we were there, but it happened to be that we were in Gothenburg.
in our hotel was like four blocks from one of the museums that we're gonna visit on our tour. I tried to go in, we were there between Christmas and New Year's, so it was actually closed, so I wasn't able to go. But all four of us that went on this trip agreed that Sweden, in our opinions, was way cooler than Italy. Like, yes. Now, I have been to Italy before, so like, it's kinda lost the shiny thing.
Phil Huber (16:13.495) Really?
Logan Wittmer (16:20.327) Coffee is much better in Italy. Love me a good Italian cappuccino. But the gothic style architecture in Sweden, the topography, the people, just, three days in Sweden was not enough for me. And I think all of us agreed that we'll go back to Sweden at some point before we go back to Italy.
Italy is beautiful and cool but Sweden was very neat so I am very much looking forward to heading back there.
Phil Huber (17:00.878) So, I mean, that's even with you being there in, let's call it, the dark time.
Logan Wittmer (17:07.104) Oh yeah, like sun up at 10 o'clock, sun down at three o'clock. Like it was fair. And that was like, that was one of the things all of us said is it's like, ah, it would have been really cool to be able to like go do something in Sweden other than just walk around the city in the dark. Cause that's kind what we did, right? It, yeah, it was the dark times, but the food was fantastic.
the, you think of Italy, you think of wine and coffee and good and pasta, right? And that's kind of what it is. Sweden has some great cocktails. Like it was, their food's fantastic. The people are wonderful. I did not realize this, and this might be a selling point to some people that would be a little hesitant to go to a foreign country.
95 % of the Swedish population is fluent in English. Did not know that. So when you walk in, everybody in Sweden kinda looks like us, right? It's a very Scandinavian country. Yeah, it's very Scandinavian country. So it's not like you're in Italy where you can tell who's Italian and who isn't, right?
Phil Huber (18:20.28) Careful.
Logan Wittmer (18:29.841) So you walk in and hi in Swedish is hej. So you walk in, everyone's like, hey, and you just say hello. They're like, how are you guys doing today? Like, what's up, my rednecks? So it was pretty cool. Easy to get around with because everyone speaks English. know, people are great. Did not realize, like, and this is silly thing.
John Doyle (18:41.351) you
Logan Wittmer (18:58.088) The Scandinavian bathrooms are freaking pristine. Like, here in the states, most places, you go into a public bathroom, you don't know what you're gonna get.
there it's like I would eat a Michelin star meal off that floor like absolutely spotless unbelievable so yeah public transit was great in Sweden trams and trolleys all over buses taxis yeah it was it was very cool it makes me very excited to go back so I think
I mean, obviously we're splitting our time on the Scandinavian trip between Denmark and Sweden. That is pending that we don't take Greenland from Denmark. But, you know, there's that. But no, it was very cool. The problem I have when I travel with my wife is that I'm not necessarily allowed to go nerd out on woodworking stuff. Like I want to, you know.
The best I got was we were walking to a, there's a little historic part of Gothenburg called Haga, H-A-G-A, and it's like a historic neighborhood.
A lot of walking streets, all cobblestone streets, old shops. Gothenburg, Sweden itself, mean Sweden's an old, obviously it's an old country, but like Gothenburg is not an old city necessarily, because if you think about it, like...
Logan Wittmer (20:44.494) Sweden's cold. It's cold in mountainous. Like it's hard to live there if you're not living in a log cabin in the woods, right? So like the cities are fairly new. I say that, you know, in the sense of Europe. Like they're fairly new cities. So a lot of the Haga neighborhood was built in the mid 1800s, give or take.
Anyways, we were walking there for a little walking tour we were doing and we walked through a big park in Gothenburg and that's where like all these trees, like giant, giant trees, all full of burls, every single one of them. So I sent Phil and John and our little crew a photo me standing next to this massive burl. I mean, it had to have been, I don't know, 10 foot across. It was huge. So, and yeah.
Phil Huber (21:35.8) Yeah.
Phil Huber (21:39.34) I'll put a photo on the show notes page, the one that.
Logan Wittmer (21:41.339) Yeah, was, yeah, I was regularly reminded that it is illegal to bring back botanical specimens. So I could not bring leaves, twigs or sticks back or chainsaw pieces of burl.
John Doyle (21:58.855) .
Phil Huber (22:03.502) All right, there you go.
Phil Huber (22:08.078) Cool. All right, John, what do you got? What's going on in you?
John Doyle (22:13.543) geez, I haven't been out of the country or done anything fun. Sounds lame. You know, so just ramping back up to the start of the filming season here will be full go here. I think next week for, for TV show stuff. So I'm going to make drawer and door parts for Logan's vanity. So yeah.
Phil Huber (22:29.602) Sounds like it, yeah.
Logan Wittmer (22:37.937) Heck yeah!
John Doyle (22:39.909) We started on the box, seems like back in October, November now. So that's well settled and acclimated to the, to the weather. So got that. then just realizing starting into 2026 that I have a high school graduate here in the spring. So that means probably should start on some grandiose home project that needs to get done before that. I don't know what it is, but that's kind of, you know, the tradition.
Logan Wittmer (22:43.674) This.
Logan Wittmer (23:03.42) Yes.
Phil Huber (23:06.286) I mean, that is the traditional way to celebrate.
John Doyle (23:09.543) Yeah, it's like, do I gut my kitchen for this? You know? It's like, should do something. Oh.
Logan Wittmer (23:13.286) Hehehehe
Phil Huber (23:13.646) I think you got the kitchen for a wedding. I think you build like this huge like trellis arbor thing over your deck for graduation.
John Doyle (23:23.911) There you go. That'd be something. So, but my daughter, like for the last one, we had it in our garage and she wants something a little bit more. It's like, can you turn our garage into a, you know, modern farmhouse themed bistro, coffee bistro with backdrop for photos? And it's like, okay, let's calm down. But yeah, I'll probably do it.
Logan Wittmer (23:50.992) Yes.
John Doyle (23:53.063) And also, can you take all of the tools and bikes and everything out of there for the graduation?
Phil Huber (24:03.224) So gotta like rent a pod and then have that behind the garage so you can put all the crap in it and then.
John Doyle (24:07.547) Yes, yes. So I don't know with with four kids, it just seems like why didn't I invest in some sort of event venue for graduations, weddings and. I'm making money.
Phil Huber (24:19.715) Hmm.
Phil Huber (24:26.99) I mean, that's not a bad idea.
John Doyle (24:27.623) So wait, can Logan host venue like in his shop? It's a shop themed graduation party. So that's kind of what I've had on my mind at the start of this year as far as garage shop preparedness in the next.
Phil Huber (24:32.642) Hahaha!
Logan Wittmer (24:33.573) Have you seen how much shit I have, John?
John Doyle (24:55.335) Oh, four or five months.
Phil Huber (25:07.296) I was working in my shop over the break after coming back from visiting family for Christmas. And what was I?
I don't even remember exactly the project I was working on, but I was making a cut on my bandsaw and I was thinking, you know, I think after I get done with this project, I need to change the blade on my bandsaw. So I had made a, like a curving cut. And then I was trying to back the piece out of the blade when the blade just came off the wheels. Cause it kind of bound on there. And so then I was like, okay.
looks like we're changing the blade right now. And I will have to say that blade dullness on a bandsaw creeps up on you unless you're using it consistently and heavily. Because I took the blade off, I mean, I took the opportunity then to just kind of clean out the whole saw cabinet, brushed off the wheels. And then when I put the new blade on,
You know, I just spend a few minutes making sure the guides are right and it's tracking correctly and whatever. It doesn't take a lot of time, but just turning on the saw after that, you can hear the difference with a new blade on there. Like the saw just ran a lot smoother and I felt like I could just kind of throw the work piece at the blade and it would have cut without really having to push on it at all. So.
If you are experiencing trouble with your bandsaw, just change the blade.
Logan Wittmer (26:48.762) It's funny because this is something that comes up all the time in the sawmill groups and stuff like that. It's like, hey, I'm getting wavy cuts, what's happening? Why is my blade diving? And the first response should always be, mean, first of all, on the internet, everybody's an expert and 99 % of them are idiots. The first response should always be, put a new blade on. That blade is not as sharp as you think.
There are times where cutting through one log will kill a blade, depending on how dirty the log is, depending on what you're doing with the blade. I found, I think I mentioned this before, like I switched over on both my bandsaws to using carbide tip blades on both my big bandsaw and the Harvey. I absolutely love them. Absolutely love them. The kerf is bigger, so...
you know, kind of is what it is. I feel like you can also, you could get a little bit tighter curves with the same size blade because the carbide tipped is a little wider. So it creates a little more curve for the tail of the blade to move in. But the one thing that you do have to be very careful of, and I've discovered this the hard way, is you cannot let...
Phil Huber (27:56.76) Okay.
Logan Wittmer (28:08.514) the teeth, the carbide teeth of the blade get in between the bearing guides. If you do, it will shear off all of those carbide teeth. So yeah, it, I mean, very much the same way on a regular bandsaw blade. Like if you get the teeth in between the guides, you're gonna remove the set. And as soon as you remove the set, that blade's gonna act like it's dull and it's gonna burn. The blade's probably not dull.
it's just you've removed the set and I don't know anybody that's gonna go through and set a bandsaw blade like that's ridiculous but you know I think there's there's given takes on them but yeah it's like for staying sharp the carbides 100 % the way they'd go
Phil Huber (28:58.349) Okay.
John Doyle (29:01.243) I like how on this podcast we can openly talk about BD bandsaw dysfunction. You know, it's great for the community to bring awareness.
Phil Huber (29:11.638) It is a safe space.
Logan Wittmer (29:13.625) Yeah, it brings these issues in the light. Desensitizes the audience.
John Doyle (29:21.638) Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (29:24.439) So I have a question for you guys. This is, I think this probably is more angled at Phil. And I know the answer to it, I think. But like, if you guys go somewhere, okay? Reflecting that, just got back from a trip. If you guys go somewhere, go to a museum, go to wherever, do you guys see things that make you want to include it in your...
Phil Huber (29:25.976) Okay.
Phil Huber (29:32.128) boy.
Logan Wittmer (29:54.06) projects.
Like if you go to a museum and you're looking at pieces of furniture or you're going to a big building with crazy architecture, do you see details that you're like, that'd be really cool in a project.
John Doyle (30:10.491) Yeah, I definitely do. especially in architecture, any anytime I'm going somewhere or just sitting, I'm like always kind of like looking at architecture or sitting in church, you know, not paying attention, looking up at the ceiling and architecture, it's like, that'd be kind of cool, you know, feature in a project or so. Yeah, I definitely out and about picking up.
Logan Wittmer (30:41.773) Yeah.
And I asked that because when we were in Sweden has a lot of like gothic architecture, but when we were in Florence, we went and saw the statue of David, Michelangelo's David. And it's in a gallery and the gallery is 95 % paintings.
you know, 5 % statues and plasters and stuff, First of all, David's frickin' huge. I didn't realize how big he is. But a lot of the paintings, most of the paintings are some form of religious depiction. Most them came out of churches. But that also means that
It may have been a painting that was in the altar of, you know, the church of St. Michael or whatever.
So there is generally like frames around them. There is generally like kind of quarter or half columns on the sides of them. A lot of that stuff I see and it's cool. I'll send you guys a picture when I'm done. A lot of these paintings are big like five foot wide, 10 foot tall, like huge. And I'm standing there looking at one, this is kind of a side, side tangent. I'm standing there looking at one. I'm like, that looks like a dovetail key.
Phil Huber (32:04.578) Right.
Logan Wittmer (32:14.967) And then I started looking and you could see underneath the painting the whole way up. There are dovetail keys that have started separating through the painting. So the entire painting was done on boards that were dovetail keyed together. It was very cool because it's like you could see the keys the whole way up the in between the boards. It was fascinating. But.
Phil Huber (32:33.976) Wow.
Logan Wittmer (32:37.783) Besides the point, there's a lot of really cool details and thinking that a lot of these paintings were done in 1300s to 1700s.
those were handmade, like the moldings, all the moldings, all the details, these columns, everything there was hand done, nothing was done by machine. And I'm like, wow, those are just really cool details that I would like to work in somehow. And it happens to be that a lot of those details are...
Gold-leafed almost all them are gold-leafed around the painting right and I'm actually sitting down today after we've been podcasting to gold leaf across for the front of this candle table So like this is kind of fun like I kind of just got to see all this stuff in person now I'm gonna sit here and do this to this orthodox cross on my in my shop But it's cool cuz I'm like I'm taking everyone that we traveled with this You know take pictures with their phones right and we all have them on a shared album and they're like they're
taking pictures of like David and us at a cafe and our glasses of wine and stuff and I'm like here's a really up close picture of that molding profile.
Logan Wittmer (33:56.311) Or like, and that's actually another one I took, like when we went and walked through the Colosseum, there is a molding, I'm gonna call it molding profile, it was a piece of marble that was at one point affixed to the Colosseum somewhere, but it's a really cool profile. And I was like, I'm taking a side profile picture of it, because I'm like, oh, that's a super cool profile. So.
Phil Huber (34:21.732) yeah, I do that all the time. Whenever we're out and about, if we're looking at anything that's remotely historic, I'm taking photos of even just weirdo stuff like firewood boxes, if it was well done, or blanket chests or stuff like that. When we were in England, had, and I just was showing some of my family over the Christmas break photos from the tour.
Logan Wittmer (34:23.668) Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (34:30.966) Mm.
Logan Wittmer (34:37.835) Yeah.
Phil Huber (34:50.986) It's just shot after shot of just furniture pieces either backed up or up close where you're like looking at look at how this gate leg table has the little swing arm thing for it to come down on and there's a bunch of things on there where I you know, I don't know that I would ever put that into a project. But yeah, I'm working on a desk project right now that is going to be heavily inspired by some of the
Logan Wittmer (34:57.835) Yup.
Phil Huber (35:19.904) elements or motifs or construction styles that I saw all over in England. And then in doing that, I started looking at some of the projects that I've made in the past, where some of those details, or types of details have already shown up. And it's like, this is part of my vocabulary already. So and the big thing for me is trying to figure out like,
how do I incorporate that into a project? Like I'll just straight up sort of copy or be inspired by something and make something that looks very familiar without it being like a full on reproduction. But I also don't want to do, I think this is really popular in.
in the US for arts and crafts projects, where it's like, if I have through mortises on it and pegs and whatever, you know, it's like I'm taking this bland bookcase and then I'm just putting the arts and crafts sticker set on it. And look, it's an arts and crafts piece of furniture.
Logan Wittmer (36:27.444) Yeah.
Phil Huber (36:30.102) And I don't want to do that, so it's trying to figure out how to...
Logan Wittmer (36:33.845) intentional with it. Yeah, yeah. Well and it's funny and this kind of actually started before like this is I think this is probably just a woodworker thing right like I think this definitely started before I'm on this trip and it was just kind of cool to see some of the stuff like I had mentioned that the a lot of the architecture in
Phil Huber (36:35.0) Be intentional with it, yeah.
Logan Wittmer (36:58.993) England or in Sweden is kind of that gothic style and several months ago I had ordered this book which is circular work in carpentry and joinery because I have for a while wanted to do kind of a gothic style door on a cabinet
Where you have that But like kind of that that pointed top door or arch or window or whatever and getting all of the Joinery right and doing molding in that like I think that's very cool And I would like to mess around with that a little bit so I bought I ordered this book on I think Amazon But then you know walking around
Phil Huber (37:29.495) yeah.
Logan Wittmer (37:48.212) Sweden and even even in Italy as well because Italy has influences from lost stuff I think the Italians will tell you they have stolen a lot of things to that Roman Empire. They were dicks We were we were we were taking a little
golf cart tour around Rome, because we were only in Rome for a day. It was not built in today, but we were there for a day. And we're right around, and I'm like, man, these random obelisks that are in the middle of these roundabouts, they're giant, and they're pink, pink granite. I'm like, they have hieroglyphics on them.
like straight up hieroglyphics. I'm like, I wonder, I said to my buddy that was sitting next to me, I was like, I wonder if the Roman Empire stole these from Egypt. And then about 20 minutes later, was our, anyways, our tour guide, he was like, yeah, you see this obelisk? He's like, we stole them. I'm like, oh, yeah, that makes sense. But so regardless, you see this type of architecture.
in Rome and Italy as well, but I just think it would be really cool to do like, you know, I don't know how well that's gonna show up, but like that type of pointed arch topped door on a cabinet or even even if it's not the door, maybe it's just a decorative cutout on the side with the crossing trim or molding inside of it. I think it would be really cool. So,
I just want to see if that was just me being a little bit on the spectrum or not. least Phil and I are on the same spectrum.
Phil Huber (39:35.308) Right, we definitely are because I mean, even just a few summers ago, we did, I was visiting family in Wisconsin and we went up to Door County and there's a lot of Scandinavian influence from the first European settlers there. And so there's just a lot of, I was taking photos of all kinds of stuff.
And I do that all the time. A lot. You know, my, my wife is very gracious and puts up with it. But even after some point, she's like, we got to keep moving.
Logan Wittmer (40:02.613) You
Logan Wittmer (40:06.311) Yeah, yeah. you know what else I found? I didn't know this. Okay, was not aware. Obviously, Italy has olive trees all over, right? Which, olives in Italy are so good if you like olives. Happens to be I'm the only one that likes olives out of our group that went there, so I got all of the olives. They have cork trees.
Phil Huber (40:27.469) Yes!
Phil Huber (40:33.485) Yeah, the
Logan Wittmer (40:33.487) I did not know that. I've never seen a cork tree in person. Yeah, so I was, we were walking up to the Colosseum. We took a train from Florence to Rome, right? Got out of the train station, grabbed breakfast, and then walked to the Colosseum. And we're walking through this park that is...
Phil Huber (40:37.164) The Oaks? Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (40:55.187) kind of on the way to the Coliseum. And we were waiting for our Coliseum tour to kick off. We had like 40 minutes. So we're just kind of hanging out with the, there is, this is a very real thing. There is a, what they call it? It's like a group of feral Coliseum cats.
that just kind of live in the Coliseum, live around the Coliseum, walking through the Coliseum. There's obviously there's metal gates all over so people can't just go in at any time. But all the Coliseum gates all have cat doors on them. So the cats can go in and out, which is great. So we're walking through this park hanging out with the cats, whatever. And I'm like, that tree looks like that is not, that is not a cork tree.
my wife's like, you're an idiot. I'm like, it is! Like I'm over there like squeezing on the bark and stuff. And I told her, I was like, hey, like these are like one of the only trees that you can actually harvest the bark off of and the tree survives, which is super cool.
Phil Huber (42:00.046) That is cool.
Logan Wittmer (42:00.348) So, yeah. So.
I'm showing all my spectrum abilities today.
John Doyle (42:08.775) you
Phil Huber (42:15.022) All right, there you go. Also be interested to know from our listeners if you can chime in on the comment section on our YouTube channel or just send us an email, woodsmith at woodsmith.com. What kind of projects are you working on to either build in the upcoming year or that you've started and are looking to complete? personally, I just wrapped, well, just about
wrapped up a sawhorse variation that I was talking about last year about the stacking sawhorses that we've done in woodsmith and shop notes and I made a
I'm calling the Clydesdale version of this sawhorse. It's got a thick two inch top on it. I'll put some photos of it on the show notes page and I'm working on some videos to go on the YouTube channel. And I'm also finishing up finally, the toolbox project with my son. I have the drawer fronts, got the finish on that yesterday and they'll get put on tonight.
see if I can get some nice looking photos from that too.
So otherwise, I think that wraps up this episode of the Shop Notes podcast. Thanks as always for listening. And again, we want to have you subscribe and put a review on your local podcast platform wherever you get it helps other woodworkers find the Shop Notes podcast. And then also put some comments on the YouTube channel, Shop Notes podcast on YouTube. Like and subscribe.
Phil Huber (44:01.71) and it's a big way to help this podcast keep going. Thanks everybody. See you next week. Bye.
