Woodworkers know from experience that the craft is good for us beyond the value of a completed project. In many ways, the delight and peace we find in our shops serves as the primary reason to be out there. Engagement is such a techy word right now, but it's one of the better words to describe what a woodworker experiences in the workshop. Our mind, body, and inner self flows around.
It's felt more than described. Jamie Harpster latched onto this and works to share it with a larger audience through the organization Plane Wellness. Sure there's a lot of woodworking instruction and ... content ... out there. Jamie's goal is to bring the benefits of woodworking through free courses to folk with a mental health diagnosis. Plane Wellness courses are supported by paid students. This model is world-building on a small scale. I've found that woodworkers are givers by nature. And while a lot of our time is spent alone in shops, we want others to benefit from the objects we make, the skills we learn, and fun of sharing the experience with others who have similar interests.
In May 16 & 17 2026, Logan will be presenting at Hand Tool Haven in Butler, Pennsylvania. Woodsmith, PopWood, and Fine Woodworking are among the event's sponsors.
We talk about several other woodworking events going on this year, including Woodworking In America. But the work that Jamie and the team is a big deal. Please consider supporting them and attending Hand Tool Haven or one of their other courses.
Transcript
Let's see what the AIs think of this. Note: the transcript is edited for length.
Phil Huber (00:08.045) It's the Shop Notes Podcast, episode number 265, if you can believe it. I'm your host Phil Huber, joined with Logan Wittmer. We've sent John Doyle on assignment for an extended spring break recon mission. So today in his place, we have special guest Jamie Harpster from Plane Wellness to chat with us about upcoming events and the new and exciting things that he's working on. So welcome, Jamie. And well, welcome to you too, Logan. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I, I feel like I do have to welcome you back, Logan, cause you've been, you've been out.
Phil Huber (03:39.608) All right, Jamie, as you could tell, things devolve around here really quickly. So let's dive in a little bit. Why don't you introduce yourself to listeners and viewers and a little bit of what you're about.
Jamie Harpster (03:55.309) Okay. So I'm Jamie. My background is primarily in the mental health field. I would consider myself an intermediate woodworker. I am not somebody that's going to be showing some beautiful projects and I'm still learning dovetails myself. But I did found Plane Wellness because I had two different hobbies of mental wellness and woodworking and was trying to figure out how I can bring those two things together. And one night I just couldn't sleep and at 2 a.m. a light bulb went off and just, I went for the extreme of let's just give out free woodworking courses.
And let's see what happens. And I mean, it's advanced so fast that I was in catch-up mode, I'd say for probably the first two, two and a half years, but it's been an amazing, learning experience and the community has been coming out like crazy to support it too. So it's been a blessing.
Logan Wittmer (04:43.186) Yeah, I think that's that's been the craziest thing to me because I've kind of followed your journey Jamie for a long time. mean, since yeah, kind of since you started it and the amount of
Logan Wittmer (04:57.268) support from the community has been crazy. Like it all of sudden snowballed from like, this would be a cool idea to like, oh crap, we need more instructors. We need instructors across the country. We need people to come do demonstrations at, you know, Hantle Haven and in Pennsylvania. Like it just, it snowballed. And I don't think maybe, maybe you're too, um.
Jamie Harpster (05:30.981) absolutely. Not this soon. Not this soon. I thought that it would, you know, take a while because when you're starting a new company, non-profit or not, when you're starting any kind of company, I mean, it takes a long time to build and grow that reputation, get the outreach out there and the marketing out there. And I think, um, things kind of in my life started leading up to the, marketing helped a little bit with, have a small YouTube channel. I'm not going to talk about a small YouTube channel, but I think the networking really started there. So when I started playing wellness, I kind of already had an audience. Um, and then just, mean,
Logan, did the first article on us on the blog and in the magazine about Plane Wellness. And that was a huge jump. And then another company would step up and give us another huge job. And kind of what I learned is this is something the woodworking community has been wanting, has been needing because really before us it was YouTube to learn woodworking where you don't really get direct feedback or the expensive in-person woodworking courses. There wasn't really anything virtual.
And there wasn't really anything where if you have a diagnosis or disability, it's free, completely free. All you got to do is show me proof and it's free. So I think the ability to make learning woodworking more accessible was very much needed in the community. And I think that's why they believed us and supported in us and pushed us forward as fast as it's happened. mean, it's crazy. I don't even know how to explain how we've literally gone from just a random person, me, idea.
to now we have a whole team of people and we have these giant events and we have, I mean, we're gonna be in Mortise and Tenon Magazine. We got a shout out from Nev Jones. Like I would have never, I would have never thought that would have happened in what, three years now it's been, almost three years.
Jamie Harpster (07:34.765) And that's the idea too, is I mean, it's... And I don't know how to say this appropriately. I'll just, everybody knows I'm blunt. So I'll just be blunt. There's a lot of woodworkers in the community that it's all about themselves. That's all they care about. They care about how big their name gets. If you're not as big as their name, they don't want to talk to you. They don't want to interact with you. And I am so against that elitist type mentality that I fully believe that if we learn together, we grow together.
So you help me out, I'm gonna help you out. We help each other out because that's what the community needs, especially in this world, in this day and age, we need more of that. We need people building each other up, not knocking people down because it's competition or whatever the case may be. So spot on, it goes full circle. Shane and Albert are amazing. So I'm glad that, I think those are the two you're talking about, if I can say them.
Logan Wittmer (08:21.231) And I got a couple more in the works too. I do, yeah. Yeah, so I have to make some phone calls this week, But I've been in touch with a few more people, so it's been really cool. And to be honest with you, it's the, as you said, you won't be as blunt as I will be. There are some people that are dicks. And the people that...
step up and step forward and say, hey, yeah, I'm willing to teach these classes at either free or at a very low cost. They're the type of people that I want to work with. So yeah, it worked out.
Phil Huber (09:47.35) you it's really not that hard if we kind of connect a little bit. And it's like, yeah, because I'm doing that. And we already see the benefit of, you know, my wife can tell me she's like, you're a better person when you get more shop time.
Jamie Harpster (10:00.494) Absolutely. And we needed more of that because it's the... I mean, woodworking is not easy to learn. Of course, there are aspects that are easy to learn, but when you really start getting into building projects, it's not easy to learn. I don't know how many dovetail videos I watched to try to learn dovetails, and it still just never clicked until James taught a course with us about cutting dovetails, and now it's clicked. I'm still not somebody to teach them, but they're much better. You know, so if we can... increase the accessibility to learning woodworking, the students are going to experience more peace, joy, and a calm spirit in the shop, which again, makes them better persons, just like you were saying. So it's, I think that's what was needed. We needed an easier ability to learn without having to pay a whole bunch of money and to travel somewhere and take time off of work and do all this kind of stuff. Now, I will say on that note, of course, in-person courses are the best. If you can get out to an in-person course, that is the best way to learn.
But if you don't have that option, there was nothing else for you other than YouTube. So live virtual courses was the happy medium that the, if I could say the community needed and we're, delivering that.
Logan Wittmer (11:10.185) Yeah, well, let's kind of elaborate on those courses for a minute because there are virtual courses that people can join. You know, obviously there is a mission behind what you're doing. So there are some requirements for those to to get those courses and stuff. But then there are also in-person courses as well. know, Shay just finished one in his shop, what, last week or two weeks ago?
Logan Wittmer (11:40.139) And you know, I like how many of those in-person classes are you guys doing and where are you doing those?
Jamie Harpster (11:46.287) Yeah. So I'd say we probably about 80 % of our courses are virtual. The remaining 20 % are in person. Currently we have four different in-person locations. We have Timberville, Virginia with Shay. Fairfax, Virginia is Nova Labs, Makerspace. We have Christopher Sexton out of there. Laura Maryland is Albert Klein. And then we have James Wright in Rockford, Illinois. And the idea behind having multiple, what we call satellite locations is in-person courses are the best. So I want to have satellite locations throughout the nation.
so that there's somewhere close that a student can go to. this year, I haven't officially announced it yet, but this year in July, we're gonna be having Detroit, Michigan. I'm hoping to add Arizona. There's a potential to add a place in Texas, because we want locations everywhere. So that way they don't have to maybe get a hotel. Maybe it's within a few hours that they can travel to and from the course. Yeah, yeah. And then all the courses, I mean, they go from, we've done almost everything.
From this is how you sharpen a plane iron or how you use a plane to building a stool like we did with Shay or this is how you car we've done Topics across the board from beginner to advanced Some of them are skill building learning how to use a tool where other ones are actual builds where you build together And both of those can be virtual in person Of course, I'm not gonna say let's build a hutch a giant hutch virtually But we can do small boxes and tables and stuff like that virtually
Phil Huber (13:16.76) So in addition to the courses, you also have some events as well.
Jamie Harpster (13:22.978) Yes, yes, because if you know nonprofits, they do something that's called a gala. You're supposed to get all fancy in a suit and tie and you go to have this fancy dinner and most of our community don't like putting suits and ties on. And so we decided instead we wanted to essentially have a hand works type event on the East coast. So we have hand tool Haven where we have a bunch of different vendors. this year we stepped it up a notch and we have a whole bunch of demonstrators going on. have 14 different demonstrators.
and then the big fundraising part for us is of course the ticket sales and then the raffles and the silent auctions that we'll have there. So huge fundraising event, but it's also getting the community together because most people, most woodworkers are introverts. We're alone in our shop most of the time and we love it there. But if we can meet other woodworkers in person, a lot of us turn into extroverts. So being able to get people together so they can break out of their shell a little bit as good too. This one is May 16th and 17th in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Yep. Well, so popular woodworking, fine woodworking and woodsmith are sponsoring the event. then we have, we have three different people with you that are going to be administrators at the event. Because Shay and Albert are technically kind of with you guys. So they're speaking at the event. Yeah. Yep.
Now, I wish what I'm going to do next year, and this is something that I'm trying to figure out how to go about because the way that we do the sponsorships for the events, because our sponsors are really what they make the event possible because they pay them the least amount to help us pay for the venue. So they get first dibs on the speaker spots is kind of like a thank you. But what I want to do for next year is after the sponsors have had a shot, I want to open it up to our teachers and have our teachers do the demonstration, have our teachers do the presentations because
Jamie Harpster (15:31.118) A lot of our teachers are fantastic people and fantastic teachers. They just don't have that big of an audience because they're not, you know, a big name company or one of the elitists or anything like that. So I think that's what I want to do more for next year. I'm going to try to convince Elizabeth.
Logan Wittmer (15:46.617) Yeah, that'd awesome. She's, she's great. so this year's speakers at, hand tool Haven are day Fisher, Jeff left quits Chris from temple tool, James right, Vic, Tesla and Don Williams, Shay Alexander, Amanda Russell, Joshua Clark, Dan from carbon method, Brian DeYoung, Albert Klein, Jamie and myself. So it'll be fun. It's and it's, hilarious because you know,
Jamie Harpster (17:17.602) That's awesome. Yeah. So I think it's going to be, it's going to be a lot of fun. I'm biased, of course, but I mean, I don't know how you can look at that. The speaker line, all the different vendors that we have. mean, there's, we all have everything from vintage tools to maker made tools. have some people coming out to make their own planes, make their own chisels, marking squares, gauges, all that stuff. So it'll be amazing.
Logan Wittmer (18:07.38) Yeah, he is. Eric Meyer Maker, got Lake Eerie coming in. They make some of the nicest wooden vices you will ever see. I also love their Magna Cut hand plane blades. Then we got Tony at Hillview Tool, one of my favorite boutique bespoke makers, Wendell Castle Workshop. that, who's coming out from Wendell Castle? Is it gonna be? Yeah, is Ken. Yep, cool. We had Ken here for WIA last year, which was two years ago. He wasn't here last year, two years ago. Yep. Matt Cottrell will be there for Cottrell Tool and Woodworks. I just had some of his texturing punches in the next issue. They're so good. They're so good. Yeah, they are awesome. I'll grab them in a second to show them off to the radio audience. We got...
TPP Tool Works Gordon Addison Bear Handcraft Mike or or or
Yep. Okay. Yep. Ironbridge tools, the woodworking group. we got our boys at blue spruce tool works will be there. I'm guessing Jared and George are going to come down for that. and probably will. Yep. sterling tool works just plain fun. Cornith woodworks, big John's antique tools. Don't tempt me with a good time. I love me some antique tools. this is one that I am like giddy about. Okay. So full disclosure to shame Phil.
He's a Dave Fisher fanboy. So we were talking about maybe bringing Phil out with us and I said, you just can't squeal when you meet Dave Fisher. Like that's the only thing you can't do. This is my, I know, this one, yeah, this one is my squeal. The Plumer Foundation, which is a foundation of ornamental turners. Like.
But this year, I'm sorry, this year it is different though, because there's two days. There's two days.
Jamie Harpster (21:34.561) Yeah. Yep. Well, we made it bigger and better. That was the biggest complaint I got is it's only a one day event. But I mean, we had people coming from all over the place still, but that was the biggest complaint is that it was only a one day. So this year, two days for sure.
Logan Wittmer (21:50.01) Yeah, well, and I'm just pointing out like my willpower has to last through two days this year and the likelihood just went down by 50%.
Phil Huber (26:36.462) Jamie, what kind of woodworking do you do then?
Jamie Harpster (26:39.979) Lately, I've been making mini planes. Little mini, so I'm kind of mixing a Japanese and a Western style. So I'm using a Western style iron and wedge, but I'm making the body Japanese style. So it's just square, chop out method. Because I enjoy, I'm a tool nerd, I think more than I am a woodworker. I enjoy testing out different tools, trying out different tools, comparing tools, all that kind of stuff. So I thought it'd be fun to make my own planes, but that's something that I can usually, the little mini ones, I can... crank one of those out in the weekend, because I don't get much shop time now. So when I do get time, it's fun to go down and finish a project to feel accomplished versus trying to build a table. And it takes me half a year because of the limited stop time. So that's been my go-to lately as many planes. They've been fun.
You know about the woodworking retreat? Have we talked about this yet? so that's like the whole plane well, not the whole goal, but that's another huge goal that we have is to build an actual woodworking retreat facility. Students would come out to us. They would stay on site in mini cabins so we could woodwork during the day, have campfires at night. We also want to build our own event center and a museum. So that way it can literally be a woodworking retreat. So.
Did you see about the school? the school was looking so good. was a huge building that could literally house everything we wanted to. And then the lot was about 18 acres, but I'd say there was probably about eight more acres that we could still build on if we wanted to. realtor was shady. The realtor was shady and playing games, so I turned away from that one. We'll find some.
I mean, if somebody calls me tomorrow and says, here's $2 million, go have fun, we'll start tomorrow.
Logan Wittmer (32:56.685) So for all of you people listening that have two million dollars burning a hole in your pocket that you need a tax write off, there it is.
Phil Huber (39:06.701) So what are you gonna be presenting on Logan?
Logan Wittmer (39:11.816) So I am doing a specialty wood finishes, which would be cool. So we're gonna do some gilding, we're gonna do some coloring, we're gonna do some traditional finishes. So stuff like that, that'd be cool. A little bit different than the standard stuff that I do demonstrations on, but there are other people that are doing those demonstrations. So it's like, let's do something different. yeah, yeah, for sure.
Jamie Harpster (39:35.413) It'll be a good one. Yeah. We have topics across the board too, which is cool to see.
Logan Wittmer (39:42.648) Yeah, it is gonna be interesting, because I've never tried to bring a map gas torch on a plane with me, so we're gonna see how that goes.
Jamie Harpster (39:51.969) Just one of the little yellow ones? I could bring you one. You don't need to try to-
Logan Wittmer (39:53.593) Yeah!
Logan Wittmer (39:57.185) Yeah, but that would take all the fun away on all the excitement. That's fair. Carry on. Yeah. Nah, we're good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know, That's true.
Jamie Harpster (40:00.525) You just don't put it in your check bag or your carry-on bag. If you need one, let me know. I can bring one to you.
Phil Huber (40:00.77) Right. Yeah.
Phil Huber (40:05.495) Yeah, it's.
all the fun and excitement like the call that Jamie gets. Hey, Jamie, this is Logan. I'm in jail and I might not make my presentation.
Jamie Harpster (40:18.316) You should just drive, just drive. Cause then again, can put it on the back with you. Yeah. Yeah. No, I think it's good. have good, I'm excited to see the raffle and auction items that we get to because we get some really unique stuff. mean, we just had, I have them sitting right here because I haven't been able to take pictures yet. We got a set of Varel, 18 Varel, Hollows and Rounds planes. That set. So I'm really excited to see what those go for. Cause
Phil Huber (40:20.683) Ha ha ha ha.
Logan Wittmer (40:43.106) Ooh.
Jamie Harpster (40:47.744) It's not common. I don't think they're common. don't know enough about halls and rounds, but that was a cool donation. And then, new heritage. Have you seen his profile scrapers? Yeah. So we got stuff like that. I'm going to get a set when I was at woodworking in America, red roast my money that time, but this new heritage, I needed the floats. So no stuff like that. Like he donated an OG plane, a whole set of the profile scrapers.
Logan Wittmer (40:50.242) Mmm.
Logan Wittmer (40:57.434) yeah, I have some here. I bought them at Woodworking in America. Yeah.
Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (41:10.775) Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (41:15.862) Nice.
Jamie Harpster (41:16.364) What else we have? There's what was TBP? I never remember his acronyms. He makes marking gauges and marking knives and tri squares like that too. So he said that he's going to work on making a special edition one that's going to go for raffle and auction. Yeah. So I'm excited. Hopefully he Bacote. You know about my Bacote obsession? Bacote is the best one that's ever existed. I think it's the most beautiful thing in the world, but it smells awful. It smells like pickles.
Logan Wittmer (41:24.671) Yep. Yep.
Logan Wittmer (41:32.173) nice, that'd be cool. Yeah.
Mm. Mm-mm.
Hmm.
Logan Wittmer (41:45.49) I will fight you on that. You clearly have not cut into that box wood I sent you home with.
Jamie Harpster (41:49.91) I haven't, I haven't, I'm gonna mention it, because I haven't been able to even, I keep looking at it, but I haven't gotten into it yet.
Logan Wittmer (41:55.488) Yeah, the boxwood is the best plane to ever be invented or the best wood. Yeah. No, it's cool. So Stephen and I, speaking of New Heritage, Stephen and I have been working on, I need to connect with him. We've been trying to connect with each other for months now to try to get something on the books to...
go out there. But he makes some really nice tools. Red Rose makes some beautiful tools too. They were next to each other. Which is funny, walking into Woodworking America last year, you're like, oh cool, got JetPyromatic, we had Old Masters, we had Craig, we had some CNC companies. And then in the back, had, because Carbon Method was in the way back, but then we had New Heritage and Red Rose were right next to each other, and they kinda make the same things. Those two are like best buddies.
Jamie Harpster (42:46.358) Yeah, they do.
Logan Wittmer (42:48.508) would it I'm like you guys like talk to the clients not each other which was great yeah
Jamie Harpster (42:52.214) Yeah.
The good thing about them though is it's not the... Don't look at people as competition all the time, you know?
Logan Wittmer (43:00.831) No, no, no, it was funny. Yeah, they were, well, it's funny because they were over there talking to each other like, oh, that's how you do the escapement on this plane and that's how I do mine. it's like, oh, I see why that works. And it was super cool to see that collaboration and stuff. But no, did, I bought a pair of, or an entire set of the scrapers from Steven for the profiles. Great. I mean, so simple. And it's just one of those things, like I can make that in my shop.
I have better things to do and for what this is, here's my money.
Jamie Harpster (43:36.012) That's exactly it. I'm the same way when it comes to like jigs and scrapers and I'd rather just buy them so I can use them versus spending my whole day making scrapers or floats. You can make your own floats, but I don't want to go through that process. I tried one and I file and fine. I said, I'm not doing this. So that's why.
Logan Wittmer (43:42.802) Yeah. Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (43:52.444) Yeah, I'm gonna grab my scraper so the radio viewers can see this.
Jamie Harpster (43:56.225) There we go, yes. They are really cool. They're awesome though, have you seen them yet?
Phil Huber (44:00.206) That's how excited he is about those scrapers.
I think I saw them, but I don't remember them off the
Jamie Harpster (44:07.444) Okay. Good profile to all the different hollows and rounds. So can just easily grab them and just...
Logan Wittmer (44:12.23) Yeah. So like, and they're hard, they're hardened. so there's, I bought four sizes. so there is a hollow and around for each size. So after you're done cutting a profile, you can just run these down and clean them up. which is awesome. And because I was out there, these are Matt Cottrell's punches.
Phil Huber (44:15.975) yeah yeah.
Logan Wittmer (44:42.812) So there's the set.
Jamie Harpster (44:45.718) Fantastic. Yep.
Logan Wittmer (44:48.635) They are, so for anybody that's ever done any carving, it's very popular. I literally just moved my last carving off of these. I should have brought it in here. A lot of times you texture the background. So it's like you do a shell carving, you texture the background, it makes the shell pop off. So like these punches are, that is not gonna focus on there, but like they are, they are unbelievable.
Jamie Harpster (45:11.66) I'm not at right now.
Phil Huber (45:15.853) We'll post some photos of them on the show notes page.
Logan Wittmer (45:18.297) Yeah. They are, they're in the next issue of popular water raking that goes to the printer next week. but like there's a bunch of different profiles, like round ones that are kind of like starburst shapes, like so, so well made for a, for a one man tool manufacturer that's making these kind of by hand in his shop. These things are so well made. so there's, he does, yeah.
Jamie Harpster (45:41.248) Yep. He's got good attention to detail with that stuff. I've known him for a while, so...
Logan Wittmer (45:47.755) And he makes them really, really nice. The first time I actually was introduced to Matt was through Jamie, and he makes them really nice waxes. yep.
Jamie Harpster (45:53.132) Wax.
Jamie Harpster (46:01.782) furniture wax and the plane wax. like that he put them in a chapstick container. Yep. Yes. Yes.
Logan Wittmer (46:05.223) Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's like a chapstick tube. A cardboard chapstick tube. Yeah, it's like a Jolly Green Giant sized chapstick. It's like, I don't know, like an inch in diameter.
Jamie Harpster (46:14.348) This is... Yes, and this is how much of a nerd I am. I actually tested his plain wax to see if it lasted longer than the other ones that are out there. Because I kind of... Yeah, I'm a complete nerd. actually kind of helped him. I don't know that I helped him develop the formula, but I did a lot of the testing for him. So I tested them all to see how many swipes, how long it lasted. His lasted longer than any of the other wax that I tested. So it's... I recommend it. Yeah, exactly.
Jamie Harpster (46:53.952) Yeah. He'll be there. He'll have his wax too at Antelhaven. Did you see the turkey plane? What does he call it? That's Aaron. I was pronouncing it last week by the The drumstick. Yes. Yes. Because he was designing and he goes, you know what? That kind of looks like a turkey. So he added a little head to it. And I just think he's very creative. He does fantastic work. Sometimes it's a little out there, but that's his style. So.
Jamie Harpster (47:24.564) Yeah, that'll be one of the DORP prizes for Saturday, I think it is. Sunday. Yeah. I have a cold. I always get a cold every time I have a podcast. Yeah, it never failed. All right. And then Albert, think, don't quote me on this, but I think he said that his Pre-sale door prize is gonna be his high vice and mox and vice combination and the winner gets both. That's what he said last time. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Logan Wittmer (47:56.522) Ooh, ooh, that's expensive there. Yeah, and they're nice. I have featured them in popular woodworking magazine, so if you don't win it, you can build your own.
Logan Wittmer (48:13.589) He does, that's right. Yeah, they're like Batman and Robin there. I don't know which one's which.
Jamie Harpster (48:20.492) I'd say probably Batman and Joker.
Logan Wittmer (48:53.687) Yeah. Yeah. They are, they are, I believe returning for Woodworking in America 2026 as well, which will be awesome. So yeah. Jamie is too. Yeah. Well, you said, yeah, you said there was another event at the same time and you said we were way cooler and I said, those guys are nerds.
Jamie Harpster (49:14.954) That's right. That's right. We'll be there. We're going to, are you going to be in Handworks? Okay. that's right. No. So we're going to in September, the beginning of September, we're going to Handworks. The end of September, we're going to Texas Woodworking Festival. And then shortly after that, we're going to Woodworking in America, back to Iowa. I'm excited.
Logan Wittmer (49:35.923) Yep. Nice. Yep. I will, unfortunately it was funny. Albert was asking me, like, Hey, you're going to be in, in, Texas. And I was like, I think actually I'm doing a demo in Texas. So I think so. And then I was talking to our, ad guy and he's like, yeah, you're doing the demo in Texas, right? And I'm like, yeah, except it's at the same time our Sweden trip is. So I am not.
Jamie Harpster (50:15.35) Yeah, it'll be right. Did you go last year? Because I've never been to the one before. Is it cool?
Logan Wittmer (50:18.024) Yeah. I did. I did. Yeah, it is. It's very cool. so I know, Austin Waldo that puts it together. he's written some stuff for me, which reminds me, reminds me, need to get all he, he owes me copy on something. that's what it's his, that's his penance for us talking about the Texas woodworking festival right now. that's how he's paying for this. but no, I did, I went last year. actually our.
Alex, our ad director and I, we did a loop. We were in Ohio for a couple of days and then we flew down to Austin for the show. And I think we got there like Friday night at six. The show was the next two days. But our flight was like at 1.30 on Saturday. So it's like we were there for like four hours. Great show. Yeah, it's a great show. It gets a lot of foot traffic.
It was interesting. There's a lot of vendors there. So anybody in the Texas area that wants to stop by and see it, there's a lot of vendors there. There's a lot of demos and stuff that goes on. I think they probably have, man, I don't know how many vendors they have. I would say a hundred probably. It's pretty big. And he had several thousand people go through. It was interesting though.
Logan Wittmer (51:41.808) I had a few of the people from our event tell us that there was more like sales volume done at ours than at the Texas one. Because the Texas one is very cheap to get into. So it's like, I think a couple bucks to get through the door. Don't quote me on that. So it's easy to just go in and browse.
Jamie Harpster (52:02.028) We also need more vendors. When you have that many vendors, the sales for these vendors traditionally are to go down. When you have less vendors, their sales go up. So it's a balancing act.
Logan Wittmer (52:04.53) What was that? Yeah. for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yep. so the, just to give us and his little kick here, September 25th through the 27th in Austin, Texas. there is 199 days and one hour until it kicks off. he has a time. He has a timer on there.
Logan Wittmer (52:31.994) So there is a bunch of, yeah, there's a bunch of exhibitors there. So it is, yeah, it is a good one. Caught up with a few guys there last year, Temple Tool, the TorMet guys, David from Walrus Oil, Mullet was there, DJ Mullet, so a lot of cool people to...
Jamie Harpster (52:39.244) I'm excited to go.
Logan Wittmer (52:58.192) to get there. Our booth, if anybody is stopping by our booth is number 87, the aim woodworking group. So we sponsored that show as well
Logan Wittmer (53:22.222) Yeah, that's right. we are speaking of Denmark and Sweden, we are closing in on our spots on that one. for people that are interested. Yep. Yep. I sold several tickets over the weekend. So yeah, join us. It is, when is it? What is it? Jamie, you need to listen to our podcast. So.
Logan Wittmer (53:51.116) Last year we started off these woodworking tours in Europe. So this started through our gardening magazine where they take a, sell tickets to their subscribers to go on basically gardening vacations where it's like, you know, go spend a week with us in England and Italy in Spain. And we're going to spend an entire week going through gardens, like these big, giant, magnificent gardens. And they've had a ton of success with them. They sell them out. So.
We said, can we make that work for woodworking? Like, we put enough things together in a week in a particular location, woodworking centric, and make it work? So last year, Phil and Mike Peckovich took 20 some odd people to England and toured England for a week. So it was, you know, visiting woodworking shops, museums, stuff like that, couple schools.
Logan Wittmer (54:45.58) Yeah, boxwood, you guys didn't get to do the boxwood plantation, but you did the arboretum, stuff like that. This year we're doing two of those trips. We are repeating England. So Mike Peckovich and John Benson from Fine Woodworking are going to England earlier in September. And then Phil and myself are bringing a group of people to Denmark and Sweden on a woodworking vacation, I guess.
Logan Wittmer (55:14.581) So yeah, we're hitting our regular listeners. Those three people are like, they're talking about it again. Again! But yeah, we're hitting like a Viking ship museum in Copenhagen where they're doing like Viking ships with like time correct, or period correct tools and techniques. And I'm pretty sure you get to grab like an ads if you want and start hewing beams, which is pretty sweet. There is a tool museum right there as well that we're hitting.
Logan Wittmer (55:44.455) We're hitting a bunch of Danish modern type of museums and manufacturers. Yep. And then we are heading into Sweden, Gransfjord Brooks, the forges of Gransfjord Brooks. We're going to visit those. Yep. Yep. So yeah, so it'll be cool. It'll be super fun.
Phil Huber (56:01.04) showbird workbenches.
Jamie Harpster (56:06.644) that? Where the? I know you're going to keep talking. Where is it? Where do I go to find more information? I'm sorry, I haven't heard anything about it yet, but now I'm like, hijacking it so I can learn more.
Phil Huber (56:18.425) woodsmith.com and there'll be a link on there for the tours. Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (56:33.419) Thank you. Thank you. That's right. We did. You're dang right. Yeah. So now it would be cool. Um, looking forward. We are like Phil and I keep talking about it. Like randomly Phil just turned and look at me. He's like, I'm so excited for this. like, I know. I know. So yeah, it'll be cool. Oh yeah. I mean, well, I like
Logan Wittmer (57:00.979) I don't know, Jamie, how much you travel outside of the U.S. When I travel, and I know a lot of other woodworkers when they travel with their spouses, like that are very into woodworking and stuff like that, we all want to go like look at woodworking stuff and our spouses never want to. Usually they don't want to. So this is the excuse to do it. And I would say
probably, and this is for listeners as well, just so you guys know, because we get this question a lot, I would say probably 70 % of our tickets that we've sold thus far are people with their spouses. So it is a husband coming on the trip with his wife, and she is gonna go see all the stuff. And this happened last year in England, and the spouses had just as good a time as the husbands. Yeah.
Phil Huber (57:55.44) It was tons of fun. I think almost every part of it was enjoyable. Even the bus rides to get places where you're just kind of talking about the stuff that you're about to see or that you did see or just doing a rapid fire Q &A with Mike and I about stuff that was in the magazine or our own work or just sharing stories.
Jamie Harpster (57:57.196) That's awesome then, that's good.
Jamie Harpster (58:22.988) That's That's awesome. That's a really cool community experience too. mean, that's awesome.
Logan Wittmer (58:27.311) it is for sure. Yep. So basically people are buying the tickets through us. That includes everything ground to ground or airport, airport except for a few meals. And obviously I'm not buying your Grantsworth-Brooks axes. You have to buy your own as I am. But it is hotels, several meals, the bus ride because we are traveling from Denmark into Sweden.
Logan Wittmer (58:56.389) This one, it's funny because the group that we work with to put this together is a company located in the Netherlands that they specialize in this type of thing. They're like a tourism company. And they're like, hey, are you sure this is the... because we put the itinerary together. So these are things we wanted to see. So they're like, are you sure this is the itinerary you want? Because there's a bunch of driving. It's like, yeah, that's like half the, you know, the ride's half the journey.you know, so it's, there are a couple of days where we have longer bus rides. but it's through it's Denmark and Sweden. Come on. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry to James. Right. Like, yeah, that's your part of the country, sir.
Phil Huber (59:34.039) not in Sweden, right? Yeah. It's not like driving Western Illinois or something like that. You know, just Yeah.
Jamie Harpster (59:42.518) Yeah
Phil Huber (59:45.869) you
Jamie Harpster (59:49.868) Long flat roads that we got out there.
Phil Huber (59:50.998) even he's got to know. That's the question that I have for James Wright is Western Illinois when it rains, like where does the water go? Because it's just flat. Like I just don't.
Logan Wittmer (01:00:01.72) mean technically he's in northern Illinois but it's kind of the same thing. It's the same thing. I know.
Phil Huber (01:00:04.771) Yeah, but it's right on that border there. Once you leave the metropolitan area of Chicago and start heading west, you can see into both the future and the past.
Jamie Harpster (01:00:05.844) Yeah, it's close.
Jamie Harpster (01:00:17.024) He's rarely there though. Do you see how often he travels? He's always...
Logan Wittmer (01:00:19.494) Yeah, they do cruises all the time. I know, I know. It's funny, James has great. So James teaches some classes and James, yep, and James has written a few things for me. The last time I was there shooting, we wrapped up and it's like, all right, we wrapped up pretty early. So I'm like, well, I'm gonna see if I find an antique mall to go through.
Phil Huber (01:00:20.237) Yeah.
Logan Wittmer (01:00:46.936) and he has a really good one right around the door from him to had a huge booth of tools. Again, I didn't buy anything, but pretty good. I think she, I, so I'm growing. The older I get, more self aware I become.
Jamie Harpster (01:00:56.78) What is wrong with you? Why didn't you buy anything?
Phil Huber (01:00:58.861) Yeah.
Jamie Harpster (01:01:04.726) That's when you're supposed to start hoarding tools though. That's when it starts, doesn't it? No? No.
Logan Wittmer (01:01:07.93) No, no, no. You've never been into my shop. There's too much stuff in here.
Phil Huber (01:01:13.817) Yeah, he's already got the hoarding part down.
Jamie Harpster (01:01:15.59) OK.
Phil Huber (01:01:19.693) Yesterday on the company chat, we were trying to get Logan to get a power hammer. So
Logan Wittmer (01:01:27.97) Why not? No, no, absolutely not.
Jamie Harpster (01:01:28.961) Did you?
Phil Huber (01:01:29.124) Why not?
Jamie Harpster (01:01:31.5) You should get one of those mini ones. Have you seen the mini ones?
Logan Wittmer (01:01:34.244) Yeah, actually, so, okay. I was in an antique store in Florida this last week and what I found was a, it was 600 bucks, very cool set. I did not buy it, but it was a set of small, I don't know, maybe eight inch tall blacksmith tools that were all metalworking tools that were all steam engine line shaft driven. So it had a little
steam engine that drove a little line shaft that drove this power hammer, a metal lathe, a vertical mill, a drill press. It was so cool. It didn't have the actual little steam engine with it. It was just the tools, but they were super cool. They were like, yeah. No, I didn't because I...
Jamie Harpster (01:02:16.296) that's me. Did you take a pic?
Jamie Harpster (01:02:22.762) Dude, isn't that like your job?
Logan Wittmer (01:02:24.356) Yeah, yeah, okay. Who invited Jamie on this podcast? Yes, it is my job. I know. I know. I love it. I love it.
Phil Huber (01:02:29.625) death. Right.
Phil Huber (01:02:32.751) That's like the sixth time he's called you out on something right now. It's like...
Jamie Harpster (01:02:37.523) I can't help it, it's too easy.
Phil Huber (01:02:39.171) Yeah. Yeah.
Jamie Harpster (01:02:55.776) think it exists now. I don't think it was actual. I don't think it was a real thing because I've never seen one and we have a picture so.
Logan Wittmer (01:02:58.444) Well, maybe it was a figment of my imagination. Yep.
Jamie Harpster (01:03:03.67) You dreamt it.
Talk about the Rose machine. Tell me because I don't understand it.
Logan Wittmer (01:03:09.941) okay.
Okay, I don't either. That's why I need to talk to David. No, I do, I do. So the Plumer Foundation that's gonna be at Handelhaven, are a group, are they a secret society? I don't know, but maybe that really specializes in ornamental turning. Ornamental turning is usually done within a ornamental lathe, sometimes called a rose engine lathe. And the difference is,
Jamie Harpster (01:03:15.712) Ha ha ha!
Logan Wittmer (01:03:43.115) compared to a standard lathe, it moves in several axes at once. And you don't generally, you can use hand tools with them, like traditional turning tools, but generally you use a fly cutter with them. So imagine a lathe headstock that has a chuck on it that holds your workpiece. And instead of having a tool rest with a hand tool, a gouge up there,
you have a little fly cutter. So it's more like a Dremel or a router than anything. And the old style ones were ran with big serpentine, like think of like O-ring style belts, you know, super long rubber bands basically. And that makes the cutter spin. But what makes these things super interesting is that the headstock, instead of being fixed like on a standard lathe, the headstock moves in a couple of orientations.
depending on what modules you have engaged. So you have rosettes that are on the headstock that a roller follows. And that makes the headstock kind of lean forward and backwards in different pulses. In addition to that, you can have thrusting of the head. So you can have the head moving, basically as the operator and you're standing there, it can be moving towards you and away from you in different rhythms.
and it can also be oscillating left and right. And you can do this in all these weird combinations where, so the fly cutter itself is not moving, the fly cutter's just sitting there spinning. But the work piece as it rotates on the lathe at a fairly slow speed, I mean, you're talking on a standard lathe, I'm turning stuff at 2000 RPM, this is turning stuff at like 50 RPM. And the headstock is leaning toward you and away from you.
and it's also thrusting in and out towards the cutter. So what you can produce is all these super intricate designs and repeated patterns on your work piece through the fly cutter. So they're very interesting. I think on the surface, they're very complex. I don't think they're actually that complex once you understand and wrap your head around what exactly is happening there.
Logan Wittmer (01:06:08.158) There was a period of time, I'm going to throw out the 1800s. I don't know that's exactly accurate, but there was a period of time where ornamental turning was like the gentleman's hobby. They were expensive. There were a few companies that made ornamental lathes and those ornamental lathes that were made back then occasionally come up for sale and they usually start about $45,000.
and go up from there. But they're so cool. They're all brass and stainless steel, like they're super steampunk looking.
Phil Huber (01:06:47.247) Yeah, mean, you almost get to the point where it's like, is it describing the lathe as being an ornamental lathe? Because they really are works of art.
Logan Wittmer (01:06:54.619) Yeah, they are, they're very cool. But, and I think, what David's background is, he's a clockmaker, I believe. So, like this all kind of falls into that like clockmaking, watchmaking type of ecosystem. So I think it's where a lot of these people are coming from that are interested in these.
So those ornamental aids like that are available there are also so David was part of a team that put together a couple of They put together a lathe That they were selling they may still be selling That there's a group of people that kind of put effort into Reproducing this lathe and those are pretty expensive as well But there are plans out there for like the
MDF rose engine lathe where you can make it in your shop out of MDF and then it uses that one uses actually some little servo motors and control boards and PLCs and stuff to control it. They're super cool. There's a guy, I'm following a guy on Facebook right now that he, I think he's in Spain or something like that, that he's 3D printing one. And I've like been begging him like, share your files with me because man, this would be cool. And
Phil Huber (01:09:57.615) All right, Jamie, thanks for joining us today on the show. We'll have a link to both Plane Wellness and the Handtool Haven event. You can check that out as well as some of the other events that we've been talking about on today's episode where Jamie's going to be at a mall. He is traveling the world this year. Wow. All right. There you go. Of course, we're going to have a link to our woodworking tours that we're doing to England and to Denmark and Sweden. So you want to check those out as well. The shop notes podcast thrives on feedback, questions, comments and smart remarks. We want to hear about them. You can send that as an email, woodsmith at woodsmith.com. Don't forget to subscribe on our YouTube channel shop notes podcast and give us a review. So it helps other woodworkers like the three of us find each other. It's all about finding people.
That's what we're doing here. The shop notes podcast is brought to you by the woodworkers at woodsmith and popular woodworking magazine. Special thanks to our editor, Nate Gruca, and to all of you listeners. We'll see you next week, everybody. Bye.
