The crew follows up on your woodworking road trip suggestions, shares updates on Logan’s latest Chunk-A-Trunk lumber adventures, announces upcoming Woodsmith events, and tours, and talks about finishing projects, hand tools, and woodworking treasures. It’s another fun conversation filled with woodworking stories, listener comments, and plenty of laughs.
Visit Woodsmith
This week, Mike and his family stopped in for a tour. It's the summer travel season. If you're close (enough) to Des Moines, stop in.
Here's what Mike had to say:
"Thank you so much for taking the time for the tour and the swag when I came through with the family on Wednesday. That was something I've wanted to do for a while and you really made my day. I also appreciated meeting Rob, Mark, and John. That was great fun.
Anyways, I'm prattling on too long. Thanks for all of the content you guys put out. I enjoy it all and it adds a great deal to my love of woodworking and my day whenever something comes up online or in my mailbox."
Event Links
Two big items that I want to check off on the list:
The new New England Tour in October with Jon Binzen and Al Breed. This one is local and a winner.
Or even more local, come join us at Woodworking In America. Lots of stuff to learn and get inspired by. Also come the day before for the Great Woodsmith Garage Sale.
Transcript
Logan (00:15.17) Yeah. So the thriftiest way I could get this done was using decking, like deck material. Like five quarter deck material, 'cause I think they make so much of it the price is lower.
Phil Huber (00:25.51) yeah.
Logan (00:31.406) Stupid.
Phil Huber (00:36.051) What's not stupid is the Shop Notes podcast. That's what you're listening to right now. It's episode number 278. I'm Phil, along with Logan and John. On today's episode, we're gonna check in with some listener and viewer comments. Puppy Doc needs some help. we're also gonna look at a couple of events that we have going on here. We're gonna get an update from Chunk a Trunk and Popular Woodworking.
As always, if you want to join in the conversation for the Shop Notes podcast, you can send us an email, woodsmith at woodsmith.com, or subscribe to our Shop Notes Podcast channel over on YouTube and join in the fun there. That's where we're starting today with comments from last week's episode where the main topic was John's idea about.
woodworking tour in Iowa and what kind of sites we could put together and whether we could put together a full tour. I believe the answer is yes. And we had some more feedback on that. And then I also asked other people to chime in too. So we'll get into that here. Alfida says you perhaps you could see if there are any Sears catalog houses that are open for touring. Iowa PBS did a thing about them.
And some people pride themselves on being able to point out what's not original. Like that vinyl sighting came from Montgomery Wards. Those smoke detectors are from Home Depot. I actually grew up in a Sears catalog home. We didn't order it. We just collected all the old Sears catalogs and you shuffle the pages together like cards.
Yeah, I there are actually there's a type of house that there's at least six of them in the Des Moines area. They're called Lustron Homes. L-U-S-T-R-O-N. They were pre fab houses, but they were made out of enameled steel panels, both inside and and inside and outside.
So they had came with a garage. Not all the ones in the in town here have garages with them, but they're kind of cool because like they don't need any paint. And they all have a they have definitely their own unique look to them. So not woodworking related, but still kind of interesting in the history of, you know, coming up with houses and stuff like that. So if you're curious, do a little search on them because they're kind of fascinating places.
John Doyle (03:41.857) I kinda kind of imagine them being delivered on the Wells Fargo wagon. Just like coming to town and unloading.
Phil Huber (03:48.223) Yes. Mm-hmm. Yep. Yeah, they just bolted together. That was kind of the cool part.
Phil Huber (03:58.208) Ungie says, I have some kits from when Woods from when the Woodsmith store and the magazine were together. There was an auction or garage sale twenty plus years ago, and I got some kits I never put together. I know one was a plane, and they're in a tote somewhere. I'm gonna have to look for them. Yes, I was actually there because we had the warehouse over on Bell, and they had a huge sale there once trying to get rid of stuff as they were moving to a different warehouse location.
Yeah. Lots of fun kits out there. Although now you're gonna have to be bidding against John Doyle on those because he's been on it.
John Doyle (04:36.962) Right.
John Doyle (04:41.919) Right. I'm driving up the market.
Phil Huber (04:44.701) Yeah. Also if you have a kit that you have and you haven't put it together yet, even after all these many years, you're gonna wanna send that to woodsmith at woodsmith dot com. Care of John Doyle kits.
John Doyle (05:00.311) I could start a service where I'd like put it together and send it back.
Phil Huber (05:04.711) Ooh. Shop buddy builds.
John Doyle (05:08.395) Yes, shot buddy.
Phil Huber (05:11.862) Kevin Thomas says I built a cradle for my grandson and I had the kit for twelve years before I built it. I tend to procrastinate.
Same, Kevin. Same.
John Doyle (05:22.487) Yeah. Now building the cradle for that kid's kid.
Phil Huber (05:27.541) Ha ha ha
Phil Huber (05:31.977) Some guy named Thomas Doyle says added tour sites for Iowa woodworkers is the Trappistine Casket Makers near Dubuque, which is true. That would be a cool one.
John Doyle (05:41.367) That that will be our last visit.
Logan (05:41.516) Okay.
Phil Huber (05:44.928) Dobbs Yeah. Dobbs and organ makers in Lake City and also Logan's shop.
Logan (05:48.686) I I feel like there's some symmetry in that statement.
John Doyle (05:50.573) Yeah. Right. Yeah.
Logan (06:00.642) I mean, yeah. You gotta take sh shit with you though. If you come here you gotta take something.
Phil Huber (06:05.127) Yeah.
John Doyle (06:07.245) Build your own kit.
Logan (06:08.692) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. John will give you the hardware. I will s provide the lumber.
John Doyle (06:13.123) There you go. It's a team up.
Phil Huber (06:13.545) There we go. now this one was applies to popular woodworking, but I afterwards I had thought, you know, Iowa has several world renowned wildlife carvers. And you did one featured one in Pop Wood.
Logan (06:29.218) Yeah.
Logan (06:33.592) Jen Jennifer Felton up by Spirit Lake, Iowa, is a Grandmaster bird carver. I think she now competes in the Grandmaster category, if that's a thing. yeah, she's phenomenal. Absolutely phenomenal. Like if you're selling your bird carvings for six figures, like you're good. Like, yep.
Phil Huber (06:55.027) Yeah. Yeah, there's like I said, I think there's three of three top level wood carvers.
Logan (07:02.52) There's yeah, yeah, if you wander through the Iowa State Fair, you will see that very easily.
Phil Huber (07:10.751) Nolan says Zonker's custom woodworkers custom woodworks in Omaha, just basic part of the greater Iowa area, would probably be worth adding a tour list to Iowa sites. And I feel like Zonker was one of the characters in Doonesbury, I think, but
Logan (07:19.586) Yeah, but we don't c we don't claim Omaha as either.
Phil Huber (07:36.524) John Galen says he loved Logan's steak comment.
Phil Huber (07:43.542) Driftless Joinery says, when I was in grad school and teaching, our department chair tasked me with painting some equipment in our labs. When I asked what color to get, he looked at me and just said, Pittsburgh safety color scheme. It's what he remembers it being called. It was a thing. The main body and safe areas were green. The pinch points and dangers cutting zones were yellow, orange, and red. I don't know how far back that goes, but every once in a while I see an old machine from a school go up for auction with those colors.
He even made me paint a C and C gantry mill those colors and it made me throw up a little.
Phil Huber (08:24.345) Puppy Doc says, I have to confess and not really knowing a lot of good woodworking specific sites to visit, but certainly some examples of interesting woodwork. Little Norway near Mount Horrob is an example of a Norwegian village, if memory serves me correct. The structures were built in Norway, disassembled, and moved to their current location. House on the Rock, not too far north near Baraboo.
is just fascinating with several random collections of artifacts, antiques, and random curiosities. It could take several hours to walk your way through the maze of halls and corridors. That's true. House on the Rock is one of the bizarre spectacles of Wisconsin dumb that there is.
If in Milwaukee, well a tour of Milwaukee tools would be interesting if possible. I don't think they do tours, but if they did, and they don't do a lot of manufacturing there. But like Logan, you were there and they have the like big wall of battery testers.
Logan (09:22.53) Yeah, I mean they do tours. They make all their pliers there still. They drop forge them all in Milwaukee. I went I went through the plant. It was phenomenal. Like it was out of all the manufacturing facilities I've ever been in, that was one of the coolest.
Phil Huber (09:27.933) Yeah.
Phil Huber (09:37.31) Okay.
Not totally woodworking, but the Harley Davidson Motorcycle Museum is cool. And the Pabst Mansion is a great example of pre nineteen hundred architecture. No doubt there are many others I should explore. Also, Frank Lloyd Wright's home and studios in Tally Essen Tally Essen is in Wisconsin in the Madison area too.
Phil Huber (10:03.204) Ian McCullough said for woodworking tours, I'm an archaeologist and I live in London, so there would absolutely be a tiny bit of history bias. Things like the oldest wooden door, Westminster Abbey, the roof space in Southwark Cathedral, the wooden roof structure of Westminster Hall, several wooden elements within the Tower of London, some boat hulks and waterfront structures along the Thames waterfront, furniture examples in the VA.
Victorian Albert Museum and Wallace collection and a whole lot of stuff at the British Museum. Probably not enough time in a single weekend.
Phil Huber (10:40.352) There you
Phil Huber (10:44.624) Boneyboard Woodshop says Nakashima's home is not too far from me. However, you now have to pay for the tours and they sell out quick once booking opens up. The Escherich Museum is not far from there as an interesting place as well.
Phil Huber (11:02.528) And then Ian one more chimes in with barns were painted red because they would be left to the next generation. Machinery was painted green because it was right color for machines. If you know, you'll get it.
John Doyle (11:18.657) Don't know.
Phil Huber (11:22.528) Goose is Goose is perplexed.
Logan (11:22.55) And you don't get it. Yep.
John Doyle (11:23.809) Yeah. Yeah.
Phil Huber (11:27.904) All right, as always, appreciate the questions and comments when you send them in.
John Doyle (11:28.834) Okay.
Phil Huber (11:34.423) speaking of podcast listeners, we had Mike and his family came in for a tour. They were on their way traveling to s from seeing some family out in Nebraska and stopped in today and got to see everything going on here, which was kind of cool because John was working on stuff for our upcoming finishing course. I'm working on some props and outlines. Rob was in.
working on his finishing course stuff and Mark is working on a bench that Dylan designed. So that's all lots of fun to see. As always, if you're traveling through the Des Moines area, shoot us an email and we'd love to have you stop in for a tour.
Phil Huber (12:24.202) catch stuff. Always people walk out with a little something special too when they're here.
Also, thank you to Mike for the chocolates that he left here for us as a gift.
Logan (12:37.292) Hmm.
Phil Huber (12:43.432) All right. Go ahead.
John Doyle (12:43.681) I wonder I was gonna say, I wonder if you'll stop on our any other tour suggestions on the way through Iowa. We'll see. Let us know.
Phil Huber (12:50.416) Mm. Right. Yeah, he did he did bring up Craig Tools as one, so
Phil Huber (13:01.776) let's speaking of which the bench that Mark is working on is being made out of elm, which came from Chunkatrunk. No?
Logan (13:11.585) Okay.
Nope. Three finger Bobby. Bobby three fingers.
John Doyle (13:16.891) yeah, that's right. Yep.
Phil Huber (13:20.372) Forgot about that. Right. Yeah. Like yeah. Yeah.
Logan (13:20.782) I mean by proxy, by proxy. Honorary yeah, franchisee. Yeah.
John Doyle (13:22.049) Yeah.
Phil Huber (13:29.738) So that was kind of a fun little connection to make there. yeah. Mark
Logan (13:33.738) It's it is nice elm too. You don't get red elm like that very often.
Phil Huber (13:39.913) Right. The planks have a definite like dog leg angle to And it's been fun watching Mark break down the boards in order to get straight grain sections out of it 'cause he's trying to get so it's a l a little bit more glue up involved with it, but it was actually pretty cool.
Logan (13:45.836) yeah.
Phil Huber (14:03.752) And a fun process to be a part of. So from a distance. Cause Mark likes his he likes his straight green.
Logan (14:14.36) Mm-hmm.
Phil Huber (14:18.75) Then you were talking before we started recording, Logan, about some other chunk of trunk items that you've been selling.
Logan (14:26.188) Yeah. I've been on a purging mission. like not only like getting rid of crap I don't need, and there's lots of that. been selling a lot of stuff. Kind of all started with moving all the metalworking stuff out of the shop. This is still that storyline. but like as I started moving some of the other material out of the shop or out of the garage and and into the shop or trying to find places for it in the shop, stuff like that.
It's like I got a lot of really nice, like figured material that either I cut at some point, I purchased at some point, I you know, salvaged out of the log yard, you know, in Carlisle at some point, you know, whatever it is. Just this random stuff that I've cut for a very specific purpose. And it's like, I don't know if I'm ever going to get to that in a timely manner, and I don't have space to store it right now. So
I have over the last couple of weeks. it kind of ebbs and flows. Like I'll get I'll get on a kick where I'll get like, you know, a butt. So I have this curly ash. beautiful stuff. it was a giant ash tree that we chainsaw milled, or Bobby chainsaw milled, actually. And I took the the offcuts from him. actually we took I took some of it down to Las Vegas and the rest of it was just sitting in Bob's
shop, but it had ring shake really bad. So like these were giant wide slabs, pretty figured. and I have I put it on the sawmill and I kind of cut around all the ring shake, and I got some really nice material out of that. So I got that curly ash sitting there. I have a bunch of apple that I cut years ago. that I cut into like, I don't know, hand plane.
Blanks, thick stock for turning chisel handles, stuff like that. Like stuff you would really use Apple for. You're not gonna build entire project at Apple. but like it's great for that type of stuff. And I've kind of been like starting to get that stuff cut to usable sizes, get it posted, sell some of it, you know, ship some of it around the country. not not super like.
Logan (16:49.89) Not making a ton of money doing it. It's more of like I'm selling it and just getting it out of my way. You know what I mean? Because it was either that or I don't remember what Bob said on the the curly ash to because it was all it was all these giant slabs that had wind shake and he's like, I'm just gonna cut them into blocks blocking for stacking lumber on. I'm like, no, you're not. Like, Bobby, let's not do that. And I know Bobby's listening to this right now. Like, we're gonna we're gonna make something usable out of it.
John Doyle (17:10.157) Mm-hmm.
Logan (17:19.328) So I've been hacking that up into smaller pieces, trying to get usable stuff out of it. Just mainly because it's been sitting in the store side of my shop for a while. And it's just in the way now. sometimes I have good intentions when I take some of this material on, like, yeah, I'll find a use for it. And then it just sits there. Yeah. so yeah, I've been been kinda getting some of this curly ash cut up and sold and shipped around the US, sent some stuff to
Phil Huber (17:35.723) Maybe.
Logan (17:49.839) Montana, sent some of it to Virginia. I had some Apple that I posted up this morning that got snatched up right away that has to go to Michigan, maybe. I sold some other material to a guy that was doing some figured soft maple I had that's just kind of been floating around that was too nice to throw away, but doesn't match any other project that I'm building.
Sold that to a guy that was doing guitar bodies out of it. Like, yeah, just I mean, just like it's this, it's it's kind of a fun little niche because you don't really know what the person's gonna do with it for the most part. But it's really nice material, but it's not enough, there's not enough material there to do an entire project out of. So it's you know, a lot of box material, a lot of, you know, you're making a
Phil Huber (18:23.337) Okay.
Logan (18:47.552) a curly ash mallet. Yeah, that's a that's great use for that. Or, you know, you're cutting this guy's actually doing bass guitars. You're making a base guitar out of this curly maple. so like kind of this cool stuff and you could ship it around fairly inexpensively. I think the big pieces of maple I sent him, you know, went to Michigan and it was like f almost fifty pounds of maple and I think it was like thirty bucks in shipping. Like it wasn't crazy at all.
Phil Huber (19:14.589) that's not bad at all.
Logan (19:15.342) so no, no. So yeah, it's just kind of fun. It's it's it's been it's been nice to clear up a little bit of space. and get rid of some of this getting rid of this material sounds like it's unwanted, and that's not the case. Getting this material to people that I know are going to appreciate it and use it, which is the whole reason I saved the material. So yeah.
Phil Huber (19:20.309) Okay.
Phil Huber (19:41.653) Right. Yeah. Well and
Logan (19:44.354) To be fair though, there's a there's a lot of that curly ash that I'm like, ooh, that's that's really nice. Like it's gonna it's going in the personal reserve. Like
Phil Huber (19:55.273) Into the Disney vault.
Logan (19:56.683) It's going into the Disney vault.
Phil Huber (20:01.173) Well, it's also one of those things where
Phil Huber (20:07.017) It feels like once you get involved with something, like it just ends up getting attracted to you anyway. And it doesn't have to be strictly woodworking where it's like, hey, you're in woodworking and you like hand tools. All of a sudden you have people yeah, you either start finding them or people start pointing you in the direction of hand tools or just giving them to you. Like, hey, my grandpa had this box of old wood hand planes and here you go.
Logan (20:14.178) Yeah. it is.
Logan (20:20.6) You start finding hand tools. Yep.
Logan (20:32.802) Yeah. Yeah. Well and it's like and it's like some of this material, like like some of it I don't I don't know what it is. do you remember that log I brought into the shop maybe five years ago and we split it with wedges and my tree guy told me it was Hawthorne. You remember that? I have a bunch of that still and it's cut into like it's cut into weird sizes, like two by two squares or something like that. Like they're a little big for chisel handles, but you can do chisel handles out of them and stuff.
Phil Huber (20:49.896) Yes. Yep.
Logan (21:02.156) Little too small for hand planes. But I'm like that type of stuff. Like I'll just I'll run it over the joiner, clean up two faces, spritz it with some denatured alcohol or mineral spirits, and then take pictures of it. You know, and like the stuff's not like I'm spending more time on this stuff than what I'm selling it for, but that's not the point, I guess. You know what I mean? So
Phil Huber (21:23.455) Right. Yeah.
Yeah, you're making connections.
John Doyle (21:30.947) Yeah, it seems like often the reason we hang on to stuff too long is not because of the monetary value, it's because we know it's worth something to somebody else. It's just finding that person and getting it to them. It's like, well that's a good home. I'm glad somebody's getting some use out of it rather than going to a landfill or the burn pile or whatever. So it's kinda cool.
Logan (21:42.722) Yeah. Yeah.
Logan (21:50.531) Yep. Yeah. Well, and it's like it's like, you know, I and and like Phil said, you know, sometimes this stuff just starts to find you. like the apple blanks I posted up this morning, those came from one of my tree guys, where he's like, Hey, you said you wanted some apple, and then he hands me like chunks that are like this big. Like, give me a trunk, man. Like, don't give me just chunks. Give me a trunk.
John Doyle (22:15.477) Mm-hmm.
Logan (22:20.238) And which is it's fine. Like like I just appreciate the guys saving them for me. but like I have some other apple in the shop that is drying still that don't remember if that stuff I think that stuff came from one of Bobby Threefinger's friends, Lanny. I think that that was Lanny's tree. And I think Lanny ten Lanny does have ten fingers, I think. I haven't actually counted them. and then
John Doyle (22:40.685) Lanny Tenfingers.
John Doyle (22:44.652) Yeah.
Logan (22:49.184) So that stuff's drying. So it's like I'm kind of moving on this stuff that I already have cut. Well, because that stuff's already in storage and drying. So it's like I if I need Apple, I got more out there, you know. so it's just I don't know. It's man. If I had infinite amount of racking and an infinite amount of time, I would just be making all sorts of blanks and just storing them and shipping them. I will say a game changer for me. And I think Nate Gruka are
editor that edits this podcast said the same thing to to me. A game changer in the shipping world is when you buy yourself a thermal printer to print shipping labels. All of a sudden, shipping stuff just got way easier. I have a scale sitting over here in the corner that I just it's always plugged in. It will weigh up to 900 pounds, I think. yeah, it's a digital shipping scale off Amazon. You know, I can mount the little
Phil Huber (23:31.584) Okay.
Phil Huber (23:42.159) wow. Okay.
Logan (23:47.987) LED display to the wall and I just put stuff on it. And then I plug in the person's address dimensions. And I use a I use a company called Pirate Ship to get the best shipping rates. And it's like with Pirate Ship, it's kind of a broker thing. So you say, the box is X by X by X and weighs this much. And then it tells you the price for UPS, USPS, FedEx. And then, you know, if it's a freight, yeah, they can do freight through there as well. And then you choose which one you want.
And then I can just export that label from my phone straight to the printer. It just prints it. Like no more printing off a paper label, getting the packing tape out, doing the packing tape covering thing. Like s just yeah. So yeah.
Phil Huber (24:33.654) Which is an interesting connection because I remember you saying also like if you have a lathe, everything is a dowel. And if you have a thermal printer, then everything gets shipped.
Logan (24:41.238) Yeah.
Logan (24:46.132) That's right. Dang right. Yep. So the problem is that's not a problem. It's actually very eco friendly. But the problem is now I'm saving all my Amazon boxes because it's like, hey, I can fit a lot of blanks in that. so now I'm kinda I'm kinda starting to build a turning blank empire. So
Phil Huber (24:47.553) Ha ha ha.
Phil Huber (25:05.996) So do you leave the boxes put together or do you break down so that you have
Logan (25:09.906) I l I should break them down so I can store them easier, but I have been leaving them all together. To be fair, my wife does not listen to this podcast, so I'm gonna throw her under the bus for a second. To be fair, she just takes those boxes and tosses them into the garage anyways, unbroken down. So then I just have to go sort through the mound of boxes and see which one's the right size. So but yeah. Yeah.
Phil Huber (25:36.992) Many ways to do things in this world.
Logan (25:40.267) If you if you regularly ship through like the post office though, they the post through the post office, at least you used to be able to. I don't know if you can still or not, but you could order entire sleeves of post office boxes of like priority boxes for free. So like you could just get a bundle of twenty five boxes flat packed, delivered to your house, no charge, and then you can ship through those.
Phil Huber (25:59.083) Yes.
Logan (26:09.93) I have some of those in the basement still. They're not quite big enough for turning blanks. but like I could fit chisel blanks in some of the smaller ones. Yeah.
Phil Huber (26:21.485) Okay. Yeah.
Logan (26:27.576) Yeah. It's been fun.
Phil Huber (26:30.883) Cool. I think it's also kinda interesting that you kind of said this offhanded that if you had the time, not only would you be making stuff, but you would also be continuing to ship stuff out. Like that has as has a strong appeal for you too.
Logan (26:47.857) yeah.
Logan (26:53.054) I love so I was th I was thinking about this as I was mowing last night. And I don't know why I was like, I don't know what about it or what I was doing that made me think about this. I just love actually it wasn't I wasn't thinking about wood. I was thinking about animal furs. Sorry. like there's something about like just the conversion of a raw material into a usable product that I really like. So like
You know, we trap in the fall. I know there are people that listen to this podcast that do not like trapping. Sorry. So sorry. but like it's you know, using a natural resource like a tree or an animal and converting it into a product that can be used, like a turning blank or a fur that can be used in a garment. Like, to me, there's a huge appeal to that. and I just I love that process. So, like, also I can make way more blanks than I can use in the same amount of time. You know what I mean?
Like I the sawmill has been set up outside the shop for three weeks now. there was a there was about a two week period where I was getting through two logs a day. I would shut my computer down at four o'clock, go out and start sawmilling and I could get through two logs in an hour and a half. so it's been it's been good. I've been I've been whittling it down my log pile.
It's getting down there. I currently have I have a guy come in at five o'clock this afternoon to pick up some firewood logs because I pulled a few out that I'm like, those are not worth sawing, but they would still be good firewood. so yeah, we've been we've been making some progress. We've been making progress, but making lots of firewood as well. so not only have I been making turning blanks and shipping them, I have been filling IBC crates full of firewood.
They are currently stacked three high outside the shop, which I'm a little worried about because that's, I don't know, eight, eight and a half feet in there. I guess the top the top of the third one is twelve feet in the air. So I'm a little worried if we get a strong wind, what's gonna happen to them? And I've already dropped one from that height, then it makes a mess when you drop that much firewood.
Phil Huber (28:51.683) Yeah.
Phil Huber (29:07.629) Super cool.
Phil Huber (29:11.875) Speaking of getting rid of stuff, Woodworking in America is coming up in October. And we're going to do the great Woodsmith Garage Sale, where we're going to be selling projects from the magazine and the TV show, tools and other stuff that we've collected over the years. And this is your chance to stock up on something, maybe find something for your house that has some genuine woodsmith provenance to it, or
Maybe giftable items to because we have quite a few boxes and clocks and frames and all kinds of stuff that we're gonna be doing. So you want to check that out? That'll be October 8th, the day before woodworking in America starts. We'll do the great American woodsmith garage sale here. And then stay f same day of the open house that later that evening where you can see the
Logan (30:03.0) Same day that our open house is happening, yeah.
John Doyle (30:06.231) Mm-hmm.
Phil Huber (30:11.519) See the studio in the shop and the photo studio where everything gets put together here at Woodsmith, it'll be it'll be a good time. Also, for anybody who is in the Des Moines area, speaking of getting rid of stuff, we usually keep hardwood scraps for burning around here. And it's not really burning season, but if I have several barrels of scraps that need to go. So whenever you hear this.
Email me woodsmith at woodsmith.com and come pick up these scraps. There's probably stuff that you could use out of it because we have bigger pieces in there. If you we've built a lot of projects recently with oak, cherry. You know, so if you want to smoke some meat, there's some smokable wood in there or just burning stuff. I just want to get rid of it and I don't really want to put it in the dumpster. So
Contact me and we will. And as Logan says, he's already got a good jump on shop heating for next winter. So let me know.
Logan (31:10.892) And Logan's sick of bringing it to my shop.
Logan (31:17.112) Hm.
John Doyle (31:27.555) Yeah, it's funny 'cause you mentioned that doing that finishing online ed course next week and I was like, maybe we'll do we'll talk about food safe finishes. So I went through the burn bin and pulled out a bunch of pieces and made a pretty good size cutting board out of stuff out of the burn pile and it did not even make a dent and it's like it it feels like it more or it's like yeah, somehow somehow it got more scrap than what I started with. So
Logan (31:48.866) Yeah.
Phil Huber (31:49.472) Ha ha.
John Doyle (31:57.549) But yeah, there's usable stuff in there and
Lot to burn. So
Logan (32:03.182) Well, it's funny because like over winter during burning season, I was picking up our our barrels of scrap there. Dump both barrels in the back end of the truck. The problem is like that you burn through that in a day. At least in my stove I do. Like I'll take both those barrels and I'll just burn through it in a day. So like the volume that I would stack up to burn it would be like an entire summer's worth of woodsmith scraps is two days of heat.
John Doyle (32:30.817) Yeah. Yeah, I've had scrap wood at like kind of pile up like that and I don't live too far from like Sailorville Lake Cherry Glen campground. And sometimes I'll just drive out there and just fill up one of the fire rings and I was like, here's a nice little start for whoever camps next, you know. It won't it'll probably burn for a few hours, but you know, get somebody started. Yeah.
Phil Huber (32:31.31) Ha ha.
Logan (32:47.801) yeah.
Logan (32:53.048) Yeah. Burns hot too. I used to I used to there was a couple of times when like I don't know if Chris Fitch was out or there was a couple of times before I had the stove that I brought them home for the house fireplace and like my god it would it would burn you out of the living room because they burn so hot 'cause it's all kiln dried, especially if get like mahogany in there and some of the you know exotics where they're super dense. It's like man, so hot.
Phil Huber (33:23.63) You can also kind of figure out what projects we've been working on based on the scrap pile too. So if you like if you come and pick it up, you can look at the scraps and then flip through back issues and be like, I know where that came from.
that's not the only thing going on in October. Just came out, the emails went out this week of first that same week in October is the New England American History Woodworking Tour, sponsored by the three magazines here Find Woodworking, Woodsmith, and Popular Woodworking.
it's gonna be hosted by John Benson of Fine Woodworking and one of Logan's man crushes, Al Breed.
And it's a was it a five day tour that starts in Boston and then goes up to Maine before coming back down to Connecticut. So you'll see things like some the North Bennett Street school doing a tour there and then some of the historic craft and trade things that went on in colonial Boston and early
after the a revolution. There is also a tour of Al's school and woodworking shop. So and Strawberry Bank Museum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, which is kind of a living history museum up there. They're also going to do a tour of Lee Nielsen Toolworks. Get to see what it's like for producing their woodworking tours up in Maine. And then one of the
Phil Huber (35:10.818) Top second hand woodworking tool stores in the country. Liberty Tool. Gonna have a little stop there. Then gonna check out Mystic Seaport and Museum, where they're making wood ships and boats and some of the stuff that's going on with them. That'll be kind of a cool one. And then a stop at the Yale.
University Art Gallery and their furniture study, which is kind of a think like Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark, when the Ark got packed away into the National Archives, but just filled with furniture, representing basically hundreds of years of pieces that they can't put on display, but they have in storage for people to be able to use for research purposes. So
I'll put a link to it in the show notes so you can check out that as a tour that we have going on. the
What is it, the fifth through the tenth of October?
Logan (36:25.486) Can we take a trivia break for a second? What's the distinction between a ship and a boat?
Phil Huber (36:27.757) Yes.
Logan (36:37.432) I don't know, I'm asking. I'd like w when Phil said it, I don't know what the difference between a boat and a ship is. I mean, I think a ship is just a large boat.
John Doyle (36:39.152) okay.
Phil Huber (36:39.683) Right.
Phil Huber (36:45.516) John Doyle (36:50.263) Or is it for cargo? Like shipping?
Logan (36:54.262) Mm.
Phil Huber (36:58.25) I don't know. I just know that for people who know, there's a difference and you don't.
John Doyle (37:03.607) Yep. It's like concrete and cement. It's like if you say if you mix up if you call concrete cement to the wrong person, trouble.
Logan (37:03.732) Yeah, I'm sure there is.
Yes.
Logan (37:16.234) okay, here we go. You guys ready for the answer? According to the International Maritime Organization, a vessel is often officially classified as a ship if it has a gross tonnage of five hundred tons or more.
Phil Huber (37:18.827) boy.
Logan (37:34.314) Ships typically are typically over two hundred feet long and boats are usually under a hundred feet. So there's a weird ambiguous hundred to two hundred feet that we don't know what they're called. Skiffs? Tugs, maybe?
Phil Huber (37:51.684) All right.
That is fun trivia.
Logan (37:55.947) I I was interested when you were going through it. I'm like ships and boats, what's the difference?
Phil Huber (38:02.681) Yeah, Mystic Seaport is pretty cool because of just the amount of stuff that they have going on. They do a bunch of classes and they have reconstructions going on all the time.
Logan (38:14.392) What body of water is that on?
Phil Huber (38:16.739) The Atlantic. Mystic Seaport in Connecticut, yeah.
Logan (38:19.96) It's so it's not it's not one of the bays up there?
Phil Huber (38:23.875) Yeah, I mean it is, but I don't know specifically which one it is. Or Atlantically which one it is.
Logan (38:25.204) Is it okay? Got it. Okay. I didn't know if it was on the on one of the big ones. Sure. Yep.
Phil Huber (38:37.305) All right. So yeah, that was just announced for tours because we I know we were talking about it last week or the episode before of you know, doing some more domestic tours as well as the international tour. Logan and I are like two months away now from our Scandinavia tour. And the excitement is definitely building.
Logan (38:42.126) Mm-hmm.
Logan (38:52.152) Well
yeah.
Logan (39:00.61) I'm excited to go. Yeah, I'm excited to go. But at the same time, somebody's not doing my job while I'm gone. Which is just always the unfortunate part of these.
Phil Huber (39:00.621) Also a little bit of the dread.
Phil Huber (39:09.444) Ha ha.
Phil Huber (39:14.115) Right. It's kind of the interesting point because there's a lot of people in my extended family when I talk about going on vacation and like it's great to have vacation time and the perk that we have at Active Interest Media for our vacation. However, you're right. There are some jobs in this world where you can go on vacation and the stuff just keeps on going.
Logan (39:44.046) sounds wonderful.
Phil Huber (39:45.241) There are some jobs when you go on vacation. It keeps going, but it piles up on your desk so that you still have to do it when it comes back.
Logan (39:52.138) Yeah. Yep.
But I am looking forward to it. It will be fun.
Phil Huber (40:00.858) yeah, I definitely am looking forward to it and been researching more about locations and places that we're gonna be and and then also the algorithm caught up with me, so now I see a lot more stuff related to Denmark and Sweden and Norway and
Logan (40:21.304) Yeah. You know what I haven't done? And I probably don't want to do this, but I haven't checked flight prices yet to see if when we bought tickets, our plane tickets, I don't know, two months ago. If yeah, if the yeah, I'm sure they're like half the price, which is gonna upset me, but it's yeah, I mean it is what it is.
Phil Huber (40:34.735) Two months ago. If they're lower now or
I'm I don't know. I thought they would I thought they would still be high, but
Logan (40:45.484) I don't know.
Phil Huber (40:55.449) All right. And then, I mean, this isn't one of our events, but Labor Day weekend, speaking of Iowa tour events, is handworks here in the Amana colonies. So I've been messaging back and forth with my brothers and my dad about that coming up too. And it's always fun to go. I enjoy going out there. And now if you're
Logan (41:20.12) Yeah, it's fun.
Phil Huber (41:23.257) Taking Logan's tool restoration e-learning course, you're definitely gonna want to go. Cause last year, or not last year, the last time that they had it, was it Patrick Leach? He always has a huge display there, but he also had several, several tables outside where it was like everything on this row of tables is ten dollars and everything on this row of tables is twenty dollars. So there are deals to be had.
Logan (41:30.061) Yeah.
Logan (41:41.944) And he's always outside, yeah.
Logan (41:48.994) Yeah.
Phil Huber (41:52.815) Hot stuff.
John Doyle (41:55.043) I feel like I should have a minivan full of woodsmith kits that'd just open up the back door and sell right out. Send out of the van.
Phil Huber (42:00.41) Right? Yep. Yep. Although it
Logan (42:04.779) I have a sc I have a scraper shave somewhere I bought from Patrick Leach last year. I don't know where it's at. Or last time.
John Doyle (42:08.129) Yeah, yeah.
Phil Huber (42:10.861) Yeah, we are gonna have actor of interest media booth out there as far as I know. So where fine woodworking, Woodsmith, Popwood will be there representing. So maybe you'll see John there and can find a couple of kits. Who knows?
Logan (42:18.187) Are we? Okay.
John Doyle (42:40.631) Yeah, about those kits, I wonder what Nancy would think of like if I walked in there with all these kits and been like, hey, look what I found, Nancy, and I bought and I brought back. And she's just like probably shake her head, thinking of like, you know how long it took me to sell all those kits and get out of here? Now you're dragging them back in?
Phil Huber (42:49.673) Ha ha ha.
Logan (42:51.544) That'd be that'd be the that'd be the it. Yeah.
Phil Huber (43:02.853) I mean it wasn't but just a couple of years ago we still had Hoosier cabinet hardware kits that we were still selling. So
Logan (43:08.258) Yeah.
John Doyle (43:08.621) Yeah, yeah, yeah. When we did the
Logan (43:10.85) Don't we didn't we still have like ice chest kits too? Like there was a lot of them.
John Doyle (43:14.199) Yeah. Yeah. And that we did w was it twenty beginning of twenty when we had the mystery boxes? I can't remember when that was. But we had like tons of clock kits that we got rid of in that. yeah, we still had a lot. So it hasn't been that long.
Phil Huber (43:22.563) Yeah, yes.
Phil Huber (43:37.349) So there you are.
In addition to trolling for Woodsmith Kit online, what have you been up to, John?
John Doyle (43:47.427) since last week basically just trying to get ready for that online earning learn online learning class. so putting props together for finishing cabinet that I'll be building and then yeah, I was just trying to think of other project related stuff for finishing and we did that finishing supplies
shelf which I won't build but I'll definitely talk about that because I think that's a pretty cool project where we store all of our finishing supplies. And then I was taking all the plywood scraps. Well there's not many that that many plywood scraps but in the back finishing room we have a hanging rack I guess where we hang all of our oily towels. So I'll
Phil Huber (44:42.172) yeah.
John Doyle (44:43.777) I I'm building a little mini version of that 'cause I think that's kind of essential for a finishing area to have some place to to hang your rags and and whatnot. So so yeah, just working on some essential finishing projects I guess. So
Phil Huber (45:01.539) Yeah. That'll be cool. I'm looking forward to doing that class because we have I mean, I've kind of been looking at it as the woodsmith guide to small shop finishing kind of where it's really easy to deep dive into finishes and people can nerd out about all kinds of chemistry and blah blah blah. But there's also enough folk that just wanna learn how to put on a finish.
well and what it takes. And I think that's where we're aiming this course is for the home shop project builder who wants to make sure that the project that they're building turns out right with the finish. So kind of a nuts and bolts way to master a few basics.
John Doyle (45:59.011) Yeah, it's funny because I've been thinking about it as I've been building these projects. And I think about it sometimes when we're doing projects for the TV show, that a lot of times we're just building projects and then we get to the end and it's like, you know what, what finish are we gonna like then you start to think about the finish, but a lot of times you should have thought about that the first thing you were doing. You should have been sanding the parts as you went before assembly or pre finishing parts or kind of doing everything along the way because a lot of times you get to the and it's like, gosh, I
I wish I would have sanded this, you know, rocking chair before everything went together and now it's too complex to sand or I wish I would have sanded and finished the inside of these drawers or boxes before I put them together. So it's a lot of a lot of thought and effort as you're going through the project before you get to the end. So
Logan (46:53.262) Mm-hmm.
Phil Huber (46:59.823) There you go. That's good place to wrap it up. Thanks for listening to the ShopNotes Podcast. If you have any questions, comments, or smart remarks we want to hear about them, send us in an email, woodsmith at woodsmith.com, or subscribe to the Shop Notes Podcast YouTube channel and leave a comment in the comment section below. ShopNotes podcast is a weekly woodworking podcast. It's a production of active interest media. It's edited by Nate Gruca.
And Ben Strano is the executive digital editor. We will see you next time, everybody. Bye.
