The Wood Whisperer Guild

Hey friend! I am thrilled to invite you to a special live Preview Party for my newest online Guild course, Demystifying Built-Ins, on Wednesday, March 18th at 8 pm Eastern/5 pm Pacific and The full course will release on Friday, March 20th! Built-ins can feel overwhelming. Crooked walls, out-of-square alcoves, weird dimensions… it’s enough to make even experienced woodworkers hesitate. I know, because I’ve been there. In this course, I’ll walk you through a proven, repeatable process for...

Hey folks, When I was in 10th grade, I went to my friend Joe’s house. Joe was a pretty cool dude. Good looking, played the drums, effortlessly confident. He took me upstairs to his bedroom where his drum kit lived and started playing along to music blasting through the speakers of his boom box. Remember those? Most people would call it an assault on the eardrums. I was mesmerized. Suddenly I wasn’t in Joe’s bedroom anymore. I was on a stage. Tommy Lee was in front of me, Vince Neil was...

Hey folks, One of the most satisfying things in woodworking is convincing wood to do something it doesn’t naturally want to do. Sometimes you coax it. Sometimes you force it. Either way, that’s exactly what bent lamination lets us do. In our new video, I’m building a spa-style towel rack for our bathroom using thin strips of wood laminated around a curved form. It’s a simple technique that produces smooth, elegant curves that would be impossible to get from solid wood. The process is...

Hey folks, There’s something about Spring that makes woodworkers twitchy. The weather warms up, the shop doors open, and suddenly you’re staring at your yard or patio thinking, “Yeah… I could build something there.” So let’s lean into it. Raised Garden Beds, The Smart Way Last year, I turned an old playground into a Raised Garden Bed. The old jungle gym that came with our house was about to fall down, so I did what any self-respecting woodworker would do: I used the mateiral to make something...

Hey folks, If you noticed we skipped last week’s newsletter, first of all… thank you. That means you’re paying attention. 😊 Second, we were elbows-deep in boxes and furniture. We just wrapped up moving everything out of TWW Mom’s condo in Colorado. If you’ve ever helped family relocate, you know how fun that can be. But it got me thinking… This year marks 20 years of teaching woodworking online at The Wood Whisperer. And in that time, we’ve moved the shop a time or two. OK, maybe it's been...

We have another great Ask TWW episode for you today, featuring FIVE questions from the community. Thanks again to Woodcraft for sponsoring the show. Find out more about their Just Get Started Campaign here. Home Shop vs Commercial Space, What’s the Real Tradeoff? Moving from a home shop to a commercial space is a big leap, and the “right” choice depends on your stage of life. When my kids were little, a home shop was priceless. No commute, no rent, bundled utilities, and the flexibility to...

Editor’s Note: This is an older article originally posted to my blog in 2016. It has been revamped and updated for republication here. Me and David in April of 2016 Yesterday marked the final day of the Guild Apprenticeship with Guild member David Nichols. After a full month in the shop together, today was my first real “office day” in weeks, which gave me some quiet time to reflect on the experience, what went right, what went wrong, and what actually mattered. David was a great sport from...