Exotic wood cabinet, finely crafted. Did the craftsman skimp on wood?
While most of the fun of woodworking is in building custom and unique projects, the downside is wood waste. Nobody likes it, but it’s just a fact of woodworking.
When you sit down to figure out the amount of wood your project requires, there are a number of things you should account for:
I know, ouch. Just stick with me, though. 
These nice looking stacking display boxes are perfect for archiving wood samples
Did you know that there are 10,000 species of wood in the world that are harvested for timber?
What’s even more interesting is that there’s an entire international group of wood fanatics who collect, trade, sell, and share sample specimens from these 10,000 different species. They’re collectively known as The International Wood Collectors Society (www.woodcollectors.org).
In order to have some consistency to the specimens, they determined that a wood sample has to measure 1/2″ thick, 3″ wide, and 6″ long.
Fair enough, I say.
It was 1937 in India when George Nakashima built his first wood furniture. He’d been trained in architecture and worked under an American architect Antonin Raymond for several years.
Nakashima moved to Seattle in 1940 and taught woodworking for a short period until he was sent to Camp Minidoka, a World War II Japanese interment camp in Idaho, in the wake of the bombing at Pearl Harbor. At Minidoka, though, Nakashima met a man who had been trained in Japanese woodworking hand tools and joinery techniques – under him, Nakashima studied and mastered the craft and techniques.
Figured Walnut and maple box by John Irwin
In November of 2009, the Arizona Association of Fine Woodworkers assembled in the warehouse at our Phoenix store for their monthly meeting. A number of them brought their latest finished projects; a bookcase, several turned bowls, fretwork, and more. They discussed the woods they used, the challenges they encountered, and the techniques they learned. One of the members conducted a demonstration on how to weave and apply chair caning.
Then I presented them with another challenge, a box making contest using a selected package of materials of 3 pieces of exotic Huayruro, 3 pieces of figured walnut blocks, and a 15″x15″ piece of Baltic birch. Each woodworker could add to the materials, but each of these had to be used in the box somewhere.
On February 19, the entrants turned in their boxes for judging and I selected the top three boxes based on ranking the originality, execution, finish, and artistry of each one from 1 to 5.
Tom Garden with one of his newest handmade basses featuring quilted maple and a sleek lightweight design and top of the line hardware
Ask any bass player, and he’ll tell you that his job is the least respected in the band. Musically speaking, the bass takes care of the low end; and those who don’t know any better may think this position really is low end. Did Elvis play bass? Willie Nelson? Guys like Jimmy Page and Carlos Santana didn’t exactly summon an entire generation toward bass playing – they inspired kids to pick up a standard six string for stadium-filled solo guitar playing.
The bass gets little attention. In the movie “That Thing You Do” the bass player in the band never had a name, and gets credited as, “T. B. Player.” Now that I think about it, there’s no video game called “Bass Guitar Hero” either, as far as I know.
But when you hear someone like Victor Wooten play the bass, you just might be inclined to go, “Wow, I never knew the bass could sound so refined.” There’s hope yet.
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