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It’s hard to refer to what we do here at Popular Woodworking as work, especially when a work day is like yesterday. It was a long day, but a great one. John Economaki, founder of Bridge City Tool Works, was in town to show us some of his planes and talk tools, design and woodworking.
We knew ahead of time that this would be more fun than we should keep to ourselves. John is a fascinating guy with unique line of tools and a different way of looking at life. We asked John to give a workshop here in our offices and shop, and we invited local woodworkers to come by for dinner and some time in the shop.
After dinner, John spoke to the group, sharing his history and his approach to designing and manufacturing woodworking tools. After some questions and answers, it was off to the shop.
Planes and saws were available for hands-on use, with John fielding questions and giving us all the fine points of the tools. As the shavings piled up, the stories got longer. One of the highlights of the evening was a raffle to benefit the Roger Cliffe Memorial Scholarship fund at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking.
Together, we raised more than $800 for the fund, and Tom Bryan won the grand prize of a Bridge City plane. The shoulder planes shown in the first picture of this post were impressive to say the least, as were the moulding planes with interchangeable bases.
These little guys will make perfect profiles in less time than it takes to plug in the router and change the bit. Best of all, adding a profile this way means no sanding! We’re getting a set and will have an in-depth review in the near future.
Also soon, we’ll have some video about this event here on the web site. And, we’re planning more events like this. We’ll announce them here on the blog, and if you subscribe via RSS (click on the free updates link, up and to the left) you won’t be left out.
All of us here want to thank John Economaki for coming, and all of the readers who came to this event, especially the members of the Cincinnati Woodworkers Club. And now it’s back to work. Chris is off to Michigan for a special Hand Tool event, Glen is off to teach a class and edit videos. I’m heading out to the shop to mop up the drool.
Here are some supplies and tools we find essential in our everyday work around the shop. We may receive a commission from sales referred by our links; however, we have carefully selected these products for their usefulness and quality.
