Earlywood: Old Frontiers

Publisher’s note: Good morning! Once again, it’s time for Earlywood, a free weekly excerpt from one of the thousands of pieces I’ve written since 1996. Sometimes, it’s from a magazine article. Or a book. Or (in this case) a blog post published in 2022. Each entry has been updated or annotated with some modern context or point of view. Enjoy!

“A Jet Workshop”

When I worked for a woodworking magazine, we had a formula for the sorts of projects we printed in its pages. We always had a certain number of Shaker pieces, a slightly smaller number of Arts & Crafts pieces, some “Country” pieces (whatever “country” is). Plus a handful of 18th-century pieces, mid-century modern pieces, workshop pieces, jigs and fixtures.

The formula was safe. It was based on the thousands of subscriber surveys we sent out year after year. And it worked.

But it was also boring.

Every well-known Shaker piece has been published to death by every woodworking magazine on the continent. Ditto with Arts & Crafts. Yes, there…