The Jig is in Charge

The view through one of my favorite jigs: a piece of 5mm ply with a hole drilled through it. I use it to trim tenons.

I’ve taught at (checks personal website) at 19 woodworking schools on three continents. Here is the most bewildering thing I’ve seen to date.

Woodworkers standing in line 10 deep, waiting to place their parts into an elaborate aluminum hopper and push them through a router table.

I know there are different reasons that people take a woodworking class. Some are there for a trophy – a near-flawless piece of furniture that’s above their current abilities and serves as aspiration to continue improving. Others are there to learn the skills and don’t care if the finished product looks like slightly glued mulch.

When I teach chairmaking, I aim for a different goal. You could say I seek a balance – a trophy with mulch glued upon it. But my deeper goal is to encourage students to work without complex jiggery.

This week a customer stopped in to our storefront, and we started talking …