How did you get into woodworking?

My first exposure to woodworking was from my grandpa as a kid. He had a small shop in his garage. But it wasn’t until I after I graduated high school when I really got into woodworking. The banjo I was playing at the time had broken so I started researching how to fix it. I discovered a degree program for fine woodworking at Red Rocks Community College, and within that program they had a degree path for people interested in luthiery. A luthier is somebody who builds or repairs stringed instruments; that definition may be a little controversial. I went to that program with the intent of building instruments. Along the way I discovered the immense joy I get from designing and building furniture. I still do some luthiery here and there, but I much prefer furniture. There is nothing more satisfying than seeing hand-cut joinery come together perfectly.

What's your creative process?

My process always starts from imitation. I will take pictures of furniture I see in stores, scroll Pinterest, and look at other woodworkers’ designs. From there I just start with basic shapes and ideas that I’ve pulled from other designs. I also think about what kind of style the piece is going to be. I love minimalistic and mid-century modern furniture, so trapezoidal shapes and clean lines are my go-to. Then I play with proportions. I start by making a component bigger and bigger until it looks ugly. Then I make it smaller until it is ugly. Those two numbers tell me that I can make this component any size between those numbers, and it will look fine. Once I have the lines defined and the proportions worked out, then I can start worrying about joinery. Learning what joint to use when just comes down to preference. Modern glues are strong enough that most joints will hold just fine under normal circumstances. But if your piece is going to see an excess of force applied to it, then you might want to consider a joint’s holding properties. I always draw my joints out in full scale on paper. This helps you get the layout perfectly and lets you see how they will look. From there it is just a matter of matching grain color and grain continuity as you build.

What's your favorite wood species to work with, why?

  To avoid being trendy or cliché I do not want to say walnut, but the real answer is walnut. Walnut is just so easy to work with hand tools. It is not so soft that it dents easily, but it is not so hard that it will dull your blades quickly. It sands quickly and finishes easily. Walnut’s dark color makes it easy to hide gaps and other mistakes. A close second would be soft maple, specifically Big Leaf Maple. It has similar working properties of walnut, except much smaller pores. The downfall is that every gap sticks out like a sore thumb and there is not an easy way to hide them because of its light color. As far as exotic lumber goes, I love working with Spanish Cedar and Genuine Mahogany. They are a little softer than walnut, but otherwise have very similar properties to walnut.

What advice would you give to new woodworkers?

Spend more time designing your projects and laying out your joinery. Often woodworkers use highly figured woods or colorful exotic species to cover up their lack of design. Use highly figured pieces sparingly to draw the eye either to or away from certain areas of the piece. Spend your money on precision measuring tools like squares, straight edges, rulers, and calipers. You can get by with less expensive chisels and planes, but if you’re using cheap Home Depot squares you will drive yourself crazy trying to figure out why your joinery never come out right. There are hundreds of ways of doing things. Just because YouTuber X says that they do something one way, does not mean that there are not other ways of doing things. And the last advice I have is for veteran woodworkers, be accepting and be willing to share your knowledge. We don’t need any more gatekeepers in this industry.

What is a highlight you love to show off?

I do highlight my mistakes, if I cannot hide them. It also depends on where the mistake is. For example, if I have bad gaps in dovetails that I cannot fix by making custom shims, or with the ol’ “glue and sawdust trick,” then I will either dispose of the bad tails or pins and recut them. But, if the mistake happens on a critical piece and I cant remake the part, then I will find a way to highlight the mistake by adding an inlay or some contrasting color. I was flush-trimming a banjo neck to the fingerboard when I accidentally jumped the bearing and took a bite out of the side of the neck into the ebony fingerboard. So I decided to make uniform cuts all the way down the neck and inlay strips of Walnut in those cuts. I also love when I can make a gap disappear, especially in dovetails. So if I have a gap bigger than 1mm, I will match an end grain from another stick of the same species. Ideally it will be a cut off of the same board, and I’ll cut out a tiny wedge. Then I put a drop of glue in the gap and lightly tap the wedge in. If it fits perfectly, the end grain will match up and the gap will disappear.