You might be a woodworker if...

This is my last blog post for Rockler, so for fun I thought I'd try asking our Twitter and Facebook followers to help me write it by completing the Jeff-Foxworthy-esque sentence, "You might be a woodworker if..." Here's a compilation of what our fans came up with!

You might be a woodworker if...

...you store turning stock under your bed.
...there is sawdust in your belly button.
...you can count fractions on your fingers.
...instead of saying "2 inches" you say "eight quarters". Chris Nilluka

...you are more concerned about dust collection than about the 50 extremely sharp chisels and saws hiding under that pile of shavings. @SplinteredBoard

...there is more sawdust than lint in the lint screen in your dryer. @CustomMadecom

...you use sawdust as body powder
...you think your dandruff is sawdust
...you think the movie Saw was a woodworking video. pspsteve

...you wash your hair and sawdust clogs the drain.
...you stop to pick up a pallet on the side of the road for the white oak scrap. (yes, I have)
...you've picked through the dumpster at a custom cabinet shop for exotic wood scraps. (yes, I have)
...you give your wife Eau de Oak perfume for Christmas. (looked, but can't find any)
...you leave your $30,000 car in the driveway so you don't scratch your new tablesaw in the garage. Steve Hartman

...you've bought $3000 worth of tools to make $300 worth of furniture. Jeff Coyne

...your children's sandbox is filled with sawdust! Wayne Gregory

...you look at the sky and see a section that you think looks "curly"! Lance McNulty

...you know how to pronounce "ipe", and its country of origin.
...you know hollow ground has nothing to do with coffee
...someone says burl and your first thought isn't Ives
...someone says birdseye and your first thought isn't frozen vegetables
...you've ever asked yourself,"What would Norm do?" Steve Hartman (again!)

...you have sawdust in your bra (or underwear for the guys)
...you have a tape measure in your purse
...you go to the hardware store to calm your colicky baby
...you can't wait til nap time so you can build! Christin McCool

...you won't buy a piece of furniture because you know you could make it better and/or cheaper yourself (even though you know you probably won't). Nancy Barvick

...when you [blow] your nose part of your last project comes out. Craig Brown

...you can identify bubinga by smell. Michael Stadtler

...you've never uttered the phrase "You know, I think I've got enough clamps." Steve Hartman (again!)

...your key chain has a small tape measure on it. vermontsenior

...your check register has more Rockler entries than Walmart entries. Wayne Williams

...the only fiber you get is the sawdust floating in your coffee cup! @LagunaTools

...you run your hand over a piece of wooden furniture rather than just looking at it. @lackriver

...blowing your nose generates enough wood to build a child's toy. John Vallario

...you're short half a finger and you haven't actually bought Christmas gifts in 10 years. @mmfww

And... you might be a wood TURNER if...
...you buy a bandsaw that costs more than your lathe... for the sole purpose of rounding out bowl blanks.
...you feel this unexplainable emptiness every time you throw a piece of wood in the fire
...you have a hard time finding a pen around the house that isn't made of wood... and you give your wife and kids nasty looks any time they pick up a plastic pen.
...your wife doesn't bother to call around looking for you any more. She just goes out to the shop when she needs you for anything.
...you nearly caused a car accident because you thought you saw some logs on the side of the road...
...golf clubs? Yeah... they're around here somewhere.
...you name your kids "Chuck" and "Burl"
...you name your dogs "Banjo", "Jet", "Oliver", or "Spalty"
...at your spouse's suggestion, you put a telephone, TV, and refrigerator in your shop... so you don't have to "carry sawdust into the house all day."
...you really - honestly - whole-heartedly - are torn between taking that vacation in Hawaii and buying that new big lathe with the 24" swing.
...you think that any household item can - and should - be replaced by something you make... from table legs to the toilet paper roll holder.
...you've walked around your neighborhood – checking your neighbors' trees for burls.
...Heat on in the shop? Absolutely. Heat on in the house? "Go put on a sweater."
Steven Marlow

For more signs that you might be a woodworker, click over to Kari Hultman's blog, The Village Carpenter. After I asked our followers for ideas, I found out Kari had done an almost identical post a few years ago called "You know you're a woodworker when..."! Her post has ALL different responses, so be sure to pop over and take a look.

Do you know even more signs that you might be a woodworker? Leave them in the comments!

Thank you all for being Buzz Saw readers. Rockler is a fabulous place, and I will miss it, and miss writing for you. But stick around – make sure you're subscribed to Buzz Saw!– because there are lots more fun and interesting things coming up! And keep Creating with Confidence! -Kim

Play the Rockler Woodworking Skills Challenge!

Woodworkers! DIYers! Math Geeks of any type! We have a game for you!

PLAY THE ROCKLER WOODWORKING SKILLS CHALLENGE

We challenge you to test your woodworking skills with a little game of workshop geometry. But beware: it's, absolutely, amazingly, alarmingly addictive! Give it your best shot(s), then challenge your friends, your family, your co-workers! Then play again! Have fun!

Book Giveaway: Rustic Furniture Basics

rustic furnitureEditor's note: We have a winner! Troy from Fairbanks, Alaska wins the Rustic Furniture Basics book. Thanks for commenting, everyone! Make sure you're subscribed to Buzz Saw so you don't miss a thing!

We've added ten new DVDs to our product lineup over the last couple weeks. One of them, new this week, is called Rustic Furniture Basics. Are you a rustic furniture fan? I mean really rustic, not like distressed garage sale antiques, but pieces made from branches, recycled lumber, wood scavenged from old buildings - that kind of "rustic". It's the original "reused, recovered, repurposed" furniture!

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Book Giveaway: Shop Drawings for Craftsman Furniture

[Editor's note: The contest is over and the three lucky winners are: Keith M. from Ohio, Thad G. from Michigan, and Mark W. from Ohio! If you're looking to buy this book, Bob Lang stopped by the blog to let us know that it is available on his website: craftsmanplans.com. We do have Bob's second book, More Shop Drawings for Craftsman Furniture available here at Rockler. Thanks for participating, everybody - we'll do this again soon. Be sure to subscribe to Buzz Saw if you haven't already, so you don't miss a thing!]

This week we've got something fun: three copies of the book Shop Drawings for Craftsman Furniture: 27 Stickley Designs for Every Room in the Home to give away to our readers!

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Australian braves Boston cold, subways to visit Rockler on trip to North America

It's always fun to hear about someone coming to the States and making a trip to visit a Rockler store. We discovered this post and picture on Woodworking Australia's Woodwork Forums, a popular woodworking site down under. Poster Michael writes:

Thanks to some careful planning on our current holiday I was able to make the subway trip out one cold morning in Boston to Rockler Hardware. Dressed in two beanies, long johns, merino shirt, wind proof jumper, scarf, leather and merino gloves and it was still cold!

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How did you get started in woodworking?

Reading the recent Buzz Saw blog post by Barbara Howell got me thinking about how I got started as a woodworker. Having read Barbara's book ''Splinters'', I knew that she got her start out of necessity, having to learn the craft to take over the family business as her husband fell ill. My start was a bit less dramatic.

My father always had a small workshop as I was growing up, but he was so busy supporting our family, that he rarely got the time he wished to spend in the shop. My brother and I were always getting into trouble, sneaking into the shop for our own ends. A large nail, pounded into the top of a pair of 2 x 4 cutoffs became ''walkie-talkies'' for our neighborhood war games, or his wrenches and hammers were drafted to fix and modify our bikes. Invariably, we left tools out, frustrating our father quite a lot.

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Troops Enjoy Their Bench Cookie™ Work Grippers

Staff Sergeant Frank Hendrickson, a Marine currently based in Afghanistan, has come up with some new uses for Rockler's Bench Cookie™ Work Grippers - in the metal shop and in the composite shop!

SSgt. Hendrickson wrote us saying, "I think that your [Bench Cookie™ Work Grippers], although made for woodworking, would work on our composites that we work on. It would definitely take away the need for a second pair of hands to hold the piece of gear while the other grinds away at it."

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Top Ten New Year’s Woodworking Resolutions from Our Readers

In Ralph's post last week on his woodworking resolutions for the New Year, we invited you, our readers, to tell us your own goals for the coming year. There were many great responses, and we've chosen our "top ten" to share with you (in no particular order). Some of the resolutions are uber-ambitious; some are quite simple. They're all interesting, and might give you some ideas for your own woodworking goals in 2010. You can read all of the comments here).

This list is the ten most common themes from our readers' woodworking resolutions.

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A Woodworker’s Resolutions

Yes, it is yet another list of resolutions. Not terribly original I know, but it is that time of year. So I sat down and began thinking of things I wanted to accomplish during the coming year. Some are meant to be funny, but as we all know, the truth is the basis for humor. So, with tongue firmly in cheek, here are my resolutions for 2010:

  • I resolve to begin making Christmas gifts TOMORROW! No more waiting until Mid-December to begin making my list and checking it twice. This year I will have the time each project deserves, and I won't be stressing or cutting corners.
  • I resolve to finally figure out what color my shop floor really is! It is high time to

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Christmas is for Woodworkers

Many years ago, I was in Pittsburgh going to school for model making. As the holidays approached I simply could not get into the spirit of the season. I was in a new city with few contacts, 600 miles from home. One of the instructors announced that the woodshop would be open for a couple of days so that any volunteers who wanted could help produce a bunch of wooden toys to be given to Toys for Tots. A number of us showed up, building toys for less fortunate kids, singing "We are Santa's Elves", from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and really enjoying the season.

And why not? Christmas and woodworking have always gone together.

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