I spent last week in Portland, OR at the Handsawing class with Chris Schwarz. I will write more about that experience in the coming days. Besides meeting Chris for the first time and spending 5 long exciting days doing nothing but woodworking, we had a field trip out to Mike Wenzloff's shop. This was one of the highlights of the trip, although there were many highlights. I forgot to take my camera with me on the trip, but Chris has just written about the visit on his blog. Chris did a great write-up on our trip and has a few pictures.
Mike and his sons are some of the nicest people you'll ever want to meet. Mike is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to handsaws and their history. We were there for a couple hours but it only felt like a few minutes. Mike gave us a detailed tour of the shop/production and explained every step in making his saws. They just moved into this new shop and it is modest in size. Mike told us their original shop was only a couple hundred square-feet. So, this new shop is huge in comparison.
You get a real sense that all of them enjoy their work, and that quality is number one. They will not sacrifice quality for speed. Although, they are working hard to streamline their processes, so that they can get through the mountain of orders they have waiting.
Mike will be at the Woodworking in America conference, in November. If you are going, stop by and see Mike you will not be disappointed.
In the coming days I will write about the class itself. It was 5 of the best days I've spent woodworking so far.
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