Still having fun

We’ve been sharing this time “over the workbench” for quite a while know, and I’m still enjoying every minute of it.

Next week will mark the 15th anniversary of the Over The Workbench blog here on the Woodshop News website. We’ve covered a lot of ground since that first blog back on Jan. 7, 2008, but after more than a thousand of these blogs, we somehow still find new things to talk about.

Sure, I’ve repeated some topics over the years – some things bear repeating, especially when they involve woodshop safety and techniques – but there are always new ways of looking at things, new tools to talk about, as well as how current events impact woodworking. As an example, in just the last two years we’ve seen a pandemic and war in Eastern Europe, both of which affected shops large and small. Even weekend woodworkers and do-it-yourselfers felt the effects. No one could have predicted either of those.

On the plus side were impacts that benefitted everyone who swings a hammer, like incredible advances in lithium battery technology, cutting materials, large-scale shop equipment and more. Even the phone I had in my pocket back at the beginning of 2008 bears little resemblance to the one charging on my workbench right now. Back then, it was just a phone; today it’s a supercomputer that even acts as a storehouse for at least a dozen woodworking apps. (I just used one to instantly calculate the perfect angle for cutting coves on my table saw before slipping it back into my pocket.)

There’s no reason to suspect that as we move forward there will be fewer new tools, materials and applications to talk about. Likewise, marketing and manufacturing influences will continue to drive topics important to all of us, and I look forward to discussing all of them with you. Who knows? Maybe we’ll even revisit this topic in another 15 years.