I’ve seen the future

I admit I haven’t followed the competition for a couple years, but after reading a recent article in Woodshop News on the 2025 Fresh Wood winners from this year’s AWFS Fair in Las Vegas, I wasted no time in heading to the Association of Woodworking & Furniture Suppliers website to see all the winners.  

Fresh Wood is a student design competition recognizing woodworking excellence from high school and post-secondary students across the country, and this year’s Fresh Wood featured 40 finalists from 16 schools. As in the past, the entries were phenomenal, making the job of judging these works an incredibly difficult job.   

There’s a reason I know this: I was one of the judges for the 2003 competition. As editor of Woodshop News at the time, I devoted the magazine’s next Taking Stock column to the competition. Here’s what I had to say. 

“I’ve just completed the most difficult woodworking project I’ve ever undertaken.  And never touched a piece of wood in the process. 

“The project started several months ago when I was asked by the Association of Woodworking & Furnishings Suppliers to be a judge for Student Design 2003. 

“Poring over this year’s entries, I realized that selecting the best from among them wasn’t the clear-cut task I had imagined.  I went through the entries one-by-one, and marked my scores accordingly. Fortunately, I used pencil instead of ink, as I had to go back more times than I can remember to alter scores up and down as the full scope of the entries slowly unfolded. 

“Most of the scores I gave were quite high, and when it came time to decide which pieces should be finalists and shipped to California for final judging at the AWFS Fair, I’m afraid I gave my recommendation to far more of the pieces than event organizers anticipated. 

“But the work of these students was so good, I could do little else. Add to that the fact that most of them were far less than half my age — many younger than my own student-age daughter — and their achievements are all the more remarkable. 

“We’ve learned from the many shops we’ve profiled in Woodshop News that finding skilled, motivated workers is often the most difficult part of running a successful woodworking business. Those of you in this situation will be happy to know that an eager crop of available talent is ripening all over the country. 

“On the other hand, those of you who fear talented competition had better get ready. 

“These kids are coming your way.” 

I can’t begin to tell you how pleased I am that the competition is still growing strong, and that the entries — and the young woodworkers themselves — continuously get better. Interestingly, the title of that 2003 Taking Stock column was, “I’ve seen the future — and it is good”.  

Here it is 22 years and we’re all living in that future. In light of this year’s excellent Fresh Wood entries, it’s good to know that despite rumors to the contrary, young people are still interested in the craft of woodworking. And programs like this one will see to it that they always will.