School of Quiet Woodworking

 

 My name is Duncan Robertson and I have been working wood for over 30 years. I've  been a dedicated Hand tool user for the last 11 years and I've been teaching my "Quiet Woodworking" for the last 8 years. .Both the Calgary Herald and the Cochrane Times have written feature articles about me and my “Quiet Woodworking”. I am a long time member and  past “vise” president of the Southern Alberta Woodworkers Society and am the current  President of the Calgary Woodturners guild. I saw Rob Cosman cut a dovetail at the Calgary wood show 11 years ago and thought ,"Wow, perfectly executed, fun and done with panache!, I want to do this". I signed up for his training the hand workshop and the rest, as they say, is history. I have been Rob's teaching assistant for the past 10 years at SAIT. I have taught/am teaching from my own studio/school in Cochrane Alberta, Lee Valley, Canadian Woodworker,  Black Forest.  In 2009 and 2010  I was the featured presenter at the Lie-Nielsen show in Calgary and this year, 2011, I will be the featured presenter in both Calgary and Edmonton.  I teach with both passion and humour and derive tremendous satisfaction in sharing my knowledge and skills with my students. 
 My current workbenches continue my labour of love with developing a better method of hand tool woodworking.  My method of double height work benches has been received with pretty much universal acclaim and the asking of the question; "Why hasn't  anyone come up with this concept before?" from all my students to date. I came across the original idea in Fine Woodworking issue #176 and have revised and developed the idea and the bench, ever since.   Why wood (yes the spelling is intended) anyone choose, as part of their hobby, to do something  that is unpleasent and/or inconvienent?  I don't care if you are 10 years old or 110 years old, your back prefers to be upright and not bent over when doing most tasks.  The two height system allows you to be comfortable when sawing, chiseling and handplaning.  Not to mention the whole "easier to see" aspect of having your work at the proper height for all your layout tasks. 
A couple of final thoughts;
Woodworking mallets are round and made out of wood.  Square ones are used for pounding in tent pegs.  
Tool trays in a workbench will make you go blind and have been known to harbour lost children, rodents and spoiled food (hence the afore mentioned rodents). They also double the length of time required for the completion of any project due to the time wasted rooting through them looking for lost tools, small children etc....
If you store your tools in a cabinet under your work bench,the tool you need right now will be in the drawer blocked by the board you just clamped to the front of your bench. 
from Cochrane Alberta, March  2011,
quietly woodworking,
Duncan