When it comes to woodworking, it seems as if we are always in some part of the project-building process. Whether just starting to develop plans and gather materials or buffing out a glowing finish, there are numerous places along the woodworking path where we often find ourselves.
So, why not share with us what ‘state’ your projects are in right now as you sit to read this poll. If you need to, poke your head out into your shop and come back to answer. We’ll be waiting!
After getting a warm response from my last interview, I have decided to keep going with the interviews to highlight more great woodworkers out there. So, I hope you enjoy the next interview with a very talented woodworker, Kyle Toth who runs Wood By Kyle Toth in Temecula, California.
Kyle does some amazing work, and he has some great examples of the furniture, turnings, and other works on his website as well as videos on his YouTube channel. His love for woodworking was evident in high school when he created a wooden backpack that he actually used for school. Seriously! He also got into woodturning in high school, and produces some amazing turned works of art in addition to furniture.
After high school, Kyle attended the North Bennett Street School to get a formal education in woodworking. That alone tells you what kind of skill set he has got, and it definitely shows in his work. As he stated in the interview, “The school’s motto was ‘An education and craftsmanship.” Since high school, Kyle has honed his craft and has worked with some big names like Disney, Metallica, and Jelly Skateboards.
One of the things that caught my attention was Kyle’s beer tap handle video, in which he shows the process of making 100 beer tap handles for Refuge Brewery. It’s a really great process to watch, and the end results are beautiful.
I also recently learned that Kyle is on the forefront of pushing for more education about the trades to our younger generations. He is one of three craftsman who are working with AWFS (The Association of Woodworking & Furniture Suppliers) in the “Meet the New Face of Manufacturing” campaign, which is intended to raise awareness of the trades and manufacturing jobs to students, schools, educators and counselors. You can find out more about the campaign on the AWFS website.
In the interview, I dig into what makes Kyle tick and managed to get some woodworking business tips as well. Kyle didn’t disappoint in his answers, so enjoy the interview!
You do quite a range of different types of projects from furniture to turnings to beer tap handles. What is your favorite type of project to work on?
“My favorite type of projects to work on are desks and dining room tables. I love the fact that with the dining room table, whole families can gather together and sit around something that was designed for them.
I really love the Art Deco style of furniture. So I would say that art deco pieces are my favorite to design and work on.”
Where do you get design inspiration from?
“My design inspiration comes from simplistic things, art deco style, things that are free formed and appeared to be floating, repeating patterns, simple curves.”
What goals do you have for your craft and/or business?
“Goals that I have would be to get my lounge chairs into more of a production/more available.
I am always working on segmented vases. I would like to get more into the Art Deco style of furniture. Another goal I have is to find an employee/apprentice and train them to keep the same quality of work that I have. Also, I want to finish my gallery/showroom which is above my shop and have it filled up with my new work by december.”
What is on your woodworking ‘bucket list’?
“The one thing on my woodworking bucket list would have to be a Bombe’ chest of drawers made in Bubinga.”
What part of woodworking challenges you the most?
“The part of woodworking that challenges me the most is carving by hand with gouges and chisels to make something look real and believable. But it’s a challenge that I enjoy!”
What are the greatest challenges you face running a woodworking business?
“The greatest challenges I have running woodworking business is keeping up with online website updates, social media post and basically anything having to do with the Internet haha. I love the whole design process, buying the materials, starting and finishing.”
What is the best tip you can offer someone who is starting up a woodworking business?
“One of the best are the best tips I can offer someone looking to get into a woodworking business is just don’t turn down any jobs, take them all. You will learn so much. It’ll force you to put yourself in situations where you have to learn.”
Well, I hope you enjoyed learning more about Kyle. He provided some great insight into his work and even some business tips! I want to thank Kyle for taking the time to let us get to know him better and share more about his craft too.
Kyle is currently working on a staircase rail and spindles as well as another 100 beer tap handles for Refuge Brewery. So, check out his website and YouTube channel to keep up with what Kyle is working on and see some amazing work in action.
After getting a warm response from my last interview, I have decided to keep going with the interviews to highlight more great woodworkers out there. So, I hope you enjoy the next interview with a very talented woodworker, Kyle Toth who runs Wood By Kyle Toth in Temecula, California.
Kyle does some amazing work, and he has some great examples of the furniture, turnings, and other works on his website as well as videos on his YouTube channel. His love for woodworking was evident in high school when he created a wooden backpack that he actually used for school. Seriously! He also got into woodturning in high school, and produces some amazing turned works of art in addition to furniture.
After high school, Kyle attended the North Bennett Street School to get a formal education in woodworking. That alone tells you what kind of skill set he has got, and it definitely shows in his work. As he stated in the interview, “The school’s motto was ‘An education and craftsmanship.” Since high school, Kyle has honed his craft and has worked with some big names like Disney, Metallica, and Jelly Skateboards.
One of the things that caught my attention was Kyle’s beer tap handle video, in which he shows the process of making 100 beer tap handles for Refuge Brewery. It’s a really great process to watch, and the end results are beautiful.
I also recently learned that Kyle is on the forefront of pushing for more education about the trades to our younger generations. He is one of three craftsman who are working with AWFS (The Association of Woodworking & Furniture Suppliers) in the “Meet the New Face of Manufacturing” campaign, which is intended to raise awareness of the trades and manufacturing jobs to students, schools, educators and counselors. You can find out more about the campaign on the AWFS website.
In the interview, I dig into what makes Kyle tick and managed to get some woodworking business tips as well. Kyle didn’t disappoint in his answers, so enjoy the interview!
You do quite a range of different types of projects from furniture to turnings to beer tap handles. What is your favorite type of project to work on?
“My favorite type of projects to work on are desks and dining room tables. I love the fact that with the dining room table, whole families can gather together and sit around something that was designed for them.
I really love the Art Deco style of furniture. So I would say that art deco pieces are my favorite to design and work on.”
Where do you get design inspiration from?
“My design inspiration comes from simplistic things, art deco style, things that are free formed and appeared to be floating, repeating patterns, simple curves.”
What goals do you have for your craft and/or business?
“Goals that I have would be to get my lounge chairs into more of a production/more available.
I am always working on segmented vases. I would like to get more into the Art Deco style of furniture. Another goal I have is to find an employee/apprentice and train them to keep the same quality of work that I have. Also, I want to finish my gallery/showroom which is above my shop and have it filled up with my new work by december.”
What is on your woodworking ‘bucket list’?
“The one thing on my woodworking bucket list would have to be a Bombe’ chest of drawers made in Bubinga.”
What part of woodworking challenges you the most?
“The part of woodworking that challenges me the most is carving by hand with gouges and chisels to make something look real and believable. But it’s a challenge that I enjoy!”
What are the greatest challenges you face running a woodworking business?
“The greatest challenges I have running woodworking business is keeping up with online website updates, social media post and basically anything having to do with the Internet haha. I love the whole design process, buying the materials, starting and finishing.”
What is the best tip you can offer someone who is starting up a woodworking business?
“One of the best are the best tips I can offer someone looking to get into a woodworking business is just don’t turn down any jobs, take them all. You will learn so much. It’ll force you to put yourself in situations where you have to learn.”
Well, I hope you enjoyed learning more about Kyle. He provided some great insight into his work and even some business tips! I want to thank Kyle for taking the time to let us get to know him better and share more about his craft too.
Kyle is currently working on a staircase rail and spindles as well as another 100 beer tap handles for Refuge Brewery. So, check out his website and YouTube channel to keep up with what Kyle is working on and see some amazing work in action.
Someone asked me recently what my policies were concerning people building my projects and designs for profit. In most cases, my policy is “Have at it!” My personal mission is to teach woodworking and share the love of the craft. That includes encouraging people to build the projects I design. Once you start building quality furniture, it won’t take long before that first commission rolls in from a family-member, a friend, or a neighbor. So if you can support your hobby by building something I designed, that’s just awesome!
So what about the next stage? Let’s say you are a professional woodworker and you have an e-commerce site or Etsy store and you want to offer one of my designs as a regular item. Guess what? I still don’t mind! This is all part of my desire to spread the love of furniture-building and I consider it a win-win situation. Furthermore, my designs are not all that unique and I am heavily-influenced by the woodworking I see on a daily basis. Most things I make are either conscious or subconscious iterations of numerous other things, combined or modified into a form I find pleasing. So being excessively over-protective of such creations feels a bit overzealous to me. Ultimately, you selling those pieces has absolutely no impact on the business that puts Goldfish in my son’s mouth.
But there is one favor I ask and it’s really just a simple professional courtesy: give credit. If you’re building an exact copy of my Gadget Station, put something like “Original Design from TheWoodWhisperer.com” at the end of the description. It isn’t hard to do and you don’t wind up looking like a turd. The truth is, all I can do is make the request. I would never pursue a legal battle and I wouldn’t have much ground to stand on if I did. The woodworking community is very small and if you post a copy of something online it won’t take long before someone sees it and calls you out. So do yourself a favor and give credit where it’s due.
Here’s an example of something that came across my inbox today: Etsy Custom Bed Listing. You might recognize that bed as the Dogon Platform Bed I built for a client last year. If James can actually get $8500 for that bed (I only charged $5000), all the power to him. But you’ll notice that the description makes no mention of who designed the piece. I have since emailed the seller and requested that he add a line to the description. If he doesn’t respond, so be it.
*UPDATE* – It looks like James updated the page to include attribution. I want to be very clear that I had no intention of villainizing James in any way and I truly hope he can sell the bed. Because I have never made an official public statement about my policies on this sort of thing, I was using this Etsy post as an example to help illustrate my point. Credit to James for responding quickly and making the change!
Please keep in mind that these are just MY policies. Not every woodworker out there is so willing to let you build their designs for profit (legal realities aside). So do your homework before you sell and when in doubt, ask! If you’re interested in reading up on the ethical and legal issues involved in reproducing someone else’s designs for profit, check out these helpful articles:
Do you see the piece of wood on the bench laying next to the mortise? You know, the piece that joins them together once you glue and clamp it? It’s an interesting way to join two boards without creating an integral tenon on one of them.
But, what do you call it? I’ve seen woodworkers get worked up about different terms for it. They will argue their point all day long that a certain term applies, and none of the others make sense. So, what do you call it in your shop?
Let’s build on last week’s poll! Salt and pepper. Laurel and Hardy. Macaroni and cheese. Some things are just natural partners. And, when it comes to woodworking, there are few partners as famous as the mortise and tenon.
While cutting mortises presents its own challenges, cutting the tenon can be tricky as well. There are a ton of options from all machine to all hand to a hybrid approach. In this week’s poll, we want to know what your preferred tenon-cutting method is.
It’s one of those fundamental joints that nearly every woodworker has to master. The mortise and tenon joint has been around for millennia, and it is one of the hardest working joints out there. It holds stubbornly in chairs, tables, post and beam construction and a million and one other projects.
Of course, the challenge is finding a way to cut the components in a manner that is fast, easy and accurate. So, this week, let’s focus on one half of the equation… the mortise. I’m sure we have all cut them several different ways, and maybe our preferences have changed over the years. But, for today, tell us what your current preferred method is to cut a mortise.
When it comes to woodworking, it seems as if we are always in some part of the project-building process. Whether just starting to develop plans and gather materials or buffing out a glowing finish, there are numerous places along the woodworking path where we often find ourselves.
