My first woodworking show rant...am I getting too old?

[Nathan Conner]

Sorry in advance if this thing has turned into a philosophical rant and no, I'm not getting too old. In fact, I'll be 35 tomorrow. Perhaps I'm just too jaded by too much time relaxing by myself in the shop.

I went to the Portland Woodworking Show this weekend, hoping to be the proverbial kid in a candy store, hoping to see great techniques and new products and beautiful work. I was hoping to pick up a new hand plane, get some pointers, meet some fellow woodworkers, play with some tools.

What I saw, instead, was a carnival of consumption. Man, that sounds ridiculous, but it was true. This was my first woodworking show, and I expected less flash and pizazz and headsets and "Buy now! Easy terms!" and more...heck, I don't know what I expected. It wasn't what I found.

The saddest thing for me was watching all the demos of the latest, greatest gimmick to make your woodworking life a breeze. Everything from auto-carving machines and $20k laser engraving machines to $5 pieces of foam rubber for your clamp pipes. I listened to a sales pitch for 5 minutes for a $300 miter sled that would "eliminate the need to make test cuts". Yeah, that's right. A $300 miter sled. "HOW MUCH MONEY DO YOU THINK YOU'LL SAVE BY..." seemed to be the mantra everywhere. Everyone was busy signing up for this raffle or that special offer, dragging around new tool catalogs or that 50 lb. bundle of Taiwanese sandpaper. It was like one big Harbor Freight sale. Loads of $15 Forstner sets or $30 paneling bit sets. None of it to last beyond the first use, if that.

I tried to talk with the Lee Valley and Veritas guys about a new plane - my wife said I should pick out any plane in the place as a birthday present - but my heart wasn't in it. I picked them up and played with them a bit on some scraps they had around, but the noise, the hawking, seeing guys hunched over, running for their cars loaded down with bags of crap to go home and throw at their latest project just took the wind out of my sails. My wife and 12-year old were trying to be supportive, but they, too, looked like they were miserable. It was a far cry from what woodworking evokes in me, most days. I left empty-handed, but with a new respect for my own experience woodworking.

It really made me sad for everyone else, though. For me, woodworking is relaxing, enjoyable pastime. It's the sound of a newly sharpened gouge singing on a bowl or a single sneeze in an otherwise silent shop from too much hand sanding. Or standing back with a cup of coffee and admiring joinery you finally got juuuuust right. The different sounds the different table saw blades make when they're spinning up or down. That first dab of oil on a project you've spent hours or weeks on.

I don't know. Maybe it's different for guys who try to make a living creating things, and maybe that's who the show was aimed at. Plenty of us have more money than sense, (I'll place myself at the head of that line!) but maybe those few seconds you'd save with this new sandpaper technology or that new Incra gauge (now with flip-down stop!) or that new bandsaw blade guide that lets you make a reindeer out of a 2x4 in 4 seconds flat, and STILL be able to touch the blade immediately afterwards! (My son said what I was thinking, "That reindeer looks stupid, and why is he touching the blade?") But perhaps, someone who's trying to make 2400 reindeer a day needs to be able to keep the blade cool and reduce wear? It all seemed so consumptive and anxious and hectic. Full of "improvements" but not full of heart.

I understand that everyone there needs to make money. They're in business to do just that. I guess I was hoping and thinking that maybe we were, as a community, above all of that, at least at some small level. There was just this pervasive feeling of desperation...a need to save time, save money, save materials, work faster, cleaner and get more out of your day.

There seemed to be no place for the jig made from scraps, or sharpening on sandpaper, or a nice simple, clean finish with a rag. Where's the joy? Where's the ingenuity? Where's the common sense? It all seemed lost amidst the portable HVLP sprayers and Kreg display bigger than my shop. Gimmicks and doodads were everywhere, all designed to speed the process of creation and cut down on your time in the shop, which is some of my most precious time. Now why would I cut down on that?

Maybe I'm alone in this feeling, maybe I need to relax and not worry about the state of this wonderful hobby out in the rest of the world and just enjoy my own little world. Besides, I need another cup of coffee and to brush another coat of lacquer on that bowl.

[Ken Werner]

You sure hit the nail on the head, and without the latest pneumatic nailer! I haven't been to the kind of show you described in years, but my son and I do make an annual trip to Saratoga NY where there is a 2 day show full of 1 hour talks by skilled and sometimes well know woodworkers. [Roy Underhill, Garrett Hack and others].

The buying frenzy seems to grip much of American life these days, why else would Wal-Mart be so big, selling so much stuff destined for the landfill before long.

I guess my advice is to try to get what good you can out of the show, and if you can't get any, don't go.

BTW, when I went to the LV booth at the Saratoga show, I fiddled with a spokeshave, the blade popped off and cut my finger. The guy there felt pretty badly, as I dripped some red stuff on the floor.

Sounds like a smart son you have there. Sometimes seeing what not to do is as important as seeing what to do.

Ken

[Warren Clemans]

Absolutely fantastic post. I've never been to one of those shows out of fear that everything you say is true. I've never understand why you're expected to pay money in order to subject yourself to advertising.

[Bas Pluim]

Believe it or not, but I think it's a healthy sign that woodworking is alive and kicking.

You can give a real woodworker a knife and a hand plane, you blink, and they've completed a new set of bedroom furniture. Then there's people like me, who can't sharpen a chisel without a jig, or saw a straight line without a $400 fence. Everyone tries to make up with tools what they lack in skill. All these gimmicks show you there is a market here, that more and more people who weren't born with the grain-reading gene are trying to become woodworkers.

I bought power tools first. Table saw. Router. Drill. Now I have a couple of decent hand saws, semi-sharp chisels, and a real Lee Valley jack plane. It just took me a while to get there.

Yes, there are lots of people that have more money than skill or time. I include myself in that category. The same is true for people playing golf and fixing up cars. That $800 club won't make you play like Tiger Woods, but so what? There's worse things to blow money on.

The real woodworkers are still there, there are just more wannebe's that make them harder to find. But, their number is growing, eventually some of those wannebe's do graduate (and put all that junk on Craig's List to infect the next generation).

That's what I think anyway. $15 Forstner bits? I gotta get me some of those!

Bas.

[Randal Stevenson]

Heard one of the shows was bought out, but I don't know if it is the one that comes here.
Last year, ours shrunk in floor area, but was 2x as busy since they had moved it back to the original location (the other location had to be resodded after the show).
Some good things to see, but all ----------- to elbows, and to view the one free demo I wanted to see, you practically stood at the far side of the place.
The beauty of this place (and some of the other forums) is I find better deals here, then I do there. And the show may advertise it, but they don't have it in stock (we drop ship to you, aka not the point of going to the show).

[Mark Stutz]

Unfortunately, your experience is all to common, and I think worse than it was a few years ago. The only reason thatI will likely go to this years will be the usual breakfast get topgether with a variety of forum members, visit the LV booth, and possibly take in one of the half day seminars.

LN has pulled out of most of these shows and has sponsored several hand tool only shows. These have been great and are exactly what you envision and wish for in a WW "show". Don't miss one if you are all interested in Hand Tools.

Mark

[Dusty Fuller]

Your experience sounds like what my dad and I did last year at the Atlanta car show. There's a good bit of sales pressure and business card dealing, along with bright lights and music, Hummers set up climbing fake mountains, that kind of thing. Every once in a while you'd catch something set up just right, that showed the merits of the car itself, but rarely. But shows are just that, "shows". They want to attract as many people as they can, which almost requires a broad and occasionally shallow experience. To get a better experience, I think I could hit one of the higher-end shows with fewer cars. Harder to find, but you really find the "car people" there. I think its the same with woodworking. The smaller the venue, the more select the crowd. I am fortunate to live about 1.5 hours from Highland Hardware in Atlanta, and though I've only been there once, it seemed like a place where you could touch the real tools and talk to real people, and no one tried to make me buy anything (I got enough of that from myself ). I'd go for an "all-neander" show any day, or perhaps a show that catered to the woodworker-as-a-second-job crowd.

[Justin Bukoski]

Nathan,

I went to the same show and was also very disappointed. I think this was a really minor, fringe show though because I went to one in Tacoma a couple of years ago and it was 10 times bigger and much more interesting.

In general though, I think all woodworking shows have that same flea-market feel...

[David Weaver]

So, my question(s) is (are) (as someone who has been WWing for a who whopping year):

- How did people produce fine products without all of these tools and gadgets?

- what is the percentage of people who are going to buy these products and use them more than one or two times?

- If you blow $5000 on jigs and gadgets, how do you have enough money left over to buy some nice stock to make anything?

- What do you do when the plans you have have a couple of joinery techniques, etc that you can't do in a jig that you have - do you buy bigger and better machinery?

This post is relative to everything - from NAMM to fishing conventions to huge estate auctions. Everyone gets excited, someone is yapping in every direction, and sooner or later, it's like being at a fraternity party that's overcrowded - you just want to go outside and clear your head and make sure it hasn't been poisoned or your judgment affected.

I still think that design and execution depend more on the commitment of the user, and that time is better spent working on those, with a basic set of functional tools. That may include a band saw and a table saw and jointer and planer, but maybe without all of those being the latest and greatest digital readout models.

I'm also only 30. I want to have basic things that allow me to make nice things, not have nice things and learn to use them to make basic things.

Too much learning curve with all of these gadgets and equipment.

[John Karam]

I went to the Portland show as well, it made me laugh a bit. Especially since I've been to the AWFS show in Vegas, now thats a BIG show.

Its not even the fact that it was a small show, just that it didn't seem to be worth the $14 for parking/tickets. It definitely gave off the flea market feeling.

[Roland Chung]

Your not too old - perhaps you are too young.

I think that these woodworking shows remind me a lot of the County Fairs. A few decades ago, before we all had high speed internet connections, home centers, discount warehouses and multiple malls in every city, we only had the County Fairs for us to see what was new, clever and more efficient. When the Fair came to town, everyone showed up and spent money. Just like the Fairs, I think that the Woodworking Shows are not as relevant as they used to be, but they still have enough draw to stay in business.

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. When I have time, I try to see the 2 or 3 woodworking shows that come to my area. Now that I have been going for several years, I have to admit that I don't take a second glance at about 90% of the stuff, but there are deals to be had.

At the last show, I picked up a Dewalt Planer 735 with extra blades, chip collector and a free random orbital sander for $335.00. At these shows, I have been introduced to some of my favorite tools - Grex 23 ga pinner, PC Production Pocket Hole Cutter ($495 deal), Festools. There are usually a lot of tools that you won't ever see at the home centers. And when the competing tools stores lower the boom on the last day, it can be like a shark feeding frenzy.

I know that I can get everything I see at the woodworking shows on the internet. I don't buy a big percentage of my tools from the shows, but I feel like I am doing my homework when I show up to examine some tools in person. I've never had to eat shipping (and return shipping) because I was dissapointed with an internet purchase.

Try to see a better show next time

[Drew Armstrong]

I am with ya BAS... I am relatively new to this... I like to see the stuff... I would not buy any of it before asking a more experienced friend but it is fun to see. My first show was AWFS in Vegas this past July... sounds totally different than your experience.

Drew

[David Giles]

Definitely too crotchety for 35! You got to be at least 50 to adopt that kind of attitude! How many times have we told you, "Wear your safety equipment!". And you up and left your earplugs at home, didn't you? Didn't take any dark wrap around shades either, huh?

Next year go on the offensive. Wear your protective gear and spend the day saying, "Huh? I can't hear you!" to all those vendors.

[Larry Fox]

I went to exactly one and I suspect that will be only one that I ever attend. My experience was the same as OP. I spend a lot of time and $$ on my WWing (more $$ than I need to) but only after careful research a d I am not comfortable making a purchase in an environment like a trade show. Regardless of the situation, I don't like crowds at all so tend to avoid them.

As an aside, if you think wwing ones are bad - you should attend a fishing or outdoor show. I have attended exactly one of those also.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Nathan, I partially agree with your posting regading wood shows.

I live in Toronto, however I no longer attend the Toronto show. I've seen enough people build birdhouses, and enough demonstrations of eyeglass cleaners, miracle router bits and bandsaw blades to last me several lifetimes.

I also had the pleasure of attending a seminar on Arts and Crafts furniture where the presenter, a cabinet maker who specialized in Arts and Crafts furniture, showed us how to make the stuff with pocket screws. No old fashioned, time comsuming mortises for that guy.

I think it was the same show where I accidently sat through a seminar on why you need a planer and a jointer, what will they think up next, why you need several sizes of Robertson screwdrivers?

On the flip side, I attend the Woodstock show, which still has some of the above, however it is balanced by other good seminars.

I wish they would stop selling stuff at the shows, I'd like to spend quality and quantity time with the machinery vendors as I look for items. I can do without the sideshow atmosphere.

Woodshows are kind of like woodworking magazines, after a while you don't need another article on how to use your biscuit maker, or why you should own a jointer, you want more quality articles, designs and reviews.

I guess we are getting older and less tolerant.........Rod.