This Blog, Musings from Big Pink, MSBickford.com

posted in: General Interest | 0

Approximately 13 years ago I put my name on Larry Williams‘ backlog, expecting delivery of planes only 11 years ago.

Approximately 12 years ago Larry Williams produced a dvd regarding making side escapement planes. As a result, I made my own. I posted pictures of those planes online and quickly received a congratulatory phone call from Larry, who I never spoke to before. He questioned if he could a) ask general questions about my experience following his instruction, b) sell me the rabbet plane that he previously convinced me to purchase vs. the moving fillester that I thought I wanted, and c) take me off his seemingly never-ending backlog.

A few years later, and with Larry’s consent, I started pursuing customers while making faithful reproductions of Larry’s faithful reproductions. I quickly recognized that interest in these tools could be fantastic while familiarity with them was negligible. Knowledge must be built.

My blog was started for those that knew nothing about hollows, rounds and the other supplemental planes. I started my blog in an effort to explain order to my customers while also establishing it for myself. I started this run-on blog as an effort to put my own, personal success with these tools into a translatable series of steps.

After many blog posts and minor successes I was offered the opportunity to write a book for a brand new publishing company, Lost Art Press. I had the writing bug and happily agreed.

The meandering explanations of this blog were the start of that book. This blog was my beginning. These paragraphs created my first true customers and these written words established my few woodworking credentials. This running blog, however, always assumed that you were here from its beginning–growing in your interest as I grew in my explanations.

I have always imagined my blog being viewed chronologically from the first post through the most recent. Call me ‘juvenile’ or ‘old-fashioned,’ but starting at the beginning doesn’t seem to happen today because there’s no obvious reason to start there.

As a result, I believe that reposting several entries of my past has value, other than lazily integrating past sentences and explanations onto my new website.

Without further ado, stay tuned.