Two Score and

feeling old af.

I turned forty last week.

Weird as hell.

I’ve no idea where my 30s went. They were mostly one long string of traumatic experiences that I’m frankly still trying to unpack and process through.

I was talking to an incredible friend of mine last week, and as she was helping me sort through some of what I was feeling she asked about other memorable birthdays I’d had.

I haven’t shared this with many people before, though Mike Pekovich and Steve Latta are two that have heard it and seemed to understand. Now feels like an appropriate time to share it with all of you. It’s sad, and there’s grief involved. This is your warning.

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A few days before Christmas of 2015 my mom was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. I was living my best dirtbag life in New Mexico at the time, and as an only child that was fortunate enough to have an amazing relationship with my parents I made the 2,600 miles round trip from Albuquerque to Indianapolis twice a month for a few months before it became unsustainable and I ultimately decided to move back to the midwest. Moving back to the land of corn, mayonnaise, and ignorance was a culture shock, but for other reasons Albuquerque no longer had the hold on me that it once did, and I wanted to be there for my family. It was one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever made, and to this day I’m glad I made it.

During breaks between endless doctor appointments and caretaking duties I embraced the cliché and did what every good dirtbag needing a project to lose himself in does. That’s right, #VanLife, y’all, I built out a Sprinter van in an overly complicated¹ manner.

And then became an influencer by posting pictures of my ass.

During building out the van I taught myself the basics of cabinetry, got real good at scribing and fitting compound angles, learned bent laminations, and generally pushed myself to learn more and more. It’s funny, I look at the build now and am frankly embarrassed about so many aspects of it. The cabinet carcasses are… weird (but use Blum hardware, because I’m a fancy lad), I installed the 1/4” cedar tongue and groove with the rear side out because the planer snipe just has those wonderfully rustic vibes², and to the surprise of no one the poly over cedar with a white wash coat is yellowing nicely.

Baby's first bent laminations for window trim rings. Still haven't finished trimming them out.

Embarrassing or not, during that time I really embraced the concept of craft everyday, and slowly started to remember that even though I’d spend my whole life trying to avoid working with my hands because it was deemed too low brow and a waste of my potential, I always ended up back working with my hands, and it was the only time I was ever actually happy.

I don’t even remember how, but I somehow stumbled upon Campaign Furniture (free download here) by Christopher Schwarz, which of course ultimately lead to The Anarchist’s Tool Chest (free download here), a book that like a lot of you reading this resonated with me on a frankly spiritual level³.

Because I’m completely incapable of doing anything on a normal level, when my mom’s cancer was in remission and I found myself outside of The Bay Area after a festival in October of 2018, I did the obvious thing and called up the Krenov School (formerly College of the Redwoods) in Fort Bragg to see if I could come visit. Erin Irber (Instagram) was there as a second year student, as was Scott Nelson (Instagram), and the two of them, along with Laura Mays and Jim Budlong were amazing hosts. I hung out there for most of two days, participated in Elephants⁴, and of course fell deeply in love with the place, and Fort Bragg as a whole.

Mendocino is stunningly beautiful.

“Old Jim”

At Laura May’s strong encouragement I began putting together a portfolio. I’m sure most of you reading this are familiar with her work (Instagram), but I’m frankly shocked at how many people aren’t, because it’s fucking incredible. Her cabinet titled Withinness is without question my favorite piece of all time.

My understanding is that towards the end of his life James Krenov was nearly blind, and the handplanes he was making were done largely by touch. There are some forum threads from around 2007 discussing that he was producing and selling smoothing planes.

I have no idea how she found it, but my mom stumbled upon a Krenov made plane being sold by a Dutch furniture maker on Etsy of all places. He had contacted Krenov in August of 2007, who shipped a plane to the Netherlands in late September, 2007.

My parents gave the plane to me for my birthday on March 23, 2009 2019⁵. Nine weeks later my mom passed away of ovarian cancer.

Along with the plane, an extra wedge, email records, and the bill of sale, the seller also provided a copy of the letter that James Krenov sent along with the plane. Brendan Gaffney reached out to me as he was writing James Krenov: Leave Fingerprints, and you can find it on page 239 of his book.

The plane is gloriously rough. It has band saw scarring and rasp marks, and is made of hornbeam, a utilitarian wood, especially when compared to some of Krenov’s fancier planes.

The set is indeed fine, very fine, and there are some days I’ll spend ten minutes gently coaxing it to behave. Once set though it tends to stay set, and I seldom muck around with it until it’s time to sharpen the Hock iron. I’m still using the original iron, though I picked up a couple spares just before Hock became part of Lee Valley.

Most of the pictures I’m going to share are courtesy of the original seller, who had a much, much more aesthetically pleasing shop than I do. I’m happy to share detail shots if anyone has questions.

To me the plane’s most interesting feature is that it’s asymmetrical. Both the heel and the toe have subtle shaping to fit a right handed person. It’s somewhat difficult to see when the plane is sitting on the bench, but it’s very, very obvious once it’s in hand.

The asymmetrical shape of the toe is obvious when viewed from the sole, however.

It’s an absolute joy to use, it just fits in the hand so, so well. My bronze Lie-Nielsen No. 3 is still my main smoother, but I don’t think I’ve made much that the Krenov smoother hasn’t touched at least a bit.

See? Much more aesthetically pleasing than a basement shop on a workbench covered in hardboard.

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It feels strange sharing this post with all of you. Not only because it’s deeply personal and not a story I tell often, but because I feel… strangely unworthy of owning it. Still, it’s a story that I want to tell, and the time feels right.

Steve Latta was pleased that I use it for its intended purpose and that it isn’t just sitting in a display case somewhere. I like tools, in some ways they’re more than just inanimate objects to me, but a tool’s purpose is to be put to work and it seems insulting to the tool, it’s history, and it’s maker not to use it how it was intended.

An edit: Derek Cohen has a blog entry on his site In the Woodshop from December 2007 where he shows another hornbeam Krenov smoothing plane. He mentions how his is also slightly asymmetrical, and while the design is similar to the one in my possession, it’s definitely different.

1. 700ah of semi-homemade LiFePo4 packs, 400w+ of solar, shore and alternator charging, diesel heater, D/C air conditioner, and full electrical monitoring. Absurd.

2. Yep.

3. Chris would totally roll his eyes but whatever, it’s his fault for writing something so appealing to masses of weirdos losing their shit under capitalism.

4. IYKYK.

5. I need to find a better copy editor. Mine is cute and floofy, but his lack of opposable thumbs and ability to read does leave one wanting.