Let's check out the 2025 AWFS show

It's time for the 2025 AWFS wrap up – a woodworking convention that I've been going to for at least the past 14 years or so. They all start to blur together after a while!

For the past few years, the AWFS show has been in the West Hall of the Las Vegas convention center. Parking is pretty easy, although it gets pricier every year. I usually take a photo of where I'm parked, because it's easy to lose your car.

The registration desk is set up just inside the entrance doors. It used to be a long process to get registered, but with QR codes and pre-registration, you basically show up, show them your code, and they give you a badge.

Walking inside the hall, you greeted with a cacophony of machinery running. There's no shortage of automated equipment running, and even though I took a few videos – I couldn't get them loaded here. That's a shame, I have a couple of cool ones.

I just looked it up the square footage of this place, this hall has 600,000 square feet of exhibition space. When I tell people it's large, they think I'm exaggerating. It reminds me of an airport. Come to think of it now I'm curious how big my local airport is in comparison. OK, I take it back – I just looked it up and my local airport is MUCH bigger. 

When you first walk in, you are greeted by some of the major players in this market –they must pay extra for this space with such great exposure. And their booths are huge – much larger than the smaller companies who buy a single space.

I thought the chainsaw carving was pretty cool, 

they had live demonstrations, and a lot of examples of what they can accomplish. 

There were a lot of people hanging around, watching these guys.

But the real reason that I attend is to see the Fresh Wood competition, a furniture making competition between high school and college kids, with a few private woodworking schools added to the mix. This work never fails to amaze me.

I took so many pictures, and was planning on posting photos of not only the work, but of the artist/maker information here too. But I had so many photos to upload it was getting out of hand. 

So I've decided to only add pictures of the work this year.

This grandfather's clock with its Kumiko details was quite nice.

And I liked the lines of this cabinet featuring bentwood laminations.

This small wall cabinet was well done, and mostly unremarkable except for the door on it. This maker fashioned the door with a curve in it, acting as the handle for opening the door. A very interesting little detail.

This piece really caught my eye - a long, low cabinet with very interesting lines. 

I don't believe the information sheet said what type of wood it is made of, but I believe it's either Sapele or African mahogany. Either way, this piece was fabulous. It's one of my favorite two pieces in the show.

This low chair was very nicely made, 

as was this bench.

There were a lot of cabinets that were well crafted, but I always listen to my inner voice that says" less is more" when viewing some of these pieces. (Kudos to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe)

I think it's easy for newer woodworkers to go a little bit overboard, and include detail details that aren't necessary, and actually detract from their pieces. Hell, I know a lot of adults that do that too. In my opinion, the piece below is a perfect example of this.

It was quite nicely made, the door handle was handcrafted, as were the Kumiko Panels. But the doors were carved, which I felt was a little overkill. And they weren't sanded and finished as well as they might've been. I know I know, I'm being critical of a high school kid, but all those details add up in the overall judgment of this piece.

This small walnut and maple piece was quirky and fun, reminded me of something out of the Jetsons.

And here is my favorite – this Ash cabinet that is so perfectly made, and Zen that I fell in love with it.

If I had one slight critique, I would have hoped that the grain on the top drawer would have been as horizontal as the bottom drawer. Maybe I'm just splitting hairs about this, but the slope of that grain really threw my eyes off.

The door was amazing, and I do love cabinet doors!

The door "panel" was woven leather cord, in which the ends were inserted into a series of holes drilled on the inside edge of the door stiles, and rails. 

There's quite a bit of work just in making that door, and I love the overall effect that it gave this piece. If I were judging this year, this would have been my top vote.

As always, the musical instrument makers really showed up. It's mind blowing that these guitars are made by high school kids.

Favorite was the one with the Lighthouse inlaid on the soundboard. 

It featured a sound hole on the side, which was interesting. 

But I did not understand this detail on the top, kind of where your armpit would be placed over the guitar while you're playing it. That dark area was curved, which makes sense because that's where your arm rests. But I've never seen a guitar that doesn't have crisp edges. So it makes me think that perhaps something happened while making this guitar, and this detail turned into Plan B.

I'm not throwing shade at anyone - I've had a bunch of those in my life!

This guitar was particularly cool for the detail of the sound hole 

and for its bridge.

Here's another one with a wonderful mountain scene inlaid on it,

and this one with a sleeping fox. Again – kudos to their woodshop instructor. People have no idea how much work goes into building a guitar!

I don't ever remember a violin being entered in this competition, but there was one this year. I can't imagine the level of dedication. It takes to research this and figure out how to make it. I wish the maker had done a little bit better job sanding, and applying to finish.

But again – these are just kids – pretty amazing to pull something like this off.

There were a lot of various pieces that were nicely made, but not necessarily worthy of awards. This low coffee table had some wonderful details.

But this Birch plywood desk, which I believe was constructed for the woodshop classroom, was less than perfect. There were some huge gaps in the miters on the top, and the overall construction seemed more utilitarian than artistic. I suspect they had a few sheets of birch plywood, left over, and decided to task a student with building this.

Then again – some of the pieces were quite intricate, although simple. This bent lamination small side table was very nice crafted.

And this small table, listed as a coffee stand, was very simple yet had interesting lines.

There were a couple of foosball tables entered in the competition,

 and I do have to admire these kids, taking on a project quite as detailed as this.

After checking out all of the furniture, I walked around the floor, meeting up with some of my favorite vendors. Had a long talk with Scott and Lana, who own Cimarron Drawer here in town. They build all of my drawers, and I love the work that they do.

Went to the Doug Mockett booth, I've been buying their hardware for at least 30 years. I take that back - when I built my first house in 1986, I used much of their hardware in my house. So I've been using their stuff for almost 40 years. 

Ridiculous!

The Sawstop booth was much scaled down this year – they usually have a booth that is huge, with all of their saws on display. 

One saw was "topless" to show the internal components. I guess that fits in perfectly with Las Vegas.

I always enjoy seeing these "tables" made out of boards. I don't know why, but these are very cool. One that I saw was completely fake and had drawers on the backside of it. That would be something kind of cool to pull off.

And finally – people who know me know that I'm pretty opinionated about woodworking gear. For example – while I admire Woodpeckers, a company that makes excellent quality woodworking accessories, I think they go a little overboard with some of the things they manufacture. 

If you Google some of their products, you might find some satirical posts about some of their tools that are simply overpriced and lame.  The "blade destroyer" post I just saw had me laughing- not at the guy who made it, but for the thought of anyone who would hang their blade up on a flimsy "clothes hanger" to store it, with the chance of it falling down and damaging the teeth on the blade. 

It's as if tool manufacturers sit around thinking up silly tools that they can sell, all to make a buck. Trust me, I've bought more than a few tools like this, that I never ended up using, and have wound up at the bottom of a drawer. Or worse - in the garbage!

Which leads me to this booth – the Micro Jig company. My friends loved to mess with me, sending me micro jig Gripper advertisements, and other Gripper paraphernalia. In fact – I was given a few of these glorified push sticks to test out a few years ago.

I just don't understand why anyone would spend $70 for this device. I've been making push sticks for 45 years, never purchasing one. Push sticks are disposable items, and I imagine over the years – quite a few of these grippers have ended up in the trash, after being ruined by sawblades.

OK, I'll stop ranting now, but this booth made me laugh. Of course, they're probably laughing all the way to the bank! Lol 

That's it for my wrap up of the 2025AWFS show – my overall impression was that the show was much smaller than I've ever seen, and some of my favorite tool companies were missing. It's still a great show, but it could use a boost in both suppliers and visitors.

Another collaboration!

This town offers SO MANY opportunities for people who want to tap into their creative side - we have stone carvers, pottery shops, wood turners and knife makers, just to name a few of the skills one can learn here. I've had the knife-making group on my radar for a few years. In fact, I went to a knife and gun show and was blown away with the array of weapons on display. I blogged about it here, and even organized a woodworking meeting at the shop where many of them forge with fire and create magic.

One of their members reached out to me about making a box to hold a sword he'd made. This piece was outstanding - almost 30" long, with a Damascus faceted blade, and a custom carved (and inlaid!) handle.

 On top of that, he'd fashioned a hand-sewn sheath for the blade with intricate tooling. 

This masterpiece needs to be seen to be fully appreciated!

My task was to fashion both a display stand for this, as well as a box for storing the sword.  This sword was sold to someone in the Middle East, and will be shipped soon. (Have I mentioned that I love having my work across the globe?)

I took a few measurements of the piece, but the asymmetrical blade was a challenge - so my first thought was to make a stand that was adjustable. Sliding dovetails are a perfect solution for this, and after making a cardboard model of the sword, I sketched a few designs on paper, to work out the angles that would hold the sword and sheath. This adjustable stand can be narrowed to hold shorter knives, or slid to its maximum width with to display the longer sword. 

The box was more routine to build, but one thing I've learned is to treat the Maple that I use with a shellac wash, to eliminate any finishing blemishes. Maple and Cherry can turn splotchy when oiled, and I wanted to avoid that. So I thinned some shellac and applied a few coats to seal the grain. 

The lid is held in place with a chain, to hold it at a proper angle and keep it from flipping backwards. And the two small supports that hold the blade have rare-earth magnets inlaid in them. The supports are covered with felt to hide the magnets and protect the blade. 

I absolutely love collaborating with other artists, and I hope to make quite a few boxes for the knife-makers - their community is vibrant and diverse. Right up my alley!

 

Designing - from concept to reality

Ever wonder how a design progresses from a vague concept into reality? 

Sometimes it's a quick process – as I imagine most artists have designs rattling around their brain, and can rapidly turn their designs into reality.

Other times, it's painstakingly slow, with changes and reiterations happening almost daily.

I've worked with a very creatively-minded couple for the past 10 years, having built many pieces of furniture for them, as well as smaller accessories for their home. They travel the world collecting artifacts – and their eye for unique items never fails to impress me. 

Years ago – they came to me with a door knocker collection, asking me for a creative way to display them. They said they'd be happy with mounting the door knockers on just a simple board, to display them.

But I took that as a challenge - and I made quarter sized doors to mount each door knocker on -  here are the first two I made. They are actual working doors with a shadowbox inside of them.

Buy that final door knocker that I had to work with gave me fits!

First of all, it's heavy – and very big. This isn't the exact one I was working with, but it's very close. About 8" long, and roughly 2.5 pounds of solid copper.

I mounted this door knocker on a sample piece of wood, but its weight caused the board to topple over. So I knew making a door/shadowbox as I had before wouldn't work. The weight of this door knocker would cause the whole piece to topple. 

Back to square one... 

In the beginning, I worked with the idea of making a round door, because I felt that fish imagery lent itself toward curves. 

As with all designers, I flooded my brain with images to stir up more inspiration. Because the door knocker is a giant fish, the design I wanted had to include some inspiration with water. So I played around with aquatic themes. I'll admit – I was struggling with this, because of the parameters I had to work with, size wise. (More about that later.)

Meanwhile, I was at another client's home a couple of weeks ago; she's creative and inspiring. I brought up this design, and that I was struggling with it. It was a classic “analysis paralysis” that I was experiencing, where too many designs decision decisions muddy the waters, making it difficult to choose just one. My friend gave me a bit of a pep-talk, as well as made me promise that I would go home and settle on one design.

Easier said than done!

Back in my studio - I had more than a few designs rattling around in my brain. But I was determined to finish this project. It's only been four years since I started this! 

This pendant started me thinking about water themes. 

And away I went.... down the design rabbit hole... 

I searched for some door inspiration,  

  hoping to fit the knocker with the door.

And I'm embarrassed to say that the clients emailed me a few times, asking about the progress of this final piece. As they added more pieces to their collection in the gallery/room in their house over the years, the space that they had saved for this last door knocker shrunk. 

So aside from struggling with the design, I was also limited in size. To be honest, I was ready to call them and give the knocker back. 

But I kept thinking about the words from my friend, who basically said - get to work!

And that's just what I did - pulled out the sketchbook, came up with a scaled model in cardboard, then finally pulled out the block of Sapele that I'd been saving for a "special" project.  A little carving, milk-paint and some lacquer and it was finished in a flash.

 (Thanks for the pep talk, Heidi!) 

It's the best feeling in the world to call a client and tell them their project is complete. 

PS.... they received the piece today and were beyond thrilled.  I'm so relieved to have this off my mind!