Recently, I had the good fortune to spend a weekend with Ian Kirby and Frank Klausz. While it was a working weekend (they are each building a workbench that will be featured in our September/October print magazine … cool, huh?), I felt very lucky to spend time with these two scions of the craft. To be sure, there was some awesome woodworking to examine and photograph. And the things I learned simply hanging out with the two of them would make most of you green with jealousy. And their gracious hospitality was a joy to experience. But as I reflect back, what I find most heartening was the affiliation that I shared with Frank and Ian.
That a boy from the “provinces” could hang out with the premier woodworkers in America: one a Hungarian immigrant who ended up building furniture for Malcolm Forbes and Jackie Onassis; the other a degreed educator from London University and the ultimate practitioner of the British Arts and Crafts method, and feel right at home was remarkable. And that is the essence of the woodworking community. All of us who are woodworkers, regardless of skill, share in that community — and we are all better for it.
Sincerely,
– Rob Johnstone, Woodworker’s Journal
