Christmas list for the shop:
Safety
Whack!
You can't carve without removing wood. And removing wood can be as delicate a process as lightly slipping the gouge through the wood or propelling it forcefully. Apply too much force in the wrong situation, and you have lovely kindling.
Methods of work: the nail board
Inelegant, unattractive, and probably never seen on a photoshoot for Fine Woodworking - it's a nail board.
Tools of the Trade: Sanding Mops
So, you couldn't use these to mop a floor.
Manuals
I have some built-in learning disorders that make reading blocks of a small, close type challenging to read. In addition, the English used in the manuals is so poor that three pages in, you are skipping whole chapters looking for what you need.
Utility
workers spend money on foolish things every year. Why? We see it on the web in a video or the catalog and realize that it is the solution to a problem we do not have. So out flashes the credit card, and next week we are looking for storage space for the new item.
Flashback Friday – July 16 – Critical Tool?
Articles regularly appear in the woodworking periodicals about the essential power tool in your shop. The authors make convincing arguments for their choices, too. I prefer to think in terms of what suite of crucial tools makes your work possible? Your answer will vary with the materials you work with, how you change them, and the product you produce.
Free
've always been a fan of the old saying that free is worth what you pay for it.
Opportunity Too
It was one of those "Don't you dare, come any closer" situations. It was an after-the-show dinner at a restaurant set on a pier.
All That’s New
Craftspeople and artists repurpose industrial tools and materials for art and craft all the time. Some people hate it and protest that it's neither art nor craft. I'd point out that modern artist paints owe more than a bit of thanks to industrial chemistry.
Louis N. Carreras, Woodcarver 
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