Norm's Replacement?

Hi Deolman,

Me and a few of the LHR/CarveWright folks met and spoke with Tom Mac (MacDonald) at the IWF show in Atalanta a few weeks ago. He is adamant about NOT being a replacement for Norm. I could tell he was a little "concerned" about that! Hosting a woodworking show is new for him and he wants it to be unique. He is a "high energy" guy, with sort of a Boston accent, and he has a lot of skill and training for being so young (guessing he's in his thirties?).

Tom told us about how he works with schools and helping the kids learn good woodworking techniques. Sounds like he really cares about passing along the skills that seem to be disappearing in so many areas.

He had quite a few questions about the CarveWright machine. During our conversation, he actually said to me, "So you're the inventor of the machine!" I quickly said "No, not me...him!"...while I nodded towards Chris Lovchik. I still have no idea why he thought I was the inventor!

Anyway, he had visited Scott Phillips shop awhile back and Scott showed him what could be done with the machine. We spoke with Scott while at the show too. Scott said Tom saw a project he did that had a shell pattern carved on it. Tom stroked his hand over the shell and asked, "How long did that take you to carve?" Scott replied, "Well, the ORIGINAL one took me 45 hours, but only about an hour with my CarveWright!" (Scott had me make him that particular CarveWright pattern based from a pencil sketch of his original hand-carved shell - it became part of the project featured on one of his shows.) I believe Tom has a CarveWright machine now. Scott told us he uses his CarveWright (I think he has two of them) on most of his own projects. Bravo, CarveWright!