This weekend coming Alex and myself will be attending the Saint Nectaire tool fair, in France, near Clermont Ferrand for the fifth year. This is a growing quality tool fair with selected dealers from all over France.
Last year it brought about 5000 entries over two days. I will entertain the french collectors with a lecture on the history of the development of english and american tools. My first lecture was two years ago with the history of woodworking planes and went for 3 hours! The poor audience! The following year I made on site entirely by hand a copy of an eighteenth century jointer with integral handles.


And now the enthusiast chronicle:
This is a maple burr bowl ,7 1/2" in the round which carries an old collection inventory number.
BUT what is fantastic on it is the age wear:
It is down to a quarter of an inch where you would drink out of it, and eveen better: If you hold it by the "ears", where your knuckles would touch the outside of the bowl there is wear marks about 1/4" deep on each side!
How many years of use to wear out burl wood like this? How old is this item? Such a wear dates it further back than nineteenth or eighteenth century..but it could be five or six hundred years old as well..

As promised, the engravers tool chest is now on sale. It truly is a fantastic item.