Williamsburg Gathering January 15th

[Keith Outten]

Below is the first picture from our Dinner Gathering in Williamsburg Virginia on Saturday night. We met at the Olive Garden restaurant, there were ten people including my family.

From left to right clockwise in the photo;

Todd Burch (Texas)
Jackie Outten (Virginia)
Jess Outten (standing)
Keith Outten (Virginia)
Dave Anderson (New Hampshire)
Carl Eyman (Louisiana)
Bill Sampson (Virginia)
Roger Myers (New Hampshire)
Aaron Koehl (Virginia)
Kathy Outten (Virginia)

Dave brought some of his custom tools he has become famous for making and an awesome bow saw. The evening was full of woodworking conversation and plenty of discussion about SawMill Creek and how far we have come as an online community. There was a huge amount of talent at our table, it is just amazing how much experience these folks have and were more than willing to share.

I will have a couple other photos to share this evening.

[Alan Turner]

I am so sorry that I did not make it down, but I see what I expected. Fine woodworkers, good conversation, drinking soda (BTW, is that a wine glass in front of Neander Dave?).

Alan

[Todd Burch]

Yes, it was a good evening. Quick, but good.

As you can see, I'm no dummy. I sat at the "good looking" end of the table!!

[Aaron Koehl]

It was a blast, lots of good conversation, and a few more pictures. And yep, that's a wine glass in front of Dave and a beer glass in front of Roger, and just before any mixed drinks arrived from the bar. ;) I figured we should have taken a picture before anybody spilled sauce on themselves. :D

I'm looking forward to meeting more of you.. it's so nice to put personalities with real faces! Thanks to everyone for dropping in. Next time anyone's in the Williamsburg area, let me know and we'll do it again!

[Keith Outten]

Todd Burch has a good eye for fine workmanship and like the rest of us he was impressed with Dave's bow saw. The picture certainly does Todd justice but not the saw :) Just kidding, it was really great to meet Todd, his craftsmanship is well known around the Creek and I can now say he was just a fantastic guy to talk to even though his visit was short. Todd drove from Northern Virginia just to have dinner with us in Williamsburg, a 5 hour round trip. I'm not sure who the lady is in the photo, I believe she took the group shot for us and she sure looks real interested in that bow saw.

The gentleman in the second photo is Roger Myers. Roger expressed an interest in the going's-on in my workshop these days and I believe that Aaron did a good job of explaining our current workload and our attempts to integrate three different technologies into our sign work. I expect the the geek in Aaron also came out and poor Roger got the high tech programming pitch as well :) Since I don't totally understand what I'm doing these days it was good to have an interpreter to help out, and before anyone asks I was drinking coffee :D

More photos tomorrow......

[Aaron Koehl]

Yes, interestingly enough, as soon as Dave's saw was passed down the table, the manager stopped in her tracks, spun around, and proceeded to ask Todd all about it. She was right impressed..

[Roger Myers]

A qucick update from Williamsburg...Dave and I are attending the conference at Colonial Williamsburg and having a great time....Mack and Jeff Headley demonstrations, lot's of period furniture in the exhibit area to inspire you, and 230 or so other woodworkers whose talents are an incredible inspiration..... SaPFM Cartouche Award winner Phil Lowe, a guest appearance by Roy Underhill who brought along three recently uncovered chests of tools owned by a fellow who worked in the restoration shops at CW ...and the tools (only taken out of the chests for the third time since they reappeared) were spread out on the stage and passed around....

A great time at CW, and a really great dinner with the Sawmill Creek gang and guests....we really enjoyed meeting everybody!!
Roger

[Keith Outten]

Below is a picture of awls that Dave Anderson made. I hated to have to reduce the size of the picture as these are just beautiful tools and some of the detail is lost in reducing the photo size.