Met David Marks at Woodcraft

[Joe Bourbois]

David Marks was at our local Woodcraft yesterday. He had a morning 2 hour demonstration, an afternoon 2 hour demonstration, and a 1 hour Q&A to end the day. I made it to the afternoon session and the Q&A, which turned out to be a 3 hour demo-Q&A combination.

Marks is a very skilled woodworker, and very passionate about it. That came across very clearly. He has filmed 91 episodes of Woodworks for DIY and is currently on hiatus. He says that DIY might not order any more shows and he seemed pretty disappointed about that.

Some interesting things from the session:
The shop on the show is his and is about 1600 square feet.
He uses Forrest to sharpen his planer and jointer blades. He asks to back bevel the blades for a net cutting angle of 10 degrees. He says the back bevel helps with figured wood.
He uses the Woodworker 2, and the Woodworker 1 for plywood. He sometimes uses a Dewalt rip blade.
He uses General's Sealacell and Arm-R-Seal on almost all his projects for the show. 1 or 2 coats of Sealacell, the 3 or 4 of Arm-R-Seal. All but the last Arm-R-Seal are glossy and the last is Satin. He had one of his projects from the show there, the treasure box (pic below) and the finish was smooth and silky.
The most expensive piece of furniture he built and sold was a table for $18,000. It's pictured below.


The session was great and he was very easy to talk to. I got to speak to him for a little while while he autographed a Woodcraft catalog for me. I forgot my camera, so I had to snap a few pics with my cell phone.

I'll post more later when I have time if anyone is interested.

pics 1-3 from are from the session.
pic 4 is the project he brought
pic 5 is the table he sold for $18k

[Michael Ballent]

I have always liked watching his show, and still do. His projects usually are over the top, especially when he goes to the 18" jointer (I think could be wider) with a huge chunk of wood. Nice looking stuff and I have learned a lot watching his show... Items I have learned are:

chalk to mark the pieces
painters tape to protect the surface while glueing
bent laminations
using toxic chemicals to finish projects (potassium dichromate, and NOC ammonia)
developing patinas on copper
and much more!!!

If you get DIY you have to watch him.

Thanks for the info, I have been trying to figure out the how much back bevel to put on the jointer blades. I will talk to my sharpening guy to have him put on my extra sets for my puny 6" jointer ;)

-Michael

[Dennis McDonaugh]

I've only got one complaint about his visit to San Antonio. I needed a few things for a project I'm working on and went to Woodcraft on Friday. Forgot about David Marks being there. Usualy I park right in front and Friday I had to park clear across the lot. I stayed and listened a little and he is the same in person as he is on TV (without the recap every ten minutes). I wouldn't build very many of the things he does, but I've learned a lot from him. I haven't cut the wrong piece or glued anything together in the wrong order since I started using the chalk triangle to mark my pieces.

[Steve Ulrich]

David Marks was in Houston on Sunday. I was in the process of moving this weekend so time was a little tight; however, my wife thought I should go see him and MADE me go (gotta love her!). I dropped in and heard him talk for a couple of hours in the morning. Went home to do some work on the house, and went back to hear him talk again in the afternoon.

He comes across as a very knowledgable person that's easy to talk to. He's passionate about the art/craft and it comes across. I really enjoyed hearing him speak and learning more of the brand of the products that he uses that he can't talk about on the show.

BTW, he said even though his jointer get's a lot of remarks, it's actually smaller than the ones he trained on at other shops!!!

[Alan Turner]

I send out my jointer and planer knives to Standard Grinding, in Reading, Pa. Al grinds the main bevel, and then in burr removal, back bevels. Takes a magnifing glass to see it. It is standard practice with this company, and the prices seem pretty regular. Can't recall exactly, but I think it is 50 or 60 cents an inch. I think he grinds to 35 deg., then back bevels 5 degrees. It could be 30 + 5, though. Senior moments sometimes abound.