1. Name (and nick names)
Steve Wargo

2. Age/DOB
34 November 18, 1971

3. Location (present and previous):
Born and raised in Huron, Ohio and then spent a
portion of time in Norfolk, VA while stationed in the
Navy. Now I live in a southwest suburb of Cleveland,
Ohio. GO TRIBE!

4. Tell us about your family:
I’ve been married for 10 year to my lovely wife
Christine, and we have 2 boys, Brendan (8 years old)
and Trevor (5 years old)

5. How do you earn a living, woodworking or other, any
interesting previous occupations?
I recently changed jobs. Went from being a contractor
to a full-fledged FAA employee. I will be working on
our long range RADAR system. I’m a part time furniture
maker working primarily on commission and get to spend
about 22-28 hours a week in the shop. I also teach out
of the shop. I hold classes for groups, and also
private instructions. I enjoy teaching probably as
much as building furniture.

6. Equipment overview (hand tools and other):
I own a Laguna BS, Inca jointer/planer (with Tersa
Head), and a big old 1920’s American Diamond Machine
Co. Lathe. I cut most joinery by hand, and own a slew
of LN planes, and English moulding planes. I try to
finish all surfaces by plane, but sometimes it’s just
not feasible.

7. Describe your shop:
My shop is a small 2-car garage. Nothing special. I
have a nice sized bench in the center and tons of wall
hanging cabinets around the space. It’s always clean.
I hate tripping over things or tracking shavings into
the house. I have veneer and lumber storage outside
and in my wife's garage.

8. Tell us about the hand planes you own, and your
favorite one(s) to use:
My favorite planes that I own would be my LN 60 1/2
and a couple special molding planes. I do have a
complete have set of Preston H/R’s bedded at 50
degrees with skewed irons. They’re right up there near
the top.

9. You favorite chisels:
While I use my Two Cherries for about everything, I
also use a few oldies that I use for paring. But my
favorite chisels are the set of Stanley 750’s that my
grandfather gave me. Complete set of 8, with all the
labels on the handles. Very nice.

10. Your favorite handsaw(s):
I guess that my favorite hand saw would be the LN
crosscut saw that I’m currently using to cut the bulk
of my joinery. Cuts fast and feels good in the hand.
But my big Disston crosscut comes in a close second.

11. Do you use western tools or Japanese, why do you
prefer the ones you use:
I prefer western tools, but I will admit that the
Japanese crosscut saws work much faster than the old
Disstons.

12. Do you have a woodworking home page:
madhunkyworkshop
I’ve done the page myself, and spent a lot of time
getting it just right. Anyone with some inputs on it
or suggestions please let me know. I’m always open to
suggestions. Now for the name… Mad Hunky Workshop,
LLC. I’m Hungarian, and when I was younger my
grandfather always affectionately called me a “dumb
Hunky”. Since my wife always thought me to be a bit
mad, I just kind of went with it. By no means is it a
way of calling myself a hunk. That couldn’t be further
from reality.

13. Do you have any influences in your work? Certain
styles or designers you follow/prefer:
I really like federal period furniture, but simply
lack the attention span to do a true reproduction. I’m
greatly influenced by the work of Garrett Hack. Having
the opportunity to spend some time with him, I went
over all of his pieces looking for errors. After being
unable to find any I was quite disheartened. That
pushed me and made me realize that it is possible to
make a perfect piece with hand tools. I’ve pretty much
tried to get to that point in the last three years,
pushing myself to get that piece that I can actually
say is “perfect”. Still working on that, but I’m
almost there.

14. Do you have any ancestors who were woodworkers
that served as inspiration?
When I was younger I remember working with my Dad. He
couldn’t cut two boards the same length to save his
life. Now he borrows tools from me. He did teach me
what not to do. Thanks Dad.

15. What is your favorite neander project, or part of
a project, you have ever done and why:
I don’t have a particular project that is my favorite,
but cutting molding is my favorite thing to do in the
shop. I just love it. I enjoy sharpening the irons,
and setting them just so. I like to do complex
profiles with hollows and rounds. I just love
molding.

16. Do you believe there is any spiritual dimension to
woodworking with hand tools:
No, I’m not a very spiritual person.

17. How much of your work is done by hand tools. Do
you use whatever is best for the job or do you use
hand tools even when they are less efficient:
I do use whatever is best for the job, but a lot of
the time that is hand tools. I use the jointer to
surface joint, the thickness planer on stuff thinner
than 10”. I use the band saw to rough everything out,
and a router to do the bulk of my mortises. But other
than that most of the work is done by hand. I don’t
use them for any reason other than I think they work
well. I cut dovetails by hand because there are
patterns and design that can’t be duplicated with
machines. I plane my surfaces because there is a
difference. I’m probably as “Old School” as a
youngster can get.

18. What is your single most favorite tool, and why.
The LN 60 ½ is probably my favorite and most used. But
I use a #5 an awful lot too. I use it for about
everything except final surface finish.



Steve Wargo - Cabinetmaker
http://madhunkyworkshop.com