My bride and I got back from St Louis Sunday night, after attending the Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event on Saturday. I had a chance to visit several friends who were displaying their wonderful tools, in addition to the Lie-Nielsen amazing display of iron:

Lie-Nielsen hand plane display in St Louis, Missouri.

The venue was the shop of Dr. Kent Adkins:

Part of the Adkins shop.

Adkins has become an accomplished carver:

Carving detail.

The drawer detail was amazing, and impeccable:

Drawer detail.

With all the hand planes around during the show, the following super shaving caught my eye:

THIS is a super plane shaving!

A super planer can produce such a shaving — already at work for these demos, it is a recent arrival that will be commissioned shortly:

The new super planer.

Sandy and I were glad to attend the Event in St Louis. Above everything else, we were glad to have a chance to visit old friends, and to have a chance to meet new friends.

To say we were amazed at the Adkins shop would be an understatement. The most amazing discovery was Adkins’ dedication to the craft, his love of working with wood, and the process of creating with his tools and with his hands. I can only imagine the wonderful furniture he will build in the future, as he fills his home with his creations. He already has at the top his to-do list an amazing piece I would love to be able to share at some point. It is beyond me how he is able to accomplish so much, given what I can only imagine is an extremely busy practice.

I thank Dr. Adkins and his wife for their hospitality during our visit. I will prepare a slide show of the remaining photos I snapped during the visit, and will share it here on the blog.

— Al Navas