Blank walls

Like many other woodworkers, I spend a half decent amount … okay, far too much … time on social media. Social media offers us all a chance to see makers, techniques, finished projects and workshops from all over the world. I love seeing recently finished work from skilled makers, not to mention learn about the amazing techniques they used to create those pieces.

Lots of shops

It’s while looking at these posts that I also get to see the inside of a lot of workshops. From cavernous to closet-sized, tidy to turbulent, there’s a bit of everything in the background of these reels and images. We woodworkers love our tools, don’t we? After all, I have always thought tools equal potential, so it’s not surprising we all like to have the incredible potential of tools right within arm’s reach.

When it comes to the different shops I see, I’m good with seeing messy or tidy, big or small, new or old. Everyone is out there just doing the best they can in the space they have. But what always surprises me is that there are so many shops with blank walls. Sure, this is obviously the case in a large 1,000-square-foot shop, where there’s just simply too much wall space to cover, but even these shop walls are quite often 99% blank. And the most fascinating thing to me is how someone with a tiny shop can have even one square foot of blank space on their walls without immediately driving a screw into a stud and hanging some sort of jig, tool or shelf on it.

Maybe it's me

My shop walls are almost all completely covered with some sort of shop object. Jigs and fixtures, upper and lower storage cabinets, medium-sized machines, power tools and hand tools are hung everywhere. I do have a fairly well-equipped shop, which is great, but even if I had much less stuff, I’d still have as much of it on the walls as possible, rather than in storage cabinets, which only take up valuable floor space. Having a tool on the wall also allows you to sweep under it when cleaning the floor.

New to shop life?

If you’re a new woodworker reading this column, you’re off the hook. I understand what it’s like to not have a lot of tools, as that’s the boat I was in when I started years ago. You’re allowed to have blank walls. I’m sure you, more than anyone else, want to see those walls covered with tools in the very near future.

In fact, if you email me a photo of your large, blank wall I’ll choose the person most in need of a new tool and send you something from my stash. I’ve tested many tools over the years, and have some I don’t use. Whether it’s because I have doubles of a certain product, because it runs on a different battery platform I regularly use, or it’s a tool I just don’t use, I’d rather it be on your wall, providing you with a bit of added potential.