A woodworker by any other name…

If you haven’t yet stumbled across Darbin Orvar, then you need to step right… over… here.

If you’re more of a watcher and not a reader, then do note she has a very active YouTube channel.

One of her latest videos, which covers 15 uses for bees wax, is not terribly long, but so useful to woodworkers and non-woodworkers alike it requires special consideration. Get a pen and paper and take some notes (or just go to her blog post on the topic), pick up a hotplate and some aluminum pots at Goodwill, and get to it.

Oh, what’s that you say?  You don’t have any leather to care for, outdoor furniture to protect, fabric to waterproof, nails you want to drive easier/faster, matches you want to light in the rain, skin to hydrate, drawers to slide, wooden spoons to recondition, table saw tops to attend, cutting boards to renew, hand saws to make work easier, fires to start, iron to protect from rust or, ummm… oily Danish people to wax?

Yeah, thought so.  I’ll wait while you get your pen.

Of course now I totally feel justified in the purchase of this huge bag of bees wax I stumbled across at an estate sale a few weeks ago for $2, even though I have a full pound of it sitting in a bag at home. Sometimes you see a deal and you don’t know quite what you might do with it, but you KNOW it isn’t something you should pass up. (I didn’t have to do anything to justify buying the seven Swiss rifflers for a buck a piece.)

I can also put some of those bottles my wife complains I keep squirreling away to good use!

After you’ve spent a bit of time reading the fun words she writes and listening to the things she says in that great lilted accent, maybe you’ll see what I saw. Not necessarily someone who is a mind-boggling expert in woodworking, but someone:
* with obvious skill and talent
* who is utterly passionate about what she’s doing
* who isn’t afraid to experiment and play around with different techniques
* who loves repurposing and reusing to reduce waste to a bare minimum (she uses the stone dust residue from inside her tile saw to make grout, for Pete’s sake! WOW!)
* who keeps her Bourbon in a crystal decanter
* who has great presence in front of the camera
* who has fun doing what she does
* with a good eye for woodworking design and videography and editing

Most importantly, she is active. She is energy incarnate! You might not be interested in everything she’s doing, but surely something in her shotgun blast of topics is going to catch your eye. And you’re going to be inspired to stop reading my blog (give me just another minute, though! And just at this moment in time; obviously, I don’t want you to forever stop reading the words that I write!) and get out in your shop and just… build! Even if the end result isn’t perfect, even if you don’t have the most expensive and rare tools or a fully decked out shop! Do!  And you’ll learn something and hopefully have fun. She is the embodiment of the motto of that inebriated wooden somethingorother guy… Make Something!

By the way… her name is Linn.  Darbin is the dog.

Cheers,

TKW