We have a new home on the Internet!

After months of working hard to build the new JD Lohr School of Woodworking website last year, it only made sense that we devote the first few months of the new year to a new furniture site as well, right? The wait is over, folks! Built in-house (like all things Lohr-related), are proud to announce that the Lohr Woodworking Studio now has a new, updated website to pair with that of our woodworking school!

The new www.lohrwoodworkingstudio.com is completely loaded with (but not limited to) information about us (the makers), the history of Lohr Woodworking, photos and descriptions of all of our handcrafted studio and live edge furniture, as well as how to commission a piece of your own! Because both the woodworking school and our furniture-making studio are active, essential parts of Lohr Woodworking, Inc. and all that we love to do every day, we are excited to provide customers, visitors, future students, and alumni with these two sites to explore. We hope that they offer the chance to gain some insight into who we are and what we're about. We are grateful to all of those students, clients, and visitors who have spent time with us and hope that those who haven't will be able to use our new internet location(s) to develop an idea of what lives and grows within the walls of our woodshop in Schwenksville.

Take a few minutes to peruse the new internet home of the Lohr Woodworking Studio and let us know what you think! We do have some additions in mind for the near future but, couldn't wait for the site launch any longer. And, be sure to keep your eye out for regular updates as well as additional custom furniture pieces as they are created and built.

Snow calls for firewood

The apprentice learns more new tricks! To say the least, it's been quite a winter in Pennsylvania this year. As a result, we have been using up firewood like crazy. We heat the shop via a fire barrel stove that needs to be fed regularly to keep the climate inside this big building comfortable enough to work every day. After weeks with temperatures between -10 and 15 degrees, the dried firewood supply has dwindled.

On the first day that snow wasn't actually falling from the sky last week, we took to the yard and turned logs into tinder. Jeff manned the tractor, delivering big logs to areas of hard, snow-free ground. Rob fired up the chainsaw and cut the logs down to reasonable lengths. And, thus, I was left to chop. Swinging a giant (well, 'giant' for a girl who is 5' 4" on a good day) maul over my head and managing to land in a place that splits a log in half is not something I would have anticipated to be part of my skill set; but, consider it added to the resume, ladies and gentlemen. Not only did I actually manage so split firewood, I didn't even break my wrist(s). Score!

As the winter seems to have no sympathy and we are forced to welcome another 4" of snow today, there is least somewhat warmth within the walls of the shop (and my upper body strength is increasingly more impressive). Rob is still hard at work perfecting the design and techniques to build the small wall cabinet that will compose our soon-to-be third level course so keep your eye out for updates on that. In the meanwhile, enroll in Practical Woodworking and/or Advanced Joinery in 2014 so you can join us for the new course when it's launched!

Until next time, I hope that everyone in the local areas is staying warm and safe in this horrendous winter.

Designing a Third Level Woodworking Course!

Great news for JD Lohr School of Woodworking alumni: We are working hard on designing a brand new, third level advanced woodworking course!

By popular demand, we have started the plans, design, and prototypes for the wall cabinet that will be the project for students who return to the shop for a third level course. This project will step up the skill and technique levels from the Advanced Joinery course. In it's roughest planning stages, we know the course will include but not be limited to veneering, frame and panel construction, door making, and a different style of drawer construction.

This third level course will be open only to the alumni of our Advanced Joinery course so, if you haven't taken our first or second level course yet, don't miss the opportunity. Practical Woodworking, our introduction course, is perfect for all skill and experience levels to learn safe and practical methods for woodworking via building a red oak hall table. Advanced Joinery kicks things up a few notches as students get their hands dirty with dovetail joinery, floating shelf construction, Greene & Greene style breadboard ends, and drawer construction. And now, we are excited to challenge students even more with a whole new set of skills built into a new class!

We hope to have the new course organized and prepared to launch before the end of this year but, I will keep you updated on that news as it unfolds. We are excited and hope our alumni are too! Keep your eye out for more updates on this class as we perfect the design and curriculum.

Practical Woodworking & Rob's Evergrowing Stardome

The new year was kicked off with the 'weekend warrior' edition of our Practical Woodworking course! What better way to start 2014 than with a group of wonderful woodworking students sharing the shop with us for two long weekends?

Keith, Brad, Esther, Cait, Carol, Bob, Dave, and Steve, Steve, and Steve were a perfect crew to host. Each student was eager to learn and successfully created their own unique red oak hall table. As usual, it was 6 days filled with practical woodworking skills, safety, tools, machines, joinery, jigs, and technique. Most of these students were virtual beginners to the craft and they all did a beautiful job.

We want to congratulate the first Practical Woodworking graduates of 2014 and thank them for, not only being pleasant company, but having an unwavering interest and dedication to learning and practicing the skills. Any and all of the ten of you are welcome back to the shop any time! We wish you the best of luck in all your future woodworking endeavors. These alumni, along with all others, are welcome and encouraged to send along any photos of future projects for us to share on our Alumni Furniture Gallery!

And, Rob has proven himself worthy of fame yet again. Not only was he featured in Woodcraft Magazine TWICE in the past few months but, now he is an alumni face of Northamton Community College on billboards around the Lehigh Valley area! Rocking plaid (as usual) and armed with a caliper, he is advertised as a notable NCC Grad with the title of Furniture Craftsman. If you are in or around the Lehigh Valley area, keep your eyes out for our superstar Lohr Woodworking team member.

Lohr School of Woodworking Alumni Furniture Gallery!

I've been lucky to have spent the day going through our collection of alumni furniture photos so that we can put them up on our new website in a slideshow gallery to share.  These are pieces that students have made after their time with us here in the shop.  I must say that this is an amazing collection of work in all different styles and we can't be more proud to say that these individuals are our students. The furniture in this gallery represents countless hours of our students' work.  Woodworking and furniture making/design is a labor of passion for many students and some have even branched out to start their own businesses! It's been a pleasure to put all of these photos in one place.

Thank you to those alumni students that shared their photos with us and if any of you have any finished work that you'd like included, send us pictures!

Feel encouraged to admire the JD Lohr School of Woodworking Alumni Furniture Gallery here

The Affordable Healthcare Act helps JD Lohr Woodworking!

While we've all heard various media complaints about the Affordable Care Act, all of us here at JD Lohr Woodworking can say is that the new law and the ability to enroll sure was fantastic for us. As a company benefit, we were offered enrollment with a leading health care provider. Better yet, we even had plan options!

We all are relieved to finally be able to have respectable "real" health insurance provided by the company. Boss man Jeff is ecstatic as he was previously unable to get health insurance due to the earlier pre-existing conditions clause insurance companies were able to use to cherry pick who they insured. In the end, January 1, 2014 was a big day for employees of JD Lohr Woodworking as we rang in the new year by finally getting respectable health insurance. It's comforting to know that as a small, hard-working business, we can all rely on staying healthy to keep the eager woodworking students educated and the one-of-a-kind furniture being made! We still, however, committed to keeping our fingers.

Photographs of Our Latest Finished Live Edge Tables

As promised, I am excited to share with you, readers, some of the photographs that Eoin so skillfully captured of our three live edge tables before they were shipped to South America! The photographs speak a thousand words so I will only label them with a brief description. We are happy and proud to have been commissioned to make these pieces. We hope that they'll be enjoyed by visitors to the Vik Hotels in Chile and Uruguay for years to come. If you're interested, read about the history of the projects from day one in my previous posts: the beginning stages, dovetail bone joinery and oiling, and packing and shipping

Live Edge Bigleaf Maple Burl coffee table with figured, curly Maple base

Curved joint with Maple dovetail bones joining the two Bigleaf Maple slabs together to compose the top of the coffee table

The textured live edge of the Bigleaf Maple slabs with bark removed contrasts perfectly with the straight, angled base

Brown Oak Burl live edge table with turned legs and Walnut dovetail bones

Brown Oak Burl live edge table top with natural voids left in their natural state in the vein of George Nakashima style

Live Edge Chestnut Oak table with turned legs and Walnut dovetail bones

Walnut dovetail bones used to strengthen and ensure the natural splits and cracks don't grow over time

And, finally, the proud Lohr Woodworking team sitting on the finished coffee table to show it's strength and functionality. Cheers to another successfully finished project, gentlemen!