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Eastern Massachussetts Guild of Woodworkers

Upcoming Guild Events

January 04, 2025 9:00 AM • Eliot School of Fine and Applied Arts, 24 Eliot St, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
February 08, 2025 9:00 AM • Needham Furniture Makers (590 Hillside Ave, Needham, MA 02494) and virtual on Zoom
March 08, 2025 9:00 AM • Walpole Woodcraft
April 12, 2025 9:00 AM • Walpole Woodcraft 3 Walpole Park S, Walpole, MA 02081

New EMGW Project - Dustpan and Brush

Howard Barnstone was inspired by Aspen Golann's article Make a Wooden Brush in Fine Woodworking issue #296-MAY/JUN 2022 (https://www.finewoodworking.com/2022/04/07/make-a-wooden-brush). After making a brush along with the accompanying wooden dustpan, he has volunteered to lead a small group of EMGW members in making their own brush and dustpan. This is a modest project that requires a combination of hand and power tools, and allows for individual creativity in choice of woods.  Howard will provide the bristles.


Interested?  Please send an email to Howard before Christmas.  hlbarnstone2@gmail.com


Upcoming Non-Guild Events

August 21, 2024 10:00 AM • 35 Duncan Street, Haverhill, MA 01830
February 07, 2025 9:00 AM • Historic Deerfield’s Deerfield Community Center 16 Memorial Street Deerfield, MA 01342

Woodworking Tip for January 2025 Modified Pencil Sharpener


Final Guild Project Update - Make a Shave Horse

The Shave Horse Project group followed up their initial meeting with a horse round up rodeo where seven horses returned to Ed Payne's shop. The build process and horse features were compared and discussed.


See more details and pictures


Make a Chair Slip Seat

Mike Mascelli

November 9, 2024

Credits Tom Shirley (Photos) and Vincent Valvo (Photo Formatting)


Rope Tension Snare Drums, Process and Demonstration

Bill Whitney, CalderWood Percussion Instruments

September 2024

Credits Vincent Valvo

Bevel Cut

Remember the Asymptote!

by Andrew Davis

Have you ever tried to make the decision to purchase a tool not based on the anticipated workload of a project?  In this month's Bevel Cut article Andrew helps by walking through the logic involved in making that decision. 

Read Remember the Asymptote! then add it to your woodworking binder for later reference.

Andrew welcomes your feedback.

Measure Twice, Cut Once - Wisdom From the Shop

Mistakes are Stories

by Rob Carver


There is not a woodworker alive who has not made a mistake on just about every project. Some mistakes are easily corrected while others are not and may require abandoning a component.

Rob's article investigates these mistakes and what makes the story associated with a mistake worth relating to others.  This goes beyond woodworking mistakes. There is more in the article than this little intro, so click Mistakes are Stories.  How do you decide which stories are worth telling? 

You can reach Rob by clicking Rob Carver.

Cape Cod Subgroup

Six of the eleven members of EMGW's Cape Cod subgroup met July 25 2024 at the home/workshop of Josh Shapiro in Chatham. We got a tour of Josh’s well-equipped shop which he assembled over the past 8 months, starting with an empty room.  Josh buys used equipment exclusively and shared with the group his tips for buying equipment on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and other venues.  Contact Andrew if you are in or near the Cape Cod area.  - Andrew Davis

Pictured from left to right are Steven Contin, Walter Henry, Andrew Davis, Josh Shapiro, Mike Walter, Rob Aronson.


Featured Piece of the Month

Walnut Box with Curly Maple Lining

by Bob McKee


Bob McKee has been a wonderful contributor to the FPOM. This is his 6th impressive submission. This month Bob describes his elegant walnut box with banding and a curly maple interior. The piece has a nice family story to go with it's creation. Open the Walnut Box article to get the details.

Feedback is welcome Bob McKee

Our backlog of Featured Piece articles is getting critically low. Please submit anything that may interest others in the guild. It would be a shame for this space to be empty in future newsletters.


Consider submitting an article to be published once we return to the start of the Program Year 2024-2025.  Remember this column is not necessarily dedicated to furniture pieces.  Tools, jigs, processes, and other woodworking related themes are also relevant.

Map of Member Locations


For in-person meetings, the possibility to carpool to monthly and FIG meetings, and other group gatherings may be of use to you.  Tom Shirley has updated the Member Map as of February, 2024 that displays members' locations on a Google map.  This is private information, so to access the map ou must be logged in.  To interact with the map, simply click the map above.  You can also click Member Map from the Member Map dropdown list.  Once there you can pan, zoom in and out, and click a pin to see the member's name and location.

EMGW Board of Directors 2024-2025

The following members were elected to the EMGW Board of Directors for the Program Year 2024 - 2025.

President: Rob Carver

Vice-President: Andrew Davis

Treasurer: John LeJeune

Secretary: Tom Shirley

Mentoring in EMGW

Mentoring in the Guild takes many forms.  Everything from a brief conversation or email on a particular technique to a full-blown cooperative effort to build an entire piece.  Most mentoring occurs informally among members.  However, the Mentor Program provides an easy way, especially for new members, to get involved in mentoring.  Members listed on the Mentor Program page of this website have expressed a willingness to help other members in a variety of ways.

To read more about the Mentor Program, click here or navigate to About Us then Mentor Program.  To see the list of Mentor members with their interests and contact information, click here or navigate to Members then Mentors.

Starting out in Woodworking? EMGW Members Compiled a Guidebook for You

Considering getting into woodworking?  A team of members of EMGW has written a guidebook targeted for new woodworkers and a refresher for other woodworkers.

The guidebook is complimentary.  It can be viewed and downloaded for your reading pleasure.  We hope that reading the guidebook will engender interest in woodworking and membership in our guild.  Click here for a priceless copy.

Considerable work has already gone into renewing older and securing new discounts from various sources.  To review the list on the website you must first login then click Members and then Special Membership Discounts.

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