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Welcome to Tj's Woodshop
I'm glad you found my place, take a little time to look around and I hope you enjoy the website and seeing some of the things I have made.
What's New
10/26/19
I just want to thank everyone for the kind words that have been sent to us about our Fluffers who crossed over the rainbow bridge yesterday. Here's a little background on her and my wife who I think of and often refer to as the crazy animal woman. I didn't know it when we were first married, but I have since discovered that my wife thinks that our home is a privately funded animal rescue shelter. Come to think of it, I guess it is.
When we were first married, I lived out in the county and had a golden lab that was a retired drug dog from a local police department and she brought two cats with her when she moved in, Jake and Gena. A few months later Fluffers wandered into our yard with one of her front legs stuck in her collar. She was very skinny and hungry and became the first stray that my wife took in. Over the almost 16 years that we have been married, my wife has taken in 8 more stray cats, along with 3 dogs. Jake died a few years ago so now my wife takes care of 11 animals daily, 12 if you include me.
There's no telling how much we spend on the 4 legged kids food and health care every year, we don't keep track of it. It's also a daily struggle trying to keep our house clean, but our home is full of love and these short legged members of our family make us laugh every day, so it's worth it to us.
10/20/19
Something to think about.
When you buy something created by an artist or craftsman, you're not just buying an object or a decoration. You're buying part of that persons life that they used while making the piece. A part they can never get back.
A lot of time you're also buying their blood, sweat and tears as well. There's no telling how much blood that I have lost over the 34 years that I have been doing woodwork when a blade broke or I wasn't paying as much attention as I should have been.
I have spent days cutting on a piece, one hole at a time and have it break during the final cuts or while I was sanding. I've even made it all the way to the end of the process and have dropped a few pieces while I was getting them ready to ship to see them shatter on my shop's floor. That's heartbreaking.
The next time you look at something handmade, maybe it's something that you would like to buy or maybe it's something that someone made for you. Don't just think of the price of the materials that went into creating it, that isn't the important part. Think about the part of the persons life and their energy that they put into it. That's what makes handmade objects so special and truly one of a kind.
5/10/19
After a year long break from my shop due to an old injury, I'm back in it and was able to finally finish up on Noah's Ark. I recut a few pieces that I didn't like and then finished the shaping, hand sanding. This evening I finished the last of the 3 coats of hand rubbed gel polyurethane finish, gluing it together and gluing it to the backer. Now all I have to do is frame it and deliver it. For anyone that's new to intarsia, the colors that you see in this piece are the natural colors of the different woods that I used to make it.
7/4/18
The colors you see in this piece are the natural colors of the different woods. The reason this piece came about is because I'm about to have a grandson any day now who's name will be Noah and I wanted to make something special for him. I saw this design that my friend Bruce Worthington drew and knew it was what I wanted to make for Noah. I'm in no hurry on this one so I'm taking my time on the shaping. I will add some finished photos at a later date.
6/16/18
One of my favorites! S&W E Series. The grips are hybrids that I made using ancient Kauri which is the oldest workable wood in the world. It comes from New Zealand, where it has been buried underground for over 50,000 years.
5/28/18
I been working a lot in the shop over the last month on my hybrid fretwork and 1911 grips. I have a awesome hybrid fretwork piece that I'm hoping to finish in the next week. All I'll say about it right now is there's 3 different resin colors blended with a beautiful piece of wood. It will be a one of a kind scrollsaw piece when I'm finished. Until then, here's a couple of new hybrid pieces.
The cross is made from maple.
The first photo is one of my dragons that I cut from red oak. It's a traditional fretwork piece. The second is one of my hybrid fretwork pieces using the same design that I changed up a little to make it work better with the resins.
4/20/18
As y'all have probably noticed, I've been experimenting with a little mixed media over the last couple of months. I started out with adding the resins to my 1911 grips and that started me thinking about adding it to my fretwork. Through the old trial and error process I have wasted a lot of time, a bunch of expensive wood and a whole lot of resins, but now I have it down to where I'm comfortable with sharing my process. This last week I've been in touch with a editor from one of the magazines that has featured some of my stuff in the past and there should be a new feature coming soon where I'll be explaining the process to do this. I'll let everyone know what the magazine is and when it will be on the stands when it gets a little closer. Thank all of you again for all your support!
3/22/18
Here's something new that some of y'all might like. This is what is known as hybrid 1911 grips. It's a mix of wood and resins where you mix different colored dyes and differnt colored pearl chips. The wood I used for these is Ancient Kauri from New Zealand. It is the oldest workable wood in the world. Kauri trees were preserved by the oxygen depleted bogs in which they fell and the wood has been confirmed to be at least 50,000 years old. I thought it would be some cool wood to use for my first set of hybrids and I like the way they turned out.
2/18/18
Below is a couple of sets of 1911 grips that I just finished. The top set is made from some cherry that I milled about ten years ago and I used Tigerwood for the bottom set.
You can click on the blue link below to go to my woodshop page on Facebook. There's lots of new stuff there along with a few videos showing me cutting on the scrollsaw.
Thanks to everyone for all the emails you have sent and all of your comments about my work, please feel free to contact me anytime with any questions or comments you may have.
If you are a member of a woodworking club and you're interested in setting up a scroll saw class for fretwork or intarsia at your location, you can contact me at the address below.
1/1/18
Happy New Year!
12/29/17
A quick photo from my shop showing some 1911 grips I recently made.
11/22/17
One of my Razorbacks that I cut from cherry.
11/12/17
A new Intarsia panther I just finished. The original design came from Judy Gale Roberts. Judy is the lady that taught me how to do this kind of woodwork. I used western red cedar, aspen and walnut in this project. This one was claimed by my wife to replace the one I sold a few years ago. Maybe now she'll forgive me for that, lol.
Here's something y'all might like. It's a old Remington Rand 1911 from WWII with the inspector's initials (FJA) stamped on it. One of my friends brought it to me and it was in pretty rough shape. At sometime in the past it had been nickel plated and had some deep pitting. My friend and his wife wanted it cleaned up and refinished so they could have it put in a shadow box to display in their house because it belonged to her father who died when she was nine months old. They are not worried about the value since it will never be sold. The sentimental value is the only thing that matters to them so they also wanted a set of my grips on it. I took it to my friend Don Mongold who is a gunsmith and he put a Cerakote finish on it. I picked it up today and put a set of flamed walnut grips that I made on it and here's how it turned out. I am very honored to have something I made displayed on this family heirloom.
7/20/17
It's been a unbelievably busy year for me and I haven't been updating here like I should. I wanted to show y'all a new design of mine, a tribal razorback. As always, thanks for stopping in and for all your support over the years! TJB
7/31/16
If you're on Facebook, you can click on the photo below to go to my woodworking page there.
1/15/16
Weather permitting, I'll be at Mark's Machinery on Towson Avenue here in Fort Smith on Saturday, January 30th. at 10:00 am.
I'll be giving a free demonstration on some basic methods of creating fretwork and intarsia using a scrollsaw. You'll also get to meet Mark and his family and check out the best equipped woodworking store in the western Arkansas, eastern Oklahoma area.
I'll bring a few pieces of both that I've made to show what you can do with a scrollsaw and share some of the tricks I've learned over 30 years of scrolling. When it's over, you'll have a basic understanding of scrolling and know if this is a hobby that you're interested in getting into.
Here's a link to Mark's Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/MarksMachineryandMore74948/?fref=ts
8/1/15
After a two year break to rest up, I'm back in the shop again and really enjoying myself. Over the last couple of years I've been doing a lot of target shooting and started playing around with making grips for my favorite pistol, the 1911. I'll be adding a page soon just for them. Once again, thank y'all for staying in touch and for all the support and encouragement you give me!
1/19/15
Most of you have probably noticed that I have taken a break from my woodwork. I had been going at it non-stop for many years and I wanted to step back and enjoy life a little. My wife and I became foster parents in June of 2013 so I decided to spend some time being a dad again. Anyway, I'll be back in the shop again before you know it. As always, thank you for all your support. TJB
8/29/13
Here's some information about the event from Melissa Wilson who is the Director of Recreation Therapy. Melissa writes, we are a long term care facility that cares for 200 of America’s He...roes. Our youngest Veteran is in his 40’s and our oldest is getting ready to turn 101 years old. Each year we host a “Family Day” (this year is 9/14/13) for all the Veterans, friends and family. It is from 10:00 am-2:00 pm with usually about 800-1000 people in attendance. We offer entertainment throughout the day, kettle corn, wheelchair accessible horse drawn wagon rides and numerous other things to make it a day of fun.
3/13/13
Former senator Jake Files and me outside his office at the Arkansas state capital. He was a member of our State Senate and had just introduced me and a couple of pieces of intarsia I made on the senate floor.
I found out recently that my Beer Shark will be in the May issue of Creative Woodworks & Crafts magazine. That issue will be hitting the stores March 26th.
This project came about one night when I was just goofing around in my shop and made this for my own amusement. And for my friends on Facebook to get a laugh out of. I didn't think it would end up in one of the magazines, but it's a fun project that I think everyone will enjoy.
8/15/12
I went to the SAW expo in Springfield Missouri to hang out and meet with friends. It was pretty cool to find one of my designs entered into the scroll saw contest and getting to meet the man who had cut it.
1/5/12
I just checked my websites stats page and saw that I had over 135,000 views here last year. WOW! Thank ya'll for your interest!
1/1/12
You can see my new intarsia rose and get the pattern in the February 2012 issue of Creative Woodworks & Crafts magazine. It's named A Rose for Emily in honor of my new granddaughter.
12/30/11
I want to say thank you to everyone that has sent something for me to hang in the shop over this last year! Especially the license plates that have been coming in for the last month from my facebook friends.
I really love all the cool and quirky stuff ya'll have sent!!!
11/14/11
11/3/11
This is my new design that I named Emily's Rose. It will be featured in the February 2012 issue of Creative Woodworks & Crafts magazine.
Teaching a scrolling class at Ozark Folkways in Winslow, Arkansas 9/10/11
Most of the photos you see on here of my work were shot by James McFadin. You can see more of his beautiful work on his website.
http://mcfadinphotography.smugmug.com/
I just want to thank everyone for the kind comments about our Fluffers who crossed over the rainbow bridge yesterday. Here's a little background on her and my wife who I think of and often refer to as the crazy animal woman. I didn't know it when we were first married, but I have since discovered that my wife thinks that our home is a privately funded animal rescue shelter. Come to think of it, I guess it is.
When we were first married, I had a golden lab that was a retired drug dog from a local police department and she brought two cats with her when she moved in, Jake and Gena. A few months later Fluffers wandered into our yard with one of her front legs stuck in her collar. She was very skinny and hungry and became the first stray that my wife took in. Over the almost 16 years that we have been married, my wife has taken in 8 more stray cats, along with 3 dogs. Jake died a few years ago so now my wife takes care of 11 animals daily, 12 if you include me.
I just want to thank everyone for the kind comments about our Fluffers who crossed over the rainbow bridge yesterday. Here's a little background on her and my wife who I think of and often refer to as the crazy animal woman. I didn't know it when we were first married, but I have since discovered that my wife thinks that our home is a privately funded animal rescue shelter. Come to think of it, I guess it is.
When we were first married, I had a golden lab that was a retired drug dog from a local police department and she brought two cats with her when she moved in, Jake and Gena. A few months later Fluffers wandered into our yard with one of her front legs stuck in her collar. She was very skinny and hungry and became the first stray that my wife took in. Over the almost 16 years that we have been married, my wife has taken in 8 more stray cats, along with 3 dogs. Jake died a few years ago so now my wife takes care of 11 animals daily, 12 if you include me.
I just want to thank everyone for the kind comments about our Fluffers who crossed over the rainbow bridge yesterday. Here's a little background on her and my wife who I think of and often refer to as the crazy animal woman. I didn't know it when we were first married, but I have since discovered that my wife thinks that our home is a privately funded animal rescue shelter. Come to think of it, I guess it is.
When we were first married, I had a golden lab that was a retired drug dog from a local police department and she brought two cats with her when she moved in, Jake and Gena. A few months later Fluffers wandered into our yard with one of her front legs stuck in her collar. She was very skinny and hungry and became the first stray that my wife took in. Over the almost 16 years that we have been married, my wife has taken in 8 more stray cats, along with 3 dogs. Jake died a few years ago so now my wife takes care of 11 animals daily, 12 if you include me.
I just want to thank everyone for the kind comments about our Fluffers who crossed over the rainbow bridge yesterday. Here's a little background on her and my wife who I think of and often refer to as the crazy animal woman. I didn't know it when we were first married, but I have since discovered that my wife thinks that our home is a privately funded animal rescue shelter. Come to think of it, I guess it is.
When we were first married, I had a golden lab that was a retired drug dog from a local police department and she brought two cats with her when she moved in, Jake and Gena. A few months later Fluffers wandered into our yard with one of her front legs stuck in her collar. She was very skinny and hungry and became the first stray that my wife took in. Over the almost 16 years that we have been married, my wife has taken in 8 more stray cats, along with 3 dogs. Jake died a few years ago so now my wife takes care of 11 animals daily, 12 if you include me.
Emily's rose and the pattern is in the February 2012 issue of Creative Woodworks & Crafts magazine. It's named A Rose for Emily.
You can see one of the dragons I cut in the summer issue of Scrollsaw Woodworking and Crafts magazine.
There's a small feature about my woodwork in Issue 36 of Scrollsaw Woodworking & Crafts magazine. It's in the section called Sawdust by Kathleen Ryan. 
I want to thank the Alaska Creative Woodworkers Association for bringing me up and being the most wonderful hosts a person could ask for. There are no words to describe the place or the people, it's just somewhere you have to experience to believe.
One of the new pieces I cut is in the current fall 2011 issue of Scrollsaw Woodworking and Crafts Magazine. It's the starburst designed by Fred Arndt.
There's a small write up about my woodwork in the readers gallery in the November issue of Creative Woodworks & Crafts Magazine.
If you get a chance, check out the hand carved snake walking sticks by Jackie Hardin in the link below. They were photographed by Jim McFadin and are on Jim's website.
http://www.mcfadinphotography.com/Product-Photography/Jackie-Hardin/17976346_WSKCv6#1376912674_n9NsfL