Groopshop 2019

I recently attended and spoke at Groopshop 2019, about 25 miles southeast of Minneapolis on our friend Matt’s farm.  I do not recall the finally tally of attendees but I’m estimating about 60 folks convened for three days of intense fellowship and exchanging of knowledge and ideas related to the furniture restoration enterprise.

My talks were on the topics of insect eradication in infested wooden objects (video recorded en toto and certainly to make it to the interwebz at some point) and toolmaking, especially low tech tool making as part of the restorer’s art.

Topics for the other presentations and demonstrations included the far-flung topics of Wood Finishing Terminology, Custom/Production guitar Finishing, Repairing Metal Hardware, Leather Repair, Museum Upholstery, Polishing Out Finishes, Reactive Colorants In/On Wood, History and Technology Of Aerosols, Government Regulations for Refinishing Shops, and many more.

The sessions were interspersed with eating and small groups congregating, and I look forward to our next gathering.  A truly grand time was had by all.

Since its beginning Groop has been a moderated email forum but we learned that on Jan 1 it transitions into a private Facebook discussion group.