Musings

WIA Day 0 Minus 1 – Chris Vesper

On the eve of departing for Woodworking in America we were delighted to host a brief visit from Chris Vesper, toolmaker extraordinaire whose handiworks are simply the standard in my opinion.  Chris wrote me about a month ago saying he was flying into Richmond as the terminus for his flight from Australia, and after 36 hours in the Williamsburg area we saw his headlights peeking up the driveway.  His navigation was mighty good as we are pretty much beyond cell service, but apparently not beyond satellite.  I need to remember that fact…

cIMG_6968

Chris had an amazing tale of woe relating to his two suitcases of tools being confiscated by the Customs clowns in Dallas.  He hoped but did not know for sure the tools would show up in time to set up his booth.  As you can see from the picture above, in the end it did work out although he had to pony up some pretty serious unexpected express shipping fees.

After dining we set about to commencing to talk, and it was well past midnight when we turned in.  the next morning we toured the barn and then he headed off for Winston Salem.  We followed him a couple of hours later, arriving just in time for a late supper with the friends we were visiting.