Our relationship with Scott Phillips began over 40 years ago when, as a forestry student, he came for a tour of our sawmill. Scott remembers that day very well, “I thought, man, this is heaven…because you sold these wonderful woods. And what’s been neat for me, is to see you grow. I got to see Johnson’s Workbench, your retail division, at its very beginning.” For the past 18 years, we have enjoyed Scott’s involvement in our fall wood shows.

LLJ: Are you seeing any new interest in woodworking?
SCOTT: In America for years we saw declining numbers of independent home woodworkers. And I call that the Microsoft years -- where the digital age won over the imagination of the up-and-coming students in high schools and colleges -- and they did not go down the traditional woodworking road at all. Other things took their imagination.

Well, now the current generation in the high schools and colleges – they’re actively pursuing woodworking related careers and classes. So much so that it’s creating shortages of classroom space. There are waiting lists to get into the woodworking programs. That’s a very important message to get out there.

The other thing is for people who do not think that woodworking is growing again in America, they need to go to the website, woodlinks.org and see how active this organization is, building woodworking programs in schools in America right now.

LLJ: What new woodworking technologies are you intrigued about?
SCOTT: There are some really cool things that are going on. In one of my shows this season, I designed a shell that I carved by hand for Queen Anne and Chippendale furniture. By hand, that shell takes me about 35 hours to carve. Well, I thought, boy, I’d like to build several of these lowboys, Queen Anne style, with the shell, and it’d be nice if I could just carve those out on my CNC. Now I can carve those shells in an hour and 42 minutes. Still my work, I designed it, but not in the traditional way. And so there’s a huge new wave of interfacing computer technology into woodworking through the many affordable CNCs that are coming into shops these days.

Now that is not to take a way from the major innovations that have come in the hand tools as well. There are some wonderful metal break-throughs that are making steel for cutting tools last tremendously longer. There’s new technology in Forstener bits that is phenomenal.

The other thing, on the cutting side of things, Freud has come up with a router bit design, its called the Quadra-cut, its just staggering what that bit will do. It’s the most unbelievable cut I’ve ever seen. It produces the finest edge I’ve ever seen off of any router bit for small shop use.

The woodworking market may appear stagnate, its not. It’s very vibrant, it’s growing, and people are innovating. I’ve been doing woodworking now since I was 11. So that’s 42 years of woodworking. And the proof that innovation is still coming, to me, is that any good woodworking store, like yours, when I go in, I cannot leave that store without spending around $400 on things I’ve never seen before that will make my work go better.

LLJ: How did you develop a love for woodworking?
SCOTT: My father got the very first Masters in Forestry from Purdue University. I went to forestry school at Michigan State. One of my professors, Jonathan Wright, had everyone introduce themselves in class. I said, I’m Scott Phillips, and that’s all I said. Professor Wright picked me out of the crowd and asked “Your father wouldn’t happen to be John Phillips would he?” I said, “Yes sir, how did you know that?” He replied, “I helped him get his masters at Purdue in 1947.” You know, that was really neat.

LLJ: You mentioned you’ve been woodworking since you were eleven. Do you remember your first woodworking project?
SCOTT: My dad had about 1,000 bf of walnut that was 12” and wider from the family farm that he had set aside for his favorite projects. I didn’t know that. I just saw his woodshop there, and the wood, and saw an opportunity.

It was summer time and Dad was out in Idaho fishing. I couldn’t ask him if I could use it, so I just started building things for the neighbors. And the thing that sold the best was solid walnut shelves, made out of these nice wide walnut boards. I was making money hand over fist that summer. I sold the shelves for about $15 a shelf, so they were dirt cheap, and since I didn’t have any money in them, that was pure profit. Just a little bit of shop time, right?

But when dad got home and saw his walnut pile almost completely gone he asked, “Where’s my walnut?” I thought he’d be very proud of me for the initiative as a woodworker, and making all these things for the neighbors. Instead I got a spanking out of that. I think I used about $2,500 worth of walnut.

LLJ: Is that why you bought the ginormous walnut tree while you were at Hartzells -- to replace your dad’s stock?
SCOTT: I actually have some of that wood left over from the top log, but that tree ended up in a hotel as veneer in Europe. That was my biggest timber purchase ever. My timber buying days were wonderful. I started buying timber for Hartzell Veneer Co., which is now out of business unfortunately, back in 1978 when I graduated. I did that for seven years. That was a dream job. But in 1980, the export prices for walnut and oak sky rocketed and in a matter of three years all the domestic supply of merchantable walnut and white oak had been depleted to the point that veneer companies could no longer cut domestic veneer the way they use to. It was either change and start producing thinner veneers or get out of business. Hartzell ended up getting out of business. I’d probably still be buying timber today if that would not have happened. I loved that job.

LLJ: Speaking of loving your job, what are your personal highlights from The American Woodshop?
SCOTT: We came up and did the tour of your plant there…that will go down in history as one of the top 10 shows. People absolutely love that show. Because its rare for TV shows that take you behind the scenes into the lumber side of it like that.

But, I will never forget, being with Sam Maloof on his property, the day that the State of California took over his original homestead for an 18 lane highway expansion project. We shot that, and that became my favorite TV show of all time.

Sam started by building furniture out of orange crates and is now one of the biggest names in all of woodworking. He brought an honest approach to woodworking. It wasn’t complicated, he always considered himself first and foremost a woodworker. He didn’t take any other trappings other then woodworker. Sam was one of the best artisans who ever walked the face of the earth. He really had an eye for line and thus, that’s how he developed his distinctive style.

Sam always was humble, he was always appreciative, and the other thing I was really inspired by and tried to make part of who I am is, Sam would always share ideas with others openly and freely. He really did try to share good ideas with people to help their work go easier and better. So if there was one lesson that I’d like to remember Sam by more then anything else, I would guess it would be how much he gave. He was a genuine giver to others. That’s huge in this world."

(For more information about Sam Maloof’s work, visit malooffoundation.org).