“The Naked Woodworker” video seeks to answer the simple question: How do you get started in woodworking when you have nothing? No tools. No bench. No skills. And no knowledge of where to begin.

Veteran woodworker and teacher Mike Siemsen helps you take your first steps into the craft without spending a lot of money or spending years setting up shop. In fact, Mike shows you how to acquire a decent set of tools and build a workbench and sawbench for about $600 or $700 – something you can accomplish during a few weekends of work.

“The Naked Woodworker” begins at a Mid-West Tool Collectors Association’s regional meeting with Mike sifting through, evaluating, haggling and buying the tools needed to begin building furniture. Then, at Mike’s Minnesota shop, he fixes up the tools he bought. He rehabs the planes, sharpens the saws and fixes up the braces – all on camera.

On the second video in the set, Mike builds a sawbench and a fully functional workbench using home-center materials. Both the sawbench and workbench are amazingly clever. You don’t need a single machine or power tool to make them. And they work incredibly well.

The bench is based on Peter Nicholson’s early 19th-century design. It is remarkably solid and is perfect for a life of woodworking with hand or power tools.

This, and all of our videos, can be watched one of two ways. You can stream it (after logging into your account here at Lost Art Press). Or you can download the video and put it on any device. The video is offered without DRM (digital rights management), so the files will be easily moved to any of your devices, now and in the future.

Customers will also be able to download a SketchUp drawing of the bench and a pdf of all the tools and materials used in the video after checkout. Total runtime is 174 minutes.

P.S. There is no nudity in “The Naked Woodworker.” Thank goodness.

Getting Started

The Naked Woodworker (Streaming & Download only)

Make a Swedish Tool Chest with Whitney Miller