It was much more than tools, even though the tools were spectacular! Rabbet Plane by Matt Bickford
I can give a hearty Amen to all the positive things already written about the recent Handworks event in Amana Iowa. The fact that it exceeded the first gathering two years ago says something larger about hand tool woodworking. We are a community now. At the risk of sounding sappy, we hand tool woodworkers somehow have come to be a family. I say that because this gathering had such a different flavor. Sure, vendors and toolmakers were there to sell their wares. Yet if you walked around and just listened to bits of conversation, it sounded like banter between friends. It was such a pleasure spending time with folks who share a passion.
I heard folks asking questions because they actually wanted to know answers and not because they wanted to show off what they know. And I saw people listen to each other with respect. Most of all I saw woodworkers having fun. Not fun in the way much of the culture sees it, a big glittering bang that’s an inch deep. Instead fun in the sense that we are engaging in something we are made for. How fun (and rare) is it to spend time with other folks that get that?
“One works because I suppose it is the most interesting thing one knows to do. The days one works are the best days. (Georgia O’keeffe)
A month later I can still feel some of that energy.
George R. Walker
Design Matters 
Well said George.