Meet Woody: Your New Guide to The Joinery
We’re excited to introduce something we’ve been working on behind the scenes — ask.thejoinery.club, a new way to get answers about the shop, your membership, classes, and woodworking itself. And your host is a familiar face: Woody, our resident guide.
Ask Woody is built on top of our knowledge — the Joinery’s documented policies and procedures, our blog posts, Steven’s own shop notes from years of working through problems on the bench, and our growing library of how-to and reference material. When a question goes beyond what we’ve written down, Woody pulls from a short, hand-picked list of trusted woodworking resources we’ve vetted ourselves. No random internet advice, no forum hot takes — just sources we’d actually point you to.
What can you ask?
Pretty much anything you’d normally walk over and ask a member of the staff or a fellow member. A few examples:
- “Is the SawStop available right now?” or “What’s the status of the drum sander?”
- “What classes are coming up in June?”
- “How do I sharpen a card scraper?”
- “What’s the policy on bringing a guest into the shop?”
- “I’m getting tearout on figured maple — what should I try?”
- “How do I become a member?”
Shop tips, tool status, member info, class schedules, technique questions — Woody’s got a handle on all of it.
Mostly for members, but open to everyone
If you’re a member, this is meant to save you a trip across the shop or a wait for someone to be free. If you’re considering joining or just curious about woodworking, Woody is happy to help you too. Think of it as the friendly first stop before you reach out directly — though of course we’re still here, in person and on email, whenever you need us.
This is a beta — and your feedback is how it gets better
Ask Woody is a work in progress, and we need real usage to keep sharpening it. Every answer has a thumbs-up and thumbs-down button, and using them genuinely helps:
- Got a useful answer? A thumbs-up tells us we’re on track.
- Got a wrong or unhelpful answer? A thumbs-down flags it for review. I personally read every thumbs-down response and update the underlying knowledge base so the next person who asks gets a better answer.
That feedback loop is what turns Woody from a decent first draft into something genuinely useful for the community. So please — use it, push on it, and don’t hesitate to thumbs-down something that misses.
A note on accuracy
Woody is good, but Woody isn’t perfect. If you ever get an answer that seems off — especially on safety, policy, or anything where being wrong matters — please double-check with us directly.
Try it out at ask.thejoinery.club and let us know what you think.
See you in the shop.
