My grandfather was a cabinetmaker and my father was a shop teacher.   Somehow, I think I was intended to be here.  I started Doctor’s Woodshop to make the woodturning finishes that I liked from the materials that I wanted to use.   Fortunately, others have found these products to be useful to them, too.

I touched my first wood turning tool in my grandfather’s basement in 1954.  He set me to making round stair spindle blanks from square stock.  I might have made one done that afternoon.  My turning is much faster now.  I wish I could say I have been turning continuously since then, but life gets in the way of fun sometimes.  In 1998, I got tired of buying turned legs for the tables I was making and thought I could turn them myself.  I’ve been almost exclusively a woodturner since then.   

I started with the High Build Friction Polish.  This is the finish every woodturner learns to make in their first woodturning lesson.  I chose to make it with Walnut Oil instead of linseed oil and the product performed significantly better than the standard formulation.  Walnut Oil and Wax finish, a one-step food safe wax and oil finish was next.  I wanted the wax to behave like wax dissolved in a solvent, but I didn’t want the solvent.  Since I’m a biochemist and knew a bit about waxes, I developed a process to make wax particles so small they think they are a liquid. This is microaggregated wax.  With a little luck, this product became a popular finish with bowl makers because it's tough, easily restored and food safe (it is, after all, salad dressing and the coating of M&M’s).  I’ve added products to the Doctor’s Woodshop line as I saw opportunity arise or when I wanted something different.