Usually I keep my pretty pink panties – how ever did you know? –  completely
un-wadded, un-bunched and lying smoothly across my muppet-like hiney. I hope you’re
not eating lunch right now.

But the reaction I’ve received to the
slideshow I posted last week of my visit to Dr. Kent Adkins’s shop in St. Louis
has me agitated. I’d like to get a few things off my chest.

• To the people who blame Dr. Adkins for the high cost of medical care, I recommend
that the next time you have a serious problem with your equipment in your bathing
suit area that you try to fix the problem yourself. Or maybe your neighbor has some
tools you can borrow for the job.

• To the people who think I’m throwing Dr. Adkins under a bus because of the slideshow,
I say this: I consider Kent a friend. I’ve known him for many years and would do nothing
to harm him. That slideshow is only one component of the story. The rest is in the
February 2011 issue.

• To the cowards who post inflammatory comments anonymously here, I’ll be dealing
with you in short order. I don’t mind criticism, but I do like to face my accuser.

• To the people who think Kent’s shop is too clean: The photos were taken before a
small open house party Kent was having for friends and neighbors. You’d sweep up,
too. The implication here is that Kent is just a tool collector, which is laughable.
The guy attacks woodworking with a passion that would shame most of us. I know few
people in the world as insane for the craft as Kent. He’s been a woodworker all his
life. When he was a poor medical student, he was working wood with the tools he could
afford. Today the situation is no different.

Here’s how I see things: Kent has spent his entire life helping people at a difficult
job. If you don’t like doctors, don’t whine to me – my father was a doctor and I know
first-hand how hard it is. It’s a job I don’t think I could ever do. And now Kent
has built a well-planned, well-equipped and well-earned shop that he can use to fill
his house with furniture for his young family.

That’s a typical story. What’s not typical is that Kent out-did us all with his energy
and attention to detail. That’s why I wrote the story.

I’m sorry this turned into a rant. I despise writing about stuff that isn’t about
woodworking. But people who turn woodworking into class warfare just ruin my day.

— Christopher Schwarz

Woodworking Magazine

Filed under: Category Woodworking | Tags: Adkins's,Revisited,Shop by Admin