The New Kid in the Popular Woodworking Shop

Every morning for the past year, I would clock in at the cabinet shop where I was working and take a moment to contemplate the worn-out scribbling on the band saw. The band saw was older than I am, and had no discernible company logo. On the front, someone had written the phrase “At no time should the fingers leave the hands.”

Sitting at my computer at the Popular Woodworking office, I am glad I took that advice. I’m sure that I could learn to function (and type on the computer) with nine fingers, but it’s nice to not have to.

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Jon Russelburg and I am the new online editor of Popular Woodworking Magazine. You may have seen me pop up in the comment sections, or on various social media sites. You may have even corresponded with me through email (more on that later.)

I worked my way through college as a contractor’s assistant, remodeling kitchens and bathrooms. During college I took a beginner’s woodworking class … thinking it would be an easy A. What followed was three years of taking on an overwhelming amount of course hours so that I could spend most of my free time in the woodshop. I never looked back.

After I graduated college, I ditched my degree path and started working in a small Shaker reproduction shop. It was a crash course in woodworking, but for the first time I was (barely) paying the bills by making furniture.

I spent almost every free hour at an old firehouse-turned-workshop with my cousin, drawing up new ideas and refurbishing early Craftsman power tools. We had big dreams that our wallets couldn’t fulfill.

Eventually, I relocated to practice cabinetmaking. I figured that people were more likely to pay top dollar for a handmade custom kitchen than furniture. While my assumption was correct, I learned a valuable lesson: Melamine is the bane of my existence.

I left that position and moved to Cincinnati to become a part of the Popular Woodworking team. As the online editor I will be your first contact for any questions regarding the website.

Feel free to email me any questions about the magazine, the website and social media at jon.russelburg@fwcommunity.com – or if you just want to chat about woodworking. I’m excited to get to know the readers here, as well as learn from wealth of knowledge at Popular Woodworking Magazine.

— Jon Russelburg