Paul Sellers

Paul Sellers (born 1950) is a British woodworker, writer and teacher. He was apprenticed as a woodworker in the UK in 1965 at the age of 15.[1] He moved to the US in 1984 and quickly became noted for his ability in traditional woodworking. He has and continues to teach people the craft of woodworking. He taught at the Homestead Heritage Woodworking School in Texas. During his time at the School he designed, and made with a team of craftspeople, cabinets for the White House.[2] He started the New Legacy School of Woodworking that provides short courses.[3] Sellers is author of Working Wood which was published in 2011 and Essential Woodworking Hand Tools which was published in 2016. He then moved to premises at the Sylva Wood Centre in Long Wittenham, near Abingdon in Oxfordshire.[4] Recently Sellers moved to larger premises in an industrial unit in Abingdon, Oxfordshire.

Paul Sellers
In front of Penrhyn Castle, 2011
Born (1950-01-04) 4 January 1950
Stockport, Cheshire, England
OccupationFurniture maker, writer and teacher
NationalityBritish
EducationApprenticeship
Notable works
  • Essential Woodworking Hand Tools
  • Working Wood 1 & 2: The Artisan Course
Website
paulsellers.com

Work

Sellers has established a considerable worldwide presence and following on YouTube, on his blog (PaulSellers.com) and on his two websites (Common Woodworking[5] and Woodworking Masterclasses[6]) where he shares his long experience of woodworking with hand tools, with current and future generations. Sellers has 428,000 subscribers on YouTube as of 9th of July 2020.[7] He experienced a formal English woodworking apprenticeship, which had a high degree of hand-tool use. One of his aims is to preserve disappearing knowledge and his experience of hand-tools. He presents an approach to woodworking that is deliberately both inclusive and affordable, favouring restoring good quality, common, affordable, long lasting, old tools. This provides an option to premium new tools or inferior, modern copies, or expensive specialist tools. His no-nonsense insights and advice carry the credibility of his 50 plus years as a Master Craftsman woodworker, working in the UK and USA.

Sellers has many YouTube videos on his channel as well as a supporting website and blog. Notable episodes include several on saw sharpening from beginner to advanced, chisel preparation, a comparison/demonstration of modern bevel-edged chisels and vintage "pig-sticker" mortice chisels, "rag-in-a-can oiler", restoring planes, setting up planes, setting up and using old wooden planes and series such as building your own workbench/stool/toolchest and his series of videos showing how to make "Poor man's" versions of various tools.

Sellers seeks to provide inspiration and instruction for a diverse new generation of woodworkers, of all ages, both amateur and professional. Sellers has mentioned in various contexts that he considers himself an amateur in the sense that he does this for the love of the craft, it is more than a profession to him, it is his life style and his life. Indeed, on his blog, PaulSellers.com, and elsewhere he describes himself as "a lifestyle woodworker". He is creating a woodworking knowledge base legacy for all.

Sellers is noted for increasing the price of secondhand hand-tools whenever he discusses them, on his blog, or uses them, on YouTube, as more people learn how to restore, set-up and use them and appreciate them. Most notably the Cinderella of woodworking hand-tools, the router plane; once unsellable, these tools are now much sought-after and often command prices of £100 or more. The humble and ubiquitous #4 plane is also once again valued and sought-after. Consequently, he can also be credited with saving many old tools from being discarded or scrapped.

Bibliography
  • Paul Sellers (2011), Working Wood 1 & 2, United Kingdom: Artisan Media Limited, OL 28364124M
  • Paul Sellers (2016), Essential Woodworking Hand Tools, United Kingdom: Rokesmith Limited, OL 28364015M


Articles

References
  1. "Meet the Woodworker: Paul Sellers | WoodWorkers Guild of America". WoodWorkers Guild of America. 22 November 2016. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
  2. Paul Sellers (2011), Working Wood 1 & 2, United Kingdom: Artisan Media Limited, p. 17, OL 28364124M
  3. Hess, Joel. "New Legacy School of Woodworking". Retrieved 9 May 2012.
  4. "Sylva Foundation • news". sylva.org.uk. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
  5. "Common Woodworking".
  6. "Woodworking MasterClasses".
  7. "Paul Sellers Youtube Channel".
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