My name is Tom Fidgen and I’m a craftsman living in Toronto, Ontario where I design and build custom furniture using ‘only hand tools’.

I began my journey into wood working at a very young age growing up on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada. From back yard decks to home renovations I suppose I was ‘bit’ by the wood bug back then. After working for 10 years in the Set Design industry, and having the opportunity to travel from Mexico to Monaco with it, I started building traditional wooden boats in a one-man boat shop back on the East coast of Canada. I thoroughly enjoyed the boat building process and soon started using hand tools more and more in my work. When the economy took a turn for the worse I started building furniture between boat orders and the rest as they say, is history.

Since that time I have written for Popular Woodworking Magazine, Fine Woodworking Magazine, Canadian Woodworking Magazine as well as the Lee Valley Tools Newsletter. I enjoy the process of designing, building and writing and welcome you to search through the archives for articles on wood work, fine furniture making and hand tool techniques and theories. Thanks for stopping by and happy shavings!

Tom, Jan. 2010