Open-Source Woodworking

I get asked regularly for permission to use my plans and writings for the following things:

1. The basis for a woodworking class.
2. The foundation for a presentation to a woodworking club.
3. To make a commercial product to sell – as a Roorkee chair, workbench or campaign chest, for example.

My answer to these questions is always: absolutely. Everything I publish is free for you to use for classes, in your club or even to make a commercial piece of woodworking to sell.

In fact, the only thing I object to is when someone violates my copyright by reproducing an entire book or DVD then reselling it as their own work or giving it away on a torrent site. That’s just theft. (It’s uncommon in the woodworking business, but it happens.)

To be honest, little that I do (or any other woodworking author, for that matter) is original. My work is…