Bio
In the Beginning
My intersection with woodworking began 40
years ago (1979) in the back seat of a Monte Carlo with
an ash log destined to find a saw mill in South
Dakota. I fashioned a book shelf with scrub
oak dowelled up through ash boards. It was all
vision and no skill. It showed, but I was hooked on wood. I took adult education night classes in woodworking for 3 years in Grand Rapids, Michigan as I completed a medical residency in Internal Medicine. I remember visiting a street fair and seeing a beautiful African mahogany cabinet. It was lustrous and felt like silk. The surface was hand planed and scraped without sandpaper. What? I never lost site of that goal.
I attended courses at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Colorado with James Krenov, Alan Peters from England, and plane making from Monroe Robinson, Krenov's first student. I took a course in Japanese hand tools from John Reed Fox at The Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Maine.
I spent about 15 years at the Fourth Street (Woodworker's) Guild in Minneapolis, Minnesota where I was coaxed to enter my rosewood vanity into the MN Woodworker's Guild Northern Woods Exhibition and was awarded "Best of Show". I credit Krenov and Peters for setting my sights on a higher standard of fine woodwork. I also am heavily influenced by George Nakashima whose vast work at the University of MN Landscape Arboretum Library influenced my slab/rail joinery. Not least is a day I spent with Sam Maloof in the home he built with his wife Frieda, registering how I would come to avoid generic construction design.
My esthetic reach is for “rustic elegance” and quiet beauty. I strive for hand tooled surfaces and solid wood joinery.
Lee Toman
Lee Toman, Woodworker
Wise River, Montana
Photo by Jade Beall,
Tucson, AZ
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