Today’s #FollowFriday is Neil Yeager, who we featured in our popular Show Us Your Shop column in our September issue of Wood News. Neil has a rather unique shop in the fact that his is located in Chiang Mai, Thailand, one of only a few international shops we have seen in our series. While he originally had a large basement shop when he lived in the US, ever since moving to Thailand he has only been able to bring a few hand tools over at a time, and now most of his shop is made up of just hand tools that he has brought over on the plane.
Living in Thailand has also given Neil the benefit of being able to work year-round in his shop because of the weather, unlike most of us who generally stick to “woodworking season” from October-May. He often gets the opportunity to work outside, giving him a “zen” woodworking experience in the outdoors with the many accompanying sounds of birds singing, insects buzzing, and the wind in the trees.
Neil’s outdoor “zen” shop space.
As you can see, Neil’s shop space is very simple with his workbench as the centerpiece. The workbench is made out of Ha Num, a wood native to Laos and very inexpensive in Thailand. Like the makeup of his shop, his bench was made entirely out of hand tools, and fits perfectly into his shop theme and philosophy.———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–Fridays on the Highland Woodworking Blog are dedicated to #FollowFriday, where we use this space to further highlight a woodworker or turner who we have featured in our monthly e-publications Wood News and The Highland Woodturner. Would you like for your shop to appear in our publications? We invite you to SEND US PHOTOS of your woodworking along with captions and a brief history and description of your woodworking (Email photos at 800×600 resolution.) Receive a $50 store credit redeemable towards merchandise if we show your shop in a future issue.