A week or two ago, I got a private message on LumberJocks from a Malaysian (named Masrol) who had recently signed up. Turns out he only lives about 30 minutes away from me (which, in a large city like Kuala Lumpur, is nothing). Masrol is a recent retiree who has been woodworking for a few years (at least). Most of the tools in his shop, including the power tools, were purchased overseas and shipped to Malaysia; in at least one case, the shipping was double the cost of the tool!

During our subsequent conversations, I offered to sell him my Ryobi router, and he was interested. So today he came by and bought the router (and the transformer needed to keep that American-made tool from frying). He also gave me a nice set of books from Taunton Press (articles from FWW). I, in turn, gave him a decent little stack of woodworking magazines as well as a book of projects compiled from Wood magazine articles.

It was a nice meeting, although too short and without sawdust or shavings flying anywhere. Hopefully this won’t be the last gathering of woodworkers in Malaysia! (Although it will be more difficult for us to visit each other after I move to a different part of the country next month.)

Malaysia Lumberjocks