I got an email last week from a reader who found something useful in an earlier column I wrote about my run-in with a tablesaw. The gentleman, name of Jerry Wheeler, said that he appreciated the information I had imparted regarding my safety practices around power equipment, and would I be so kind as to speak at a local woodworker's guild meeting.

I was a little surprised that someone might consider me to be worth listening to about safety, since the reason I wrote the column was because I was doing something with a tablesaw that was absolutely unsafe to begin with.

But I decided to go to the meeting because if anyone knows how to operate woodworking tools, it's probably someone who is a member of a woodworker's guild.

As soon as I had strolled into the activity wing of the Edgewood Community Church, I could smell the Penofin and walnut shavings from the foyer. Inside were a goodly number of serious looking fellows with name tags, some with tape measures on their hips and pencils behind their ears.

I found Jerry and he got me up to speed about the Guild and the things they do. Before long the meeting came to order.

I got up in front and related the incident where I had been cutting small sticks on a tabletop saw and where I had nicked the end of my thumb out of carelessness and inattention, and I made sure that I reminded the audience about not being in a hurry, about doing what your high-school shop teacher told you and to use a push-stick anytime you use your tablesaw.

I expected that there might be others people there who had similar experiences, and just as soon as the presentation part of the meeting was over, people began to come up to me with their own stories.

One fellow had shortened a couple of digits, another had laid open a large part of his index finger, and still another had lost part of his thumb.

The common denominator in all these incidents was, simply, improper practice when running wood through the blade. Looking at the little scar on my thumb, I didn't feel so bad and was glad to know that I wasn't the only one who had joined the "dumb guy" club.

After a while, I got to looking at some of the work that the guild members had on display. One man, Mike Poirier, had constructed a 1/12 scale fire engine out of walnut and birch with a fully articulating ladder. Mike estimated that he had about 100 hours into the beautiful model, made from walnut that a relative had stored for years. That is patience with a capital P.

On a table nearby, Clair Boussum had a really neat example of a woodworking project called Intarsia, where individual pieces of wood are cut, puzzle-like, on a scroll saw and assembled to create bas-relief of any shape you set out to do. In this case, Clair had chosen a cocker spaniel and he had inserted different shades of cedar or other wood to reflect the varied colors of the dogs fur. Beautiful!

There was a clever fellow who made hardwood dowels with a modified pencil sharpener and a drill motor, and then I met Bill Garner, who had figured out a way to make indentations in chair seats with a router, a task that is usually done laboriously by hand. Bill told me that the magazine, Fine Woodworking, was going to feature his invention in a future issue.

My own efforts at working wood like this has been limited to a few strangely shaped bird houses, so I was amazed at the level of intricacy and skill these guys had accomplished.

If you are inclined to learn more about woodworking, you can go the Evergreen Woodworkers Guild website, at www.ewwg.org.

If you want more advice about tablesaw safety, that's the place to go as well. I may have learned a few things after my accident, but these guys really know their way around a wood shop.