Nick Offerman brings sawdust to Atlanta
America’s rough-edged sweetheart talks carpentry and new book
Apart from sharing a face, perhaps the widest intersection between the character Ron Swanson and the man Nick Offerman occurs in Season 5, episode nine of “Parks and Recreation.” Offerman’s mustachioed Libertarian übermensch is about to receive an award from the Indiana Fine Woodworking Association when he spots a slight, spectacled man sipping a cup of tea. Swanson giggles like a schoolboy, saying, “Mary, Mother of God … it’s Christian Becksvoort, modern master of the Shaker style!” before scampering off to shake his hand. The real punchline to this scene came to me just a week ago when, flipping through Good Clean Fun, Offerman’s latest book on woodworking. I was surprised to discover that Becksvoort is a real guy and is, in fact, the master furniture maker Swanson described. Huh.
Offerman’s third book is subtitled “Misadventures in Sawdust at Offerman Woodshop,” and it’s a little bit like that scene: a giddy peek at something this severe-looking fellow is genuinely charged about. The book invites readers into Offerman’s eponymous shop, which evolved from a one-man, between-acting-gigs operation to the ten-strong team sawing logs in East Los Angeles today.
“If you put two pieces of wood together, you’re a woodworker,” Offerman tells CL over the phone from his place in Los Angeles. “But if you look at woodworking magazines, it can really be intimidating.” Hoping to get his audience over a fear of chisels, block planes, and dovetail joints, he offers this practical instruction manual to the craft, cleverly disguised as a coffee table book. Along the way, he introduces readers to the other craftspeople of the Offerman Woodshop. Each craftsperson gets a section on their personal histories and pet projects. Good Clean Fun is full of anecdotes, gorgeous photography, recipes (you know, for food), and other funny business on top of honest-to-goodness step-by-step guides on how to make chairs, tables, oars, birdhouses, and what the hell, even a kazoo — all out of wood.
“The simple skill of attaching your brain to your hand-eye coordination,” Offerman explains, “is like a superpower.” He tells CL about running a workshop with a group of novices, teaching them to make a simple carving board from single piece of fig leaf maple. “All of these people who had never done woodworking before, they used a handsaw to cut off a plank, they sanded it, they drilled a hole in it, and then they oiled it,” he says. Through those few steps, Offerman saw something transformative happening with his charges “It was as if I had taught them how to levitate.”
The Ferst Center hosts an evening slated to feature readings from the book, but being an entertainer eager to share his knowledge, Offerman says he is most looking forward to the Q&A afterward. So, if you’re curious about his favorite tool (spoiler: it’s the spokeshave), this is the opportune time to inquire. Offerman may not be able to instill actual superpowers, but with his new book and visit to Atlanta, he says he hopes to at least impart the value of what the title lays out: working with your hands — and working with people you love — is fun.
“For me, making things with my hands is incredibly healthy,” Offerman says. “It keeps me out of the pub, you know?”