Other Excursions

The balance of our trip was a whirlwind of short woodworking tours--cabinet factories, a coffin factory, a clock factory and several small woodworking shops--arranged by our hosts according to individual editors' interests.

A high point of the tour was our visit to the Gilco tooling factory about 70 km northeast of Bruges. Gilco is a family-run toolmaking plant that produces the cutterheads that ship with Robland combination machines and shapers. Up-to-date CNC machining technology combines with old-fashioned skilled machining and a strong engineering background combine to make Gilco an ambitious and competent company, ready to meet the demands of the European and international tooling markets. While there, we witnessed the creation from scratch of large cutterheads for industrial planers and molders, often produced on short notice from mere sketches or sample profiles. Gilco also runs a sharpening service that sharpens cutters and blades for many shops and factories in northern Europe. Gilco family members joined forces with the Robland team to usher us around to the various plants and shops on our itinerary. We appreciated their good-natured and gracious hospitality.

For me, the tour was a welcome opportunity to see firsthand a sampling of the range of woodworking in Western Europe--from large factories that churn out a thousand cabinets a day to tiny backyard shops that might work on one kitchen for several weeks. Evident throughout was the European affinity for 32-mm cabinet construction and all the machinery that goes along with it. The equipment, not surprisingly, was mostly Italian, although most of the panel saws I encountered were Altendorfs.

Going hand-in-hand with 32-mm cabinet construction was the predominance of manufactured materials, due largely to the scarcity and high cost of raw lumber in Europe. Particleboard, plywood, melamine board (MCP) and high-pressure laminate were the materials we encountered most often, with solid wood reserved mostly for doors, edging and moldings. Conspicuously absent were the hand tools--planes, chisels, handsaws, etc.--that we've come to associate with wood craftsmanship in the U.S. I'm sure there are plenty of these "Old World" craftsmen out there, but they seem to be taking a back seat to the march of progress.

Now that our tour is behind us, I'd like to express my appreciation to Torben and Catherine Helshoj, Guido Blomme, Jean-Pierre Gilen and his family of Gilco, and all the other folks who planned our trip and made it so memorable. To their great credit, they understand the importance of sharing information about their products and processes with the woodworking press.