Every once and awhile, I scoot this tusk tenon from out of its mortise, pull off my eyeglasses and press the tenon to my skull. It’s a simple but important reminder of where this all began for me.

Hmmm, before I begin there, let me back up even more.

Safety on most jobsites and in most workshops is job No. 4 – somewhere after the importance of the Makita girl calendar and somewhere before the obligation to clean out the Binks spray gun.

When I began working wood at age 8, I never had a safety lecture. Perhaps it wasn’t as necessary. We didn’t have electricity on our farm so the chances of me dismembering myself with our family’s ultra-dull Craftsman handsaw were rather slim. I’m sure my dad didn’t lie awake at night thinking about all the damage I’d do to myself with the crap-tacular coping saw in my tool tote. Safety just wasn’t as big a deal when you have only hand tools at your disposal. Sure, you can hurt yourself, but it takes some doing.

When I started at Popular Woodworking in 1996, however, it was like being let loose in a candy store after closing time. There were all the machines that my father and I had dreamed of on the farm. Table saws, drill presses, mortisers (that’s plural! Meaning more than one mortiser!) and disc sanders galore.

During this initial love affair with the unspeakable beauty of three-phase power, fellow employee David Thiel and I were assigned to build a couple Gustav Stickley-style tabourets for the magazine. The tabourets had legs that tapered in width and tapered from the floor to the top. Plus they were joined to their stretchers with friction-fit tusk tenons.

Each table has eight of these little tusks, and because we were building two little tables for the article, I had 16 little tusks to cut, chamfer and fit into their mortises.

This was a job for the utterly awesome Wilton disc sander we hand at the time.

As you probably know, the disc sander is a fairly safe machine – as long as you work on the side of the disc that is spinning down against the table. The other side of the disc should be avoided – or you could lose control of your work.

I was merrily sanding away my little chamfers on these tusks when I casually slid over into the “no work” zone to touch up the inside tapered face of the tusk shown above. I lost control of the tenon and it flew up at me.

I wasn’t wearing safety goggles or glasses.

Instead of skewering my eyeball like some sort of k-bob, the tenon struck my skull at the top of my left eyebrow and below the eye. The instant it happened, I turned off the machine and went to the bathroom (luckily I hadn’t soiled myself). The tenon left two red welts on my face.

Since that moment, I have always worn safety equipment (glasses and hearing protection), and I have strived to keep the guarding on all my machines. Come visit us sometime, you’ll find we have a basket guard and splitter on our table saw. Today I noted that the splitter was broken, and so in honor to “safety week,” I’m going to get it fixed.

And then there’s that tusk tenon. The little table has never been my favorite, but I can’t get rid of it. It’s a painful reminder of one of the dumbest things I’ve ever done, and how I’ve become much smarter ever since.

Still to this day, that is the closest call I’ve had in 28 years. Not bad.

Below are some of the other bloggers who have posted stories on their sites about this week. Some are funny, some are serious and some are sad. All are important. Check them out.

• Jeff Skiver: Safely Dealing With Scared Cats

This fall, our magazine is sponsoring the first-ever weekend conference devoted to hand tools and learning to use them.

We're calling it the Woodworking in America conference, and we'll be bringing together the country's best hand-tool woodworkers and manufacturers for a symposium in Berea, Ky., on Nov. 14-16.

There will be more than 40 short classes on tools and techniques during the long weekend, plus a marketplace where toolmakers can display (and sell) their wares, social events with the demonstrators and toolmakers and more.

So who is going to be there? Here's the list of people who have agreed to teach seminars during Woodworking in America as of this date (with more to come):

Roy Underhill: Known as "St. Roy" to the legion of fans who watch "The Woodwright's Shop" on PBS, Roy worked at Colonial Williamsburg and then launched his show about traditional hand tools.

Frank Klausz: One of the country's consummate craftsmen, Frank is a professional New Jersey cabinetmaker who trained in Hungary and has a lifetime of experience with the full range of handwork.

Michael Dunbar: Founder of The Windsor Institute, Michael has single handedly revived the craft of building Windsor chairs, has trained thousands of woodworkers and is a passionate student of the art and history of handcraft.

Adam Cherubini: The author of Popular Woodworking's popular "Arts & Mysteries" column, Adam is a devoted 18th-century woodworker who builds period pieces using period tools.

James Blauvelt: A Connecticut cabinetmaker, joiner and carpenter, James owns Bluefield Joiners and is a student and teacher of Japanese tools and traditions.

Robin Lee: The president of Lee Valley Tools in Ottawa, Ontario, Robin has been a driving force behind the expansion of the Veritas line of premium handplanes and a caretaker of the company's immense tool collection.

Thomas Lie-Nielsen: The founder of Lie-Nielsen Toolworks in Warren, Me., Thomas has been making and selling premium traditional hand tools for 27 years. Thomas's company was the trailblazer in reviving many traditional forms of tools that had been lost.

Larry Williams and Don McConnell: Two of the principals behind Clark & Williams in Eureka Springs, Ark., Larry and Don are bottomless wells of information about traditional tools and their workings. Both are accomplished woodworkers, planemakers and tool historians.

John Economaki: The founder of Bridge City Tool Works in Portland, Ore., John has long been a pioneer in developing new (and very beautiful) forms of hand tools for woodworkers.

Konrad Sauer: The owner of Sauer & Steiner Toolworks in Ontario, Konrad is one of the leading makers of custom infill handplanes.

Wayne Anderson:Wayne specializes in designing and building custom infill handplanes that are deeply rooted in the past but are each a completely original work of art.

Ron Hock: One of the earliest and most important players in the revival of handtools, Ron makes high-quality replacement plane irons, chipbreakers and marking knives in Ft. Bragg, Calif.

Mike Wenzloff: The founder of Wenzloff & Sons sawmakers in Forest Grove, Ore., Mike is a long-time woodworker and expert in saws and saw sharpening. His premium saw business has exploded in the last two years.

Clarence Blanchard: The publisher of "The Fine Tool Journal" and the president of Brown Auction Services, Clarence sees more old tools in a week than most of us see in a lifetime.

If you are interested in attending, please visit the web site that is dedicated to this conference at WoodworkinginAmerica.com and sign up for the conference's newsletter (the sign-up box is on the top right of the page). You'll then be the first to be notified of when registration will open (it will be before July 1) and the pricing for this event.

Attendance will be limited to a few hundred people (we want to keep the event intimate and manageable), so be sure to register as soon as slots become available. We are expecting the conference to sell out.

There are more announcements and surprises ahead that I cannot share with you right now, so please stay tuned to the blog and the conference's newsletter.

— Christopher Schwarz