# Ancient Web: Woodbutcher Kept His Woodshop and 2007 Webring Intact Rod Peterson's Woodbutcher homepage is a preserved 2000s personal site combining shop projects, tool opinions, family stories, aviation recollections and a woodworking webring. 2026-10-17 :: Switchboard Tech Services ![Ancient Web: Woodbutcher Kept His Woodshop and 2007 Webring Intact](https://switchboardtechservices.com/static/images/defaults/articles.webp) Part of the [Ancient Web Collection](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/ancient-web-collection/). Rod Peterson calls himself a woodbutcher: someone who makes mistakes with wood but is generally able to recover. His website has the same cheerfully forgiving attitude toward its own construction. [Visit The Woodbutcher's Shop](https://woodbutcher.net/). The homepage is an extended, conversational tour of woodworking articles, household projects, family stories, and other interests. Its footer is dated August 14, 2007, while the copyright line begins in 2000. Peterson says he had already been using the Woodbutcher name online and in newsgroups for several years. The site therefore documents an established early-2000s personal publishing project, not a new page attempting to look old. He makes a point of declaring the site minimalist: no frames, no guestbook, no elaborate code. His advice about keeping graphics lightweight is especially evocative. Images are mostly displayed as small thumbnails so readers on slow connections need not download a large photograph unless they ask for it. ## The shop, the stories, and the missing checks A [router-table essay](https://woodbutcher.net/) shares space with discussions of table saw alignment, cutoff jigs, metric measurement, bench chisels, and the merits of shop gadgets. Peterson speaks from tinkering experience, frequently explaining that a project is something he tried and revised rather than an immaculate commercial design. The homepage notes that he spent two years, on and off, building a sewing cabinet, and links both construction details and a tour of the workshop. It also wanders away from woodworking. Peterson mentions retiring in 1997, his aviation and air-traffic-control background, and a recording of a busy control session from the mid-1990s. Elsewhere are family stories, reflections on retirement, and commentary on the etiquette of people forwarding email to everyone they know. This makes the page a particularly good artifact of early personal-web culture. A person did not need a narrow branding strategy. They needed an index and an opinion about how visitors ought to find their way through it. The bottom of the homepage still displays a Woodworkers Web Ring with next, previous, and random links. Their destinations may no longer function, but the links show how independent hobby websites were once discovered through their neighbors. Peterson closes by joking that people have kindly reported broken links and errors over the years, but nobody has sent him the promised check. The joke fits: he maintained a public workshop of ideas without first converting his personality into a business model. [Explore the original Woodbutcher homepage and linked shop projects](https://woodbutcher.net/). Part of the [Ancient Web Collection](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/ancient-web-collection/). - Categories: [Ancient Web](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/categories/ancient-web/) - Tags: [#ancientweb](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/ancientweb/), [#personalweb](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/personalweb/), [#diy](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/diy/), [#webrings](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/webrings/), [#woodworking](https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/tags/woodworking/) [Articles RSS](https://switchboardtechservices.com/feeds/articles.xml "Subscribe using an RSS reader") --- Canonical URL: https://switchboardtechservices.com/articles/ancient-web-woodbutcher-kept-his-woodshop-and-2007-webring-intact/ Language: en-us Content type: article Author: Switchboard Tech Services Published: 2026-10-18T00:56:42+00:00 Modified: 2026-10-18T21:05:06.060677+00:00 Description: The Woodbutcher's Shop survives with hand-written navigation, thumbnail advice, old how-to articles and a personal webmaster voice.