He began demonstrating the Shopsmith Mark V, 5-in-1 tool in Ontario, Canada and was noticed by the hosts of the hit TV show, The Router Workshop, Bob and Rick Rosendahl in 1994. Mark trained with the Rosendahls and began demonstrating the jigs and fixtures as seen on the show at all of the Canadian woodworking shows. He became a feature seminar speaker at these shows and grew from there.
Mark took his passion to the next level in 1999 with the launch of The National Router Academy – a school dedicated to the teachings of just one tool: the router. The classes grew to include week long, hands-on router classes that enabled students to get comfortable with their routers.
Mark grew again when he began working for Freud Canada, Inc. In his position as Product Application Specialist, Mark was fortunate enough to travel to America and Europe to assist in new product development for Freud. His assistance helped change the design of routers and router tables in North America and he also assisted in router bit and saw blade design.
Over the years Mark has become friends with some of the major names in the woodworking industry. He has hosted several feature DVDs for woodworking hand tool professional, Rob Cosman. Mark worked with HGTV host, John Silloats of In the Workshop as a guest on the show and as router specialist for all of the show's router questions. Mark also worked with Jon Eakes of HGTV’s Just ask Jon Eakes on a saw blade technologies special feature on his newly released Table Saw Tips DVD.
Mark’s plans for the future are to create his own series of DVDs and to travel the country giving seminars and classes on Simply Routing.
