Robie

What do you mean you lost all the pictures! You want me to make these again?

I grew up in India at a time when there were no power tools. My father was amazing at everything and he had some wonderful old Stanley tools and he used these to build the odd things around the house. Seeing him use these tools got me interested and as a young boy I tried my hand at sawing and using the planes.
When I immigrated to Canada 35 years ago, I went into a hardware store the very next day and was amazed to hold a router in my hands! I looked at all the tools and knew that one day I would be able to buy them.
When I got a job as an Engineer three months later, I rented an empty apartment, bought a Black & Decker hand drill and a jig saw and circular saw attachment for it. With these and a few sheets of ¾” plywood, I made the furniture for my apartment, in my apartment. It was with screws and glue and paint but it lasted and is still in use in a friend’s house.
One day, while at Sears, I bought a radial arm saw and a jointer on impulse. The radial arm saw was the scariest machine I have ever owned and I still have nightmares about what all I did with it. But the turning point was when I bought my first Woodsmith magazine. The joints looked so difficult compared to the butt ends and screws that I had used earlier. But there were good tips on how to make dados and dovetails and so I built a ladder to start. Then I built a router table as per their plans and felt so elated when that turned out well. I said to my wife that I thought that I might finally become a woodworker some day. I started buying Fine Woodworking and got inspired to make furniture.
I worked alone in my basement and slowly built much of the furniture in my house. Most of these were in mahogany with French Polish, a finish that I knew from India and which suited me well in a dusty shop. After a trip to Santa Fe I started building Southwest furniture in pine and some of these I painted in bright colours.
I now have a small insulated and heated metal shed in the backyard, fitted with power tools but hope to someday to build with mostly hand tools. My wife has lined up projects for me but I read FW and want to make things that I have not tried before. I have currently finished a small spice box out of walnut, cypress, luan, pine and African blackwood for a friend’s wedding, based on a FW article.
I may not have made this journey without first my father inspiring me and later Woodsmith and Fine Woodworking. I wish I could work with other woodworkers so that we could share ideas and techniques. But with FW woodworking available to me I feel inspired enough to continue.