What got you started in woodworking?
user-1119429039
| Posted in General Discussion on
What got you started in woodworking?
- Secondary-school shop classes
- TV show
- Friends
- A relative
- Magazines
- Woodworking school
- Economic necessity
- Other (post in Knots)
You will not be able to change your vote.
Replies
A visit to Williamsburg when I was about 12. Loved the various woodworking-related trade exhibits - coopering, lutherie, coach maker and, of course, cabinetmaker.
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
Mine is a combination of a relative and school shop classes.
My grandfather was a carpenter, and while I never saw him build anything, my interest in and ability to work with wood came from him.
7th grade shop class also sparked my interest, and my mom still has the wooden spoon I made for her, 30 years ago.
Rob Millard
http://www.americanfederalperiod.com
It started with built-ins.
Better life through Zoodles and poutine...
The deck on the side of my house was beginning to disintegrate and I mentioned to my bride to be that I was going to have to hire someone to rebuild it. She is quite frugal and does not believe you pay anyone to do a job you could do yourself. She informed me that I could rebuild it and she would help so I bought a few tools including the 80th anniversary Craftsman 10 " miter saw (she thought it was too expensive) and the deck turned out pretty well. My grandfather, father and brother all did a fair amount of woodworking and/or carpentry but I never had much interest...however, with her encouragement and the discovery of "Woodworks" on DIY I started getting interested and bought a Delta Contractor TS....
Then I discoverd the Marc Adams woodworking school and signed up for a course with Chris Gochnour in traditional woodworking with hand toools...he sent a tool list and my wife, not knowing what she was getting into said "Get whatever tools you need"...the rest is history
What a wonderful path I was led down...sure beats golf
I'm pretty sure it's my wife's fault. We saw a coffee table with a slate top in a furniture store. The price was pretty high and a commented that I could build a table for the fraction of the cost. She challenged me to do it, so I build her a coffee table and 2 end tables.
Everyone on this forum would faint at the materials list. Plywood, construction lumber and slate tiles did the job. At least there's a little decorative router work on the 4x4 legs. We won't discuss how the stretchers were mortised.
Then I watched Norm.
Then my wife wanted 2 doors for an old built-in cabinet. I just copied the joinery that failed in the original doors.
Then I watched David Marks and tried a head board.
Then my wife wanted kitchen cabinet doors.
I'm sure the 'wants' will never end (I even have a few). I've accumulated a few machines, a greater appreciation for hand tools and had a blast.
Few have it. Fewer yet know what to do with it!
No the wants never stop from the wife. Wait til you retire, then you get a whole jar full of wants.
I got started when I was about 15, my father was a cabinet maker and spent most of my summers working with him. Then I got into the electrical field and have spent most of my adult life as an electrician. I retired about a year ago and got into woodworking. I wished I had done it sooner. In that year the Wife has had more projects for me and as I said above she now has an old pickle jar, the gallon size filled with 'Honey-do this, and that' I don't think I will ever get to the bottom of it.
Genetics. My grandfather (my mother says I look like him) was a Dutch carpenter that come over "on the boat" 100+ years ago. I have always loved wood. I was gutting a house last weekend and salvaged a 2x4 and a 2x6 that were clear old growth fir. Just couldn't toss them in the dumpster.
Jim
David,
It was a combination of the need of Daughter Number One for a bookcase, along with utter frustration with non-productive aspects of my job, that got me started. She would have bought Ikea but I made her a real one in figured sapele instead. I copied the design from a pine bookcase in the house. The job never seemed to result in a useful thing being made by the end of the week.
FWW was an inspiration to get better and try more complex things but I didn't come to that until some time after I began WW. The Collins book on woodworking (a very complete but basic tome) was my only source of information at first.
We didn't have TV woodworking in Blighty then; there were no WW schools nearby (all carpentry for builders at the local college) and no friend or neighbour had WW as a hobby. For me, it was initially a leap of faith. (I can do that - gizza a job).
Lataxe
I got married in 1979 and towards the end of 1980 a stork was winging it's way towards us.
My wife was rather concerned that as she would be paying a lot of attention to the baby I should take up a hobby seriously.
A couple of evenings later I was out with a chequebook stocking up a workshop.
hey david,
round about 1976 i became obsessed with the need to carve wood. a new ww store had opened up in los angeles named "the cutting edge". nora hall was giving a one day class in basic carving. after the class i wanted more. spent about two years taking classes from her. she charged ten dollars for three hours of her time! what a lady!
eef
What got you started in woodworking?
I think it was grandpa. As I recall he gave me a hammer and some nails and a few old wooden fruit crates. Thinking back he was probably just trying to get me to get out of his hair!
He was a cabinet maker that worked for the OLD Chicago Transit and fixed them old wooden streetcars. You know, those with open ends and the driver had a place on either end. No turnarounds!
Never bothered to teach me anything. A grumpy old man as I remember.. Not mean, just grumpy!
My grandfather. He made model boats all the time out of scraps my uncle, a carpenter, brought home. So one day, I brought over a block of white pine my father gave me. Eyeing it up, it was 4x8x24 inches, he sketched out the shape of the deck and rough cut the block with a handsaw to within a 1/4 inch of the shape. He then gave me a block plane and told me to plane away "everything that didn't look like a sailboat".That boat is now in my 12 year old son's bedroom, below a mirror he designed and we built together.
Edited 10/6/2008 9:03 pm ET by peakbagger
told me to plane away "everything that didn't look like a sailboat".Great teaching method! I even understood that!
I just always had a love for building and my parents helped by suppling me with tools. It was almost genetics
I'm just sayin'
I could not get into metal class in High School. I was always told it was full and next year when I was a higher grade student then for sure I could get in.
I now believe the G** *****d councilor had an agenda to put as many students in literature classes as she could. That is where I always ended up when I threw the blank class sheet, with the single metal shop item selected, at her after yet another snow job and said "put me where you like".
But I am not ANGRY or any thing. ): ( Grrrrrrrrr ! ! ! ! ! aahhhh ! ! ! ! ! No I am alright. I"m fine. iiiiiitttt"ssss ok reeallly.
Well my mentor wanted full butcher block kitchen counters and a cantilevered breakfast table built through one wall and opening into the living room. He traded me top of the line pro bicycle racing components (the same model the winner of the Tour de France used that year) for the work and paid for the wood. In todays money this would be more than a thousand dollars in bike parts. It is what I would have spent the money on anyway and he dealt in this stuff, got it at cost, among many other things. So here I am in a wood working class.
It was not a good omen when the shop teacher hand drew his handouts and he couldn't draw to save his life. The art teacher was one door down but could they talk? noooooo !
I was taking the art class every year as well. Did I learn to draw ? Nooooooo ! Do you see what I am saying here ? (for those who still can not draw see Betty Edwards book Drawing On The Right Side of The Brain. Fantastic source! I can draw portraits or anything else)
To make a long story shorter . . . well shortish . . . I was taking adult night classes in welding at the comunity college my senior year of high school with a perfectly serviceable (and free) shop at high school that I could not get into. But I am not ANNNNGGGGRRRYY about that or anything ): (
I didn't learn squat about wood working. I made allot of mistakes and some how finished the counters. Solid. Three inch thick. Did I mention 3" SOLID. Pine with sap running out of places in the wood. (all underneath) The heaviest counters in the world ! Why the instructor couldn't say here; this is stupid make it thinner with a wide border so it appears to be thick I do not know. We actually got along well and I liked him and he treated me fine. But oh well.
OK I figure I have no talent what . . . so . . . ever for wood working of any kind and avoid it like the plague for like twenty years. Then I am unemployed except for a crappy part time job. I am about to get a "good" job but am waiting until they build the new building. I need like ten thousand dollars worth of SnapOn tool cabinets for personal mechanics tools. I think "hey I could set up a wood shop for that much money and make them my self; bearing slides and all". annnnddddd I want to learn to cut dovetails. I am a precision metal worker! Wood working will be a cake walk! Why not!
It was, and is, NOT a cake walk ! I am not a natural wood worker. I struggle with it. It is complex beyond my wildest dreams. I love doing it but does not come easy. Completed projects do not come fast.
If it weren't for books and magazines and videos I would have never been able to do the simplest thing. I know because I failed allot.
So don't mention high school and we will get along juuuust fine. The literature was even sick and twisted and SUCKED. But I am not angry or anything. : )
Edited 10/7/2008 12:48 am by roc
We needed new chairs for the den. Wife and I were in Crate a and Barrel store and they had a decent copy of the slant arm Morris chair. Wife sat down and wiggled in and said "pick me up in a couple of hours". I have always liked that chair. I said "I can do that." So I did. Made 2 of them. Made a few modifications because I had no idea what I was doing but 15 of so years later they are still in service in the den.
There is another factor as well. My father-in-law had a custom cabinet shop which he inherited from his father-in-law. Must be in the genes.
ASK
Edited 10/7/2008 8:59 am ET by ASK
Edited 10/7/2008 9:04 am ET by ASK
I've always loved wood! even as a kid... it just did something for me you know ... the way the grain patterns change depending how its cut or the way it wrap around an edge when you shape it.
It's also a really cool material to use there just seems to be no end to its uses or usefulness!
but the truth is I only really caught the bug to seriously work it ten or twelve years ago.
Chaim
OK, I admit it, watching Norm on Sat. morning. I just got wowed and thought, I can do that!
My wonderful Grandfather got me started on my journey. James Krenov did the rest.
I have always had a desire to make things and fix things - from Lincoln Logs and American Bricks, to printed circuit boards, furniture (non-fine), etc. Never thought about the why of it before. Larry
The love of my life's father. In 1983 he had a few tools and I would go help him do little things. 25 years later and I am still doing little things.
My hatred of trees... I've never liked looking at or living with big trees, so any tree I had a chance to get rid of I did. Then I would mangle it up and make something with it's innards so I could continue mocking it for the rest of my life as a piece of furniture.
It was one of James Krenov's books... I can't remember which. I loved his furniture and was fascinated by his philosophy.
"Other" In 1993 I bought out a used furniture business and started buying and selling vintage and antique furniture for resale. There were many opportunities to buy things that needed varying degrees of restoration and turn them over for a semi-decent profit. Eventually, I got tired of fixing other people's abuses and got interested in making things myself.
Lurking in my early childhood background (~4-1/2 yrs old) is the memory of sitting on the driveway with a long board, a can of nails and a hammer. Pounding nails in, great satisfaction. Have been a tool junkie ever since.
That's funny - I have the same memory. An older next door neighbor gave me a piece of wood a small ping hammer and a Maxwell can with different sized nails inside. I remember enjoying the fact that the hammer and nails were real, and not a toy version. That would have had to be 1956 or 57. Your comment returned me to a fond memory.
Best
Jim
Maybe it was a generational thing, LOL! You were only a couple years behind me. That is one of three very, very early memories I have from childhood.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
think a lot of people have the same memories of sitting and pounding nails into a old board, Now that I am classified as an antique, when the grand kids come over the first thing they do is come out to the shop and go through the scrap box , with a hammer and a can of roofing nails you would be amazed at the bird houses .cars, ramps or whatever a 4-12 year old can come up with, when my granddaughter was having trouble with here fractions I told her to remember the tic marks on the ruler and she said now I understand woodworking is a great teacher , so I just pass along what I was taught also keeps the kids occupied while I TRY to work.
Your grandkids are lucky indeed!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Started with carpentry, relatives, museums(Williamsburg, etc.), antiques, and therapy away from my job stuck in an office.
I am self taught. My dad gave me a basis for wanting to learn more so I read books that were available at the time and tried out the technigues I read about. Then I began to experment and this took my skill to a new level. I have been doing this about 25 years and I am still learning and challenging myself.
Ray
I had to vote Other ... since there's no All of the Above.
After far too many years wanting to do woodworking, I'm finally doing it! My Dad did a little puttering around, and I helped him out. [In my youth, I was a clamp. Hold down the board while I saw it.] I wanted to take shop in high school, but I had this weird defect that denied me entrance -- I'm female. So I promised myself that some day, I'd take a shop class and then spent many years watching Roy Underhill and that man in plaid flannel, reading books and magazines (Tage Frid, I love you), and holding down boards for my husband. [Once a clamp, always a clamp]
We have a house remodeling project coming up, and I volunteered to do the finish carpentry and built-ins. I'm now taking adult ed woodworking at the local vo-tech school, and am starting to build my own tool kit. I'm surprised at how expensive clamps are ... but I have two kids.
Hey kids! Want a job?
but I had this weird defect that denied me entrance -- I'm female.
I had three daughters and one Son... I would think my Girls are the best! My Son the SAME but different!
I wish I was your shop teacher.. Women allowed with long dresses!
I have to admit I had a clash with my oldest daughter... She loved Basketball. I heard her caoch say.. Hit the girl in the face with your elbow. I never alowed her to play basket ball again! I was the BAD father!
Working in a boatyard in Totnes (UK) while on leave from the Royal Navy. That is where I leared to work wood (and Glass fibre). The first job I had was plainig a a 30 +ft. hull of build up by 2X2 afromosia!
I have been around building my whole life. My family owned a heat and air and sheet metal business, so everything built around the house was of sheet metal. My dad could pretty much build anything if he decided to. He even layed a brick fireplace because he figured that he could do it if someone else could. He did some furmiture repair/refinishing out of necessity. I worked as a carpenter on a fire burnout, stormm damage remodeling crew after college and learned to build a house from the inside out ( in the case of one fire, literally) from roofing, framing to finish carpentry, but got into a more recession proof business where I have been for 30 yrs. I am pretty much self taught and began building furniture for the house 27 years ago out of necessity and have built up a pretty good shop, making one major expenditure or two every year. I am still at it and love every minute of it. Since none of us who have relied on mutual funds and 401(k) for retirement will ever be able to retire now, I will keep right on doing it as I have all these years; when and as I can.
"The first job I had was **plainig a a 30 +ft. hull of build up by 2X2 afromosia"
Afrormosia, hey? That will learn you some.
Now a CITES listed timber I believe so not easy to get.
** Good application for one Makita type portable machine planer (;)Philip Marcou
Hi Philip,
1. This was back in 1964
2. The boat yard I was working in had all the machinery available. We built wooden an fibre glass hulls.
The grain structure of Afromosia is such that only a very very sharp York pitch plane couls cope with it. The owner of the plane allowed me to use his jewel and I had to stop every 20 minutes so that he couldsharpen the plane, yes Afromosia is also very abrasive.
P.S. The Boat yard in question was Honor Marine in Totnes, Devonshire (UK) owned by John Westell, the 505 designer.
M,That afromosia is a wonderful timber. I got a load from old chemistry bench tops that the local university were throwing away. I thought it to be teak at first but the smell (when cut) along with the colour and the strange sanding characteristics revealed it to be the African wonder-wood.It did blunt my HSS planer blades fairly quickly, although not as rapidly as the teak (also got from old chemistry benches; and from various bits of old boats). The worst blunter is that iroko (similar again to the teak) which is full of nasty calcites, apparently. I was resawing a 2" X 10" plank a couple of weeks ago and a dirty great deposit of the stuff (known as "stones") buried inside the plank took the sharp off my bandsaw blade and undid it's set. Doh! The stone was an inch thick elipsoid about 2" X 3", all gnarly and nasty it was. I often wonder how much fine teak (and perhaps afromosia) goes to waste because old boats are scrapped and the wood burnt or otherwise trashed. The surface often looks worn, grey and discoloured with sea-stuff. But just 0.5mm or so below that ugly surface lurks the pristine wood. You shoulda seen them chemistry bench tops - like a 2D photo of Venus' surface from NASA! But just below is that fine timber, all hale and hearty with its glowing grain and black swirls.Lataxe who has, sadly, just about used up his afromosia pile but still has a teak horde (destined to become 3 adirondack chairs to match the first one).
>"stones") buried inside the plank took the sharp off my bandsaw blade and undid it's set. Doh! The stone was an inch thick elipsoid about 2" X 3", all gnarly and nasty it was.Man ! Your post should have come with a warning for sensitive viewers ! It is halloween time but still what a horror story. I am still quaking just imagining if that happening to my own blade !
My grandfather was a master cabinet maker. Standing beside him when I was a little guy I loved the sound of his plane (wisssss.....) as he squared stiles. those long-curled strands of nearly opaque poplar were springy and fun to play with. They were safe and he let me play all I wanted in the sawdust. I got to help me clean up and shared in the joy of helping him.
One of my granddads was a carpenter/remodeler/painter generally but also built several houses. My other granddad was a painter. He was so good with a brush he painted one of his old black cars with oil based house paint. You had to get close to see it wasn't sprayed on.
My dad was an architect and owned a hardware store/lumberyard/etc. Every afternoon after school I went to the store, went to the back and did my homework and then came to the front to work. By the time I was 11 or 12 I cut and joined the picture frames that had been ordered that day in the custom framing shop. Dad did the matting and cut the glass. I did the rest.
I still have the old Stanley framing miter saw. It still does the job today.
Alan - planesaw
Good question! lets see, I was about 6 years old(1973) and I found these interesting objects in the basement. so I asked my brother (13 years older) what they where ? He explained that they where some of Grampas joinery tools( small foot powered lathe ,gents saw ,jointing plane...
Then in 1979 I realized it was time to get out of Dodge so to speak, and my freinds Father who was an joiner trained in Germany let my live above his shop as long as I worked for him restoring furniture and heritage homes. This lead to an aprentiship in furniture construction/joinery . Have been a wood bug ever since.
I started in woodworking while attending college in Japan. I saw some beautiful works at the Fukuoka college of architecture and devoted my life to their glory. One day I shall return and stand proud at the mountain top.
Edited 10/14/2008 9:03 pm ET by sandman605
". I saw some beautiful works at the Fukuoka college of architecture and devoted my life to their glory. One day I shall return and stand proud at the mountain top."
How so, ?Philip Marcou
Feel like I can do this had some training in High School. Am disabled in one arm so have to work at my own pace now can't hold down job as yet.
A hammer.
the need to better my homes and not pay someone outrageous (I thought) prices. From tablesaw, to better table saw, to bandsaw, to jointer/planer, to "boutique" handtools, it just kept growing. Now it's a passion and hobby that gives me the ability to make just about any practical wood-based home necessity and accessory.
I guess I just always had a predisposition towards building things. As long as I can remember, I've been tinkering and building things. Once I developed an appreciation of furniture the die was cast.
One thing I can say for certain was that my interest was not fueled by a relative. My father is a hand surgeon, so he's always been wary of me using saws. In fact, when I began woodworking he made me come down to the ER with him to see a patient who had had a table saw injury. Fortunately, watching him reattach fingers didn't make me any less interested; only more aware of the dangers and more careful in my own work.
i bought a new truck with a shortcab and wanted to put a stereo in it. my only option was to build the subwoofer enclosure myself. so i bought a brad nailer and a circular saw and went to town. then i got into home audio and started learning to do nicer work. now i want to build everything i can get my hands on.
What got me started? I think it was the wood, itself. I'd see a log and wonder what it looked like if you opened it up. I'd see a rough cut board and wonder what it would look like when planed. I'd see some beautiful grain and think how good it would look in a table or cabinet or panel.
BJGardening, cooking and woodworking in South'n Murlyn'
Yep' I made a Old Heath Kit,, Amplifier long ago,,, With My Knight 16 inch woofers (50 Lb Magnets?) I could ground shake the whole neighborhood!
While backing my truck into the garage I forgot that I had a 16 foot aluminum ladder hanging out over the tailgate.
I spent the rest of that day and the following week trying to figure out how to rebuild a panelled door.
After that and $1000 worth of tools I got the hang of working in wood.
Nothing fancy; I'm not afraid to use screws and nails and a big hammer.
Hank.
Nothing fancy; I'm not afraid to use screws and nails and a big hammer. YES!
Yes.. What got you started in woodworking?
I have to respond again after thinking on it a BIT! My Lady Wife was something.. She would walk into my garage. I had all the piston rod pins and all the valves all ground to perfection! Sitting on a 2/4 stud (garage wall) all in a row wating for me to fit back into engine. She would walk in Slam the door..and she smile as all my finished parts fell to the corcrete floor.. I was still Very happy she came to visit! A new old junk engine easy to get.. Not her!
Edited 10/26/2008 10:20 am by WillGeorge
Edited 10/26/2008 10:23 am by WillGeorge
During WW2, a displaced German family moved into the neighborhood. He was a cabinet maker who used only hand tools. His wife made the best cookies in the world. To a 6 year old this was heaven. He was very patient with me and my questions. He explained each step of the building of whatever he was making. I remember that his tools were treated with respect and were never out of place in his shop. I stopped in to see them 20 years later, only to find that they had both died. I felt I had lost my best friend. I found one of the sons, who still lived in that town, who told me that I had helped his father learn to speak "American".
Next was the grandfather of a girl I knew in highschool, also a man of German descent. He was a wooden boat builder. He taught me to use planes and chisels, and how to use "Yankee" screwdrivers. His boats had sides that were single pieces of pine that were" wide and up to 16' long. Can't get wood that size any more. This plus woodshop in highschool got me started on a lifelong hobby.
Today I work in my shop making peices to restore the 110 tear old home we live in, also making parts for restoration of antique aircraft.
Best all round hobby for an old retired, bald headed, fat guy. Definitely beats golf, but I'm not sure about fishing.
His wife made the best cookies in the world.
My wife made the BEST Chicken Soup! Even the chicken et' the leftovers..
We have no idea...She kept the secret to death..
Great story Tracey!Chris @ http://www.flairwoodwork.spaces.live.com
- Success is not the key to happines. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer
Both of my grandfathers were carpenters but I didn't know that until sometime after their death. I was only five then. But sometime after I turned six I made a rabbit silhouette from an old apple crate. At the time I was probably more interested in mechanics but wood was right up there. This was almost seventy years ago. Until a couple years ago when I retired, I was just too busy to build much so am still very inexperienced. Trying to get my shop in working condition.
Edited 10/29/2008 10:22 pm ET by Tinkerer3
Dad's side of the family were all cabinet makers, millwrights, or boat builders, going back to when they came to America as ships carpenters with William Penn.
Dad broke out, thanks to the GI Bill, and became an engineer. But, he had been trained as a kid, and had two journey boxes full of hand tools, that knew how to use well.
He always liked the look of wood in just about any form. I'm pretty sure he was the only guy on earth who thought that filled and sanded oriented strand board, with a clear finish was beautiful.
He built two houses from the ground up. Designed them so the sun would come in the picture windows, in the fall, and they would be fully shaded in the spring. Did all the work himself, concrete to finish carpentry. And made the majority of the furniture.
I learned from him.
Edited 10/29/2008 11:03 am ET by Jigs-n-fixtures
Although I was a union carpenter, I gave it up. When I had anger management issues, the counsellor suggested taking on a hobby which was really fussy. The 1st year of woodworking generally involved me swearing and throwing pieces across the fence, until I learned how to control my anger and make some extra pieces.
Regards,
Scooter
"I may be drunk, but you're crazy, and I'll be sober tomorrow." WC Fields, "Its a Gift" 1934
Scoot,In my experience threats, swearing and even mighty blows with a tool will almost always persuade recalcitrant wood to take on the correct configuration and mate with its intented partners.This doesn't work with women (not the ones worth knowing at least) or one's children (they plot and execute awful revenge). Ditto the cat (revenges even worse eventually occur). Many dogs enjoy a shouting-at now and then. It's nice when it stops and they get to make up with you by licking your face and sitting on your person so that you acquire their pong.But I digress.lataxe, always sweetness and light (after 9pm).
Lataxe old chum,
"A woman, a dog, and a walnutt tree-- the more you beat 'em the better they be."
Quoted, I believe, by Eric Sloane in one of his "paean to colonial times and wood" books. Aforementioned quote used to support the theory that whacking the bark of a walnut tree will stimulate it to bear nuts earlier in its life.
Old advice is often the best.
But, not in this case.
Ray, not a wifebeater
OK mister, I'll tell ya.
It was YOU (Fine Woodworking)!
It was seeing those damn cabriole legs on all that fancy furniture I tell ya. Made me determined to try my hand at it.
I read every dagburn article I could get my hands on to larn how to make 'em. But first I needed all the tools.
An imported bandsaw, a $400 spokeshave, $50 dollar files, a $1,000 lathe to turn to pads, a shavehorse and a workbench the size of an aircraft carrier, etc.
Huh, a bandsaw, old drawknife and some sandpaper and Bob's your uncle.
Regards,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
When I got out of the service, Napoleonic era, I needed a job. A family friend was a supervisor for a largish construction company and I asked him for a job as a laborer since I didn't have any skill at anything other than being a dumb kid. He said he'd give me a job if I'd join the carpenters union and promise to finish the apprenticeship program. I did and found I liked it. Heavy construction led to remodeling and then to finish work. After more than 20 years in construction I no longer work in the trade but have a home shop and still love working with wood.
since I didn't have any skill at anything other than being a dumb kid.
NO SUCH THING.. A child is WAY smarter than us old folks.. We just think different!
Although I checked "economic necessity" there were a variety of reasons -- but I really started -- other than rough framing and building -- when our new house needed screens. Twenty-eight windows later, I'd pretty much mastered lap and saddle joints.
I've always tinkered with woodwork. My uncle had a shop when I was a kid, I grew up hearing about my grandfather -- a carpenter who worked on both the Panama Canal and what is now Fort Belvoir.
Shop class at school gave me the basics, which have always been handy, it seems, no matter what I've been doing for work.
It seems to be in our family genes -- many of my relatives were in building trades -- and seems to be passed on, my son is a Marine combat engineer, a pretty fair woodworker and plans on a career in building when he gets out.
hi,
i got into woodworking via two routes. as long as i can remember, i've really been into tools. i have a number of stories involving me, tools, and the disassembly of unsuspecting objects. (but, i digress.) tempting fate, my dad brought me back a german (handtool) woodworking kit from a european business trip, and i was immediately hooked. a number of relatives gave me some pointers, and i experimented a lot, building various things, some ugly, and some not. not to mention the number of boards i reduced to shavings learning to tune up a handplane. my school didn't offer shop classes, so as time went on, i left woodworking behind.
then several years ago, as my wife and i were buying furniture for our (growing) teenage kids, i was dismayed to find how expensive "junk" furniture is. that led to "i can do better than that." she said, "you're on" and the rest is history. i took some classes on power tool woodworking, bought a garage shop full of machines, and built a bunch of stuff. now, i have a build-it list that will keep me busy for longer than i can imagine.
sure wish i knew what happened to that old kit of handtools...
cheers,
bert
Wanted to be a cabinetmaker as early as 6 years, loving it now for 44 years and still going strong.
I love the challenge to translate the costumers wish into reality.
Chair making is my speciality.
Cheerio Bernhard.
chairmannz,Do you have pictures in the Readers Gallery here at this site? I would like to see some of your work. I have never built a chair but can see myself struggling to learn how in the future.
Hi roc,Yes i have post look here
http://finewoodworking.taunton.com/item/2661/just-a-few-things-i-have-made-in-the-last-3-years
I made this desk about 1 1/2 years ago with a display cabinet and a storage cab.
All in Kauri hand veneered .
The brief on this lot was minimal , the desk round about 2 x 1 Mtr. pattern for me to choose with bronze legs supplied by interior designer, the display cabinet drawers under and minimal timber in doors and stiles with veneered round edges , the storage table/cabinet 2.4 long and o.7 and 0.4 mtr. deep.
This was for a reception in a prestigious head office
The kauri veneer was supplied and this job took me 6 1/2 weeks.
Edited 12/11/2008 3:02 am by chairmannz
Wow ! Bronze legs ! Shades of my sculpture foundry days. Just as I was typing this noticed the open feet. Nice touch. I like none semetrical .The wood work is nice. That goes without saying !Enjoyed seeing all of these. ThanksOn the German customer chair are those Mallof joints on the front legs?rocPS: Sorry every body I just woke up to the fact I am hogging thread; should have privet emailed. Whoops.
Edited 12/11/2008 1:39 pm by roc
I'm 42 years old and I'm really new to woodworking. I mean, I've made some decks and put up a fence or two and drywall and stuff in the house, but I've never made anything like furniture. In school, I went through computer science and now own an IT consulting firm and software development company. Well, and I'm not sure how personal I should get, but, four years ago my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. She went through a mastectomy and the chemo. It was a trying time and she continues on some meds until year five...next year she'll be done. Last year, one of my daughters, at 7yrs old, was diagnosed with leukemia. The chemo lasts for two and a half years and currently she is about a year and a half in. WELL...between running a couple of businesses, and the stress of cancer hitting my little family twice...I found I was drained emotionally and physically. The stress has been immense and continues. HOWEVER, this past summer, I decided I needed a distraction of some kind. So, I set out to replace the exterior shutters on the front of my house (after getting an $8000 quote to have it done). There are 22 of them. As I started to do it, I bought myself a nice router and table, drill press, band saw, planer, jointer and assorted other things...and started my "man garage" by taking over half of our garage. I built a worktable to work on and instead of paying someone $8000 to do the shutters, went to a mill and got about $500 in knotless pine and off I went. I finished my shutters and in the process...well...DAMN I LOVE WOODWORKING. I find myself going to the lumber places just to look at the different woods they have. I'm absolutely loving it. I'm currently building a mantel for my fireplace. It might sound stupid but I can't tell you how excited I was to go to the mill, early one Saturday morning to pick out the wood that I would use. I chose walnut...and it's beautiful. AND I got some birds-eye maple for some picture boxes I want to do...and some other stuff for a finger joint-jig I want to make. I'm eyeing the newest Rigid portable table saw...and drooling because it's on my christmas list. I've found this website and it's absolutely great!! I looked at the project pictures that you all have submitted and dang...I mean DANG...they are so inspiring...thank you!! SO for me (to make a short story long), it wasn't a relative, or school, or economics that got me into woodworking. My reasons are different..."Other"...and I'm blown away by how much the simple act of shaping and making something out of wood has helped me in the last several months. A subscription here is also on my christmas list...yeehaa..(LOL I had to put it on my christmas list because I've purchased so many tools lately that when I get home from work my wife says "Uh, what did you buy today?"). Thanks for the articles and the pictures and the videos and the advice. I look forward to asking many questions here and learning from all you experts out there. "Always forward"....we say.
WELL...between running a couple of businesses, and the stress of cancer hitting my little family twice...I found I was drained emotionally and physically. The stress has been immense and continues. HOWEVER, this past summer, I decided I needed a distraction of some kind.
Been there.. Did that.. My wife and brother.. Cancer for my lovely wife and my brother from MS..
I for one would say time in the 'shop', even if you are potting plants or knitting in the easy chair.. Is time well spent and probably the best medicine for you.. ANYTHING to keep you busy (for a moment or two) to keep your mind off of something YOU can do nothing about.. Except support for your loved one... Get whatever you need to get through this.. It will NOT be easy either way...
I voted for a brief shop course I took (actually in the 7th grade), but thinking back, it was at the age of five or six when I received a gift from my parents, a metal toolbox full of kid-size tools.
I checked "Economic Necessity" but it really went like this. I'd never done any wood working other than replacing a couple of boards on a dock. I was in the Navy and lived with a roommate. My idea of a coffee table was two empty beer cases with a chunk of plywood over the top. On special occasions we'd drop a "table cloth" (big, clean rag) over it.
After I got married my new bride says "we need a bookcase and a coffee table-----Etc". So I say, "let's go to the furniture store". I had worked as an aircraft mech. for years so I knew crap when I saw it and they weren't giving it away!!
I told better half that if she was patient and let me buy some tools that I could build better furniture than we could afford to buy. She was pretty skeptical at first but after the first really basic piece, she was convinced. From then on, we worked tool purchases and lumber into the budget and we began to acquire some decent furniture (slowly).
Fortunately our economic situation has improved dramatically since then but so have my skills (and her patience). I can still build better than we can afford to buy.
Happy Holidays to All!
Mack
"Close enough for government work=measured with a micrometer, marked with chalk and cut with an axe"
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled