How long exactly are you a woodworker?

allen levine

Member
Messages
12,344
Location
new york city burbs
Not counting time when you were a kid, unless you were actually being trained at a young age.
Im really curious, just wanting to see whos got wood running through their veins instead of blood.
 
I have been a woodworker all my life.

I was finally able to be a PRACTICING woodworker 5 years ago (almost to the day!) when I finally got a home with enough space for an actual shop. Before that all I could do was with a drill, jigsaw and maybe a couple of sanding blocks.

I've always been a tinkerer, though, and would long to work with my hands as far back as I can remember.
 
On and off (mostly off) about 25 years, when I had room. Most of the time I had little or no shop to work from and equipment was in storage (are you listening Ned?) For the past 8 years or so I've been trying to get more and more done in the shop, but life keeps getting in the way.
 
I've been around it my whole life, but got started on my own somewhat around 2000 with a few tools and then started to spin wood in Dec. 2006...been addicted ever since.
 
Funny thing...I took up woodworking in high school (1988) and pretty near flunked out. I used a hand plane so badly it was the first time the instructor said he had to use the tablesaw to straighten it out. I swore I would never touch wood and instead work with steel as a machinist/welder.

Just after high school though, I began building my house. I was only 19, borrowed a radial arm saw and proceeded to try and build cabinets for my house. I thought they looked good, but they were pretty bad. Still though I started to see that I liked working wood. Pretty soon I started making wooden models for people. Then my Grandfather got sick (2000) and had to give up his tools. With more tools, more wood and some time I was able to really expand my woodworking.

Now 20 years later I like to merge both wood and steel. I do this at work building boats and at home building handplanes.
 
Used to nail stuff up at my Dad's job sites with scrapwood when I was 6 (probably before, but don't remember much before that). I think shop class was the only classes I consistantly got 'A's in. I've built and remodeled houses most of my life now, so going on about 30+ years. I'm a programmer by trade, but even that seed got planted in shop class in HS doing cad work.
 
When I was 12 my uncle started showing me how to make cabinets and hhow to install trim. Sahop class was my favorite subject in school, but as with life I drifted away from it untill about 4 years ago.Now I do mostly refinishing and some new peices if someone is willing to pay.
 
Boy do I feel old... in about 4th grade I entered a stool I had made in a hobby show (and won a blue ribbon), since it had hand-cut dadoes. In 7th grade I had already made the bird houses the others were doing, so I got to learn the lathe. Through much of my life, I owned handyman special homes that I fixed up as I lived in them. When my son got out of college, my wife said it would be nice to build something that wasn't attached to the house, that we left behind each time we moved. So start with coffee table, end tables for my son. His nightstand from college looked horrible, so we built one from walnut. That made the bed look horrible, so we built one from walnut. That made the chest of drawers... you get the pattern. Then people saw the work, and said "can you build xxx for me." Quite a few years of doing that on nights and weekends, then four years ago I retired early to do it full time. Lets, see, that makes my stool about 55 years old.
 
I helped my dad built furniture when I was a pre-teen, but left it alone for many years. My serious woodworking started when i married my spouse---I quickly discovered that if I wanted to spend any quality time with him, I had to be in the shop with him---and he put me to work. That was over 25 years ago, and we're still going strong. LOML started working with his dad when he was about ten -- that's almost as long as Charlie's been doing it.
 
youre well rounded larry, cause I meet guys(and I raise the subject), that are woodworkers in one form or the other, but alot of contractors have never built a piece of furniture, although theyve built homes, and alot of craftsman, who build furniture, dont know the first thing about hanging doors.
 
the only thing my older brother taught me when I was 10 was how to take a punch or a kick. I was his karate practicing dummy, whether I wanted to be or not.
I think it was a good thing there werent sharp tools or hammers around when we went at it.
 
Top