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How Did You Get Introduced to Woodworking?

I was told by my grandfather, I don't really remember this, that when I was about four years old I walked into his shop and said, "Granpop, I want to help you build it." He was a general contractor building an elementary school I eventually attended. He said he handed me a tin full of 12 penny nails and a long handled 20 ounce and told me when I could drive one of those nails into a 2x4 in two whacks I could "join his crew."

This I do remember -- one Saturday morning, after just cutting his grass (he did the riding, I did the trimming) and putting the mowers away, I grabbed the hammer from its hook on the white pegboard and asked him, "Which hand?" He didn't know what I was talking about, at first, but I proceeded to bury two nails, one with each hand, in a total of four hits. I was too young to officially be hired, but after that day, summers and weekends, when I didn't have some sort of sports' practice, I was swinging that hammer on his jobsites.

I'm still swinging it. That old Rocket hammer will never leave my side until I give it to my son.
 
Dear Ian, Alan, Tod,

Thanks for your replies.

"that begs the question of how many years full time schooling the average child had before that period."

The implication is quite correct... not only that, but I also begged the question of *who* would be in those schools... and it certainly wouldn't have been *me*. Given my family background, I would have been excluded from any advanced schooling, just like Jude the Obscure... and not only that, but for the last few hundred years of the apprentice system, excluded from the guilds as well. At least Jude could be a stone cutter... ;)

And although I was intimately involved with the european education system for a number of years, I'm not sure I'd want it globalized. I would never have done well in it growing up, since in some places students get "tracked" ... put on one track from an early age. If I'd gotten tracked at 14, I'd probably be picking cotton now... ;)

And what is it over there with polish plumbers? ;) To hear your neighbors to the south tell it, there's an invasion going on... ;)

Last point... believe it or not, we can listen to "prime minister's questions" every week on c-span... I usually hear it while I'm working in the shop... I'm actually jealous... I wish our 'parlement' sounded like that... ;)

"Our local high school doesn't have shops I don't believe, but they do have a lot of Advanced Placement courses like music theory, or AP Japanese"

Yep. Discussing the reasons for that would actually lead me outside the CofC, though. I will say that I had an old prof who held it was much harder to wire a house than to write a poem. He may have been right... but I prefer to think that turning a bowl and writing a sonnet have a lot in common... ;)

"as a nation we have an abundance of folks who shuffle paper (figuratively and literally) and a bunch who flap their gums"

Yep, that would be me. All I do, all day, is read and write and talk. And there are lots of others like me. And if the financial markets go where it looks like they're going, we're all going to have to learn to do something else. With a little luck, what I'm learning in the shop may be of some value someday! ;) Talk about lifelong learning! ;)

Thanks,

Bill
 
Bill

There you go - we're singing from the same sheet. My only desire in respect of "shop" class in schooling is that every young person gets encouraged to try and the opportunity to choose. If a school has no provision for shop class then no pupil of that school will have the opportunity. People learn in different ways and I know at least one joiner who does serious geometry every day in his work but would not understand it at all if presented as a hypothetical question. A good woodwork teacher can make lots of other disciplines more accessible to some pupils.

And isn't preventing young people from experiencing the process of making things also a form of "tracking"? (we tend to use streaming in the UK). Giving people only an academic track to follow will, for some, be the same as giving them no track to follow.
 
Ian Barley said:
Giving people only an academic track to follow will, for some, be the same as giving them no track to follow.
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I agree, not only that, I actively sought out shop class in the high schools that I went to and they didn't have them so I had to take dumb classes like Physical Education and English and I already speakeded English.:rolleyes:

30 minutes has already passed?:huh::eek::doh:
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:rolleyes: Since Clardy wont answer, I decided to make my own story for him.

It all started around 3 when little Steve first saw his grandpa building a staircase with his dad and he went up to them and said. "When I groes up I wants to build stareses too."

When little Steve was about 4 years old he built his first staircase for a barbie dream house remodeling project that one of the neighbor girls contracted him for.

He then moved on to dog house stair cases that went straight up to the roof. Sure this made no sense, but little Steve's passion for stairs was so strong that, it didn't have to. He made stairs just for the sake of making them, it didn't matter where they went.

Obviously with his growing obsession for stairs, he also had to make excuses for them, so when he made a new staircase for his friends shower, he said it was so he could get the "important" parts closer to the water.

When Steve finally started making staircases to get from each step to another on full size staircases, his family decided that it was time to put him into rehab for the mentally inclined. This was a low spot in Steve's life, but it was a necessary part of the design process.

Nowdays Clardy has a little more control over his dark secret, but he still makes a mini staircase in his pancakes every time he has them for breakfast. :eek:
 
Steve, somehow I think that would be safer that waiting for everyone else to add their 2 cents in on your history! :D

I really don't remember when it happend, more like I have always loved wood. My dad majored in Industrial Arts, so was always doing something constructive, but we didn't have wood working tools around as I was growing up. He worked for his father at a ready-mix concrete plant. Built the computerized batch office to mix the sand/gravel/cement/and water. When I was probably 10, he took an old trailer and set it up at Lake Texhoma, and we built a screened in porch around it, and eventually enclosed it. I did take what couldn't have been more that a semester of shop in the 10th grade, built a phone stand with a cubby hole under it for the phone book out of mahogany.
I'd take stuff apart and rebuild them. Like my brother's headphones that he killed. Pulled some speakers out of some old walkie-talkies and soldered them in. Sounded better that the originals. Fast forward to late college days. LOML and I got married my second :)D) Junior year at Baylor. (I lost 34 hours in automotive from the Jr. college I attended before Baylor) and after buying her a grand piano that year (a music teacher) we purchased a stereo system. No place to put it, so I built a stereo stand that would house our records, the integrated amp, tuner and turntable, with an extra spot for a future cassette player, out of 1 x 8 ship lap siding. Glued and nailed 3 pieces together, made a base out of 2 X 12, and made a top that hinged for the turntable, all with a drill, hammer, and a hand saw.
When we bought our first house 5 years later, the first thing I did was rip the kitchen down to the studs. That was July 4th weekend. Said I could do it in 2 weeks.:rofl: The day before Thanksgiving I had the basic cabinets up where the counter top people could install the counter! The inlaws were due the next day for the holiday at out house! But I was hooked solid.
Haven't built much yet, but you've seen what I'm doing in my shop from that thread. I hope to be building cabinets again by next Spring. This time they will be built BEFORE I pull the old ones out! :D
Great thread! I agree, it has allowed me to get to know the participants better. Now com'on Steve, it's your turn...of does someone else need to try for you again??? Jim.
 
Great post Jim, I didn't think this thread would turn out so good, but I've enjoyed reading each and every post.

To Frank Pellow, thank you, I try:D

To Steve, I'm patient, I'm just messin with ya because I really am interested.:wave:
 
I grew up around the woodworking trade. My dad was a Woodworker, and my Uncle was a cabinet maker. So, I was destined to be a shop rat I guess? :) My dad still dabbles when he gets the urge, and my Uncle (My Dad's oldest brother) has some health concerns that keep him from the "heavy" woodworking, but he has become an accomplished carver. From the genealogy-inclined folks in my rather large family, I have learned many of my relatives from the "old country" were also woodworkers. I guess it's a German thing to have sawdust coursing through one's veins? ;)

I enjoy woodworking and woodturning, although I have many other interests that keep me from my shop for periods of time on occasion. I am getting back in the "wood groove" though, and my daughter has her own place now, and she has compiled a list for dear old Dad. Gonna be a busy winter in the shop..........darn the luck, huh? :D

As for Steve Clardy........I can totally understand how he can't take time out to type a reply to this thread. He has to be fed about every hour or so..............and ya GOTS to have your priority's straight! (If you ever saw Steve put away the chow, you would understand.) :thumb:
 
My Dad was an accountant. My relatives were farmers.

I don't know where it came from, but I always liked 'making' things. Didn't matter what.

I was always just trying to put things together as a kid. I remember my dad bought a little Ouachita 16 foot bass boat when I was in junior high. He made a few improvements to it, and then I started making some improvements. Then he started upgrading boats (competition with friends).

Before I knew it I was replacing steering cables, wiring up accessories, etc. on my dads boat AND his friends boats. As a 16 year old I knew the local Ace hardware store better than most of the employees.

When I move to a new town, I still make it a point to take fully explore each and every aisle of the local hardware store. I get to the point where I don't even have to think about where to go to what I want, it's just embedded in my internal hardware gps system.

Just always some sort of mechanical ability, I guess. My dad still jokes that I learned everything from him, but, really, thats kind a joke :D (Man I hope he doesn't find this post).

At any rate, I ended up getting into working with computers. I'm still not sure how to describe what I do, but it's a cross between data modeling, programming, customer service, project management, etc...

In my day job, when I turn off the computer, what I've done can't be seen. There is only a very small group of people I can describe to what I did, what clever techniques I used, or why I did something a certain way. It can be quite frustrating.

Woodworking gives me a creative outlet that is tangible. If I make something, I have proof that I did something. I can show it to people, I can talk about it. People appreciate it.



"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

-Robert A. Heinlein
 
Brent Dowell said:
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

-Robert A. Heinlein
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Thats a great quote Brent, I try to learn as much and do everything I can as well, its just that woodworking is my chosen profession. I can still make a darn good pizza though.

Also great posts to you and everybody else.

Now if Clardy could just put down that darn model staircase that he's been caressing for the past 2 hours we might get to know a little more about him as well.:rolleyes:
 
Hey Nancy what does the 100 days thing in your sig mean? I noticed it is decreasing so I assume it is a countdown, but to what?
 
Allen Grimes said:
Hey Nancy what does the 100 days thing in your sig mean? I noticed it is decreasing so I assume it is a countdown, but to what?
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Retirement!! Blessed, glorious retirement, at least from the day job. I'm gonna stay home, burn wood on the lasers, turn pens and other stuff on the lathe (learn to turn something other than pens and small bowls), build cabinets and furniture with LOML, run our business, and go to work in my jammies (or something comfortable). I can hardly wait!!!!! After 42 years of fighting traffic, keeping to set hours, punching a time clock (at times), eating on the run, running errands on my lunch hour, commuting as much as an hour in each direction, dealing with condescending bosses (present one excluded) and whiny clients, wearing heels and pantyhose (and a girdle in the 60s and early 70s), and cultivating extreme digestive problems and high blood pressure, I'm going to stay home, do my thing, and have fun. LOML is making the same move in March. We are also going to do some traveling that we've been wanting to do--so stand by! We may be coming your way in 2008.

The celebration starts at 5:00 p.m. on Friday, December 21, and I'm not sure when it will stop. It's gonna be a nice Christmas gift to myself.

And that's calendar days - just counted this morning and it's 57 work days - assuming that I don't cut back to 3-day weeks next month. My replacement is already on board, so a 3-day week may be in the cards. :D:D:D I have a VERY nice boss.

Nancy (100 days)
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Thats great Nancy, I'm, glad to hear it. I couldn't imagine working 10 years for somebody else let alone 42. I have a lot of respect for those of you who are able to put up with it.
 
My Dad bought a one room cottage in the sticks when I was 4. He...over the years...made that house our home by adding a kitchen...bathroom...bedroom...with the "help" of me. I was very bitter about not getting weekends off to play with my friends...then. At 12 a contractor down the road a piece asked my dad if it was okay for me to go to work with him on a Saturday...to help because his helper didn't show.

Fast forward...By the time I was 16 I had 4 "helpers" and was his finish/cab guy. I learned everything I know in the school of hard knocks. I ended up spending 10 years in the Navy and coming out with a job taking care of the US Navy Sub fleet...but I still love to make a mess with sawdust.
 
Steve Clardy said:
:rofl::rofl::rofl:


Actually my MIL and BIL was smoking pork and taters.
They live on our acreage, so its handy to run over there and eat a bite.

Anyhoo, the meat finally got done, but the taters were crunchy.:(
I opted to wait it out. 45 minutes later, taters and onions were still crunchy.:(
HEY BRO, turn up the heat will ya.:eek::rofl:

I finally gave in and ate some fine smoked pork, and crunchy taters.
Thats why it took so long :eek:
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You're a riot, Steve! :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::wave:
 
Great post Steve, its about darn time too. :D

With all the trouble you were giving me, I didn't expect it to be that long, but I guess you were just trying to cover up the fact that you were writing a novel.:p

I just have one question:
Enter my 9th year of high school.
I was into cars hot and heavy.
Shop classes were offered. :eek: Wow :D:D
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You spent 9 years in high school?:eek: Wait, that would be 12 when you add the other 3 in.:eek:What the heck were you doing for the first 8?:rofl:

Seriously though, thanks for the great post.
 
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