General questions

What drew you to woodworking?

Why do you do it?

I am writing a class syllabus and really appreciate your help.

My maternal great grandfather built houses in our county for a living. I never knew him, he died in the flu epidemic. As a kid we were always rebuilding our wood fence around the barnyard as well as rebuilding stalls or building new stalls. As a new farm owner, it was cheaper for me to build around the farm rather than hire someone. Then I got into turning and I think it is about the instant gratification thing. So much of my stuff at school and at home is long term projects that it is hard to see fruition. Turning is instantaneous. So in a nutshell for me it was maintenance/upkeep, then for economic reasons and then maybe some mental health. I'll stop there as it is getting pretty deep!

Thanks, Jon. That's helpful. And interesting. Can't wait to hear other stories.

My dad was a union carpenter, but he pretty much did anything he set his mind to doing. He was not only a good carpenter, he was a structural engineer, mechanical designer, a welder, enjoyed hunting and firearms, fishing, and the list goes on and on.

I mostly got into it out of necessity though, needing furniture that I couldn't afford, and needing to build cabinets for my first house. Though I grew up shadowing my dad, I wasn't very good and made lots of mistakes. As we all have, I learned from them, and improved over time. To be quite honest, I don't feel I do a lot of woodworking for a hobby, I still do woodworking projects out of necessity for the most part. Wood is just another medium for me to work with and hone skills in. I do get inspired to do some gift projects from time to time, but don't spend a lot of time making things from wood just to do the craft. Like my dad, I inherited his knack for taking on and learning whatever interests me.

I got my first interest in working with wood as a pre-teen, helping my dad build and fix things around the barn and the house. Then in high school, I took a carpentry class (for an easy credit) and although I learned very little about real carpentry, learned to use the major power tools. (We were building to a reduced scale, so we spent a lot of time ripping 2x4s to smaller sizes.) The next semester I took regular woodworking, and since I already knew how to use the tools, the teacher let me build whatever I wanted. While the rest of the class was learning the tools and building basic stuff like shoe-shine boxes and the like, I built a gate for my parents' front courtyard and an end table. That was also my first exposure to turning, even though the teacher knew very little about it (and had no idea about sharp turning tools). That exposure drew me in. I built several other projects post-high school using my grandfather's table saw and band saw.

Fast forward many years later, and I started doing woodworking at home strictly for the enjoyment. I worked as a technical writer (all left-brain type stuff), and woodworking was a fun creative outlet that let me use my right brain. This especially became apparent once I got my first lathe. The gratification from making something out of nothing (either flatwork or turning) is why the interest continued, and why I like doing it. And to be honest, I like the praise I get from others who see my work. It's much the same as music for me. It's something I can do reasonably well, and people seem to enjoy the end result.

The first recollection I have of doing anything with wood was with my great-uncle Joe. He was building something and handed me a crosscut saw to cut a 2x4. I'd swear the saw was as long as I was tall at the time!

My father did a little carpentry type work around home that I helped with when directed. The biggest job was adding onto a utility room on the side of a carport; each afternoon when I got home from school I'd add a few more boards to the outside wall, which was board-and-batten construction. The only "woodworking" I recall him doing was a small table to hold a record player and some records; he used some type of varnish, then rubbed it out with pumice to get a nice smooth finish.

I took wood shop in 9th grade (1958-59), the only grade it was offered. That was my first exposure to a shop full of power tools. We had to design and build several items, including some flat work and a turned project. That developed a desire in me to do more, but we had limited power tools at home so I didn't do anything of any size.

A few years down the road, I dabbled with small things around my home and for my kids.

Farther along in life, and being better off financially, I started accumulating tools and building better stuff. I had one side of a two-car garage to work in, but it was plenty. The more I worked with better woods like cherry, the more I enjoyed woodworking. And, as they say, the rest is history. I now have a shop of about 800sf full of tools, all of which makes for a nice retirement.

sorry, no history of family doing anything, I dont recall my father ever picking up a hammer or any tool in front of me as a kid, although he knew machines, he owned a printing shop, and did alot of his own repairs, I dont recall anything related to wood.

nope, me, it was just being me and ticked off that some shop in lancaster pa in 2006 while on a road trip wanted 200 dollars for an adirondack chair, and I said to myself, wow, I can probably make that for 10 dollars, and thats what I did. no plans, no power tools other than a 20 year old black and decker hand held power saw. purchased a ryobi drill/driver set and got to work. and thats what got me started. since then, Ive made over 120 adirondack chairs, most from plans nowadays. (and ofcourse 2 houses full of furniture)

draw= in my child hood my dad worked in a lumberyard and did all the repairs to the small farm homestead, wasn't a good carpenter but he tried and it held for the time needed, i always was there to help partially because i was told to and secondly i wanted to be a carpenter one day, as i grew older i too worked along side dad in the lumber yard and took any chance i got to help out in the carpentry work i heard of i started at 12 yrs old doing it as a favor for family and friends. had shop at school with drafting and metal as well as wood from a old school type teacher, no nonsense type of teaching this what i want and if it fails you get a bad grade, the one comment dad would make all the time when he was doing it was good enough for who it was for that stuck and i still despise that comment.. i have always strived to do better than that. as i got into other careers, i still came back to carpentry. i needed to vent out the last job. which was computer desk work with no hands on feeling. print and throw away outlook.. fast forward to today i have been in the trade fulfilled a goal of mine since childhood and have built a couple of things out of wood since, that surpassed the good enough statement....and as vaughn eluded to it does feel good to hear others that sincerely mean there comments. the ones that say looks great as a good mourning comment dont compare, to a vaughn comment that says nice turning.. when a valued artisan or creator says its good then yu have something. we all need to hear good things if there good, some of us never heard it at home and even threw young adult hood just criticism.. so if i commend you on a project i mean it! feel free to delete all info not pertinent carol

Wouldn't delete one word, Larry. Authenticity speaks volumes and hearing honest and heartfelt compliments is the nectar of gods to just about everybody. In fact, that reason may be the best one of all!

So I will share my story. My grandfather handed me a hand plane and fastened a two foot length of wood in an old vise. My job was to fill a bucket with shavings to become fire starters for my grandmother's woodturning cookstove. It was a battle but I persisted. The smell of the pine and grandma's thanks sealed the deal. Never got to take shop. Girls weren't allowed. Piddled around on my own for decades. In the '80's I started taking classes at the local community college. Quantum leap and I wound up teaching there in the '90's. I have always wanted to make fine furniture and I did for a living for 25 years. Now I hope to finally make some for myself.

There were some people along the way that were pivotal. One was Pat Warner, the late Router Man. Pat taught me how to think about what I was doing. It wasn't just making a cut. It was the introduction of wood fibers to sharp edges. That is how I learned how to do things so they worked and helped to develop my teaching style.

Keep the stories coming, folks. This is both fun and interesting.

My Dad was a poor school teacher. He built his own house when I was about ten and I helped. When I was about fourteen, we punched out the roof and added a huge shed dormer. Few years later we added a garage and connected it to the house with a breezeway. When I was seventeen or so, we built a nice camp on some property up in Ontario. Also built several boats, kitchen cabinets, butcher block counter tops etc. I've been building stuff ever since. Not on the same scale as Dad, but only because the military kept me moving around. My kids have inherited the handyman/wood worker gene and are not afraid to tackle anything that comes along.

Carol Reed said:

What drew you to woodworking?

Why do you do it?

I am writing a class syllabus and really appreciate your help.

Click to expand...

My dad was a carpenter but never taught me anything along the lines of his profession. He was mostly a rough carpenter, but could do finish work. I never had any interest in doing carpentry work and to this day consider myself to be a lousy carpenter.

I got into wood turning because my wife and I were in an art gallery in Texas some years back. I was admiring a bowl that the artist and he was an artist, had made from mesquite. It was polished and finished to a glass finish.... matter of fact when I first saw it across the gallery, I thought it was glass... I commented to the wife how beautiful it was and that it would be nice if I knew how to do things like that.

When we got home she called my son and told him I wanted a lathe for Christmas.... I got a lathe for Christmas that year and naturally had to learn to turn. My son and I played with it in the garage and he decided it was so much fun he went home and bought himself a lathe.... the lathe he bought for me was actually a spindle lathe as it was too fast at the low speed for bowl turning.... I turned pens on it for 5 years before I got my current Jet lathe that I can turn bowls on.... He got so busy with his job that he had no time to turn and I also got his little 1014 Jet....

for the record, I really was only complimenting the work the artist had done and was not asking for a lathe....

Now I consider it the most fun you can have with all your clothes on.

Not really sure. My dad was neither really handy, or unhandy. We had some tools around and I was always just doing kids things, tearing things apart putting things together, that sort of thing.

Once I graduated and started working (Bachelor of arts, MBA emphasis in Finance, lol) I drifted more into programming than anything else.

But as I started working with computers I think I was just frustrated with the lack of tangible visible results at the end of the day.

For me, woodworking, and other assorted hobbies, fills the need to design and create 'things' that solve real world problems. I'd say it helps keep me sane, but we all know I'm too far gone for that.

That is very hard for me to answer. My father was a master wood worker and furniture builder. But all my life he treated me like I was something smelly on the bottom of his feet. He never taught me anything about wood working although I observed him working many times. Later in life the idea of making something people can enjoy from a hunk of wood just appealed and I tried it. I very much enjoy producing things with my own hands that give others pleasure in seeing and using. I am no where near the accomplished master of many here some of my other friends. Class me as mediocre at best. Time spent in the shop is therapeutic. I love it. In years past when I was heavy into photography both professional and as personal avocation, time spent in the dark room gave me the same sense of satisfaction.

My father was a carpenter, having learned the trade from my grandfather, his FIL. I started working with him when I was ten, though at first all I did was sort nails, be a gofer. Then came the years of driving the business end of a shovel, mixing concrete, in the days before ready mix in our area. When I was 15, Dad pulled me aside when we were remodeling a church and told me he was going to start me on trim work but not to make a big deal because some of his other workers might make a stink about me being the boss’ kid. I worked with Dad for another 5 years until I got drafted, we built houses and did everything ourselves. He died shortly after I was discharged so I didn’t get to learn more from him. However, a couple opportunities came my way and at that age everything is a learning opportunity.

However, Dad was a carpenter, not a cabinet or furniture builder. I learned those on my own from the likes of Tage Frid, Frank Klausz, Carol Reed, through magazines and books. All this was necessary because my family needed stuff we couldn’t afford. What I learned from Dad was how to make stuff, how to envision how a thing was supposed to go together, and that I could do it.

No real background in woodworking for me, only one year shop class in jr high school. My Dad was always a fixer-upper, handy man type of guy and my brothers and I followed that lead. Back in my 40's my arthritis was having the best of me, having to walk with 2 canes just to get around, finally had a full hip replacement and felt like a million bucks and wanted to reward myself being able to move around with something, decided that we needed a new kitchen and it being out of my budget to just go out and buy new cabinetry I decided to build them, only having a cheep circular saw and jig saw to my name, a 5 year process started buy setting up a shop, finding what we wanted style wise, re-designing them to fit our application and presto changeo, new kitchen was born. Been actively pursuing it sense.

I sorta back-doored into woodworking. Dad was the original 'hacker' when it came to home & farm repair and maintenance - he was a real butcher at nearly all things mechanical or wood. By about age ten, I was trying to do my own repairs, and within a couple years got pretty good at it. Dad would usually look at a half done project or repair and exclaim "That's good enough. Move on..."

In my teens, I was doing furniture repair and refinishing - somewhat crudely by today's standards, but I didn't have a lot to work with back then, either. The WVa school systems did away with shop classes the year before I'd have been old enough for them (7th grade) so I never had that opportunity. I did enjoy working with wood, though, and did as much of it as school work and farm work allowed. I'd like to think I got pretty good at it...

Anyway, it's been a nearly life-long hobby for me. Been hacking away at it for over 60 years now.

Yeah Dad was a carpenter. Worked with him in the building trade in my early and also the other craftmanship in town. Seems like there were a lot of those around to learn from. Worked with my hands my working career. Calculator, cash register repair. Then got degree in horticulture which again was hands on work. Thru the years I began gathering tools and began working in wood to relieve stress and strain. Also helped my wife tole painted so I ended up making items to paint and also raw material for sales to other artists. Before retiring tried to get necessary equipment to stay busy and be creative. Thought maybe make a little extra cash. Fool that I am. Still enjoy making things as gifts and any sales that come along but don't push anything.. Just enjoy the puttering and fresh air.
David

I was raised by my grandparents for the most part, and my granddad did some general carpentry here and there and I helped him at times. The wood bug didn't really bite me until I was in junior high and took wood shop. All hand tools. I started thinking about wood for real after that dabbling here and there. During my career in the Marines wood working of any kind was pretty much on hold. But, after retirement LOOK OUT! Started looking for ways to make some extra money with wood. During that time was introduced to a master carpenter of Quaker roots and apprenticed under him for about 1 1/2 years. The first six months with him as all hand tools. Had to build a functional two wheel "padre cart" including the wheels and axle, which I did with draw knives. Finally let me graduate to power tools and we started building furniture together. That would have been around 1998. We did it together until 2002. Shut down that operation and I started it up again in 2004 and went until 2008, where I decided I needed to shrink my projects. Everybody kept wanting bigger and bigger tables. Couldn't physically handle it anymore. Bought a lathe in 2008 and been turning since. Wheee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Carol, pardon my second post here, but I thought I'd cover one aspect of my woodworking development I didn't mention earlier. After a couple of years of designing and building furniture for our home, I decided (like so many of us) making custom furniture was the thing for me. My eye was on the money, of course! I did one small commission, then was asked by our doctor to design a specialized cabinet for them. After a couple of tweaks to the design, I gave them a quote and got an initial payment. I had a reasonable schedule and had no problem meeting the delivery and getting full payment for what a custom piece should bring. So far, so good, huh? Well, what I really learned through that project was that I didn't want to be tied to anyone's schedule but my own!!!

Many people who get into woodworking want to sell things to pay for their tools, etc. What I learned about myself is my own pleasure was enough for me. We aren't well off by any stretch of the imagination, but there are many ways to spend one's retirement. Several people have told me over the years that I could have a mighty fine boat for what I have invested in tools. I don't want a boat. Others have asked when I have time to play golf. I tell them I played golf for many years and lost interest in it. I'd rather spend my time in my shop making something additional for our home or for family and friends.

Bobbie and I aren't tied down to our home, but we do enjoy it here. We take driving trips or cruises occasionally to break up our routine. My shop is my place to regain (or test) my sanity and relax. Woodworking is fun the way I do it.

This is such a great thread. There's more to woodworking, than meets the eye I think. So many different reasons, histories, experiences.