Like the proverbial journey of a thousand miles, our love affair with wood had to start somewhere. It’s always interesting to hear where our visitors got their start. So, this time around, i trotted out one of the classic survey questions: “How did you get started in woodworking?” Some of the answers may surprise you…
“After having paid one more carpenter for not very good work, I decided I was done with hiring people to do work around my home for which I could do a better job. I spent the following year doing just that in my spare time. A friend from work showed me furniture he’d made, and that was what inspired me. My first piece was a small step stool. After a blanket chest, I was hooked.”
“As a young married couple, my wife and I had all kinds of need. We found ourselves watching all the ‘How-To’ programming on Saturday mornings, and I would catch myself saying, ‘I could do that.’ Plato had it right: ‘Necessity is the Mother of Invention?”
“At age eleven, I said: ‘Mom, I get to take wood shop this year. She said, ‘That’s convenient, because I need a lidded filing box.’ I asked, ‘How big would it have to be.’ ‘Oh, big enough for a cat’s coffin.’ Mom passed away at 83. Now the cat’s coffin sits next to my desk.”
“One of my classmates in high school had customized a van and that gave me the desire to get into woodworking. Other than books, my first exposure was through Norm, Scott Phillips, and Roy Underhill. Now, it’s more a quest for knowledge and time to put it into practice.”
“I’ve always had an interest in woodworking, but marrying a girl who was the proud owner of a house that was nearly falling down put me on the road to some serious sawdust making. I’ve loved every minute of it, for over twenty-five years.”
“In high school, I discovered a love of the smell of fresh cut wood, I did nothing about it until the grand-kids started coming, and then I built cradles, rocking horses, kiddy carts, etc. I’ve deviated from flat work, but I have always returned to my first love, making toys for kids.”
“We decided to build an alcove for a Deacon’s bench, but couldn’t find a bench we liked. Then, we saw a plan for one and the infamous words fell out of my mouth: I’ll build it. I just need a saw and a router.’ We still have the bench. That saw and router are long gone, but their multiple cousins are alive and well in my shop.”
“I got into woodworking when I had a small sailboat with typical ’70s Clorox bottle interior. I lined the ceilings above the berths with teak, built a small galley, a bridge deck, and other stuff. Turns out that was good for building my skills, as nothing is square or level on a sailboat. I finally bought a home and built a wood shop. It did not take long to get back up to speed on actually building stuff.”
“My first attempts at woodworking were failures, but I kept on trying and gradually gained skills. I must have heard ‘Where did you learn to do that?’ a hundred times. After seeing what new tools could do, I was off to the races. Funny thing, there always seems to be one more tool that I can’t live without.”
“My dad was a carpenter. My favorite toy at three or four was a hammer and bib overalls, on which mom sewed nail pouches and a hammer loop. I always wanted to have what worked for me, not what was available for purchase, so I just built things. The public broadcast woodworking shows all played a part, too.”
“I’m a product of shop classes in both junior high and high school. I took three years of shop class, and I wish the teacher had taken the time to introduce us to local woodworkers. That could have been very interesting, and some well known ones lived in the area.”
“I learned at my father’s side. At ten years old, my dad, three brothers, and I built twelve 12′-long rowboats for donation to our church camp. That project was followed up with building both masts and booms out of Sitka Spruce for our 36-foot steel hulled ketch. The interior of the boat was completely rebuilt, featuring Mahogany built-in cabinets and counter top.”
“My maternal grandfather died when I was seven. The summer before he died, we all gathered at his house, and someone had brought a ball and glove, but no bat. My grandfather went to his shop and with a draw-knife and rasps made us a bat in about 30 minutes. It was crude, but it was magic. Now I have the magic.”
“I remember when I was a freshman in college sitting talking about tree houses. I counted up the one’s I built, getting the same number as my age-about 18. Some were pretty neat, with bridges between platforms on different trees. Dad really got mad when I borrowed his hand tools without telling him. It didn’t take long before I had to have my own tools. I spent so much time in trees as a kid, that I was almost grown before I could stand fully erect. I am one of the first of our species to return to climbing trees to sleep each night.”
“When I was a kid, if you wanted something, you had to build it. So, I scrounged wood from all over town. I’ve never stopped, but I am able to buy a few more things nowadays, and good thing, too.” “I’m on my third lathe, a General. I couldn’t possibly use all the tools I’ve acquired, but I just seem to accumulate them. Some years back, the Wall St Journal had an article about men who browse hardware stores and end up buying a tool they’ll never use. Sort of in the genes, like using the TV remote–it’s a male thing.”
“When I was nine, I built miniature sawmills out of scrap. In the ninth grade, my math teacher told the class he would give us an A for every hour we put into building a scale model house. It had to include plans, and I built the complete model house, using Balsa wood, including a complicated hip roof. My math teacher gave me a ‘D’ for the year. I reminded him about the promised ‘A, as I had about 100 hours into that thing. He said, ‘yeah, but you didn’t do anything else all year.’ Disgusted, he grabbed my report card and scribbled a huge ‘A’ on it and tossed it back, saying ‘you didn’t learn anything.’ I often wondered if that teacher ever built his own house.”
“I owe it all to my ex-husband. If he hadn’t been a total jerk, I would have done nothing, but raise kids, cook, clean, get old, and play bingo. I had to support four kids alone, and besides waitressing, I was a very good seamstress. After many years of this, I decided if I could take material and make something, then I could take wood and make something. My kids bought me a Craftsman mono-tube lathe and a set of Sears tools, and I went to the library for the only two books they had, propping them behind the lathe. My chips are probably still in those books. My downfall was when I attended my first AAW Symposium, and I saw all those lathes, tools, turnings, finishes..too much!”
“I was just over two years old when I went to the garage and found a bag of nails and a hammer, and I pounded them all into the dirt floor. I did numerous other little things, from Balsa models to club houses. I got into concrete construction, and people I worked for told me I was too fussy to be a concrete man. A disability settlement was just enough to get all the basic tools for a wood shop, so I took the leap. I never looked back.”
“I bought a 1925 worn out bungalow and had to fix it up myself, because I was/am a single parent and didn’t have the $$ to pay someone else to do it. I took a night adult education woodworking class and met a wood turner. He convinced me to go to an AAW chapter meeting and the Indy Woodworking Show. A Jet mini lathe came home with me, and then I grew into a big green lathe. That’s my story.” “My wife wanted me to have a hobby, so that I would not drive her nuts when we retired. So far, she’s sane.”
“I decided that I wanted to build a picnic table and benches for my yard. I soon had a shop full of flatwork machinery, but discovered I was not much of a ‘flat’ person. I would measure six times and still end up cutting wrong. A small candle stand required a turned column, so I bought a Jet mini-lathe, and now, I have no clue where my router is, my table saw is covered with blanks and chunks of wood, the jointer and planer are about to be sold, and the shop floor is dominated by two lathes and a foot of shavings. The candle stand was never finished.”
“About five years ago my father gave me all his woodworking equipment. I was an avid skydiver, so I had no real interest. In winter, it got too cold to jump, so I went out and cut a limb off a tree and started turning, with no clue what the tools were. I had to search the Internet for information. That day, I discovered the hardest wood I had ever seen. I ended up turning an end grain Osage Orange bowl, with a spindle gouge and a scraper. It took all day. I see that bowl every day and am still surprised where I ended up. I haven’t jumped for three years. Anyone want to buy my rig?”
“When I was quite small, I used my father’s chopping block for my workbench. I got in trouble for driving nails into it, which of course dulled my father’s ax. In high school, I found a chunk of Walnut and decided I wanted to turn a bowl. That bowl must have ignited a spark. I worked in a logging camp that summer for $2/day and bought some tools and a Sears lathe to install in one corner of our barn. Seventy-one years later, I’m still fascinated with wood turning.”
“The Berea College woodworking industry.’ I started upstairs in sanding and finishing like all beginners, then moved downstairs to making things. I remember watching some old guy turn off-axis handles for a special order casket, made entirely from Cherry. Someone later told me his name was Rude Osolnik.”
“I come from a woodworking family and took several shop courses in high school. After graduation, I worked in a furniture factory, doing set up for production runs. I designed and built the fixtures, which they patented. I ran my own cabinet shop for years, working with designers and architects. Too many hours, not enough money. Today, I work for the N.Y. Dept. of Corrections, running a woodworking program, training inmates to work in an industrial woodworking setting. We recently shipped 2000 completed desks to the state of Louisiana. Our guarantee? Twenty-five years to life. And I turn wood occasionally, too.”
“I took shop in junior high school and later made things that we couldn’t afford to buy. A friend asked me to build her kitchen cabinets. I drew up the plans, charged the materials at a lumberyard and the necessary power tools at Sears, and built her cabinets. She paid for it all, and I had my first
shop.”
“My father’s father was a furniture builder. When he was old, he still had a grip of iron. My father says that I store nails in my mouth and think with my tongue out, like he did. I became an electronic engineer, but lost my job in 2000. I took a woodworking course in 2002 and the lights went on in my head. I ate and slept wood turning, bought every book, tape and disk I could, and practiced. Now I’m in my fourth year turning for a living, along with teaching and selling wood turning supplies. I’m just upset that I didn’t start earlier.”
“I got a start in an elementary school shop class carving a candy dish, but didn’t get serious about woodworking until I wanted to impress a girl in college. It worked. We just celebrated our 37th wedding anniversary, and I’ve been woodworking ever since.”
“Around 1985, I needed work on my car, but didn’t have the money. The owner of a repair shop asked me if I could refinish an old desk, and that began five years of restoring and refinishing antiques. When we moved to town, I sold all my tools, but one year later I found and became fascinated with scrolling. Now, I have a 1400 sq.ft. shop to support my scrolling business. Then in 2004 I turned something on someone’s lathe, and I never looked back.”
“When I turned 50, my oldest daughter asked me to build her a bed. I bought a book and some tools. It took me several months, but it came out surprisingly well. I’ve taken a few classes, and then satisfied an urge to get myself a lathe. My daughters get a kick out of their woodworking mom and encourage me to try the next new thing.” “Most Boy Scout badges require just enough to either turn you off or get you hooked on a subject. Later, I was reinfected in the Saudi Arabian desert. Man, there ain’t nuthin’ out there but old busted up skids and crates. Very challenging materials. Now I can build anything with anything.”
“For the Soap Box Derby back in the late 60’s, you had to build your entire car. No kits back then. All you got was a rule book, wheels, and axles. I won best-designed steering by using tubing to route the cable instead of pullies. The shell was laminated strips, as you’d make a Cedar strip canoe. Wow, now the memories are flooding back.” “In the first grade I won an art contest, and the prize was a Handy Andy tool box. Of course, they were all hand tools.”
“I actually started as an auto mechanic. I loved tools and gadgets and tinkering. After too many years, I realized wrenching wasn’t fun any more and shifted my interests to carpentry. I discovered that I really enjoyed the finer points of building, and I gravitate closer and closer to my true love, woodworking. Hopefully, I can eventually make a living off it exclusively.”
Thanks to our Editorial Assistant Barb Siddiqui for her work on this article.
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