***SURVEY: THE IDES OF JANUARY *** *LINK*

Re: ***SURVEY: THE IDES OF JANUARY ***

arw01

>7th grade woodshop was where the bug burried into the camber for me! I still have one of the pieces, a way out of proportion oak "cabinet" with a massive and therefore pretty much useless drawer. The stuff has been in that drawer for 15+ years basically!

No woodworking from them until my first child was due, and I did not finish that cradle. I think if I had gotten a working handplane into my hands at the time, I might have finished it. There were $$ issues then in my life too, but it was frustration that really stopped me for all the interium years.

Fast forward to my wife needing a fireplace surround,some scrapbooking cabinets, and my daughters bed. From there the slippery slope was opened up and I've been running for the bottom ever since!

Alan

Alan

Re: ***SURVEY: THE IDES OF JANUARY ***

JL

>"What was it that first sparked your interest in working with wood and tools?" - My stepfather. He was a master carpenter (construction type). Our first project together was building an addition on the house. I thought it was neat! I got into construction carpentry as a part-time job during high school (even got a Union card).

"And, what were the defining influences or meetings or inspirations that pushed you in your current woodworking direction?" - I had been knocking together bookshelves and the like (simple pine stuff). I got into building jumps and obstacles for horses. The more I started reading and looking, the more I wanted to do furniture. The magazines (FWW, PWW and others) are giving me inspiration. See my first handmade chairs also pushed me.

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George@Colonel's Workshop-Havertown PA

>Good Morning Ellis,

Before he died, my Father and I had a little 16foot plywood boat with a very small 3 1/2 hp Cushman inboard engine. The boat was for inlet/bay fishing and we kept it in the water from May until October in Margate/Longport New Jersey. It was frequently beat up on bridges and pilings and normal wear and tear. Patching the plywood hull was frequently necessary. The maintenance and repair of that boat familiarized me with the use of tools. Building model aircraft from balsa occupied my teenage years and required jigs and clamps and close tolerances. After I was married and while we were stationed off-shore, I needed to make our living accommodations more suitable and learned creative use of surplus/discarded packing crates of pine and plywood. I remember building a fold down three legged table for our eating area. It was primitive, but was the envy of the neighborhood wives, whose husbands were less "handy" than I was. Building and repairing furniture became an important part of my life from then on.

George

There's just something about ...

Mike Farinella

>wood. It's the smells, textures, and workability of a natural product. When I was a lad going to college learning how to be an FAA Airframe and Powerplant technician, there was a section where we had to "re-skin" a small control surface with marine plywood (a rudder tab if I remember correctly). I loved every moment of it.

To this day, I never miss an opportunity to walk through the lumber section at the big box stores just for the smells.

Did I mention tools?

Re: ***SURVEY: THE IDES OF JANUARY ***

Doug Ridley

>My wife opened a small antique shop and went to a lot of auctions. One day she came home with a set of dining chairs that needed some repair and asked if I could fix them. One thing led to many others and I began going with her and buying furniture from the outbuildings that were close to beyond repair. I would repair and refinish them and put them in the shop for resale. This led to making some furniture also.

Then one day she came home with a small mountain man carving which I liked. (I still have it). She said, "You could do that", so I tried to copy it and even though my effort wasn't very good, I was hooked. Now I no longer repair or make furniture(well occaisionally I do) but instead spend all my time carving.

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Mike Circo

>The need to create.

I've always had "office" jobs, but have that need to create something. When younger, it was plastic models (Tanks, planes, cars ships. etc) But once married, that frivious consumption of time was hard to justify.

The inspiration

The New Yankee Workshop. Norm Abram made it look so easy, and in the early years he used simple tools. After watching for a while I tackled Adirondic chairs and a blanket chest. I had finally created something useful, made something from nothing, and satisfied that need to create.

Re: ***SURVEY: THE IDES OF JANUARY ***

Bill White

>Went to work (after school) in the 8th grade at a piano company that bought and refinished/rebuilt old upright pianos. Started out washing all the gack off the cases, then taking out the player parts, then repairing cases, and finally, the refinishing dept.

Couldn't believe that an old hunk o' junk could return to a thing to be looked at, touched, and enjoyed.

Re: ***SURVEY: THE IDES OF JANUARY ***

Joe in a Cleveland suburb

>I would have to say Mike Circo's reply is pretty close to dead on for me. But also...

What was it that first sparked your interest in working with wood and tools?

I don't really remember. My dad was (still is in his mid-70's) always doing handyman stuff around the house. I would often be helping. Although I remember him building kitchen cabinets once and a built in desk for his at home office, he didn't build any 'furniture' that I recall. The handyman thing carried over with me when I bought my house.

That said, I would say what sparks my interest in woodworking is the ability to build something with my hands and then be able to step back and look at it and/or touch it. I've always liked using my hands. I've always like drawing and photography. Art stuff I guess. WW'ing goes down that road. I took 2 years of the vocational class Graphic Arts in high school. So maybe it's the art side of ww'ing that sparks my interests in ww'ing.

what were the defining influences or meetings or inspirations that pushed you in your current woodworking direction?

Ellis was my defining influence. When I grow up, I want to be just like Ellis! Just kidding...

I would have to say what influences me in my current woodworking direction (meaning I like to make things that look Shaker'ish) would be my Grandmother and Mother. My parents were from the small town of Granville, Ohio and surrounded by old stuff (i.e. buildings, houses, furniture and so on). My Grandmother and mother where always big into antiques and the Shaker look. When my Grandmother passed away, the couple small authentic Shaker items she had where sold. Had I known better back then, I would have tried getting my hands on some stuff. I guess that is what influences me.

Joe

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Eddie Pacheco, San Jose, Ca.

>My father got me hooked on making things and tools while he was running the welding and sheetmetal shop at White Sands Missille Range at the time. No, not because he showed how to make stuff, but because he wanted me to have an office job instead of working in a shop. Making and fixing stuff was my rebellion.

In jr. high I saw that my older neighbor friends were taking Woodshop in H.S and they were making sand surf boards for use on the dunes at White Sands National Park. By the time I got to H.S. my dad had made an aluminum sand surf board/dish for me so I built a small bookcase instead. It was made in cherry with hand tools. My mom still has it.

I have always done some form of woodworking, but the defining moment was when I finally shook the car craze monkey off my back and got my new S.O. to embrace woodworking as well. My hands are no longer greasy and my garage shop now has no cars in it. However, it is now a dustier place to work and I find myself having to share my tools with my wife. That gets testy at times.

How true! wood is such a sensual material

Johanna

>

Re: ***SURVEY: THE IDES OF JANUARY ***

Johanna

>"What was it that first sparked your interest in working with wood and tools?" My father was a hydrological engineer, but he made cabinets and built-ins for our home. He made little barns and houses for me to play with, too. He let me "help" and taught me the basics of using tools (with dire warnings about what would happen if I did not take care of them!), and, most of all, he gave me that attitude that I could learn to do whatever I wanted to do.

Girls were not allowed to take shop in those days, so I never received any formal instruction until quite recently. For many years I lived in housing that needed lots of work, so I had to learn to do many things just to manage. My husband did not like and was not proficient at being a handyman except for working on cars (which I detest doing).

"what were the defining influences or meetings or inspirations that pushed you in your current woodworking direction?" My SO loves to take classes. One day about 12 years ago she took a beginning class in woodturning. During the lunch break she bought a Jet lathe. If you have a lathe, you need a bandsaw, so I bought a bandsaw. It's progressed to the point where I can't say that there is a tool I really "need". Currently, my inspiration comes from the fine woodworking classes I take at Santa Fe Community College.

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Roger Marks

>Hi All, 1/17/06

When I was a kid, 9yrs. old, before WWII,

my folks bought an acreage on the edge of

town. We had no garbage pickup so we had

to dispose of our own. My brothers dug 6'

square holes to put garbage in. soon, we

had was a big (30'X30') pile of sand. The

lot was all sand. So, I had a huge sand-

pile where I built a "city".

It had to have buildings so I got my Dads'

coping saw and cut some out of scraps of

wood. It was the envy of all the kids in

the neighborhood!

That was my introduction to wood. This

eventually lead to a carpenter apprentice-

ship with a commercial contractor. I've

been building stuff with wood for 55 or

60 years now and loving every minute of

it!

Roger Marks Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Re: ***SURVEY: THE IDES OF JANUARY ***

Tom Stockton

>What was it that first sparked your interest in working with wood and tools?

Had to be high school wodshop took 3 years at Bridgewater-raritan high school east in Bridgewater NJ, didn't care for the teacher that much especially during the first day of class he looked at the one girl in the glass and told her how he didn't care for girls in his class etc, luckily she ingnored him. This was in 1978 and the teacher was probably in his early 30's , the old grizzled auto shop teachers in the school actually encouraged the girls telling them that these were great life skills to have and made sure they worked on cars instead of the boys doing all the work.

And, what were the defining influences or meetings or inspirations that pushed you in your current woodworking direction?

some of the people who influenced me were people I only got to spend an afternoon with while others I spent much more time with. My first big influence was Dave Boykin in Denver I visited him when I was 19 and saw what he was doing and I realized that it was possible to make a living doing fine furniture.

The second big revalation came during a month long class at college of the redwoods taught by Robert Lasso, what a class 6 days a week of intense instruction, this is really what got me started and meeting the staff and James Krenov was real fun.

West Lowe my instructor at The Primrose center in MT was a great instructor who litterally worked for almost nothing to teach a bunch of us the ins and outs of furnituremaking and handtool skills.

The mastercraftsman I apprenticed to through The Baulines Crafts guild, C.Stuart Welch and David Marks, Stuart pushed me in ways I never imagined and we clashed a lot on design he was more an art furniture guy I was more a traditionalist, what this did for me was to teach me to appreciate other furniture more and also how important it is to figure out why you don't like something instead of dismishing it outright. David was different we got along well and I went to him to enhance my finishing skills. His ability to experiment with stuff is pretty amazing at the time he was just starting to really get into patanization and the stuff he would try was pretty cool.

Other people that are big influences are.

Garry Knox Bennett- if you can ever hear him lecture or sit down with him for a couple drinks he is a very unique person who is totally opinated but also very supportiuve of people just starting out.

James Krenov- probably one of the best off the cuff lecturers I've ever heard the Sonoma county woodworkers had him down for a day and he was very inspiring. plus his books really inspired me along the way.

Dennis Young-talked to him in his Petaluma CA shop for an afternoon and he helped me figure out some thing s especially about not comprimising your quality or beliefs when making furniture.

Art Carpenter- spent a couple hours with Art in his shop, I learned that the most important thing in woodworking was myself not fancy tools. Art was a minimalist when it came to tools, why buy something fancier when what you have works fine.

After rambling on for a while I'm not sure I answered the question.

Tom Stockton

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C Yawn

>What was it that first sparked your interest in working with wood and tools? And, what were the defining influences or meetings or inspirations that pushed you in your current woodworking direction?

Mosquitoes.

Those little sucking pests that plague my backyard in summer; that�s what inspired my first interest in woodworking.

My wife and I could not enjoy our open deck in the evening because of hordes of mosquitoes. So we decided to build a screened-in deck. No, not yet! We hired a contractor to build the deck, but first, that wood from the old deck could not just be thrown away, so I tore it down and saved as much as possible. Now you see where this is going? Had to find a use for a lot of weathered but otherwise good lumber. Decided to build a garden shed onto the side of the house. Purchased a planer and a jointer to shave the weathering off the lumber, down to shiny and smooth boards. Now I need a portable table saw to cut up all this lumber to build the shed (even ripped some 2x12�s into 2x4�s); and a good circular saw for the smaller and quicker cuts.

Hey, I like this; I think I will add onto the new screened-in deck with some open decking, and some cabinets and shelves in the garage. Right, more lumber scrounging and buying. You know, I need a heavy duty drill for all these deck screws. Home Depot is watching for me now.

Hey, this is fun. The wood smells good, it�s time consuming, challenging and expensive just like a hobby is supposed to be so I think I will convert a room of the basement into a workshop. Got to have a lathe for the artistic endeavors of making pens, bowls and goblets. Wait, many experienced woodworkers say I need a bandsaw. Got it and use it. Then the drill press; this is when Home Depot�s stock started soaring! Gotta have a router, then had to build the super deluxe Norm Abrams router table. Where can I put this belt sander? If I put the scroll saw on a mobile base, it can fit over there.

Exotic wood � Wow, that�s pretty stuff, I�ll take it. Books and magazine subscriptions, have to read how to do it right and get new ideas. Clubs, meetings, how-to cd�s, seminars, shows; been there doing them. And then the gadgets start their march to my door. I know now that UPS delivers to my door at 2:26 pm. I hope this never stops! I need more electricity! Now what did I get this dovetail jig for?

Charles

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Ron Hildreth, Alta, Iowa

>I married a woman who owned a house that was in dire need of repair. In fact, it took nearly a year to determine whether to hit it with a hammer or a bulldozer! Yes, still have the same wife (she's a good one!) and this old house is far from what it was nearly thirty years ago. Over the coarse of time, trying to make a better dwelling, I've come to love working with wood, and found I must be reasonably good at it, as everyone has given me rave reviews on my work. For many years I continued to make or repair things of wood, and evenually was prodded into starting a business of my own. Though not by leaps and bounds, my company is steadily growing, and I'm loving every moment of it.

My biggest inspiration undoubtedly come from my late father-in-law, who seemed to know a little about everything. He always had the time to help me out when I needed him, and was always an excellent source of wisdom and know-how. Once hooked into carpentry, making furniture and cabinets was sure to follow, and most of my inspiration for this came from many of the great woodworking magazines and TV programs over the years.

Much more recently, my latest and greatest source of knowlege comes from the internet, especially WoodCentral. I like to think I've made many good friends here. Everyone here makes you feel that way! Seldom is there a day that I don't at least look in to see what's going on. One thing is for certian, if knowledge isn't forth-coming each day, at least a smile on my face is!

Ron in Iowa

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NickB

>It was my dad (now in his 70's and currently finishing the inside of the "stone house" he's building (which is largely modeled, so he tells me, on a Cotswold cottage) in a little town in the CO mountains). He spent the majority of my childhood and adolescence building a blue water cruising sailboat (39', cutter rig). The hull/deck were fiberglass (his design, built on a male mold) for reduced maintenance, but he couldn't stop himself from doing a lot of wood trim (cockpit was teak seats with varnished mahogany sides, the salon had raised panels, etc.-even the fiberglass drawers in the galley had varnished mahogany faces). He had a shop in a bit more than 1/2 of our garage when I was growing up, and I used to tinker, although not very well (he seems quite impressed with what I've built more recently, although it's not much of a challenge to make things better than I did when I was a kid).

He finished the boat while I was still in high school, and sold it a few years after I finished college, as he'd finally (!) realized he "was a builder, not a sailor".

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bill tindal, E.TN

>What was it that first sparked your interest in working with wood and tools? **I can't remember. I had a jig saw at age 7 and made and painted cut-outs. Some in family were carpenters.

And, what were the defining influences or meetings or inspirations that pushed you in your current woodworking direction? 1. Adult Ed class in St Paul. 2. Buying a hardwood lumber business. 3.Tage Frid books. 4.Trip to college of Redwoods 5. Badger Pond/Wood Central in that order spanning 40 years.

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Thomas Skaggs, Foothills of Mount Level

>I never set out to be a woodworker. Nothing really sparked my interest to do it. I was remodeling a 75 year old house and had tools. One day I thought about getting a new coffee table and decided I had the tools to do it myself and save some money. The first project went well, in fact I still use that coffee table today. I later designed and built a fireplace mantel and surround.

There was never a spark or an epiphany. My passion for woodworking was really an evolutionary process that took several years. I had a lot of interest in antique furniture, I had a college degree in art, I had a bunch of tools and I liked doing things with my hands. I guess it was inevitable that those circumstances would one day align.

Oddly enough I don't feel that I am as influenced by the work of other woodworkers as I am by other areas such as art and architecture. I certainly admire the work of many furniture designers/makers but I have tried to design to the beat of my own drum and seek inspiration from my own imagination or from things I see around me.

Tom

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Larry Clinton in Frankfort, Indiana

>What was it that first sparked your interest in working with wood and tools?

My "interest" in working with wood was inspired by necessity. My father passed on prior to my 11th birthday. My mother and I lived in an older home in a very small town. As we had little money - no extra - anytime something needed repair, be it a chair, door, floor, I attempted to do it myself. Most of the time the repairs were adequate, others were repeated until they functioned. I watched and worked with the local handymen, helping them with tasks and learning as I earned. After I married, I built one home, divorced, remarried and purchased an 1880's house. My second wife had 3 children, I had custody of my 2 boys and we had one. Again (lack of) money was a determining factor in continuing woodworking and furniture / building & repair.

And, what were the defining influences or meetings or inspirations that pushed you in your current woodworking direction?

Being an Engineer in manufacturing for almost 40 years, I had learned some design skills. I did not want to continue to work with machinery when I retired but wanted to continue to be somewhat productive. I always wanted to leave some things to my children as a memory of my love for them. As I neared retirement, I decided I could / would really like to do some furniture building with a proper shop and tools. I had always had to "make do" with cheap and or used woodworking tools. I searched the internet and found WoodCentral - not too long after it started. After reading the posts for a few months, I became a poster so I could ask my questions. This site served as the base for the information I sought to help me build and equip my shop. I saved up and built a new shop, obtained some top grade woodworking tools before retiring. I can't believe the difference having a proper workspace and accurate tools make in the final product.

Re: ***SURVEY: THE IDES OF JANUARY ***

s.mackay@worldnet.att.net

>Folks laugh at me but its true. During the first Gulf War I was on the Iraqi boarder on the no-fly zone. Not much doing there and the only materials were LOTS of packing crates and skids. Not the best quality and tools were limited to mechanic's and missile sets. Made do with what there was. Then fellow Soldiers carcked " Bet you can't make a PATRIOT Lanucher, BLACKHAWK Helecopter, etc." Well, you know GIs. No challenge left to great. Then I got back to "The World" and found they make TOOLs for these tasks. My, my ! The learning curve is steep and the slope slippery !

Re: ***SURVEY: THE IDES OF JANUARY ***

Gary Camp - Bend, Oregon

>I really don't remember not wanting to make things from wood. My mothers father graduated with a degree in forestry about 1910, in the 20's he started building long bows, arrows and flyrods as a buisness. I remember wanting to play in granpa's shop, and have him help me a bit. My dad was a carpenter all my life and I just followed him around and "helped". Dad showed me what he thought of as the right and wrong way to use tools, he also told me there was more than one way to accomplish most tasks and that the difference between a pro and an amature was know how to cover your flubs. One of my favorite things to do around 3 or 4 was to pound nails. Mom put nail pouches and a hammer loop on my bib overalls so I could be like dad with his carpenter overalls. I guess wanting to work with wood is just in my genes.

The defining influences? I would have to say need first and the folks on Wood Central next. When I needed a push car dad and I built one. If I need something and wood would work, I tried to make it (sometimes even if wood wasn't the best choice). The last few years it has been Wood Central, I want to build less utilitarian items, add a bit more fancy to the things I make. And, although I know this to be a very slippery slope, do more turning.

glc

Re: ***SURVEY: THE IDES OF JANUARY ***

mdclor

>When I realized that I wasn't going to become the Corporate CEO, I decided it was time to end my workaholic ways and find a hobby. Woodworking is great because my results depend only on me and I can see them immediately. I can learn daily and maybe someday be good enough to teach.

I prefer Mission style because of the open, straightforward (although not easy) joinery and the clean cut lines.

As others have mentioned, I also enjoy the sensory stimulation woodworking provides, the smells of the different woods, the beauty of the grain, the sound of the plane shaving a couple of thousandths off an edge and the satisfaction of a project well done.

Merle

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Ken Oakley-Sunny St. Cloud, Fla.

>Almost a long as I can remember I hve been doing some form of woodworking. In 1938 when I was 6 years old my parents had their first and only house built and my father started building a small shop in the basement. He worked 6 nights a week so Sunday evening he and I would go down in the basement and he would give me some scraps of wood and a hammer and nails and I would create something while he built something. When my parents could afford it I would get a model airplane kit as a gift. In those days they were made of Balsa wood. In 7th and 8th grades the boys had woodshop while the girls had home economics class. That is where I built my first serious projects. I remember a corner shelf and a footstool as two of the projects. My first 2 years of high school were spent in studying courses needed to enter some engineering college. Boring, so I switched to a building construction course where we built a 1:12 scale model house exactly the way a full sized house would be built, and the second year we actualy built a greenhouse on campus for use by the agricultural students. After returning from a tour of duty in the Army in Korea I had a couple of jobs until I saw an help wanted ad for an apprentice modelmaker. I got the job and the rest is history.

I spent the next 40 years working as a modelmaker- pattern-maker-display builder-Woodworker. Almost all of the jobs were great. I actually loved going to work.

When I retired I began doing woodwork in my garage shop to supplement Soc. Sec. and a small pension. I also started, with my wife doing genealogy research of our ancestors and discovered in the research that my fathers maternal grandfather, and great grandfather had been patternmakers and modemakers, in New York City, and Brooklyn,(which was a seperate city until the late 19th century),from the early 1800's until the 1900's. So I guess there is a woodworking gene or two in my old body.

Robert Lasso

Johanna

>is now in Ruidoso, New Mexico. He is having a hard time making it in woodworking, if you can believe that. His work is so very good, but he lives in a somewhat remote area. I correspond with him from time to time. I'll bet he would love to hear from you. His e-mail is rlasso@zianet.com.

He founded the Fine Woodworking program at Santa Fe Community College (in Santa Fe, NM) and taught there until just a few years ago. I have taken several courses under him. He is a great teacher.