Re: Charles Neil passed away 21/12/19
David Yoho
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I live in Mechanicsville, VA (not far from Richmond) and I've been building furniture and cabinetry for well over 20 years now. It all started with my frustration of not being able to cut a straight line with a hand saw. About this same time, a guy named Norm appeared on my local PBS station. The more I watched, the more I learned. I also started thinking, "Hey, I can do that"! And so, I began with small projects and soon found myself moving up to increasingly advanced work. Word of mouth started the ball rolling and before I knew it, I was building all kinds of things for people. While this is not what I do to pay the bills, it has provided me with a means of equipping my shop over the years. The main downside to all of this is when my wife looks at a finished project and says, "I want one of those" and I know I don't have the time to make that happen right then. I take advantage of any slack time between commissions to work on things we want and this seems to keep her "on my side". She even surprised me one day with a new Tormek sharpening system. Sometimes it pays to leave that tool catalog lying around open! For me, woodworking is a type of therapy. I can go out to the shop and totally forget about the world outside. There have been days when I get out there early and before I know it, it's dark outside and I have no idea where the time went! I also enjoy challenging my skills and learning new things. Most of the time, since the majority of my work tends to be custom pieces, I'm working on projects I�ve never built before. While this takes me longer than if I were doing production work, I find it more appealing because there's always something new to learn. I haven't had any formal training in woodworking. My teachers have been experience, the many books and magazines I've read, WoodCentral, and of course, a guy named Norm.