***SURVEY: THE IDES OF NOVEMBER***

Re: ***SURVEY: THE IDES OF NOVEMBER***

R.J.Whelan

>With arthritis advancing, and realizing I have another six years work before I can convert my shop to hobby status, I've found it necessary to use the jointer and planer on almost every job � still do final jointing and smoothing with hand tools but I definitely have to choose my battles more carefully ... rj

Re: ***SURVEY: THE IDES OF NOVEMBER***

ThomD

>I'm only 46, though I have put a lot of unfortunate wear on the body.

I used to work with my dad, but my adult phase of woodworking has been going on for 27 years.

Changes:

1) It has hit me in recent years that a fairly large part of my life's work (not commercial), will turn out to have been this hobby. So I now feel a lot more serious about it. Not less fun, but I realize this has been one of the major themes of my life. So for example I have always been interested in the widest range of skills, projects, and knowledge. But I think it is likely that a great deal of my efforts will be completely passed over if I don't at some point specialize. I have seen far less multi-skilled people get far greater recognition. I don't care about the recognition, but it seems unlikely that many of the objects I have made will find a place, since they are an incredibly diverse series of objects. I also think that when you spend a huge amount of time on developing skills, it's like preparing for something, like a 27 year apprenticeship. On the other hand I don't want this to turn into a job.

2) I probably do more physical work these days. I always had a hand tool preference, but it takes time to set up a shop, and buy tools. I now also own all the tools that seem secondary, like hewing axes, froes, etc... Sure for some these are primary, but for me I was too busy getting bandsaws, planers, and best quality cabinet tools, at first. So now you might find me out hewing a tree. I'm older, not physically stronger, but I have far broader skills and resources.

3) Apart from a shattered ankle, that makes standing tough, I don't yet find physical stuff hard. In fact I wish woodworking was more physical, like riding a bicycle.

4) Eyesight is just starting to be a problem. I'm lucky, when I get nearsighted it will even out my problems a bit. What you see, though is far less important that what you know to do with what you see. For instance I will often put a line on a piece of wood, but how I work towards that line is going to be every bit as important as where it is or how well I can see it.

5) I passed a point a few years ago where something just kicked in. Things I couldn't do all of a sudden just became automatic. A very rewarding feeling.

I still struggle, for instance I am working on learning welding and blacksmithing these days. I suck.

I don't believe in putting this stuff off for ever. Family history is about split on the idea that I could have woodworking as a retirement hobby. I'd prefer to do it hard for another 10 years, and then maybe get on to something else.

The eyes have it.

David Barnett - Venice, Florida

>I turned 54 in October. When I was 34 I thought 50 was knocking on the door to geezerdom, heh... and maybe it is, but I'm also informed that 50 is the "new 40", and so on. Yeah, I have a litany of maladies and compaints: I'm the natural enemy of wicker furniture, diabetic, I hear and feel strange gurglings in various plumbings, and surely more will come. Mobility has never been my strong suit and now my eyes are beginning to fail. What does this mean to my woodworking? Well, I no longer care about the sexiest new tool from Nielsen-Valley, and I don't use as many tools as I thought I'd need. I'd far rather make or modify a tool than buy one. I can dovetail with just about anything. I can do almost everything with a Bailey plane and a card scraper. Whichever chisel's closest works fine ninety-five percent of the time, and it takes me far less time to sharpen and I do it less often and better with whatever's handy. I should sell some tools.

Although I'd never compromise workmanship, I find I care ever less about convention and historical authenticity and more about comfort, ergonomics, appropriateness of design, interesting combinations of materials, originality, and I've arrived at a personal aesthetic that defies labeling. I prefer quieter woods to highly figured and when I do choose something that looks like the result of some cosmic explosion I use it sparingly. I prefer subtle stripe to curl and burl. I like quiet sinous lines and a feeling of gravity over cleverness, and I pay a lot more attention to negative space. I prefer pristine to profound. I like bleached woods now, too.

As for the tools I now value most, what I've really come to appreciate more and more is shop optics and good lighting, solar and otherwise. Presbyopia crept up slowly before I needed to update my lens prescription. I still don't wear bifocals but I sure appreciate mild +diopters for close-up work and reading. Especially, though, I love all the cool optical aids that make woodworking truly easy, such as lightweight (headworn) large field surgical telescopes that adjust for different working distances, great hand loupes and hand magnifiers (can you say "Zeiss"?), huge anglepoise magnifiers with dual daylight color temperature fluorescent lamps*, articulated low-power zoom-boom stereomicroscopes with cold halogen fiberoptic lighting, just the thing for sharpening DT saws. Trust me on this one. Yeah, I bought all that stuff for goldsmithing, stonesetting, engraving instead of woodworking. Some of it's not so expensive and some of it is, and I know it's overkill for most woodworking but it truly can be helpful for all the sawing to a line and paring and makes layout a pleasure. (I promised a few people in handtools 'chat' that I'd post some specifics and resources for shop lighting and optics and I'll try to make good on that in the next few days.(

*Adam Cherubini's right about those ubiquitous multi-tube overhead fluorescent so-called "work lights". I have no use for those whatsoever. IMO, though, the new daylight task lighting is just the thing for hand woodworking.

Re: ***SURVEY: THE IDES OF NOVEMBER***

Dave Anderson Chester NH

>I like to view things as a balance scale. For all of the mild and annoying irritations of aging, like bifocals, a perpetually sore back, and increased girth there are compensations. With age and experience my skills have improved, I am much more patient and less liable to ruin a project by rushing it, and my shop is rapidly approaching what I've always hoped it would be. Yes I'm older,less strong, and slower, but overall life continues to get better and better.

Re: ***SURVEY: THE IDES OF NOVEMBER***

Michael Recchione

>My wife and I had our kids late, so I'm at the point in my life that most folks would be at about ten years younger than I am at my current age of 53. So what I'm finding happening is probably a hybrid of early 40s and early 50s kinds of effects. And it's hard to separate which effects are the result of age and which are the result of lack of time.

Certainly, I have less energy than I did even 5 years ago. I used to start woodworking at 10 PM and go until 1AM, then get up and go to work the next day. Now, while I still stay up late, it's doing more sedentary things like sitting at this stupid computer. I find I'm less interested in making furniture than I was 10 or even 5 years ago. My house, while not full of wonderful, handmade pieces, is fully and functionally furnished. And I hesitate to put a lot of time and effort into pieces of furniture that will just get trashed by a couple of very active pre-teen boys. Maybe when they're older.

Also - I work entirely by hand (except for my lathe and a benchtop drill press), and I haven't yet mastered Adam's handtool speed techniques. So big pieces take me a long time to finish. My job has become increasingly demanding over the last 5 years, with a lot of travel, and I find I want more immediate gratification from my projects. Or at least I want to be working on things that are small enough and self-contained enough so that they don't reduce my basement (which is also my home office) to a shambles for months at a stretch. So I find that I'm picking smaller projects to work on. I've been carving a lot more than I did before, have been making equipment for hand-spinning (finally got a commercial outlet for my work), and recently started making musical instruments - just pennywhistles so far, but I'm taking a recorder making course online at the MIMF starting in February, and there's are several flutes, recorders, whistles, a fiddle and a guitar in my future if things work out right. Maybe other instruments as well if I don't die or run out of steam first.

This last thing may very well be what all the rest of my work in the shop over the years was leading up to - it allows me to combine two of my abiding lifelong passions: Music and Woodworking. The stuff tends to be small, so even if a project takes a while, it doesn't disrupt much. You don't only choose to make many of the tools yourself, it's just about required - I don't know that you can even buy some of the specialized things you need. And making tools was always something I enjoyed a lot. You can work primarily with hand tools, and the power tools you need are basically the two I already have. (You can even get by without those, but I have them already, so why bother.) And the best part is that, in the end, you get to play music on a thing you made with your own hands.

- Mike

Re: ***SURVEY: THE IDES OF NOVEMBER***

Jack Guzman from Maine

>Actually I'm pretty new to woodworking unless you count carpentry. I'm 54 and I've become less hurried and more careful as a result.I'm not as concerned so much in getting the project done as I am in getting the details right.My admiration for modern advancement in tools and gadgets is being replaced by a respect for hand work.

I make my living as a Jack-of-all-trades leaning mostly toward carpentry.My studies in the woodworking trade are greatly influencing the quality of my work in my day job.I hope eventually to work strictly out of my shop.This looks like a possibility.

I think I've headed in this direction as a direct result of my aging and the limits to my physical abilities caused by it.

I hope this hasn't run too far afield of your survey.---Jack

Re: ***SURVEY: THE IDES OF NOVEMBER***

Rossmoor Galoot

>I turned 52 in May and have been woodworking as a serious hobbyist for about 20 years. I've experienced changes on many fronts. The first is that my arms seem to be getting shorter as my eyesight worsens! The second change is that my projects are now less based on need and more based on what interests me. I also find my shop is more crowded these days. When I began woodworking the shop occupied a corner of the basement of my house in Rhode Island. Then I moved to California and it occupied half of a two car garage. Now the shop has fully captured the whole garage and ten feet of the driveway when I am working. The garage itself now has six dedicated circuits and 220 power where it used to have one circuit which was shared with the living room. One light bulb grew to fluorescent lights throughout with four halogens directly over the workbench I use for handwork. My equipment changed from a sabre and circular saw to a fully equipped shop with all floor equipment on mobile bases. All this equipment gets less and less use as I use more and more handtools. I have over fifty handplanes, an assortment of hand saws, spokeshaves and chisels; most of which followed me home from flea markets. All have been refurbished to optimum working condition. My musical tastes have changed from loud rock and roll (easier to hear over whirring power equipment) to country western and talk radio in the quieter handtool environment of my present shop. The last change is the most enjoyable. I began woodworking as a solo venture. Now that the kids are grown, my wife has joined me in the shop. I build furniture mostly while she happily turns bowls, makes pens, and other sundry projects on the lathe using the scraps which used to fuel the fireplace. Life is good!

Re: ***SURVEY: THE IDES OF NOVEMBER***

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>I've slowly improved my skills and can now lay out, saw, chisel, plane, etc., far more accurately, precisely, and quickly, than before. Economy of motion matters a lot more, because I have less energy.

Re: ***SURVEY: THE IDES OF NOVEMBER***

Angus Barclay, in New Zealand

>I've gotten a lot more patient with woodworking. I spend a lot more time getting things right now, rather than rushing to finish - and the result is that the items I produce are now far higher quality than the earlier stuff. Nowadays, I can count the mistakes in a finished project using only one hand!

regards

Angus Barclay

Re: ***SURVEY: THE IDES OF NOVEMBER***

Paul M. in San Diego

>In my younger years, I suffered from an extremely limited vocabulary. When I made mistakes, I uttered curses in a limited 1-2 word predictable pattern. Now when I make mistakes, I have a larger vocabulary to draw from, and my cursing is much more colorful! ;-)

Let's see...

Dan Donaldson

>Now when you hit your thumb with a hammer, you can be just like me and say "Gee whiz, I think that this is going to be quite painful, so please excuse the primal scream" or something along that line;-)

Of course, it just might be stated just a bit differently than that;-)

Re: ***SURVEY: THE IDES OF NOVEMBER***

Bob Hackett

>When I first started WWing I used to look forward to rushing out and buying the latest tool to "help" me work faster.Now I find I look forward to making my own tools to help me get the job done in a more relaxed fashion with less wear and tear on my too rapidly aging body.

I find things like ergonomics,stronger lighting and magnification win out over gizmosity every time these days.

I`ve also learned to passionately hate bifocals and think when it comes to WWing they should be renamed no-focals.Perhaps if I stand on my head the ~#%* things will finally be in focus at working length.Unfortunately there`s presently almost no light under my bench.

Mainely,Bob