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

Well I hate to say it, but...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>Norm was the first one to get me thinking about WW. Then I found St. Roy and Jim Kingshott, that realy got me insterested in hand tools.

Living in CA we have a lot of Bunglows. I've always loved that style, witch peaked my interst in A&C furniture. Witch then led me to the Shaker inspiried pieces. Elegant simplicty sums it up for me.

Just to...

Todd O. Cronkhite Maine Native, Presently Away

>be able to make things, and thus be able to fend for myself and be less "dependent" upon somebody else to make the things that I needed or wanted. In my mind the fastest way to being just another mindless lemming is t be 100% dependent or "the stores" for every thing one would need in life. It's bad enough that I produce nothing of the foods that I consume. This to me is the biggest sin of all, but that's another story

As for handtools, well again, dependancy. As a teenager I realized that we as a society was very dependant upon "the lightning" and I always wondered what would happen if suddenlty it was gone. Just seemed to me that many things where done without it for centuries, and thus why should I become dependant upon it, so the "old ways" always interested me.

Fortunatly I was never afraid of good ol' hard work, and as a matter of fact, the harder I'm working, the better I like it.

Good luck re-mixing that into something sensible Ellis. ;~)

Todd O.

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

Rossmoor Galoot

>I first got into woodworking as a way to relieve stress at work. Norm Abrams made woodworking look accessible so I dove in. After I filled my garage full of power tools a friend of mine suggested a "hand tools" course at a local college and it opened up a whole new world from which I've never looked back. I had a chance this past year to start another friend on the same slippery slope!

A child of the 1960's response

Bill Houghton, 19 deg F @ 6:30 am, Sebastopol, CA

>I started with tools as a gearhead, keeping clapped-out motorcycles and then cars running. The shift to wood was initially necessity also: we rented a house for lower rent in exchange for doing some of the work of maintenance.

Also, we (the love of my life and I) thought of ourselves as back-to-the-land folks in the late 1960's and early 70's, and that meant doing for ourselves; and, of course, wooden things are important parts of the "doing." Our son (and then sons) needed furniture: work tables suitable for a small child, bookcases, etc. My early efforts were pretty utilitarian, and heavily emphasized power tools (I learned how to make rabbets with a hand-held circular saw for one of the bookcases, a high-wire act that still scares me in retrospect).

What drew me beyond carpentry were books and magazines - some of the classic books (Hayward, for example) and the advent of Fine Woodworking magazine - and receiving my grandfather's wood lathe from my cousin, who had decided he didn't need it. This got me interested in woodturning, and from there to interest in (real) furniture wasn't much of a step.

While we never did really get back to the land, in the full sense of that concept, our sensibility stayed basic and simple long enough for me to become intrigued by hand tools, and my approach has developed over the last 20 years from a power-tool-dependent one to a hybrid approach that prefers hand tools over power when time permits or when the hand tool is the better technology, as it is far more often than the power-tool-only folks realize.

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

Roy Anderson

>I've always worked with wood and tools from my youngest days. My Dad wisely left hammers and saws and wood out and I built things. Forts and treehouses and toy boats. Crude stuff, but it got me interested in handling tools. I got a life lesson when a hurricane destroyed our house and I had to help Dad rebuild. Later, I worked my way through school as a carpenter's helper, among other things. Then as a homeowner, I gradually learned a bit about cabinetry and miscellaneous home repair. As Life went on, I decided I needed a hobby and woodworking looked like an obvious choice, so I started down the normal road with power tools. Then one day, I saw St. Roy on the T.V. and my life was changed. In a world with few life changing heroes, St. Roy is my hero.

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

John in Kerrville

>Watching my father make things using a hatchet, brace, and a handsaw first got my interest. Having to do it to keep my houses up and then tiring of the noise and dust has started my slide down the slippery slope of hand tools. I'm not there but I am progressing.

John

Re: "It ain't rocket science"

Darrell in Oakville

>Ellis asks:

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?

Well, as I grew up my family lived in a succession of old houses that needed renovation. My Dad did all the work, with me and my brothers as helpers. First job was holding a flashlight or handing him tools. Later, we got to use some of the tools, and finally we were able partners in the disasters-in-progress. So I've been around tools all my life, and had a good exposure to the concept of "it ain't rocket science".

What really sparked my interest in woodworking (as opposed to home repair, maintenance and renovation) was my wife. Yes, it's her fault. She was perusing the course listings from a local community college, and decided she would take an introductory woodworking class. She came home with a big thick textbook, which I picked up and started leafing through... The back of the book had lots of detailed pictures of various woodworking joints. They looked interesting, and I decided that I wanted to cut some dovetails. Just for fun. But there was no way I could (or would) afford a router plus bits plus jig just for some dovetails. Then I saw Roy Underhill cut some DTs with a few simple hand tools on his TV show. I bought a cheap gent's saw and borrowed my wife's new Blue Chip Marples chisels and life has never been the same. Then I discovered that old tools were generally better made than the new ones, and I was doomed. I found the OldTools mailing list shortly thereafter and I have been sliding down The Slippery Slope ever since.

Darrell

Wood Hoarder, Blade Sharpener, and Occasional Tool User

Re:My Dad was my building mentor

Glenn Madsen near San Francisco

>although he didn't do this stuff for a living. His brothers did, though. He did all kinds of building and carpentry in volunteer efforts, for us, and for the neighbors, and for the church. In ways I can't remember, projects I can't recall, I learned to measure, plan, dig, build, mix concrete, cut and haul lumber, and nails, hand tools and water, plumb and drain, push wheelbarrows and drag mortar. We built walls, pool decks, walkways, houses, church buildings, and youth camps in the mountains. I was blessed to work with folks young, old and in the middle. Folks who knew what they were doing, and folks who did what they were asked with a smile on their face and a great story to tell when you sat still for a minute.

I went to the university, and work with computers and telecommunications equipment and planning systems and regulators. I learned how to deal with all types of people while building stuff with my dad, and our friends from the neighborhood and from the church. My boys and I have tried to do many of the same things as they grew up, too.

Furniture and decorative stuff came later, and built on the base of the projects we did early in my life. It's all good. Thanks, Mom & Dad!

Addendum

Bill Houghton, 19 deg F @ 6:30 am, Sebastopol, CA

>I missed the second part of your question, and need to add something.

When I did start working with wood, I was acting upon some early inspirations that had sat dormant for some years:

1) my father, who started an addition to our house when I was about five (and finished it, sort of, when I was in my 20's). Mostly, I held the other end of the board for him, or the flashlight when he was working on the car, and hated every minute of it, at the time; but learned from him the attitude that grownups can make things.

2) my grandfather, who supported himself doing renovations and furniture for people, and who was happy to spend time in his shop with me when I was little. My most vivid memory of time in his shop, I must confess, is crushing little pieces of wood in the metalworking vise, and noticing how wood crushed very differently oriented cross-grain than long-grain; but I absorbed from him a lot of the attitude that work can be done beautifully.

3) to a lesser degree, my uncle, who was mainly a metal guy (machinist and mechanic), but who taught me in my 30's that the most delightful thing in the world is a problem to be solved.

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

McKay

>I started out like some in the posts above helping Dad. The first project that I remember was a white trash trailer made from a chev truck box with a wooden shell. We would pile our sleeping bags in and head for Yellowstone 2-3 times a year.

I then went to college where I was a senior in Zoology. (hated it, so I said to my self, "Self, what the heck are you going to do with Zoology?) I went and changed majors (with only one semester to go) to a new major of Industrial Education. (additional 70 hours.) After 28 years, I still like going to work as a wood/cabinet teacher.

I have my own 1000sq.ft. shop where I spend my after school time.

Twice or so a year I attend a Traditional Building Skills Class at Snow College in Ephraim Utah. (the class is the cheap part. I always come home needing more hand tools.)

Now this is embarrassing.

Chuck Nickerson

>What inspired me to start? It was a Shopsmith demo that made woodworking seem interesting and doable.

What determined my current direction? My current interest, mechanical theatre, was inspired by Rodney Frost's book "Whacky Toys, Whirligigs& Whatchamacallits". For me it's the perfect intersection of engineering, creativity, and woodworking.

Veeerry early

jim reed @ tallahassee

>One of my earliest memories is sitting on the garage floor playing in a pile of walnut sawdust with some cutoffs. My dad and his buddy were working on some project and seemed to be having a blast. I loved the smell of the wood and got hooked right there. Fast forward many years to where I am still woodworking but now using handtools. My newly collected #46 skew planes had rusty cutters so I decided to make a set. That experience led to other cutters and now I seem to spend more time working metal than wood. I still love to see those curly shavings.

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

wilbur

>My first exposure to woodworking was from my father. He wasn't into what most would call "fine furniture" type woodworking. In fact, he seemed to think some of the things that woodworkers tend to obsess over was a waste of time. But he knew how to make shelves and bookcases, and had no problem cutting up wood to help me with my science fair project. But I never was allowed to actually touch any of the tools. "You're too young, and you'll chop your hands off," he would always say.

My first hands on experience was junior high school shop class. I made a fireplace bellows that my parents still use today. I really liked making the bellows, but that was it for a long while.

Then I got to my pediatrics residency. When I was on call for a Saturday, the routine was to come in Saturday morning, round on the patients, and stay in the hospital until about noon on Sunday. Saturdays afternoons were always pretty slow. (Saturday evenings were busy, and Sunday dinnertime was equally bad.) So we spent a lot of time in the residents' lounge watching TV, and the local PBS channel had Norm and Roy back to back on Saturday afternoons. So that's how I became familiar with a lot of techniques. I also got better at cooking from the PBS cooking shows that ran prior to Norm and Roy.

I never had a place where I could set up a shop, since my wife and I were living in apartments. Finally, we bought our first house just 2 years ago, and now that I finally have a basement to set up a workshop, I'm getting it set up after all these years. In fact, my neighbor tells me that the original owner/builder of the house had his workshop set up in the same space as mine, which was almost 60 years ago.

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

Ernie Miller

>I got started very young my father was a carpenter/cabinet maker , Grandfather was a cabinet maker, great grand father was a farmer /carpenter/ cabinet maker. it's in my blood you could say. We allways made did for ourselves. I started in shop in the 7th grade loved making things and thought out of the box. I didn't make the same things as the other kids. Sr. year made a hydro plane instead of the entertainment center every one else was making. with a little 50 ph evenrude that thing flew. I allways lived in old houses that ment fixing things all of the time. I bought and inhereted all of my for fathers tools. and have a lot of power tools about 4-5 years ago I got some bowlingalley for a work bench top I made one and it was ok but wanted a real bench after looking at some on badger pond. I built the tressel and found out the top was not truly flat. so I dug out some of grandpas planes they didn't work well I found out that you have to sharpen them? and did then learned to tune them to keep from having tear out. Frome ther I toke a bad tumble and have been pretty much a hand tool guy. Can you beleave that I still need to make 4-5 more drawers for the bench? I build a dedicated hand tool in the basement and have a power tool shop in the garage gathering dust and junk. best influances all of my dhop teachers Mr Sutton in Jr High Mr. Burns in high school and Mr Evens who tought farm school. they were all great at pushing your intrests and making you look further than you thought you gould go. They didn't teach me how to do stuff as much as how to learn how to do stuff.

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

Jay St. Peter - Southern MD

>My entry into woodworking was via other hobbies and home renovations. I was/am into home audio and have built a number of speakers. I got my first router and table saw in order to build a couple of nice sets of speakers.

I have fixed up a couple houses over the years. So, it was natural that I continue to build up tools to do so. Various home projects have provided the excuse to acquire better tools. Doing built-ins and adding storage areas were most of my first "woodworking" projects.

Now, I attempt to choose my projects based on skills and design ideas I want to try. Much of my influence comes from right here. However, much of what I build has to do with something my wife has seen in a catalog. So far, combining the two has worked well for me. I have a tendency to prefer modern and japanese design while my wife likes "country" style. It makes life pretty tough, but I've adapted with my "modern country" style ;).

Jay St. Peter

Re: Now this is embarrassing.

Glenn Madsen near San Francisco

>"What inspired me to start? It was a Shopsmith demo that made woodworking seem interesting and doable."

But Chuck, did you end up with a shiny new Shopsmith? I did. It holds up boxes in the corner of the garage now, until one of my sons has a place to keep it. It's all been replaced with 'real tools'.

There are cheaper ways to get addicted, I suppose.

Re: Well I hate to say it, but...

Michael Brady

>Very similar for me. Arts & Crafts furniture and that whole movement brought me into the broader woodworking world. If you don't know what the Arts & Crafts movement was, do some Googleing and find out. If we were living in 1907 instead if 2007 we might all be reading the A&C forum instead of the WC forum!

But some of us would have woodburning computers

Bill Houghton, 20 deg F @ 7:30 am, Sebastopol, CA

>

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

AndrewP

>We had our old house re-roofed, and a "velux" roof window now didn't fit the badly done pine clading, so I needed to do a patchup job, but how? So I went to the local library and found Jim Kingshot's book "Joints for Woodworkers", he sold me the slope!

Next big direction check was the chapter on Japanese woodworkers' benches in "The Workbench Book." I have now built a pair of trestles, laminated a beam (though not flatened it yet!) and always get down on my knee(s) to saw. I love the simplisity of the tools and the directnes of relationship with the wood. Now all I have to do is spend the rest of my life learning how to get the hang of it.

Andrew

A sofa did it for me

Paul M. in San Diego

>Honestly, it was a sofa that inspired me. I hang my head in shame admitting it. But it's now out in the public.

My wife and I picked out a bench style sofa from Ethan Allen. I browsed google images, and found the little attached thumnail pic that shows the style. Sorry for not having a better picture.

It's actually very nicely implemented, with lots of angles and some good looking turnings on the rungs below the bench. I've always wanted to make one of these just to figure out how to do this. I've never bothered because I don't have any need for another sofa. But it was the inspiration that planted the seed that led me to where I am today.

And the 2nd part of the question... What greased the slippery slope that led me to starting woodworking? Like Chuck, this was a Shopsmith Demo. Yes, my second admitted shame in one post is that I'm a Shopsmith owner. I must say that owning a piece of crap like a Shopsmith is probably the most influential push towards the all-hand-tool approach. That and my allergies to sawdust.

The biggest influence was taking classes at the local community college. I only dorked around with wood until I started taking classes and really learned how to make something with quality joinery. Some of my first projects will only last as long as the nails hold out. ;-)

Re: A sofa did it for me

Mike G. in sSC

>Like some of the other posters, I used to help my Dad. Which usually meant holding the end of a board up and also as he was a mechanic by trade, holding the trouble light or handing him wrenches. Very rarely got the chance to use the tools or turn a wrench. (My brothers and I used to sneak some of his mechanic tools to work on our bikes and we'd usually lose one or two, but that's another story.) Had the prerequisite shop classes in jr. high and high school. I started in woodworking as a carpenter's helper for a friend from neccessity. I was trained as a radar tech in the Air Force and had to get a job after my discharge. I haven't looked back since and that was almost 30 years ago. I'm still a carpenter, but enjoy working with handtools in my shop.

I don't really have a particular style as far as my woodworking "hobby" goes...just build whatever catches my fancy. Of course, if it pays enough, I'll build whatever someone wants built.

Mike G. in SC