advise

[lurcher]

hi iv;e been pondering again and was thinking what advise would you give a person starting out in woodwork
i would say go and look at some of our stateley homes and look at the furniture also the interior woodwork and then ask tourself what you would like to acheive
i am a big fan of the shaker style of woodwork and the edwardian era of house and furniture

 

[dunbarhamlin]

Before buying any tools, book onto a short course on tool rehab/maintenance. Will give the necessary sharpening skills and enable the ab initio to fully equip for a fraction of the cost.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

It's never been easier to access woodworking information - the range and quality of books, magazines, youtube clips, interweb forums, short paid courses and so on is waaaay better than it was when I started. So - in general, finding information isn't a problem if you're prepared to hunt about a bit.

Start simple. Make a stool, or a small box, or a spoon; don't dive straight in and try to make a Chippendale chair. The first time you do something will be a real mess. Don't give up - the second time will be better, and the third better still.

Learn to use a few simple tools accurately and dextrously, and learn how to keep them in peak condition. You'll get more done with them than with a shed full of fancy gizmos.

Have fun. If it really isn't fun, do something more enjoyable instead.

 

[RossJarvis]

Cheshirechappie and Dunbarhamlin have given some good advice.

I'm a bit of an amateur tinkerer so wonder where you're at and what you've done so far. I tend to stretch myself beyond or to the limits of my capabilities and I think sometimes I'd be better doing less adventurous things. Do you have any experience of working with wood? what is it? what tools do you have? where have you got to work in? If you have a decent shed/garage/spare room/workbench, set of tools, then you can do a lot at home, if not maybe you can get on a course locally. However it's a lot harder to find local courses than it was just a few years ago.

It's good to look at stuff and have a desire to make that stuff, but without experience it can be frustrating getting to where you'd like to be. If you can find some kind of local organisation where you can find a "course", I'd advise that first. If you have a friend or neighbour who does wood-work, hang around with them. Books are good, but help and encouragement from a human is better. Maybe there's someone on this site locally you could visit and drink tea with and bash some wood with. Anyone in North Lincs (or the back of the back of beyond as we call it), watching who'd give an invite?

Ross

 

[Jacob]

hi iv;e been pondering again and was thinking what advise would you give a person starting out in woodwork
i would say go and look at some of our stateley homes and look at the furniture also the interior woodwork and then ask tourself what you would like to acheive
i am a big fan of the shaker style of woodwork and the edwardian era of house and furniture

Main thing is to look at everything; good, bad or indifferent. Better still if you can pull it apart and see how it's made. Measure, photograph, sketch. Measuring is interesting as guesswork is often surprisingly wrong.

 

[lurcher]

i think i was lucky that my grandad was a master decorator who taught me alot of things ive been working wood for 45 yrs in 1 way or another .today ive been in the workshop carving out some crooks from yew to go onto walkingsticks as ive got older i tend to think outside the box alot more weather it be a nice oak cd unit for son and daughter in law or a simple pine shelf for the misses its the abilty to create ive been sorting some tools out for my mates son he is 13 and comes into my workshop his eyes are wide open and he has a natural talent and i want to encourage him as much as ican