Have You Got A Minute To....

[thecoder]

Reflect on how you got started with your hobby or career in wood ...

I tell you why I ask the question.....I am 50 yrs old have never been interested in woodwork (or had time due to earning a crust..plasterer).. although I do love handmade things and I am also fascinated in how someone can take something from its raw form and turn it into a work of true beauty be that a piece of metal,wood,glass, whatever,for me the modern day approach to mass production has been to the detriment of us all and we have and are still loosing skills and crafts at an alarming rate...

Anyhow im rambling a bit so back to the reason I ask the question.....some months ago I decided it was time to put a new roof on the garage and tidy it up. It has not had a car in it for 25 years due to it becoming a dumping ground for all the household stuff the Mrs wouldn't throw away...

Anyhow I cleared it out and thought I would like a bench and the when I saw the price decided to build my own....The chuckles from the daughters and Mrs were a bit off I thought. Not entirely unjustified though given that I didnt know one end of a plane from the other at that stage..So I bought my timber and borrowed some tools , scoured youtube and set to and built not 1 but 4 benches....Not too shabby either judging by the reaction of the family..

Now this is where I discovered this forum and others, and it is safe to say it was a breath of fresh air,I still know very little about the whole subject but I am truly smitten..My workshop is coming on steadily and I have taken a step back from my temptaion to fill it with powertools I don't need.

I am going to try to do it the hard way and learn the old ways of doing things first...I am quite literally like a sponge at the moment soaking up any information I can gather either web based or by book...I love it..lol

How did this happen?.I just don't know,but I do have a secret ambition and that is to produce a piece of work in time for xmas that is worthy of a place in Mrs C,s living room ...so in between there will be a large pile of shavings I guess.I aim to keep it quiet from the doubters in the family just in case it goes Pete Tong lol..

So in a nutshell how long you been at it ? and what do you get from it beyond the satisfaction of getting your hands dirty and escaping the Mrs for a while... :lol:

Oh and by the way this site and its members have helped me heaps so far, so thanks for that guys =D> and expect more daft questions along the way..

Kind Regards

Dave

 

[Steve Maskery]

Hi Dave
Well in my case it was in the blood. My dad was a cabinet-maker and my granddad a pattern-maker. But dad didn't want us to get into woodwork. So I learned most of what I know now as an adult. Magazines and books mainly, as it was before the days of Internet.
Little did I think, when I started, that I would end up writing for them!
S

 

[RogerP]

Just a hobbist who started off doing general DIY in my youth 50+ years ago. Gradually moved to making better stuff because back in the 60's, and newly married, that's the only way we got things. Now retired and like making repro. A&C and Mission stuff with a particular liking for Charles Rennie Mackintosh designs. Oh, and lots of little boxes. :wink:

Never been in the trade and don't sell - give most away these days as the bungalow is full

Spent a long time in the motor trade but the last twenty years, up to retirement, I was in IT management.

 

[worsley947]

Hi Dave
Well like you I had never done anything with wood since I was a school and as you say had to earn a crust and bring up a family, well last year things changed, family now grown up and gone thier own ways, so at the young age of 47 I enrolled on a 3 year city and guilds course of cabinet making at newark college and what a fantastic course it is, these are some of the things I have made in 1 year starting from scratch
A tilt top pedistal table

A corner cabinet with a veneered panel

Plus other stuff that I cant find photos of at the mo
So just keep soaking it all in, take your time when doing things but best of all have fun
Dave

 

[barkwindjammer]

with a particular liking for Charles Rennie Mackintosh designs.

Have you ever made the pilgrimage North Roger to see the great mans designs?
as a Weegie (a Glaswegian) I was regularly coralled along with my younger brother to the Willow tea rooms by my mother and Aunts after a 'hard days shopping' in the city, we would have our hair 'combed back' with spit, and given a fore taste of a 'damn good hiding' on the way-lest we give my Mother or Aunts reason to be 'black affronted' , ah happy days

 

[thecoder]

Just a hobbist who started off doing general DIY in my youth 50+ years ago. Gradually moved to making better stuff because back in the 60's, and newly married, that's the only way we got things. Now retired and like making repro. A&C and Mission stuff with a particular liking for Charles Rennie Mackintosh designs. Oh, and lots of little boxes. :wink:

Never been in the trade and don't sell - give most away these days as the bungalow is full

Spent a long time in the motor trade but the last twenty years, up to retirement, I was in IT management.

Some very nice stuff there Roger,thanks for sharing that..

Dave

 

[thecoder]

Hi Dave
Well like you I had never done anything with wood since I was a school and as you say had to earn a crust and bring up a family, well last year things changed, family now grown up and gone thier own ways, so at the young age of 47 I enrolled on a 3 year city and guilds course of cabinet making at newark college and what a fantastic course it is, these are some of the things I have made in 1 year starting from scratch
A tilt top pedistal table

A corner cabinet with a veneered panel

Plus other stuff that I cant find photos of at the mo
So just keep soaking it all in, take your time when doing things but best of all have fun
Dave

It certainly looks like the course is paying of Dave....

Dave

 

[Digit]

Welcome to the slope Dave!
I started 50 yrs ago, I was offered an apprenticship in the aircraft industry, having failed to get into the Raff, and was placed in the jig shop, everything from Balsa to Titanium. But I only got seriously involved when I moved here 20 yrs ago, the driving force was the requirement for fitted furniture, it was downhill from there!

Roy.

 

[Hudson Carpentry]

Well I started life as a real geek. At the age of 13 I was the youngest child to be put forward to do an official computer exam and pass. 2 years later and I was teaching the IT teachers but I always swore I would never work with computers for a living. Anyhow 16 I started my own business designing posters, flyers and stationary. Young and stupid that fell through but at the age of 17 I started working as a bouncer, im sure you can imagine where my life was going.

Anyhow at school/collage I did woodworking and engineering which is where I new I liked working with my hands, building things and designing. While working the doors I started doing websites for people as a side line (something to do in the day) I also built small items of furniture as a hobby for family and friends.

With my web design turning into a successful business I still louved the fact I was working with computers for a living and when my bouncing carrier became more of an criminal/thug thing I found I needed an out before death or jail (that growing up moment). So as a get out I used the income from my web design business supplemented with building furniture, something that I loved. As time went on I ended up renovating houses and doing more building work by employing them that knew what I didn't. I got fed up of all the hassle and 2 customers of a curtain type really killed my drive for doing renovations but that was where the money was I continued and used my web design business as that separation.

I found my self doing more and more furniture and came to realise that was my dream job, to work only from a wood workshop using my hands and wood, I have always loved wood. So I went solely as a pro furniture maker some 3-4 years ago. After finding the property im in now I have hit the hammer on building and renovating property 100% and now have a workshop many times larger then the garage I was working out of.

In a sense wood kept me on the straight and narrow. My web design business is even bigger now days and I work just about all the time when im not sleeping so if something in the shop is getting to me I still have a place I can do something different, but its normally the other way round, I use the workshop to get away from hours of programing software and web sites.

So I have been working with wood as a pro for about 5 years, 3-4 of them building furniture for non family and friends but I have been working with wood (hobby and carrier) about 10-15 years.

 

[Digit]

Interesting story. The strange thing is that when I was at school I was the only boy in my class who didn't want to work in wood!
It's a funny old world isn't it?

Roy.

 

[thecoder]

Thanks for your input some really interesting stuff.

Hudson C we have a bit in common,I was a miner back in the day and worked the doors while on strike for extra cash. Glad to hear you took the right life choice mate .