What people make?

[Nick Gibbs]

A recent thread about Steve Maskery's jigs, and a chat I had recently with David Savage, inspire me to ask what woodworkers make these days, other than for work. There is far less 'need' to make your own furniture now than 30-odd years ago.

So what was the last project you made? Was it through need, austerity or just desire to be productive?

Cheers

Nick

 

[Dibs-h]

There is far less 'need' to make your own furniture now than 30-odd years ago.

Hi Nick

You'd be surprised. I like quality and furniture that is either Stickley or Shaker in origin - that isn't readily available these days, unless you part with perhaps large sums. So that leaves only one choice - make it!

Dibs

 

[yetloh]

Hi Nick,

My main motive is design, which is my passion. I can't afford to furnish my own house, let alone my daughter's, with pieces by the designer makers I most admire so I make pieces to my own designs. I am not suggesting my pieces are their equal, that is not for me to judge, but they are well received.

I am currently making the most expensive laundry bin/bathroom stool in the world (one whole West Dean course and half of another devoted to it have seen to that). It is contemporary in style in sycamore with walnut details to match bath panels already made.

I also have the prototype for a set of four rather experimental dining chairs at an embrionic stage. These are to accompany an unconventional small dining table previously made for my daughter.

Jim

 

[woodbloke]

Nick - see here... but the last thing to get finished was a set of shelves in English oak and ebony - Rob

 

[The Wood Butcher]

I like quality joinery, built ins and trim in my house, and don't want to pay for it...

 

[BelgianPhil]

The latest thing i made was a shoe rack to go in the garage next to the back door. 2 hours of work. Made from bed slats saved from a skip and a couple of scrap boards. Total cost maybe 50p in screws and a pound for the dowels.

Is it pretty? No, but it makes the missus more than happy that she no longer has to look at this:

And i'm happy that i could make something useful out of stuff that would end up in a landfill.
0% complex joinery 100% job satisfaction

 

[Richard T]

Good job there Phil.
You had to ask .... the LAST thing I made (and I'm still making 'em) was a couple of covers for firewood stacks. Bits of next door's old shed - pine lapped feather board nailed to some very slim, teak (I think) cross pieces that were probly bits of old wardrobe: these, I actually had to plane. Four boards wide and about 4' long. I've slathered them in raw linseed and the rain just beads on them.
They replace the corrugated plasticy/tarry stuff I bought about 20 years ago that is now retiring from public life.

 

[superunknown]

I am a cabinet maker full time, so I'm constantly making things. For home though I also love to make for, nearly finished a new shower room with cherry cabinets and shelving with Corian tops. Also plans for the for the new bathroom and kitchen.

 

[Nick Gibbs]

I am a cabinet maker full time, so I'm constantly making things. For home though I also love to make for, nearly finished a new shower room with cherry cabinets and shelving with Corian tops. Also plans for the for the new bathroom and kitchen.

I suppose I'm delving into the reasons woodworkers make things these days. It's heartening, and not surprising, that it's because we gain satisfaction from it, but sometimes the whole tool porn thing seems to get in the way, and one can't help wondering how much making is done. David Savage and I were discussing how we can inspire people to take up woodworking. What might motivate non-woodworkers to produce something themselves?

 

[Dibs-h]

I suppose I'm delving into the reasons woodworkers make things these days. It's heartening, and not surprising, that it's because we gain satisfaction from it, but sometimes the whole tool porn thing seems to get in the way, and one can't help wondering how much making is done. David Savage and I were discussing how we can inspire people to take up woodworking. What might motivate non-woodworkers to produce something themselves?

Inspiring folk to take up woodwork - I wonder whether it's a confidence thing, or folk have other priorities, which are a bit weird or skewed. Let me give you an example - pay a gardener to mow the lawn and do odds and sods & then go to the gym. Why not have done the gardening yourself, saved some money & not have gone to the gym. Rather over simplified example I accept.

Years ago folk used to work on their own cars, fix stuff round the house and some make stuff - nowadays if you can do all any one of those things, most think you are weird and if you can do all 3 - they'll probably say you are weird.

I wonder whether the glut of cheap debt over the years has got folk to get a man in when they needn't have, or replaced something when it could have easily been fixed. Now that cheap debt isn't so readily available - whether the inclination to produce something yourself (or at least repair rather than replace) may start to take off again.

Schools - I know for a fact that if it wasn't for my interests in woodworking, etc., my son would be grow up like the masses and not have a clue. Whereas when I was at school - woodworking and metalworking was taught, as opposed to the Design & Technology rubbish they probably teach now.

Dibs

p.s. Sorry if it seems a bit of a rant.

 

[jumps]

somewhere between a desire to be productive and using up the off-cuts from the two previous items - a bit like the woodworking equivalent of ready steady cook!

 

[Shane]

Banging bits of wood together for a living means that a deadline usually takes the fun out of the process, so it is a tonic when I have built up enough offcuts and the odd plank from previous jobs and take the time to make something for myself. The last thing I made was the ABW coffee table. I have made quite a few sapele windows lately so that will be the next source for a personal project, not sure what it'll be yet

 

[Dodge]

I must admit I am with Shane, I spend all my time working on commission pieces and rarely get time to actually make something for myself.

Saying that though I acquired a very large old skeleton clock a few months ago and a friend of mine has been restoring it for me which I am expecting to take some time.

Ready for when it arrives back I have been making a stand for it as I am planning for it to take pride of place in our hall in due course. Since this photo was taken I have started making a glass cabinet to mount on top of this to keep the dust off the clock.

Rog

 

[Nick Gibbs]

Great stuff. Send us photos to British Woodworking so we can run a Gallery of reader projects. I want to make sure new readers, just taking up woodwork perhaps, know that there are other people out there making things just for the sake of it.

Cheers

Nick

 

[Melinda_dd]

Unfortunately, due to a lack of functionable workshop my whole life... so far :wink: , my makes are not pretty!

I think the last thing I made was a gate to shut off an alley at the back of the house. Made from an old shed. functions 100%
Before that it was a tortoise house... a rectangular box with an opening door, and a hinged lid, covered in felt for weather resistance. Slightly prettier than a rabbit hutch.
And a rabbit run.... as far as runs go... it was very pretty
All made for other people at cost, in the garden as no shop... rain always stops play!

 

[Dodge]

Unfortunately, due to a lack of functionable workshop ... rain always stops play!

Melinda,

I have a spare bench in my workshop - If ever you need a dry workspace for a day I'm only an hour or so from you just outside Diss.

Rog

 

[barkwindjammer]

Unfortunately, due to a lack of functionable workshop ... rain always stops play!

Melinda,

I have a spare bench in my workshop - If ever you need a dry workspace for a day I'm only an hour or so from you just outside BIG Diss.

Rog

 

[matt]

I make stuff because function (inc. space efficiency) usually determines that the design is quite specific. And/or because I don't like the look or quality of a lot of the stuff available in shops these days. Sometimes I try really hard to buy something instead of make it but it's exhausting and time consuming. I also like to design different solutions rather than replicate what's already available.

 

[Charlotte]

I bought a narrowboat a few months ago (my first home!) Most of what I've been doing is not woodwork hence me not posting here (that and internet only arrived about a week ago.) Sick of the mess that is the kitchen at the moment, I went to Ikea and bought some shelves- which of course don't fit the tumblehome of the cabin so I'll be making those. I need a raising plinth/drawer to sit under the oven as the kitchen was built for a giant (I'm 6' and considering making myself a step to work on!)

Tomorrow I've got some professional help coming to extend the cabin so I can get the bathroom in and then once I've finished the electrics (for which I need to build a cupboardy fuseboardy thing) plumbing and tiling, I'm going to attempt to turn a gorgeous lump of burr elm that currently is a coffee table into a sofa/dining banquet affair and take the yew floor up from the engine room and teach it to be a table. I guess I'll be laying a new floor in there at the same time. Then, if I can work out how to seat 6 in a narrowboat, I'll be needing 3 chairs that magically disappear (racked under the sofa?)

Like Melinda, I'm benchless so if anyone has plans for a knockdown bench that could be stored on the roof (I need to make boxes!) I'd be eternally grateful. If anyone knows where it's possible to rent an equipped workshop in London/surrounding areas on a short term basis, that would be a great help.

To answer Nick's question, I make stuff myself because nothing fits from a shop.

 

[yetloh]

Schools - I know for a fact that if it wasn't for my interests in woodworking, etc., my son would be grow up like the masses and not have a clue. Whereas when I was at school - woodworking and metalworking was taught, as opposed to the Design & Technology rubbish they probably teach now.

Dibs

p.s. Sorry if it seems a bit of a rant.

Can't allow you to getaway with that one Dibs. For me school woodwork was a complete waste of time, classes far too big for the teacher to manage so he concentrated on those who showed obvious ability. The rest mucked about, and absolutely no possibility of being inspired to be creative. I have seen Design Technology in action and it can be very good. It teaches kids about the nature of the materials they meet in the modern world and requires them to think about practical design requirements and the process of creating something useful. No sign of that in my woodworking lessons unless you happened to have a burning desire to make a bookend to a prescribed design. Those were certainly not the days so far as I am concerned. The reason I got into doing practical things despite having no involvement in them in my working life is that I had the example of my father.

Jim