Why do you do it?

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Why do you do it?

  • Love of wood

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Owning/collecting/using Tools

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • DIY/home improvement

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Inspired by TV shows

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Necessity

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Desire to make own furniture

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Desire to turn wood

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Employment

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    0
Hi all.
I think it was a first look love,effectively (I think it said in this way).
When I was young I spent a lot of time with my grandfather while my parents were at work. He was a farmer for long time until , like other folks of the time, he left the fields and went in factory.
But inside him remained the old craft of one time when a man must to do every thing with the things which the nature offers, therefore even the wood.
I liked to see him while he cut a little piece of wood with a knife to do something, and I liked to smell the fragrance on the air. He even build a small mannequin which had moved by wind on a small fan.
However, now I am an adult, that fragrance with a lot of others of the younger times, has remained in me like fuel and wait that someone ignites it.
Well, few years ago, a book of the father of my wife, given to him to do him an woodworker, ignited me the "fuel".
From that time, all things about wood are interest for me. I read some books, and I (hope) have known how and with what a thing must to be done.
Now, I haven't the great amounts of tools you own which I can see by this forum but I hope to own someone in future.
Well, how I told firstly, with wood it has been a first look (???) love.
Now I have moved home, my interest has become a necessity. I am trying to build some furnitures.
 
Nice one Gepetto - lovely story and even more impressively you have managed to describe it much more beautifully than most of us could and in a foreign language - I hate to think how clumsy my attempts would be in French or German (the languages I was 'taught') :oops: .

I think the phrase you were after was 'love at first sight'. :)

Cheers

Tim
 
I think / I know I am inspired by my dad, he can do anything with wood – metal or any other material, you name it he will use it.

Helping him to fix cars, build a house out of stone shell, yes I was always on his side when we were doing DIY, he still does it, In his neighbourhood and to family he is called Mr Fix It, If it is broken bring it to him and he will repair it (the only thing he couldn't fix was my mum - she sadly passed away last year)

After I left home, I hardly did any DIY – to busy making career etc, but inspired by NORM and my wife buying me a router, I shortly changed all my standard and boring of the shelf furniture to highly designed custom furniture, and found that my wife and I had a very nice artistic nag, Buying more standard furniture and changing it, and finding that people liked that kind of furniture, so I offloaded that. (Paying for more tools)

No woodworking is not paying my bills, and yes I love wood, but most of all I love the material as it enables me to create wonderful things, which are very pleasing for the eyes.
 
Thought this might have not been visible for a while and hoped to elicit a few more votes by bringing it to the recent post list again :D
 
Tony
Well since you pushed I’ve added another vote, but it will have only provided a bit of a skew to your poll, which like all polls leaves out the unasked questions and the qualified answers.

1. Somewhere in the genes/upbringing/lifestyle when a youngster came “A love of Wood”

2. As a family and home ownership arrived came “DIY/home improvement”

3. But to be honest 2.only came about by in the first instance by “Necessity” due to insufficient income to live life to the standard aspired to.

4. Never ever lost the desire to do 2. especially when involving wood.

5. Now that time is My Own (I wish), Relaxation and pleasure are found when messing about in the workshop(s) and if something made of wood emerges now and again at least the LOML is able to divide the “must have” tool column of her spread sheet by one more item.

6. But on further reflection everything else after 1. was really down to seeing wood “as a friend” ,is the nearest I can describe it from an early age.

PS to 5: The New lathe so far has: 2 ceiling roses (200mm dia.) 4 tool handles, 1 remotely actuated radiator control knob. And a whole pile of funny shaped bits of spindle on the + side, and a rather large list of “wants” on the – side.

Guess who will be suggesting a trip down to the Seaton-Lyme Regis area in the next few weeks, just for coastal walks of coarse.
 
A good question indeed! One that I certainly ask myself every now and then normally after measuring something incorrectly or cutting the wrong side of the line etc etc.

I think like a lot of people this is something that I have got back into in the last few years when as a homeowner I wanted bits done or furniture made that I wouldn't have been able to afford if I bought it. Now it is a way for me to unwind after being locked up in an office all day and to keep my skills nicely honed from the days when I used to do it as a living as a site based carpenter.

I now have a fairly well stocked (but never full!) workshop which I can pop to when time permits. Not a bad life. :wink:
 
and hoped to elicit a few more votes by bringing it to the recent post list again

hey min... fit are ys smokin...?? it's a sticky fer cryin out loud... where's it gonna go...???????????

Honestly... I swear his altzheimers is gettin worse...

:p :wink:
 
Midnight":1sw1xi4a said:
and hoped to elicit a few more votes by bringing it to the recent post list again

hey min... fit are ys smokin...?? it's a sticky fer cryin out loud... where's it gonna go...???????????

Honestly... I swear his altzheimers is gettin worse...

:p :wink:

Mike,

LOL

but it has worked. :shock:
 
Midnight":1ox031ql said:
it's a sticky fer cryin out loud... where's it gonna go...???????????

Yeh, but stickys do not automatically come to the for-front if you have browsing set to new posts.

They may not go away but might just as well be lost in the proverbial black hole.

(especially if the instigator is feeling lonely :twisted: )
 
Yeh, but stickys do not automatically come to the for-front if you have browsing set to new posts.

Ahhhhh...... well.. Luddites like me, we use the default settings... stickies front n centre, shoulders braced and heels together... new or updated threads falling in behind them...


especially if the instigator is feeling lonely

see.... personally I blames the uber-gloatin that's been going on... Our Tony's nae spring chicken any more... poor sod can only take so much ye ken...??

He's a good lad really.... provided he remembers to take his meds.. :roll: :wink:
 
Midnight":2l58kmq7 said:
see.... personally I blames the uber-gloatin that's been going on... Our Tony's nae spring chicken any more... poor sod can only take so much ye ken...??

He's a good lad really.... provided he remembers to take his meds.. :roll: :wink:

Nah, don't believe it he don't look a day older than ....... it's just the colour of his car, gives him a funny head and....................................
 
First post on the forum, I used to make my own skateboard decks when I was 14 back in 1976 and that was my first 'real' woodworking. I did it at school but we could not do anything worthwhile ( and the tools were blunt)

I have recently bought a house and replaced all the floor joists on one half of the house. 17 of them. I have laid 15m sq of american oak planking as the floor in the kitchen and the hall.

I am now going to make the kitchen units from scratch. I have seen a wonderful kitchen at a company in Macclesfield which the 'boss' likes only £20K starting price!

Thought I'd get tooled up and so I have bought the following items.
ebay;
axminster 344 thicknesser £150 inc. postage!
SilverlineKitchen worktop jig £28 inc. postage
4 x kitchen worktop router bits £12 inc. postage
Bosch reversible drill £32 inc. postage
rail and stile routers from Canada £20.15 inc. postage

B+Q
Performance Pro 1800W router and 50 bits ( mostly boring ones) £32

other
Bosch Jigsaw £105
Fein Multimaster £165 at a show

Why do I want to do woodworking?

Because I want to do the job right, I don't have £20k to spare and I want to have the satisfaction of doing it.

If I get it right I may get brownie points with Sarah.

David
 
Good luck David, and welcome to the forum!
Any questions with the kitchen fire away-there area few kitchen experts here.
all the best
Philly :D
 
Why?

1. Five mouths and a government pay packet are incompatible with bespoke furniture, kitchens, bathrooms, a new double story extension (yup, did it right up to the roof timbers).

2. For satisfaction. To fulfill what passes for a creative outlet in my pedestrian brain, MENSA being unsatisfying.

3.To create space for ME away from my delightful family.

4. To take away the bad taste of all the cocky little ignoramuses I teach who seem to think they have 'the right' to sue a two minute silence.

5. I like the smell... it's cheaper than solvent....
 
Why?

a) I think I was a hamster in a former life and that's why I like saw dust and wood shavings.
b) At a younger age I had the pleasure of 2 Grandads; one who was a real handy man willing to tackle almost all tasks and the other who was a skilled wood worker / carver. Spending some time with both rubbed of on me as a young boy.
c) Thoroughly enjoyed and felt quite at home in wood work classes at school.
d) I love the smell of sawn wood
e) The grain of wood can be a real thing of beauty. For those who read my first post, I have recently been converting a beech log and took great pleasure hauling the first short plank into the lounge and sharing the visual delight with my bemused wife, interrupting an episode of desperate house wives (!).
f) I'm a firm believer in "he who dies with the most toys wins".
g) The pleasure of creation.
h) Proving myself to myself and of course the wife.
I) Having an intense job I enjoy the personal solitude and time consuming and selfish aspect of woodworking.
 
I have a number of reasons but voted for the thing that started me.
I have always made things for the home which started with an under sink rack to keep the cleaning products tidy followed by a hopup to enable easier painting of walls and ceilings.
Eventually, after buying a couple of wardrobes from MFI in their earlier years I realised I could make similar things a lot better using contiboard.
4 wardrobes, 2 single beds, a bunk bed, computer desk and TV corner unit later I started watching NYW and after making many comments about Norm being able to do so much because of all the power tools he uses I eventually bought a table saw.
This was the start of a slippery slope downhill for my bank balance.
This was followed by a good router, dovetail jig, ROS, jointer, bandsaw, biscuit cutter etc. etc.
Apart from wanting to replace the many cheap power tools for better quality ones I am determined to get a lathe to fulfill a wish for 50 years to do some wood turning having spent many years turning steel.
After working a lifetime as a toolmaker I am definitely addicted to getting every tool that takes my fancy even if it will only be used once.
During my working life I would never borrow a tool from someone.
If I needed a particular tool I would always buy it.
This is an addiction that will last until the end when I will feel agrieved that someone else will make the box I will spend eternity in.
Maybe I should make that in advance as well.
At least everyone will know that I took my love of wood with me instead of one of the chipboard coffins many pay a small fortune for. :lol:

I think my vote could have covered every choice except the last. ;)
 
When first married it was necessity as we had no money. Chipboard furniture in abundance. Got the powertool bug and used real wood. Got lots of praise and decided to try improve. Got more power tools and better wood, building better furniture for other people. From megre starts we end up where we are today. I now build furniture and other things for other people and even build and fit kitchens. All because I had no money all those years ago. I have loved every minute so far and still enjoy a good challenge. Just finished building my new wooden workshop in the garden, a real beaut too. Sawdust in me veins. :D
 

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