The Woodworker Within
I always enjoy hearing stories about how people get into woodworking. Was it mom and dad? Maybe grandpa? Or perhaps is was your old grumpy shop teacher? For me, it was growing up with a very handy step-father. We did a number of projects around the house and I frequently built projects of my own. Each project was promptly followed by a stern talking-to for not putting the tools back where I found them. As a kid, the most substantial “project” I made was a small wooden box that I eventually buried in my backyard so that I could hide my private treasures. What is it with kids and their need to have private stashes of stuff anyway?!?! So, what did I put in my secret box? A mail-order catalog with several pages dedicated to the latest GI Joe toys. To this day, I have no idea why I felt the need to hide that.
Years later when I was in college, my friends and I took up a wonderful hobby: destroying our hearing with loud music in our vehicles. So one of my first ever plywood projects was a custom speaker box for my pickup. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of it. But I do have a few shots of what could honestly be my first legitimate attempt at furniture. I was probably in my sophomore year of college, enjoying an eclectic mix of interests including lab work, girls, drumming, tattoos, piercings, and oddly enough….reptiles. I couldn’t afford a fancy commercial enclosure, so I set out on a quest to build my own. I went to Home Depot, picked up some melamine, a few furring strips, Plexiglas, and some basic hardware. I used a hand saw miter box to cut the miters and built the frame using finish nails. 
Each enclosure had its own heat lamp and two ventilation inserts on the sides. The enclosure actually made the move to California with me a few years later, but was quickly replaced by my very generous roommate turned girlfriend turned wife, Nicole. Sadly, it eventually wound up in the apartment complex dumpster. These two low resolution pics are all that remain of the earliest signs that a woodworker lied within. I can distinctly remember thinking to myself at the time, “Why the heck CAN’T I build that?!?!”. And I like to think that the same mindset is what keeps me rolling today. I have no business being a woodworker, let alone making instructional videos on the internet!! I’m trained to work in a lab, not a wood shop! But apparently, the woodworker within won the battle for control over the direction of my life. And all I can say is thank goodness it did!
So, with that out of the way, I wanna hear from you guys about your early woodworking days. Who were you influenced by? When did you realize that a woodworker lay within? I know many of you are currently at the beginning of your woodworking journey, and I want to hear your stories too.
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I had early influences, my Dad was always handy with everything. His uncle was one of those old time Woodwright type carpenters. I took a couple of shop classes in highschool but never thought about it again, until a couple of years ago.
My son wanted to build a playhouse for his Eagle Scout project. We had a lot of fun on the project and I learned a lot. After we were done, I had gathered several tools and took some of the leftover lumber and made my first workbench. After a few more purchases I started projects. You can see these on my lumberjocks site.
Now I can’t get enough. I am reading everthing I can, watching videos, and spend every spare minute in my shop. So far I make simple projects with simple tools. I absolutley love my new hobby since my boys are through with scouts and sports.
I loved music when I was a teenager…..who didn’t. I remember loving the science behind it and wanting to make my own hi-fi speakers. Well, I settled for speaker stands.
My grandpa helped me build them in his basement. My fondest memories are from him helping me to learn how to use powertools. (I think he also convinced me to put up some lattice ceiling tiles for him too if I am not mistaken.)
Later in life I got an old Craftsman table saw from my father in law. I don’t know why he gave it to me, and I certainly had no where to put it, put I certainly wasn’t going to decline the gift.
Soon after the gift from my father in law, my wife wanted a bedroom suite. I looked at the cost to buy one and decided that “I can build it.” So I built myself a workshop outside so that I could move the old, rusty Craftsman direct-drive tablesaw that I had in our soon to be first child’s bedroom into the glorified shed.
About 9 years later, I have finished all kinds of projects, and even had my first commission work a month ago.
If I was to blame this obsession of woodworking on anybody, it would be my grandpa. I bless his name every time I use one of his tools that I have in my shop.
Hopefully my son will take up the mantel when he gets older too.
My grandfather was a cabinetmaker. He mad all the furniture for my parents and many relatives. he had his own shop and he worked at a factore building.. you guessed it..Furniture. our garage was stuffed with old scraps of factiory wood that the factory threw out.. Grandpas used to say if he never used it ..”we can allways burn it” He nad a number of really old tools ( including the carvingchisels I have in my shop right now) My Dad almost followed in his footsteps, but took a differant path. but he still knew his way around a shop. even though he did not have the patients for glue to dry. ( just screw it up and call it good) Looking back I see the heavy influence now that my dad and Grandpa ( who died when I was very young but left a lot fo unfinished work to wonder about) had on me .. you would never know it since I have a BS in education and a BS in fisheries. I’ve changed careeres several times and now Im a full time woodcarver. Go figure.
Oddly enough this is a question I ponder over a great deal. Although I had a granfather who enjoyed making things out of wood I never showed any interest in that area.
At school I was a complete flop at woodwork and got my second lowest marks in this area other than food and nutrition. As an adult the handyman bug never bit and my shed was void of tools for a great many years.
Now in my forties I had to knock together a stand for some plants out the back. Another great interst of mine like King Minus they call me King Roundup. I digress for this stand I decided to purchase a drop saw, much to the displeasure of “she who must be obeyed”. I remember saying I might take up woodwork as a hobby (toungue in cheek).
That was a little over 18months ago and I now have a 20′ by 30′ shed filled with machines and a variety of tools and regualarly use the internet to learn the vast variety of skills needed for my hobby. I look back now and still have no idea how this obsession began and cannot pin point any factors contributing to this obsession. But I can blame The Wood Whisperer and those like him for the masses of money I have spent on this.
My wife loves it too, recently I took her on a romantic weekend too a wood show and said I think it was time we got her a new router table. My project now is an upgrade to the dog kennel as he is getting grumpy since I moved in with him. Not really my choice and not the dogs either but I still enjoy my weekends in the shed.
I think my dad was my greatest influence, but not in the way you’d think. He always bought the cheapest tool that could get the job done, and would promptly then lose said tool in a drawer forever. I would try to build stuff using a cheap crosscut saw and a hammer and nails, with limited success. I loved going to hardware stores and looking at all the tools we DIDN’t have. So as soon as I got out of college and started making my own money, I began accumulating the “right tool for the job”, and have never looked back. Turns out my great great grandfather was a woodworker, so it’s been in my blood all along, I just never had the basic tools to get started until later in life. Of course now the “right tool” is usually a $400 specialized hand plane that I will probaly use once a year. But I guess that’s my dad’s influence!
Marc-
I’m with you on the audio. I went the other extreme. I poured concrete enclosures for bookshelf sized units.
As for woodworking, I was more into electronics and computers. My Dad was a part time contractor and did everything by hand around the house, but I never touched a fine furniture project until I was 30. After Mom died, Dad and I had a lot of time together, and got hooked on David Marks, (I think I’ve mailed this to you before Marc), and it brought us together to pass the time and heal. My first wood project ever was a set of 8 bandsawn jewelery boxes for the girls in our wedding and for my wife. After a few years now and several classes at MASW including instruction from DM and The Schwarz.. I’m still learning everything I can and taking in all. The wife is actually pushing me to make the move Marc has.
Thanks all.
Gug
I have wanted to be a woodworker as long as I can remember. When I was in the 4th grade, a friend and I tried to make a model boat from some scrap lumber we found in my garage. We cut 45 degree angles on each end of two 1″ x 10″ planks. I nailed the “keel” together with panelling nails along one side, then pulled the other side apart to form a V-shaped hull. I sealed the keel with duct tape. That’s as far as we got. My dad had no tools beyond a framing hammer and no interest in hobbies of any kind.
I had wood shop in middle school. The teacher was a cranky tyrant who wouldn’t let anyone touch anything. Our first project was a construction paper folder. It took all semester. Our second project was a 12″ plank which we were supposed to square; without touching any tools. I took Home-Ec the following year.
When “This Old House” premiered on PBS, I was a Norm fan from the start. I wanted to do all the things he could do. Come to think of it, I even wore a lot of plaid, flannel shirts…
When “New Yankee Workshop” premiered, I was again a fan from the get-go. My wife bought me the first NYW book, in hardcover, when it was first released.
I used some of the techniques I learned from Norm to build a child’s bed for my daughter. It was made of sugar pine and it actually turned out very well. I didn’t have any tools and used the Wood Hobby Shop at the Air Force Base near my house. (I was in the Navy.)
After leaving the Navy, I was very excited when I bought my first table saw. Unfortunately, it was a Craftsman. I was an early user of the Internet and found the rec.woodworking newsgroup. I soon learned my table saw was a poor choice, but I kept at it.
I later bought a router and palm sander just like Norm’s. Using a delapidated shed in my yard as a shop, I was able to build a bookcase, again from pine. It had many flaws, but my daughter still uses it. After that, I became a travelling computer tech and had no time for woodworking.
Two years ago I found myself an empty-nester. My wife asked me what I was going to do with myself. “Woodworking!” was my answer. I went to the Rockler in Denver and bought a planer, dust collector, dovetail jig and a new fence for my old table saw. I later bought an 8″ jointer and a 17″ bandsaw. No more Craftsman tools!
Then I found The Wood Whisperer on a recommendation from the SawMill Creek forum. Last Christmas I was able to make some very nice cutting boards for gifts. Those were the best Christmas gifts I ever gave. Thanks, Marc!
Just a few months ago my dad mentioned it was funny I was a woodworker. He explained his dad, who died when I was 4, was a woodworker. Well, whattaya know? Unfortunately, nobody knows what happened to my grandfather’s tools.
I started woodworking almost as an obligation to live up to the legacy of my wife’s grandfather. My wife by the way also started out as my roommate turned girlfriend turned wife. Her grandfather was a carpenter and built many of the old beautiful homes in historic Baltimore. While we were closing on our first single family home, he was in hospice dying of cancer. He was lucid and conversational to the end and when he wasn’t watching the Orioles on TV he was quizzing me about our new home. How sound is the roof, what kind of heatin system does it have, are the doors solid wood or “that cheap hollow kind”. And so on and so on. More than anything he wanted to know what improvement we had in mind and how was I going to take care of them. Basically he wanted to know that I was going to take good care of his granddaughter. A few days before he died, he added a small paragraph to his will leaving me all of his tools so that I “could build a beautiful home”. ‘Nuff said, I had to learn to use all of these crazy tools that suddently belonged to me. I have even rehab’d all his old planes. It is merely divine coincidence that I feel now that I was made for this stuff from day one. Too bad we didn’t have a shop program in my high school or I could have gotten into this a long time ago.
Off topic, I had a roommate in college that bought a snake thinking that “chicks would think it was cool” Yeah, we all know how that worked out. I would come home and open the front door too loud and the snake would would be asleep coiled around is arm would wake up startled and begin to constrict until my roommate couldn’t feel his fingers. Rule number one to pet ownership: if the pet can kill you, you might want to rethink it.
Shannon
“The Renaissance Woodworker”
Great discussion question…
My love for building things began when I was in High school. School had finshed for the year, my idea of a summer consisted of hanging out with friends but my parents plan was for me to work, guess who won?
So on a Monday at 6am I was forced to work for my uncle who was a contractor. I found myself learning the trade and using my hands to build something. He believed to learn I had to jump right in and use tools. I dreaded heading back to school in the fall but continued to work every summer until I left for college learning new skills i.e. building cabinets, hanging custom doors and other mill work. To me it sure beat flipping burgers!
I headed off to college to study Industrial design because I loved to draw and use my hands, building models of my design was the exciting part.
Forward 10 years, I have a home and the ability to have a make shift garage shop. After sitting in front of a computer/drawing table all day I enjoy working with my hands to build furniture for the house, toy boxes and a side business fabricating architecural sigange.
great topic Marc…
keep up the good work it inspires all of us!
Hello;
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about this topic. It’s brought back quite a few memories. I started using my dads craftsmen table saw when I was about 13. I built him a stand for two smoking pipes and a humidor. I don’t remember getting any instruction in its use. I really never realized how dangerous these tools are until I was an adult. I just used them. I remember making a box out of mahogany in wood shop. I stored my shotgun shells in it. Then that was it until I started watching New Yankee workshop and then I started to want to start woodworking again. That was 25 years ago I think. So I just slowly acquired my tools and started working on the house and building different things. I have a few of my grandfathers woodworking tools. My dad never was interested in woodworking. I did get that smoking pipe stand back 3 years ago when my dad passed away. I made that out of cherry that my dad had in his attic. I still have some of that wood. Great question Marc. Claude
I grew up as a son of a DIYer. My father fixed everything. I never really got the woodworking bug until I bought my first house, as a matter of fact I thought I stunk at woodworking. When I was in the 7th grade I took a woodshop class and had trouble building a birdhouse, I had to take the project home and have my dad help me finish it. When I took it back to school everyone in my class couldn’t believe that I finished it. I believed from that point that I never could do woodworking. With my house I began to do simple little projects such as baseboards and such. I did my first woodworking project only about 6 months ago when we were expecting our first Grandson and I made the comment that I could build the crib for him and everyone expected it so there was no turning back. I sold of my vintage motorcycle collection and bought some tools and made space in the garage. The crib turned out beautiful and am going to build all of my furniture and cabinetry in our home which is being designed in the arts and crafts style. I found the woodworking bug out of necessity but it is a bug worth being bitten by.