How many candles are burning?

[Martin]

Well, I was just about to post the very same poll - good job I searched the forum first

I'm 38 and have been tinkering with wood for about 10yrs. I probably would have started before then but didn't have the means (house) to set up a workshop (or the money to buy tools etc.). I was lucky enough to get woodwork classes at both middle and upper school - if wasn't for that I'd probably not be here (tinkering with wood that is).

I'm an IT consultant by profession, and if it hadn't been that I expect I'd have gone into something wood related when I left school (carpentry, cabinet making etc.).

Two almost tangental careers - but that's what appeals to me most about tinkering with wood - I can do something completely different to what I do at work (using my hands to make something, rather than typing at a keyboard)....

 

[Philly]

Hi All,
"Just" 34......
Started the wood thing about 5 years ago thanks to work and Norms influence.
Philly

 

[Martin]

Good point Philly...Norm certainly played a part for me as well, although I think it more do with the toys...(cough)...err, tools than anything else. Great inspiration though....

Cheers,
Martin.

 

[Bean]

Well folks 42 and progressing, I started by refusing to pay for a Table that SWMBO wanted as I boasted that I could make one for less, so she said do it then :evil: ..............only I've not stopped yet.

Bean

 

[Anonymous]

40 here and yes, I still remember woodwork at school - and going out with my dad (a chippy) to fit fences and gates + 2nd fit houses when I was 10/11

Edited to add that I just found out that my mum still uses the rolling pin I turned for her at school when I was about 11 or 12 years old

 

[tx2man]

I'm with Bean, 42,
yep, done the woodwork and metalwork thing at school,
although, i can't recall any of it
I have done various bits and bobs in building over the
years, but it wasn't until (a) i became a London cabbie and
moved to a house with space to build a workshop/garage,
(3 yrs ago), (b) same sort of reason as Bean.(c) His Normness.

Come to think of it, Norm has a lot to answer for :roll:

TX

 

[Pete W]

I have a year to go before I have to tick the 50-60 box, and it's less than one year since I cut my first piece of wood.

Never had woodwork at school - I was streamed into 'academic' stuff like art and science instead :roll:. Always had the interest but never the wherewithal for a workshop until recently. Trying to make up for lost time now!

 

[ike]

Physically or mentally? The former being 46 - Look much younger apparently, but don't always feel it after riding bike to work. Keeps me fit though. Richard Gere - eat yur shorts! :shock: ....OK, I'll retract that :roll:

 

[morrisminordriver]

Aged 47 (and expecting second child in December). Ive got a sneaking fancy that I'll need to carryon working till 65 to keep the kiddies in the style they'll have become accustomed to!.
Never had much time for WW as a hobby - its tended to be joinery jobs which had to be done on the house (stud walls, cupbards, doors and the like), I did build a 12 x 12 shed where Ive go t a bench and some tools and try to get there once in a while.
I aspire to doing some cabinet making one day and would love to do a David Charlesworth course or similar.
MMD.

 

[StevieB]

Age 31 (32 in a coulpe of weeks :roll: ). Have been doing up the house for the last couple of years and accumulated a large no. of tools, built myself a workshop to house them and am now starting to add machinery for the fun times ahead. Have a 1 year old son and the notion of making him toys (bricks, garage, cars, monsteer trucks, wheeled wonders etc :twisted: ) plus a host of things for myself and the missus wants a jewellery box like what the bearded wonder done :!:

Just have to finish this darn conservatory and decking before winter comes, then I can get stuck in....

Steve.

 

[wizer]

lets revive this thread for the newbies among us...

25 here

 

[Anonymous]

33 nearly 34, feel 83 most days Been a joiner since 15 but been in and out the trade a few times but always come back :lol:

Jase
Coggy

 

[Steve Maskery]

Mind is 21
Body feels 83
Birth certificate says 47. Used to be the case that people always underestimated my age by at least 5 years, and often more. Doesn't happen so often now I'm spherical and grey. Not bald yet. Is it true that baldness is hereditary on your maternal grandfathers side? I hope so, grandad had a full head of white hair until he dies at 82. I'm rather hoping I don't last that long though, I've got enough money for about another 6 weeks...

A very depressed Steve.

 

[mahking51]

54 this year. Moving from Fulham (2 bed flat) to Dorset (proper house) finally let me get around to woodwork which I loved when at school.
Recently been insidiously corrupted by Philly and Waka so now have to search far and wide for even more excuses for buying things starting with LN or LV....
Regards
Martin

 

[gwaithcoed]

68 years young,(don't do old age) Play golf 3-4 times a week, live only 100 yards from the club house and about the same distance from the first tee. Been into DIY and woodwork all my adult life. Made my girlfriend (now my wife of 48 years) a blanket chest when I was 17, and we've still got it. All my working life spent in the coal mining industry, Retired when 51 Greeaaaaat. Moved to Wales 8 years ago from Staffordshire,Love it here, Wonderful people. Sorry I do seem to go onnnnn when I get started.

Cheers Alan.

 

[aldel]

The big 60 is rushing up to meet me. Ill health forced early retirement at 52 and has been a constant battle ever since. Woodwork has been a hobby since primary school and in fact have always had an interest in all things DIY, metalwork, any type of building work etc. Anything, plumbing, alarms, PCs, in fact it could be said confidence can get close to exceeding abilities. Also had a life long affair with motorbikes and can include trials, road racing, and moto x It was called scrambles then. Even got sponsored by Queens University to develop tuned pipes for two strokes and Bantam racing years ago. Learnt to fly planes and helicopters. Currently ride a Honda VFR800 when I can.
A lifetime career with BT, having worked in exchanges, electronic research and development, a lecturer, manager and NVQ assessor. Now have to take things steady and spend much time lurking around forums and running the website.
To all you young 'uns out there, pack as much into life now as I can assure you that it is a fact that the older you get the faster time goes and somehow retirement leaves less time to do things!!

Aldel :lol:

 

[wizer]

Funny, at 25 i seem to be among the younger of the forum. However I feel about 45... Is it right to yearn after a shed at 25yrs old? Maybe next year i'll get it! Until then I will continue to learn this craft extremely slowly. Other hobbies include Cooking (i'm nutty about cooking!), Computers (it's my job sadly) and photography (well, it will be as soon as i can affrod it).

 

[Knot Competent]

Like Aldel, I'm going to hit (or be hit by!) the big 60 later this year. However unlike Aldel retirement is unlikely for at least 30 more years, as our son, who despite my efforts over the years thinks a chisel is only good for lifting lids of paint cans, has a knack of dreaming up projects to keep me busy.

About fifteen months ago he asked me to make him a couple of vivariums (he's an avid keeper of reptiles - the ones with no legs and two fangs usually) so I made a "plug" from which a couple of glassfibre vivs were made. Several of his equally-weird reptile-keeping friends thought they were great, and placed orders, and within weeks it had developed from a harmless project into a dangerous business. I mean, who in their right mind would want to keep any snakes, and especially downright dangerous ones? I blame his mother.... and she blames me! :roll: But enough of all that.

The one good spin-off of all that is, I needed a big workshop, and got one. And I have all the excuses, sorry, reasons I need to buy absolutely necessary bits of kit to enable new products to be developed and built. So having made do with DIY-standard tools for the last year, I'm now beginning to replace with more light industrial tools, which makes life even more fun. And I've learned so much from this Forum, which has given me the confidence to try things I'd never have dreamed of trying a while ago. So thanks Charlie, without your website our business wouldn't have done so well.

Regards, John

 

[frank]

61 and still good looking (stop sniggering at the back)retired or packed it in at 53 went looking on the web found msn met most of this bunch and now i've sliped down that slope (sand or crampons dont slow you down its holding on to the cast iron t/s that do's it )

 

[Charley]

:-$ Don't mention snakes to me. If you do a search on the forum you'll find one nearly landed on my head and in the place where ever woodworker should feel safe - his workshop :?


Charley
who still opens boxes and cupboards from a distance with a large pole [-o< :lol: