What do you do it for?

[dibs]

How did I...? Well, I suppose at first, it was to make furniture for the house. Young, married and skint! But I enjoyed making beds, chairs etc. and they didn't turn out too bad. So, I got more tools, did some home improvements, the usual stuff, fitting new doors, skirtings etc. But I went back to making furniture. It's only a hobby. I turn down requests from friends and family. I work at my pace, sometimes I'll just stand in my workshop (garage,) pick something up, put it down, squeeze my favourite cordless drill a couple of times, or just gaze in to space. It's my way of relaxing. I probably work at such a slow pace, not because I'm a perfectionist, but because I hate finishing, varnishing in particular. I couldn't do this for a living, but I can't think of a better hobby. Dibs.

 

[TrimTheKing]

My day job is managing a team of blokes who keep a computer network up and running for a massive UK company, and since I stopped being technical I get to the end of every single day having worked my ass off with no sense of having achieved anything worthwhile.

My job, as hard as I work at it and as diligent and perfectionist I am to do the best possible job I can, will never create world peace, cure famine or disease or satisfy my need to feel as if I have achieved something worthwhile with my life.

My woodworking on the other hand, which I took up around 18 months ago when I needed a computer desk for my new house and couldn't find one that ticked all my boxes, allows me to be creative and make use of the practical side of me which I thought had all but disappeared after years of corporate whoring. I can now say (with great pride I might add) that with my own bare hands (and some whopping great power tools) I turned 2 planks of walnut into the first bed (cradle) that my new daughter ever slept in.

oh, and because it's fun

Cheers

Mark

 

[BradNaylor]

I've been making stuff out of wood for as long as I can remember; I had a bench and tools in the garage at home when I was about 8 or 9. My dad was the original DIY botch-up merchent (still is!) and influenced me enormously.

At school it was the one subject I really excelled at and a woodwork 'A' level led to college and teacher training - in woodwork!

Then I lost my way.

I decided against teaching and entered the world of business. I was going to build my empire and become a millionnaire...

The trouble is I was crap at it! A trail of failed business ventures is testament to that.

My 'Road to Damascus' moment came about 6 or 7 years ago when I caught an early episode of 'New Yankee Workshop' on the telly. At the time I was running a big cane & pine furniture shop, employing half a dozen people, and losing money. I immediately knew what I really wanted to do.

It's taken a few years to get there, a couple of false starts, and some horrendous mistakes, but in my late forties I have finally got to the place I should have been in my twenties if only ego and ambition hadn't exerted their pernicious influences.

Now I get paid good money to potter about in my workshop all day making stuff.

What's more, my old dad has started doing a few hours a week for me. He wealds a mean piece of sand paper.

So in answer to the question 'What do you do it for?'


Because it is what I was born to do.

Life is good!

Cheers
Dan

 

[The Shark]

For me it is a serious hobby.
I love working with wood, the textures and grain patterns and smells are what it is all about to me. But, because it is only a hobby, I can walk out of the workshop at any point, shut the door behind me, and not worry where the next penny is coming from. Best of both worlds!

Malc

 

[ByronBlack]

Thanks for the replies chaps, this is a very illuminating thread and gives an insight into what drives some of you. The main reason I ask, is because when the dust has settled and I've sunk many thousands into this hobby and many many hours, I look back and see what little I've actually created or achieved, and then I think about all the hassle I've had with machinery and I wonder whether it is actually worth it, and whether I'm cut out to do this as a hobby, as I seem to be a manic perfectionist who's never satisifed with either his working environment, or the products he produces.

I seem to be always in conflict as to whether I should stick to my principles of hand-tools only or go the machinery route. The machines make it easir to accomplish something, but I always seem to have buyers remorse after I've got said machine.

And with the current recession/credit crunch, I look at the tools, and the half-unfinished cold workshop and think, do i really need this? A part of me says yes, you enjoy it, the other half is saying it's a waste of money and frustrating..

 

[Pete W]

James May (he of Top Gear) had a good article in the Telegraph before Christmas suggesting that men are genetically disposed to acquire tools and fiddle with stuff. Because most car engines are hermetically-sealed, computer-controlled black boxes and now immune to tinkering, men (May suggests) have turned to the kitchen as a displacement activity.

Someone on one of the American forums posted a similar thought a while ago, drawing parallels between woodworking and cooking, and I had a similar notion one day as I peeled a carrot. I noted that skewing the peeler to create a low angle of attack reduced vegetable tearout .

I do believe that tool-use is a deep-rooted need in humans, along with the need/desire to make things. Some find it in bikes and old cars, or boat-building, or model-making. Some of us find our joy in making stuff from wood, some from restoring old tools. It's all good.

 

[wizer]

Byron, I think, like I, you obsess too much about your rate of productivity or your own personal skills. It's as simple as: if you're happy when you're in your workshop, building something you want -Then life's good. Nothing else matters.

I decided recently that I want to concentrate less on furniture making and more on woodworking. i.e I want to muck about with wood without the pressure of having to produce something that is both beautiful and functional. That stuff will come, in time. I have a lot of years to hone my skills and I need to accept that it will take me longer than others. I have 2 projects that I want to get out the door, then I am going to adjust my hobby pattern to 2 other areas of woodworking. Both based more on art than function.

Tho, I'm not selling up all my tools

 

[ByronBlack]

Tom - you make some good observations and parallels. I'm a very minimalist person, I don't like to clutter my life with many pocessions. If truth be told, I would be happy to sell everything I owned accept my mac and my guitar
(random question for you tom which might not make any sense at all.... do you listen 'this week in tech' podcast?)


But as you pointed out Pete - there is a desire to create something. I've always been like it. When i first started playing guitar, my immediate thoughts were; 'how can I modify this to make it better, how can I fix this, or make a new part for that..'

I think ultimately, I don't like having so much money invested in the machinery, and would probably be happy with a much smaller tool kit with mostly hand-tools, but then the hobby becomes much more difficult. It's a conundrum really.

 

[wizer]

I have listend to some of them, when I am feeling bored. Despite my job, I'm not much of a tech-geek. Well, not since I found woodworking

One of the problems in this day and age is that it's all availible. If you want to buy a workshop full of machinery, you can. If you want to buy loads of expensive hand tools, you can. Certainly I am guilty of buying tools before I have the skill. There are only a few tools I have that I think I have mastered. I spend more time reading about woodworking than doing it and this makes me want to do everything. I want to be able to cut hand cut dovetails and build a kitchen in 5 days and I want to do it now! This is why I am stepping back and trying to concentrate on a smaller area of the hobby and try to master that before I move on to, what I consider, more technical stuff.

Zen?

 

[eggflan]

Because i have a mortgage :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Peter T]

Hobby.

I like to make pieces of furniture for our home that are the way I want them rather than the way someone else wants them to be.

 

[Rich]

I started in heavy mechanical engineering when I left school aged 15, I have worked, welded, turned, screwed metal eversince, 5 years ago whilst having a kitchen refit carried out, I took a week off work to accomodate the fitters, relegated to the lounge, I turned to the TV and found discovery home and leisure, and along came NORM, 5 years later, 1 home built workshop and equipment to the tune of £2500, I am bitten and have bought what I can , while I can in anticipation of retirement, (10 years away), the other plus is having made some nice friends and some adversaries :roll: but I can live with that, I look forward every day after work to see what has been posted, definitely the No 1 woodworking forum imho. :lol:

Rich.

 

[big soft moose]

As the title says really.

Do you do woodworking to escape your regular life, or in the hope to make it a career? Do you do it for the challenge, or the satisfaction, or out of sense of duty..

Do you ever get so frustrated that sometimes you wonder why you sink so much money in it? Do you ever feel like giving it up completely?

What keeps you coming back to woodworking?

I turn for fun and because its completely different to the day job (though that does supply an ammount of free wood )

building furniture is something ive been compelled into because swimbo and i have moved in together and we cant afford to buy everything we need so its that or ikea.

its not so much fun (yet) as i'm not very good at it - but i'm not going to let those book cases beat me

 

[Benchwayze]

Me too Paul.

It started with a woodwork teacher, (Victor Wyatt). I have worked with wood whenever possible ever since.

Victor Wyatt said he knew I was serious when I asked him to show me how to 'fettle' a plane so it would be as good as his own. I still have to master it. Fettling that is. :wink:

:lol:

 

[Ross K]

It's my job.

But it didn't used to be.

After 20 years in business working in management for a big company, two years ago I quit the rat race to pursue my passion (and previously my hobby since I've been a kid) - furniture designing/making - as a full time job.

edit - by the way I recently discovered this forum - it's very good and you may be unlucky enough to hear more from me!

 

[Woodmagnet]

Welcome Ross.

I just like making things out of wood, even when i
mess up as that is part of learning. :lol:

 

[Benchwayze]

Welcome aboard Ross..

I'm sure you'll enjoy yourself here.

 

[Mr Ed]

Byron

It would seem from your other post (selling your new bandsaw) that you have made the decision that woodworking is not going any further for you. I'd like to think that there might be some middle ground you can find between 'doing it' and 'not doing it' that works for you.

Personally I get pleasure from owning and using tools and machinery, but I also get great satisfaction from designing and making furniture. I 'allow' myself the former as it contributes to the latter, but I openly admit that I like the 'stuff' that goes with woodworking almost as much as doing it itself.

Its very easy to go down the road of reading so many books, tool catalogues and internet forums :shock: that you become obsessive about tool acquisition and tuning and forget about actually doing it. In my view you need some output to keep it real and stay connected with the woodworking itself. The things I make are for my home and my family and there is great satisfaction from improving the home by adding beautiful furniture.

I remember reading David Charlesworths first couple of books years ago and almost became paralysed with inertia (in woodworking) because the way he worked was where I wanted to be and it seemed so far away from where I was, that I didn't know where to go next. The answer I realised in time is just to get on with it, make stuff and learn from doing it. You never stop learning - I've only scratched the surface of where I want to go, but I'm so much nearer to where I wanted to be from just doing it.

Cheers, Ed

 

[Paul Chapman]

The answer........... is just to get on with it, make stuff and learn from doing it.

I fully agree, Ed. There's so often the danger of thinking 'Everything would be different if only I had (insert name of next must-have tool or machine)'.

Far better to make the most of what you have - even the Barnsley workshops had no machines until the mid-1950s and look what they produced.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[Doug B]

Why do i do it? I left school with 1 o-level (woodwork) & the school prize for woodwork.
The writing was on the wall for me at an early age :lol: :lol: :lol: