The Start of it All
My first woodworking project as an adult was born out of necessity. We'd just bought a house and we needed a towel bar over the bathtub. Everything we checked out at the stores seemed flimsy, inadequate, and over priced. Instead I took dimension lumber, and dowelling and made a substantial one. I remember two things about it. The first was the doubt on my wife's face that I could actually make something that looked good, the second was the pride I felt that I had made something useful.
I stained it and waterproofed it as well as I could with polyurethane, and anchored it firmly into the wall studs over the tub. My wife asked me at that time why I was taking such care to anchor it so well. I told her that I wanted our yet to be born children to be able to do chin ups on it. At the time she thought I was being silly. Five years later, she saw our son doing those chin ups.
I guess that is why I love woodworking. Everything you do has a story attached to it. The quilt rack was the last project you did at the old house. The nightstands you made for your daughter comes from a red oak that fell on your property during an ice storm. The TV stand contains beech from your father's farm down south. Your mother's coffee table is made from planks pulled out of the old barn.
You slowly surround your loved ones with furniture that says how much you care about them. I have heard it said that men in general say "I love you" with their hands. I believe it is doubly so for woodworker be they male or female. You just don't put the hours necessary to turn out a good piece of furniture for someone unless you love or at least like them.
I'm still not quite sure what this blog will be about. I'm pretty sure that its not going to be about woodworking plans, or about equipment. I think it's more about answering the question, "Why am I doing this?" when you've just miscut $50 worth of wood, and its cold in the garage, and that technique that looked so darn easy when Norm did it turns out to need a skill level slightly higher than you possess. In short, it will be about the challenges and the rewards of woodworking.
I stained it and waterproofed it as well as I could with polyurethane, and anchored it firmly into the wall studs over the tub. My wife asked me at that time why I was taking such care to anchor it so well. I told her that I wanted our yet to be born children to be able to do chin ups on it. At the time she thought I was being silly. Five years later, she saw our son doing those chin ups.
I guess that is why I love woodworking. Everything you do has a story attached to it. The quilt rack was the last project you did at the old house. The nightstands you made for your daughter comes from a red oak that fell on your property during an ice storm. The TV stand contains beech from your father's farm down south. Your mother's coffee table is made from planks pulled out of the old barn.
You slowly surround your loved ones with furniture that says how much you care about them. I have heard it said that men in general say "I love you" with their hands. I believe it is doubly so for woodworker be they male or female. You just don't put the hours necessary to turn out a good piece of furniture for someone unless you love or at least like them.
I'm still not quite sure what this blog will be about. I'm pretty sure that its not going to be about woodworking plans, or about equipment. I think it's more about answering the question, "Why am I doing this?" when you've just miscut $50 worth of wood, and its cold in the garage, and that technique that looked so darn easy when Norm did it turns out to need a skill level slightly higher than you possess. In short, it will be about the challenges and the rewards of woodworking.
posted by Greg the woodworker | 6:53 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home