(06-23-2019, 06:52 AM)retrdwoodwkr Wrote: There is not the interest in making wood items as there was in the past.
I work for a technology company with a lot of young people who are somewhat euphemistically called software engineers (I guess its engineering, but I always think mechanical, electrical, civil, etc.) so I apologize for being old school. They are very talented, but sit all day in front of computer screens coding, and they complain that nothing is concrete and physical about their work. Yeah, they do the Ikea thing, but quickly realize after one apartment move that the stuff falls apart, and I've had any number of discussions about how they can build things that last. Some try, some fail, but the ones that don't are getting the bug, and I'm getting a lot of questions from them about how to work wood in an apartment, which leads to the discussion of hand tools and small benches.
I've found they all start with 2x construction stock, getting sucked in by Ana White designs, using pocket screws for load bearing joinery, then they find out that working with 18-20% moisture levels in wood leads to all kinds of wood movement, then I get the questions of how to fix that, etc., etc. I try to get them to broaden their horizons beyond 2x, and have made some progress in moving them to 5/4 pine from the Home depot (they like thicker...) and then I'll show them how nice a cherry entertainment unit looks and they are agog. Most live in urban environments (NY, Chicago, Silicon Valley) and there are "makers spaces" available in some of the areas that I've encouraged them to join.
Anyway, there is a nacent interest by the younger folks, we all started for different reasons, indeed, I still have the pine stool that was my first project at age 14, and its held up. But Norm was more of an eye opener, as the men in my family were in the "personality" line and not in the "mechanical" line when they were handing out genes, so all I ever saw was wood butchery when I grew up; beyond Norm I've been an autodiadact, simply reading books and doing and practicing (Tage Frid's volumes were another eyeopener) and I've moved on from there. I think the young folks who catch the bug will do the same.
How this translates into magazines, I'm not so sanguine about; young people
live online, its all consuming for them, and I don't see that changing. The are receptive to books, however, so I think LAP might be moving in the right direction....
