Where did YOU learn....

[AHill]

Shop class in junior high, but didn't really do any woodworking until about 20 years ago. Inspired to re-engage by New Yankee Workshop, but WoodNet turned me on to hand tools. Learned a lot from this forum as well as attending various workshops (Woodworking in America, etc.), The Woodright's Shop (Roy Underhill), and various DVDs.

[museumguy]

I come from a long line of carpenters/woodworkers, it's in my blood. My dad taught me some stuff. I subscribed to every woodworking magazine out there in the early 80's. I has shop in school, middle school and 4 years of high school. My professional career started in a museum shop, best experience I ever had.

[ajkoontz]

Dad worked for a sawmill so always had access to lumber, but not tools/ shop. Enjoyed HS woodshop, but at that time I was really more focused on 'other' interests. As I got older I became a big NYW fan and watched religiously every week, but still didn't have tools or shop space. After I bought my first house, started DIY projects and led to 'hey I can make that for myself' projects like bookcases, etc. and used this as an excuse to acquire tools. Besides Norm, read a lot of books/ magazines to 'learn' the craft (mid-90's era). Early 2000's found this forum (and other on-line sources). Dad is retired now but having easy access to cheap/ free lumber was a big push for me, especially in the beginning. And I wouldn't be a WW today if it wasn't for Norm making the projects seem attainable, but there have been a lot of other influences along the way.

[bandit571]

One lesson from my Dad years ago.....House had wood doors through out.   Yes, hes would fine sand each face of the doors...working one face at a time...the Varnish he used was simply Minwax Gloss...door was laid flat, he brushed on a coat....waited until the varnish was barely sticky to the touch of a finger....then a clean, old T shirt was rubbed all over that door's face, as hard and as fast as he could go.....claimed the heat from the rubbing helped to "polish" the surface.    All I know, is that once the door was done, you could see your reflection in the finish.

[MauleSkinner]

Grew up on the farm…you swing a hammer when necessary.


My grandparents built a new house when I was in the third grade, so I saw a lot of carpentry and a little cabinetry being done. When I was 15 & 16, I spent summers up in Alaska with my grandpa-he went up there when he retired from farming and built a small boatyard. We pulled blown down spruce and hemlock trees out of the forest, cut them into lumber on a Volkswagen engine powered sawmill, and built boat sheds. I also spent a couple of months up there hanging sheetrock with him after my first attempt at college.

Fast forward15 years, and I was somewhat established as a charter pilot, lusting after an antique airplane with wooden wings. I bought a project and started accumulating tools (hand and power), I could never make enough time to get the airplane done, but in the process of acquiring tools and making jigs and fixtures, I became addicted to toolmaking. Planes, spokeshaves, clamps, mallets, saws, bench, knives…had several years where I made all my Christmas gifts for family, lots of stuff out of the magazines.

Now I’m making whatever comes up. Cabinets for the house/garage, toys for the grandkids, a few small furnishings, parts to repair furniture, and occasionally the odd tool. I’ve been sharpening my own handsaws for a while now, but mostly just hacking at it. They work better than they ever did, but I bought Cianci’s sharpening book, and am currently making a decent saw vise and see if I can improve my sharpening skills.

I’ve also been delving into whittling. Been working on a Noah’s ark set for my grandkids longer than I care to admit, but it’s fun, and something I can take with me when I travel.

[gjohn]

I started in woodshop in junior high in the mid 70's. Mr. Mars was the instructor. All hand tools, they were wise enough not to trust us with power tools. In high school there was a set of pattern making and foundry classes. Make a pattern and then go cast it in aluminum. I worked for a cabinet maker during high school and worked construction for a couple years after high school.

[tablesawtom]

I started in the early 50s, probably around 8 or nine. I would walk 5 blocks to the lumber yard and ask if I could have some of their trimmings. I was never said no to and I could have as much as I could carry. I made bows and spears and about any thing I could think of that I could use.  I had 2 years of ( 6 weeks of art, 6 weeks of shop and 6 weeks of home-eck ).  which repeated through the school year and then a full year of shop in 9th grade. I was going to go voc. wood shop when I got to high school but the 9 TH grade teacher said, in a casual remark, that there was more of a future in metal. 

I switch to metal and had and my  2nd year vocational metals class was 3 hours a day in high school. I cut my one and only gear in my junior year at 15 years old. I started working Aug. 20th of 1962 at Berry tool and Die as a trades in industry student. I was 16 and working around men one tends to grow up quickly. I went to school in the mornings and worked from 12:30 to 5:30 at Berry's daily and 5 on Saturday. I was asked what my intentions were when I graduated and I said I would like to continue working for him and so I was started on my apprenticeship. Since I got the job through school And since I had graduated it never occurred to him to ask my my age so I had 4 months of my apprenticeship served before I was 18. 

He filed for bankruptcy in Oct and I joined the Navy.

After the Navy I went back to the Tool and Die shops where I served a complete 4 year apprenticeship. I was taught by 10 or 11 journeyman and also went to the local trade school 4 hours a week for classes for 4 years.

I said all of this because there is no difference between wood and metal. Whether a milling machine or using a table saw, the processes is the same. Again whether  milling a piece of metal or milling a piece of wood it is the same process and actually is  done in the same order. Rough cut stock from the cut list. Flatten widest surface first, thickness then width and then to length. What to do first and when, is project planning. And it make or brakes the project. After a while you just see it in your head and build it, Don't need plans, but they are nice.

Very early on in our marriage we bought an octagonal end table. It was made out of  practicable board with a paper cover that looked like wood. I was told by a sales person that I couldn't afford one made out of wood. The wife wanted and needed it but he pissed me off, I was working 55 hours a week I could afford to buy anything I wanted, but also smart enough not to.  Anyway I told my wife I could build that end table and She was skeptical to say the least.

I read all the information on Table saws and Radial arm saws and chose a Radial arm saw to get started.  That was 1973 and the only source of information in those days was Popular Mechanics and Workbench and in the fall of 1975 I saw a Shop Smith demonstration at the mall. Bought one and the rest is history. I took off and haven't looked back. 

I prefer stand alone machines now but I still have a Shop Smith tucked back in a rear corner. It is still the only reasonably price machine available for horizontal drilling. 

You asked.

Tom

[Stwood_]

Basically got the same start as (The Mods got a complaint about the term used, so it was deleted). I took all of the industrial art classes. Wood for all 3 years plus all the others. And yep, all Rockwell machinery and Stanley hand tools, from the WW11 Era.
As a senior, I then entered into VoTech a half a day, after the half of day in HS. After graduating, I spent a year and a half finishing up Power Mechanics (diesel) in VoTech school (2 year course).

[PossumDog]

I started making things from lumber from Lowes. Some of it was outdoor pressure treated garden boxes and plant stands. Some of it was 1x12 furniture in the house. Most of it was done with only a handsaw and an electric drill, though I had a miter saw and skilsaw at times. I did not learn from my father or grandfather or any elder sorts. I may have learned from Web 1.0 back then but I think it was mostly trial and error. A lot of butt joints and screws.

I started reading woodnet around 2007 and was interested in all of the talk about handtools and planes and bought a few. But my woodworking was sporadic or mostly on hold until the last few years. I mostly used dimensional lumber and plywood and didn't make anything out of hardwood until 2019 or so.

[Hank Knight]

My father built stuff when I was a kid. He was a power tool woodworker and a "get a bigger hammer" kind of craftsman. He built fairly crude stuff - utilitarian tables, storage boxes and such - and did carpentry work around our house. He never was interested in building nice furniture or hand tool work, which interested me early on.

In the 1950s, he bought a Shop Smith. I was interested in wild birds in those days (still am). The earliest woodworking I recall doing myself, was cutting out bird profiles I traced from my World Book Encyclopedia on the Shop Smith scroll saw and painting them the appropriate colors. I was about 10 or 12 years old. I also recall playing around with the lathe, but I don't think I ever made anything useful, just free-form turning with a gouge.

I never had a mentor or anyone to show me how to use tools to do fine work. I read a lot of books and learned by trial and error, but my learning was a slow, often frustrating process. When Fine Woodworking first came out, I subscribed and got a good push from their articles. I also subscribed to Popular Woodworking and Woodworking, and picked up a lot from those and other publications I bought off the shelf. But it was still a solo activity for me and pretty slow going.

Then I discovered the Internet and the thriving woodworking community here. I could finally see the detail and often actual video footage of what good woodworkers were doing. My skills and self confidence started to improve. I made some friends and started visiting and sharing ideas. I took several workshops on hand tool skills and furniture design. I upgraded my tools and started building things that my family actually liked and used. The better I got at it, the more I enjoyed it. Over the last 30 years or so, I've improved a lot; and I now have the self confidence to try most (not all, but most) things. I don't claim to be any kind of master woodworker, but I'm proud if my skills and I enjoy teaching others what I know.