What's the attraction

[DIY DAN]

Hi all forumites,

I haven't posted for a while but a question has been rattling around in my brain for some months. I'd like to hear your opinions on the following question.

"What is the attraction of woodworking? What draws people to the craft when so many other media compete for our attention, yet wood is far and away the most popular raw material to work with. What is it about the nature of wood that attracts you."

Lets hear what you have to say.

DIY DAN

[artme]

For me it is the grain, the feel and the smell of timber coupled with the ability to make beautiful and useful objects.

I suppose growing up around timber helped to form my attitudes. Dad and my uncles we all in the timber game and we often used to go to the sawmills to see what was going on. This was done under strict supervision!! It was too dangerous to go out in the bush as we were only small at the time.

Later dad had a banana plantation so we would go to a sawmill to collect the shooks of timber for the cases. Later dad decided to remove the electric stove and hot water systems and put in a slow combustion stove with a water heater.
Firewood was needed so we spent weekends collecting and cutting timber.I never ceased to be amazed with material, the colour, the grain, the way it burned the way it would or wouldn't split easily.

High school!! beauty!! I got to learn about tools and to make useful, and decent looking articles. still have the Tallowood mallet I made. Was lucky to have a great teacher who appreciated things the way I did and appreciated my knowledge.

I still love the stuphph for the same reasons.

[Lignum]

For me its seeing half a dozen big ugly rough sawn boards being off loaded from the truck, then two - three weeks later, an object of beauty (in the eye of the beholder) has been created.

Plane, cut, shape, join, clamp, scrape. To see something grow and take shape is inspiring. So satisfying to sit back after a job has been completed with a cold beer in hand and enjoy your latest effort. Woodworking is the BEST:2tsup::D

[BobL]

For me its seeing half a dozen big ugly rough sawn boards being off loaded from the truck, two - three weeks later an object of beauty (in the eye of the beholder) has been created from it.

Yep _ I agree but I really like starting the process even further back.

From
http://www.woodworkforums.com/attachments/f14/56439d1190682765-apricot-tree1.jpg

To
http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/attachment.php?attachmentid=56859&stc=1&d=1191137450

Then
http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/attachment.php?attachmentid=60438&stc=1&d=1195289951

And then
http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/attachment.php?attachmentid=70152&stc=1&d=1206752920

and
http://www.woodworkforums.com/attachments/f44/74371d1212070316-floats-setcloseup.jpg

and
http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/attachment.php?attachmentid=68645&stc=1&d=1204716815

I think you get the picture by now

All that was just from a scraggly face cut off the top of the log - I still have the majority of the milled log to play with. :D

[Evan Pavlidis]

For me, it's the feel of it....there is no other natural material that even resembles it.
There is nothing better than picking up a few old planks or turning blanks that look un-useful and putting life back into them, from cutting down the tree, milling, drying, re-sawing, stabilising/settling, designing, to building and final finishing.
Then there is the grain and color and how the timber sometimes dictates what can be made of it which is all the more challenging and stirs the imagination bringing out the creative abilities in the artisan.
Also how it can be worked with well tuned and sharp hand tools...those fine shavings a polishing plane cuts to leave a lustre no power tool can ever produce in preparation for a finish to complete a piece to be used and admired.
And lastly, the immense achievement satisfaction of creating something useful and the involvement of using your hands and mind doing meaningful work which never is the same and makes woodcraft unique from the design and methodology perspective.

[ColW]

I can't say what first attracted me to working with wood
but so much of it gets thrown away only to be replaced
with plastic coated substrates which have a shorter life.

I can't stand the waste.

So to take a piece of discarded furniture or a board
and give it a new life gives me much satisfaction.

cheers
col.

[Lignum]

Yep _ I agree but I really like starting the process even further back.


That’s brilliant Bob
:2tsup:

[BobL]

That’s brilliant Bob
:2tsup:

Cheers Lignum, I have an example that goes back even further, 30 years ago we planted 5 50c River Red gums on out tiny suburban block. 20 years later we had 4 of them cut down to make way for a major renovation. I did manage to have one slabbed (I didn't have a mill then) and some of the rest cut up for firewood. I have made some many things from this timber and still have quite a bit of it left.

[Poppa]

Why do I enjoy woodwork?

I love timber, and all things made from timber. The colour, variety, grain, density, the fact that it comes from a living thing.

I like the connection it gives me to the past, knowing that my ancestors all worked with timber.

I love the feel of timber in my hands.

The work itself is theraputic for me - it enables me to use my hands to make something, rather than using my mind constantly.

I love the enduring nature of things made from timber. The fact that they can be used for generations and then recycled when the time comes.

And I love learning how to use new tools and new techniques. There is an endless learning curve to woodwork.

[Wongdai]

It's a great excuse to go out in my shed and get away from SWMBO. :)

I also love the peace, tranquility, smell, creativity, tactile sensation, use of nice tools, the process, etc etc.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

:think:

When I stuff up, I can burn the evidence? :innocent:

I grew up around mills and cabinet makers, then got into computers, pre-IT. Decided chair-jockey wasn't for me and went into earthmoving. Now, I'm back at my grass roots, hacking away at wood... not particularly good at it, but loving every second.

With hindsight, I keep asking myself why did I ever even consider anything else? :doh: All those wasted years...

[masoth]

My maternal grand father built his house and all the furniture - when I was a baby he showed me his work and I "blame" him for my addiction. My particular pleasure is the feel of worked timber. My adult son is fascinated by the tools and is anxiously waiting to inherit - he reads all the magazines and books I've gathered, but, so far, hasn't created anything.
:roll:
soth

[Ozkaban]

For me it is the tactile feel and smell of the wood. The feeling of creating something out of a pure, natural resource. Sure it's had stuff done to it on the way to you, but only stuff that makes it smaller! I guess being in IT also helps drive it. IT is completely non-tactile and when all said and done, completely useless to mankind. We coped for millenia without it, whereas woodworking has been parts of our lives since day dot...

Cheers,
Dave

[Sandow]

There are many things that attract me to woodworking but the main reasons are the different smells, colours and feel of the timber. The variety in what can be made from a slab is really, neverending.
My entry into woodworking was helped along by my Dad who built furniture for our home as a hobby and my subsequent interest in the different styles of furniture produced over the last few hundred years.

[Ben from Vic.]

I find it very satisfying, from the small achievements along the way, to the ultimate goal of making something nice. Which then continues to satisfy. The medium it's self is also satisfying due to it's beauty and methods of working.

IMHO

[rrobor]

You are all wrong, its a genetic thing. When cave man ran out of caves to live in, he built a hut, and its been going on since then. Tell me the last person you heard saying they prefer a concrete floor to polished wood. Na its a love affair, even if some people cant work wood, they still look, swoon and fondle the stuff. . So we all got sawdust in our veins.

[jimbur]

I reckon it started earlier than the cavemen. When we were still in the trees, safety meant hanging on to a good sturdy branch - so from then on we're not really happy without a piece of wood in our hand.:U
Cheers,
Jim

[blockhed]

That’s brilliant Bob
:2tsup:

what he said
:2tsup:
regards
the block

[Waldo]

Taking up the legacy of both my late Grandad and Dad who tried to pass some skills on to me, although I wasn't too interested at the time. But in later years taking the things I learnt and discovering the pleasure they must have also shared as father/son.

It is the memories of countless hours spent in my Grandad's workshop under the house on a Sunday afternoon after lunch, the smell and the sounds of his jointer or lathe starting up (which I have).

It is the memories of countless hours spent in my Dad's workshop under the house as a kid and passing tools to him and watching him working away. Then years later going up to the shed and doing the same as above.

On the other side of the coin, it is the pleasure of of starting with rough sawn timber and then discovering the grain and beauty of the timber, to the pure joy of creating something that will last beyond the tree that it came from to be immortalized into a new form that might be admired, not for the person that made it but what it is made from.

It is the feel of the timber (how many hours have I spent caressing a piece of timber? :innocent: ), the smell, its tactile qualities, what it is and what it could become and using some of the tools from my Grandad and Dad to shape the timber.

Sharing a passion with friends and leaning against benches as you bounce ideas and work solutions.

For me it doesn't get much better... wait, it does, having your almost 2 year old son coming into the shed eyes wide eyed as he looks interestingly at everything in the shed and watching his mind tick over, and if he chooses, one day passing onto him everything in the shed and teaching him what I know/or what little I know.

[R3R]

...i generally dunt like woodworking per se...preferring to lounge about without much effort...

...but ...

...there is a certain sense of accomplishment (and surprise ...usually in the aesthetic dept) tht comes when a project made of wood comes together as a piece of art/work tht is quite unlike projects made of different materials...like metal/wires/electronics/pcbs...say...

...for me ...wood is one of the few materials that can still produce a surprise in an unsurprising wurld...

[fubar]

taking a sticking door off its hinges clamping it up taking my No6 plane out then taking tissue thin shavings off, feeling and hearing the timber being worked using a good quality tool and if client is near seeing their amazement as the ribbon of timber comes floating off

[wheelinround]

:think:

When I stuff up, I can burn the evidence? :innocent:
...

:rotfl: so this is how the blisters really happened

[Ozkaban]

:rofl:

I was actually thinking about this some more and have realised that it is perhaps that wood was/is a living thing, and has a beautiful uniqueness about every piece...

Cheers,
Dave

[munruben]

For me its the intrigue of not knowing what secret a particular piece of timber holds and the beauty it reveals when worked on. For me, no two pieces of timber are the same, each has its own identity and is unique in that way, the grain, the feel, the colour the texture and smell. To see an ordinary looking piece of "wood" turn into something of creative beauty is a wonderful feeling and the history behind every piece so mystifying. I have often wondered what it would tell us if only it could speak.I look at some of the boxes I have made sitting on my desk and wonder how many years they lived as part of a tree before I created these boxes from them, maybe some of them are a hundred years old. I it's intriguing.
I started woodworking when I was a young lad about 15 years of age model making and then moved on to other timber projects. I have never had any formal training in woodworking of any kind but I have watched plenty of others and use their methods and ideas in my own work. Having said that, I have had heaps of excellent help and advice from forumites here on various projects and without their help and advice would not be doing some of the stuff I am doing now. Woodturning, pen making, bandsaw box making.just to name a few.

[rdog]

Being a mechanic by trade i have spent my life fixing things,
now being retired with wood work i actually get to make things! not enough & too slow
according to my wife.
I love the smell & the grain of wood & the tools (i am a toolaholic).
Hate man made board, chip board & MDF furniture its got to be real
wood.
It gives me a reason to buy new tools.

[Lignum]

Also, as a teacher of woodworking, its amazing to see the look of disbelief on students faces when you show them a small stack of rough sawn timber and tell them that in 3 or 4 days they will take home a piece of furniture that looks as if its been made by a pro. Then it’s incredibly satisfying at the end, to see how proud they are when everyone is standing around admiring and discussing the finished piece. :)