Thread: Reasons to Woodwork

Two reasons,

Therapy, I call it the dojo of the shed, to be on the cutting edge of my patience and skill, I always learn.

To find out how things work.

In my experience most conficts are based on the limited nature of the communication. For example, expressions of irony are mostly wasted in text. Further, people can only type so much and read so much. We miss so many nuances in each others communications.

I just love it.

Why woodwork ???

Now for pleasure but mostly to keep myself active instead of wasting away and to work out frustrations some times .

Having been the proud receiver for Christmas, I was about 5 years old, of a hand made Fort Apache replica you know the one Rin Tin Tin & Rusty got into and out of so much trouble at..........made by my dad, all hand cut while I slept upstairs.

Then to see his further works throughout life many various until his last while suffering MS he made my daughter a Doll's house and a Blackboard .

I often helped hold sand etc and many years later finished off his last two jobs as he couldn't hold a tool any longer. He is my inspiration.

I admired many wood works over the years pro's and amatures but I find greates pleasure in seeing hand crafted works.

Like Derek I find solace in quietly working with out power tools tranquillity in a Hand Saw rasping through wood fibre voobah voobah or of a plane sliding over a surface shaving shuuuuusht shuuuuuuusht.

Power tools produce faster and often neater but not always I use these to.

Gee,

It's a solemn thread already.

Why woodworking? Well, if you spent your life producing nothing tangible, it's a very pleasant experience working with your hands (and tools, both types) to produce something of value. Value to the maker and the recipient.

But most of all, we/I work wood for the simple pleasure of construction. After that, we have end-users (what do they know?) and the fellowship of others that like the same things.

, old bugger and wise that he is, told me that he has been most surprised by some of the friendships that have developed because of this forum. The novice in me agrees.

My shed - now in extension mode - is open to all. As is my gear. It seems a common thread. I can't wait to stick my beak thru the doors of the next shed and admire the work that has gone into the set-up. And to spend a moment or three poring over completed projects, particularly turning!

Forgive me for the philosophical moment. Sometimes we need to express what actually drives us toward the smell and touch of cut wood.

Jeff

There are some reasons already listed that work for me, on Derek's page too. I might add a couple more:

To escape the house

To make things I'm too tight to buy

And to smell the freshly cut wood!

Cheers

Why need a reason? Isn't the beauty of wood reason enough?

Because I can

It is my refuge from life as I know it

To leave my mark in a way that doesn't disappear when the electricity is turned off. To save my sanity and the sanity of those around me. To fulfil the deep-seated need to design and build something out of timber.

I like being in my shed because I can do what I want to do, when I want to do it.

I make stuff to see the delight it brings to the recipient.

Quote's from Derek's pondering's... "Some just want more power." "Some take pride in using ingenuity to create objects."
Pretty well sums me up.

If this thread is about why use the forum (Derek's item mixes forum activity & woodworking itself) then it is because I am told I know lots and lots about lots and lots (and bugger all about anything in particular!) and I like helping people by passing on some of my knowledge (from age & experience), what I have learned (often from my mistakes) and occasionally some wisdom (still trying to catch up with my Mum & Dad on that score!). And I am forever reading something new I didn't know about and saying - 'wow, I didn't know that!' - but then I do.

As to woodworking - I love doing all things with my hands and seeing the results. I grew up at my Dad's knee with a hammer in one hand, chisel in the other and surrounded by the sights, smells and sounds of a woodworker's shed & yard. My Dad was a builder for his occupation, but loved all timber, cut and in the bush, was a fine cabinet maker and an innovative and creative woodworker - what chance did I have of not being a woodworker - and why would I not want to be!

I do it because it takes me about 20 mins to turn a pen.

That means the time it takes my wife to watch the Bold and the Beautiful, Neighbors and the other crap on TV, I would of made 5 - 6 pens in my spare time each day. Over a year that a lot of stuff that I have created.

Others waste their time on things that does not produce, while woodworking you get to accumulate high quality stuff that you can either sell or give a way or leave as family heirlooms.

Maybe that's the obsessive compulsive disorder coming out of me.

Originally Posted by jmk89

Derek Cohen has started a collection of these on his website. Have a look, and perhaps we can add some here that Derek will put up there.

I agree to some extent with Derek's point that some conflicts on forums can be the result of differing motivations (some are caused because some people take themselves and their views too seriously and some are caused because of plain bad manners)

Why do I do it?

It brings me back to the practical, real and sane in life after spending working days dealing with the incredible and unreal oddness that is corporate law.

Like JMK, I am a lawyer - however I am a litigator. I suspect we have a similar motivation, although obviously I won't put words into his mouth.

There are many reasons to woodwork. For me, there is something "honest" feeling about working with wood, and creating (or trying to create) a thing. It's a little difficult to describe, but in a job that is predominately intellectual in nature, getting in there with a rasp or a plane and shaping something is very satisfying at the end of a long day.

Best,
sCORCH

I have a simple need to create something all the time! If I am not creating then life is pointless and wasted! (No that is not an opinion it is how I feel at gut level). If I dont do it I get sullen and depressed and see no point doing anything at all!
If it is not wood work then it is music and a newfound interest in guitar making has brought the two together.

Ross