Woodworking: How to Begin?
The warm glow of the sun breaks the horizon, as the morning fog slowly lifts and the dew atop the grass sparkles in the new day’s light. You pour yourself a cup of coffee as you prepare before heading out to the workshop to start the day and the wood shavings start flying. There is quite a romance to woodworking that I feel draw so many to it. The feeling of being closer to nature and allowing the characteristics of the wood to guide your design rather than asserting your own will against it, letting yourself get lost in the moment as you create something with your own hands.
Whether you are wanting to pursue a hobby, to make items for yourself, friends or family, or to start your own business, we all usually need to start from the same place. Many questions can and will probably arise when you first start peering into the world of woodworking, and they may be daunting enough to try and hold you back. I hope to answer at least some of these questions, guide you to where you can find additional information and help you take the plunge into this wonderful world.
Your First Steps
Starting off, you will eventually need to figure out the style(s) of woodworking which appeals to you. Style? No, I’m not talking about “modern vs rustic” or any other design style. Simply speaking you could want to start out by casually carving whether it be whittling, relief carving, chip carving, power carving or some combination in between. You could be in awe after seeing someone turn a bowl on a lathe and have a desire to start there. Perhaps your gaze fell onto a wonderful piece of furniture with beautiful traditional joinery and want to practice your hand in that discipline. All of these are included in the umbrella of woodworking; however, each has its own skill set and will require differing tools to accomplish the task. I won’t delve into any one of these too specifically in this article but instead cover a broad area that applies to all of them.
Acquiring Material
Where can I get Lumber? This is going to be essential to figure out if you plan to do any type of woodworking. Most people’s thoughts are to run to their local “big box”/home improvement store, but I would advise against this. Most of these stores only carry construction grade lumber and very few overpriced pieces of hardwood lumber. Most areas will have local lumber yards and/or saw mills which will usually offer a much bigger selection of hardwood, in much bigger volume, for a much better price then your “big box” stores. If you can’t find any local stores, there are online dealers that will ship to you, but you will have to deal with shipping costs. These last 3 are outside of the normal store/customer relationship and may require some additional hunting- Craigslist, Facebook, and networking sites or local ads to find hidden stashes. These social media websites and 3rd party selling sites can be a great place to find great deals and start networking with amazing people. If you’re up for it, you can even get in contact with some of your local tree removing companies and purchase “green” logs straight from them.
Selecting Your Tools
So now that you’ve found a little bit of lumber, you’ll need tools to begin working your material. This differs a small amount from finding lumber but not by a whole lot. We’ll start off with the “big box” stores once again, in which they get a slightly better rep in my view but not by much. Now granted it’s not their fault as “big box” stores really just don’t cater towards this type of woodworking. You will be able to find a lot of generic tools here, such as tape measures, combination squares and larger portable power tools (table saws and miter saws). You may choose to lean more toward the “big box” store due to their budget friendly options. If you are looking for more specific or higher quality tools, your next option is to find a dedicated local woodworking store (i.e. WoodCraft), or purchase tools online at a dedicated woodworking site (i.e. Rockler). As with the lumber, both Craigslist and Facebook are great options for used tools. By far, my favorite way to get quality built, cheap tools is to visit places such as estate sales and looking for those hidden treasures there!
In its simplest form, most woodworking tools come down to two categories: measuring/marking and stock removal. The tools you choose to perform these tasks will vary greatly, not only in the style of woodworking your completing, but also by your personal preference and need, project depending. As such, getting into a full and comprehensive list for every situation would be more than its own article. When thinking about which tools to purchase, I would first start at the current need for a particular task. It’s important that I intentionally mentioned “particular task” instead of “particular tool.” Whatever the task may be, there are always numerous, different methods using multiple tools to complete the objective. Example: I need to cut a dado into a piece of wood. I could use: Chisels, Router, Table Saw (with or without dado stack), or Specialized Hand Planes/Router Planes. The list could continue on and on, but some tools perform the task better or quicker. So, when deciding which tool you need to purchase to complete a given task, it is beneficial to both think of how well a particular tool completes the task and what other tasks this tool can do for me when those needs arise. This will also give you lots of options around the shop. One last example situation to think about: My 8” benchtop jointer can flatten a face very quickly as long as it’s no more than 8” wide and isn’t to long or heavy; however, my #7 Joiners Hand Plane can flatten any face of any size as long as I can figure out how to clamp the board down and have big enough winding sticks/straight edge, but the Hand Plane will take more energy and time. Below is a brief list of tools to investigate when weighing your options on tool selection (more could be added but this should definitely get you going):
Measuring/Marking
Pencil, Tape measure, Square, Marking Gauge, Marking Knife, Compass, Straight Edge, T-Bevel
Stock Removal
Chisels/Joiners Mallet, Hand Saw, Hand Plane/Winding Sticks, Hand Files/Rasps, Spokeshave, Gouges, Draw Knife, Circular Saws (Handheld, Table Saw, Miter Saw), Reciprocating/Band Saws (Jig Saw, Band Saw, Scroll Saw), Drill (Handheld, Drill Press), Router (Handheld, Router Table), Abrasive (Belt/Disc Sander, Spindle Sander), Angle Grinder (Power Carving), Jointer/Planer
Final notes on tools: buy what you need when you’ll need it. Don’t feel pressured to buy every tool; you will normally build up your supply over time, naturally. Other tools to consider: assembly tools (clamps) and workbench (This will also need its own article). I will leave a link to a list of tools that I use and trust to give you some place to start your search.
Finding Your Space
Moving on from tools! Where are you going to store them!? Where are you going to put all that lumber!? You’re going to need some place to work, whether it’s a dedicated space or shared space with multiple purposes. I find the obvious answer to most people starting out is in a garage which normally works quite well. When you first start out the amount of space you will need isn’t that great since your tool and lumber collection hasn’t started to grow much. Depending on if it’s a one or two car garage, you can normally be comfortable in a space that size for quite a while until you start to grow out of it. Remember, the space you have will eventually start to affect the tools you purchase. You may have to start opting for benchtop instead of full-size versions so they are more mobile and take up less room. Aside from physical space, you will need to ensure your potential shop is well lit and well ventilated; lack of light can lead to mistakes or injury and ventilation is essential for saw dust and/or fumes. Less necessary, but definitely a quality of life improvement will be the location and use of outlets. I can share from personal experience that the constant moving around of equipment and unplugging/re-plugging of outlets severely slows down production and will eventually drive you insane. Some options to start locating a potential area for a shop: garage, separate barn/structure, rented building/space, public shop (These also usually have tools you can use included in your membership fee). Final thought on shops: put a little thought into how you plan to clean the space (broom, compressed air, vacuum/dust collection). You will be doing this quite a bit over the life of the shop.
Learning Your Craft
Onto Education! Alright, we found some tools, lumber and a place to work, but how do we know what we’re doing? Trial and error work quite well; however, progress is usually quite slow. Starting from free to most expensive, some ways to jump start your knowledge are: Youtube/public videos, website articles (Such as here, Congratulations!), online forums, used book stores, public shops, woodworking stores, schools/colleges. Most of these are self-explanatory, so I’ll just say a little bit about each one. There are a lot of great YouTube videos about woodworking explaining all sorts of items; off-hand, two of my favorites are: Paul Sellers and The Wood Whisperer. If you would rather read information than watch a video, there are lots of websites that offer information as well. Even if you don’t prefer to read the information, a lot of times the good stuff is only in articles. I recommend checking out articles on FineWoodworking’s website. (They also sell magazine subscriptions and do Podcasts). I don’t have any favorite forums to suggest, but I don’t doubt people are arguing somewhere on the internet. I’ve found tons of informational books at used book stores for only a couple dollars apiece, and honestly, it’s really hard to beat that deal. If you decided to go the public shop route, then you’ll probably meet other members who may be okay with teaching you a thing or two. Often, dedicated woodworking stores will have an attached shop where they will hold classes that you can sign up for, WoodCraft for example. Lastly, you can see if there are any woodworking or furniture schools around your area. Often times, some university or community colleges will also offer woodworking classes. One last note, getting into some of these communities is also a good way to meet new people and learn from others who share the same interests as you do.
Parting Words
If you have made it to the end, I congratulate you and thank you. You have earned the one last piece of advice I need to give you before you continue on your way. You will see all sorts of pictures of great and amazing work completed by other people. Most people see this and will not even try because they simply feel they’ll never be able to accomplish that. To this I have two lessons: don’t compare yourself to others or be bitter of their achievements. Don’t be afraid to just take a leap, try to accomplish something and remember to finish it through to the end. “Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out” – Benjamin Franklin