After a lot of years as a professional woodworker, I believe it's about time that I speak about some of the decisions I was faced with and those that you will face you. My thinking is that for those of you who are just beginning, it might be helpful to know that there are quite a few ways you could go. You will have to take your own path and, in light of that, it might be valuable to learn what your choices are so that you can start off in the appropriate direction from the very beginning. For those of you with a bit more know-how than that, it's still not too late to redirect your overall focus and discover something new.
To start, there are two principal areas of woodworking to ponder (carpentry and fine woodworking) and, when you have chosen between them, you can go on from there into your chosen area of knowledge. These decisions should be made not only on what you would like to do but also what you can do well. Not everybody is born to play the violin or be an astronaut and it's the same with woodworking. To start, what I urge is to pick out a section of woodworking that you prefer or that fits your purposes, give it your all and find out if you have the skill to go further and be really accomplished at what you do. If you discover that you are "barking up the wrong tree," so to speak, don't quit, just try something new. If you become skillful in one section of woodcraft, that does not mean that you will do well in all kinds of woodworking.
Using myself as an example, I realized early on that while I was OK using hand tools, I lacked the skill of an artist. I tried woodturning on the lathe and had a similar outcome. However, when I began to design and construct furniture, using machines, my projects started to go so well that I went into business doing that. In no time at all, I had clients at the door and up to seven woodworkers working hard to manufacture my furniture designs and fill the orders that were accumulating. Speaking of talent, I hired two, different kinds of employees: those who built the furniture and those who sanded it smooth in order to prepare it for finishing. Everyone had their own range of knowledge and everyone who worked for me was happy to be in their own area of skill.
That's only my experience. It will most likely be quite different for you. Let's look at the big decision you will need to make immediately between carpentry and fine woodworking. Make no mistake about it; I have great respect for both kinds of skills. I see them as equally challenging but in different ways. To me, carpentry is the art of building structures like houses, decks, sheds and gazebos. Materials include construction-grade wood, usually fir, plywood, concrete, drywall and the like. There are carpenters who build forms for foundations, framers who construct walls and roofs out of studs and rafters, drywall installers, and finish carpenters whose skills are like those of a fine woodworker but not exactly the same. There is forever the need to get the work completed on time and within the budget but there is also the absolute necessity for professional-quality work.
Fine woodworking, to me, is about building gorgeous pieces out of rare hardwoods. The triumph of any piece is in the eye of the beholder. Imaginative but functional design is everything. Each finished product is a work of art, in its own way. Great care and a high degree of precision are mandated at every step of the way because the price of a board foot of Ebony, Cocobolo, Rosewood or Koa is way beyond that of a fir 2 x 4. There's an old carpentry saying, "measure twice, cut once" that is even more meaningful in fine woodworking than it is in carpentry. Carpentry needs accurate blueprints or plans. The same can be said for of fine woodworking, only more so. Fine woodworking is usually performed indoors in a woodworking shop whereas carpentry can occur outdoors or indoors.
In fine woodworking, there is about the same amount of time involved in sanding a piece as there is in constructing it. Sanding fine woodworking is an art in itself. While I have found both men and women to be about equally skilled in constructing furniture, almost all of my sanders were women for the reason that they seemed to have a finer touch and more of the patience needed to produce a perfect surface, prepared for finishing.
Finishing is also an art unto itself. The purpose of all finishing materials is to armor the wood and to bring out the grain. Any flaws due to an imperfect sanding job will be as easy to see as the nose on your face after the finish is put on. In that event, the only solution is to sand off all the finish, re-do the sanding job and apply the finish again. This is not only a loss of time but costly if you are hoping to make money. That's why competent sanders were so crucial to my business.
There are numerous specialties and sub-specialties within both carpentry and fine woodworking. Some of them are: design, assembly, wood turning, sanding and finishing. While it is quite usual for a fine woodworker to be talented in more than one of these specialties, it is not likely that he or she will turn out to be an expert in all of them. Keep working and trying new skills and soon you'll be doing what you love and you might even turn out to be really skilled at it!
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To start, there are two principal areas of woodworking to ponder (carpentry and fine woodworking) and, when you have chosen between them, you can go on from there into your chosen area of knowledge. These decisions should be made not only on what you would like to do but also what you can do well. Not everybody is born to play the violin or be an astronaut and it's the same with woodworking. To start, what I urge is to pick out a section of woodworking that you prefer or that fits your purposes, give it your all and find out if you have the skill to go further and be really accomplished at what you do. If you discover that you are "barking up the wrong tree," so to speak, don't quit, just try something new. If you become skillful in one section of woodcraft, that does not mean that you will do well in all kinds of woodworking.
Using myself as an example, I realized early on that while I was OK using hand tools, I lacked the skill of an artist. I tried woodturning on the lathe and had a similar outcome. However, when I began to design and construct furniture, using machines, my projects started to go so well that I went into business doing that. In no time at all, I had clients at the door and up to seven woodworkers working hard to manufacture my furniture designs and fill the orders that were accumulating. Speaking of talent, I hired two, different kinds of employees: those who built the furniture and those who sanded it smooth in order to prepare it for finishing. Everyone had their own range of knowledge and everyone who worked for me was happy to be in their own area of skill.
That's only my experience. It will most likely be quite different for you. Let's look at the big decision you will need to make immediately between carpentry and fine woodworking. Make no mistake about it; I have great respect for both kinds of skills. I see them as equally challenging but in different ways. To me, carpentry is the art of building structures like houses, decks, sheds and gazebos. Materials include construction-grade wood, usually fir, plywood, concrete, drywall and the like. There are carpenters who build forms for foundations, framers who construct walls and roofs out of studs and rafters, drywall installers, and finish carpenters whose skills are like those of a fine woodworker but not exactly the same. There is forever the need to get the work completed on time and within the budget but there is also the absolute necessity for professional-quality work.
Fine woodworking, to me, is about building gorgeous pieces out of rare hardwoods. The triumph of any piece is in the eye of the beholder. Imaginative but functional design is everything. Each finished product is a work of art, in its own way. Great care and a high degree of precision are mandated at every step of the way because the price of a board foot of Ebony, Cocobolo, Rosewood or Koa is way beyond that of a fir 2 x 4. There's an old carpentry saying, "measure twice, cut once" that is even more meaningful in fine woodworking than it is in carpentry. Carpentry needs accurate blueprints or plans. The same can be said for of fine woodworking, only more so. Fine woodworking is usually performed indoors in a woodworking shop whereas carpentry can occur outdoors or indoors.
In fine woodworking, there is about the same amount of time involved in sanding a piece as there is in constructing it. Sanding fine woodworking is an art in itself. While I have found both men and women to be about equally skilled in constructing furniture, almost all of my sanders were women for the reason that they seemed to have a finer touch and more of the patience needed to produce a perfect surface, prepared for finishing.
Finishing is also an art unto itself. The purpose of all finishing materials is to armor the wood and to bring out the grain. Any flaws due to an imperfect sanding job will be as easy to see as the nose on your face after the finish is put on. In that event, the only solution is to sand off all the finish, re-do the sanding job and apply the finish again. This is not only a loss of time but costly if you are hoping to make money. That's why competent sanders were so crucial to my business.
There are numerous specialties and sub-specialties within both carpentry and fine woodworking. Some of them are: design, assembly, wood turning, sanding and finishing. While it is quite usual for a fine woodworker to be talented in more than one of these specialties, it is not likely that he or she will turn out to be an expert in all of them. Keep working and trying new skills and soon you'll be doing what you love and you might even turn out to be really skilled at it!
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