After quite a few years as a professional woodworker, I believe it’s about time that I write about some of the decisions I was faced with and that you will have to make to discover what you love and what you are good at. My thinking is that for those of you just beginning, it might be worthwhile to know that there are many ways you could go. You will need to choose your own path and, to that end, it might be valuable to learn what your choices are so that you can proceed in the best direction from the very beginning. For those of you with a little more experience than that, it’s still not too late to adjust your overall focus and discover something new Router Bit B0CKYF61FL.
To start, there are two major areas of woodworking to consider (carpentry and fine woodworking) and, once you have chosen between them, you can branch off 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 everyone is born to play the violin or be an astronaut and it’s the same with woodworking. To start, what I counsel is to opt for an area of woodworking that you prefer or that fits your purposes, give it your dedication and ascertain if you have the skill to go further and be really competent at what you do. If you observe that you are “barking up the wrong tree,” so to speak, don’t quit, just try something new. If you become an expert in one part of woodcraft, that does not necessarily indicate 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 touch of an artist. I tried woodturning on the lathe and had a similar experience. However, when I started to design and construct furniture, using machines, my projects started to go so well that I went into business doing that. Before long, 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 abilities, 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 area 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 probably be quite different for you. Let’s examine 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 areas of expertise. 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 akin to those of a fine woodworker but not exactly the same. There is at all times the need to get the project done on time and within the budget but there is also the absolute need for professional-quality work.
Fine woodworking, to me, is all about manufacturing awe-inspiring furniture, cabinets, tables, etc. out of expensive hardwoods. The triumph of any piece is in the eye of the beholder. Artistic 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 mandatory at every step of the way because the cost 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 calls for accurate blueprints or plans. The same can be said for of fine woodworking, only more so. Fine woodworking is usually done indoors in a woodworking shop whereas carpentry can occur outdoors or indoors.