Woodwork

Like a lot of people, I was drawn into wood working by watching Paul Sellers YouTube videos. He builds his own wood workbench in his back yard, and produces dovetails in a few minutes by hand with no jigs or machinery. My first thought was, “This is amazing, and I could totally do that!”

I feel like artistry and craftsmanship aren’t revered like they used to be, and I would really like to learn to be a better craftsman and share that knowledge with my children. I take pride in the software I write or the electronics I build, but those tend to be very temporary in the grand scheme of life. Technology changes so quickly that most of it is discarded within a year or two…ten if we are lucky. Good furniture, however, sticks around for decades.

I designed a version of Paul’s workbench that was smaller than his original design so it would fit in my garage along with my car.

I found a #4 hand plane on eBay, ordered it, and reconditioned it.

Old WWII era Stanley hand planes

I also bought a nice Lie-Nielsen dovetail saw that is an amazing piece of craftsmanship in its own right.

Cuts like a dream

I bought a bunch of 2x4s from The Home Depot and set to work cutting and planing every piece by hand.

I also bought some really well-designed clamps from a little company in the US. They were worth every penny! To make this bench there was a lot of laminating pieces together, so good clamps were an absolute necessity. And, I’ll be able to pass them onto my children once I finally download my conciousness into a computer capable of holding me.

One can never have too many clamps

More clamping

So many wood shavings

The process of planing wood by hand is a lot of work, but it is also very meditative and calming. The ribbons of wood that are created don’t make an atmosphere full of tiny sawdust particles that clog up my already sensitive lungs, so that’s a nice bonus.

Even my boys appreciated the bench. Little helpers

Some of the first useful items I made with the bench was a pair of these little tea trays that sit on the arm rest of our couch. Five years worth of mug holding and absolute abuse by two children and they are still going strong. I didn’t design them to be obstacle course launch pads, but they served that purpose well too.

Work and family occupy most of the time that passes by, but I hope to continue to have opportunities to create beautiful things out of wood using these amazing tools guided by bare hands.