I started carving with a pocket knife at 5. I went to the feed store with my dad. While he was in front shopping for a birthday present for me and getting in our feed order, I wandered in the back where an old dark skinned man was sitting on feed sacks carving on a walking stick. I was fascinated. I wanted to do this. I ran out front and told my daddy I wanted a pocket knife. He said something about maybe when I was older. Next day on my birthday I unwrapped a big box to find a small pocket knife and whet stone. Next time in the feed store, I couldn't wait to show old Zek my knife. He insisted I carve on his walking stick. I did and he then declared one day I would be a woodworker and carpenter. "Can girls be carpenters?" I asked. "Why shore they can and mighty fine carpenters too," he said. I worked a few years in carpentry, cabinet and furniture making. I still have most of my tools, just lack the interest to use them.
My late sister was a master woodworker. She turned candlesticks and bowls, made intricate jigsaw-puzzle-like sculptures, and puzzle boxes out of large knots and roots. I'm so glad to have some of her works.
@Mary Robi Have you any pictures of them? Would love to see. I am mainly a worker with metal, but have made a number of things from wood. Here is the biggest thing I ever built: But this is the most complex, it took 7 years:
Has to be one of the most splendid things to do, to create an item from wood I would have made a flute and then annoyed everyone by playing it, love the sound I do
@Faye Fox @Patsy Faye Thank you both! Neither is strictly wood, kinda off-thread, but i do greatly love designing and building; it has been my whole life, actually. Frank
@Bess Barber Well I am a big sissy when it comes to potato peeling. I cut off the ends, then stick a fork in one end, stand it on end on a cutting board, and use a wide flat blade knife and with all down strokes toward the board. Easy to rotate with the fork. No fingers even near the blade. I can actually peel faster this way. I never pull a knife toward me. For woodcarving I have all kinds of vises and ways of holding things.
Nice stuff. I made rocking horses a few years back using all hand tools. Slow work and great fun. No trouble giving those away.
This fall or winter, I am going to get a table saw and finish up our attic for use as a workshop. I have been putting it off, not only because I'm basically a procrastinator, and a lazy bastard at heart, but because we've been talking about buying a small building to put behind the house as a workshop. However, it doesn't look like we're both going to agree on that at any time when we have the money to actually do it, so I'm going ahead with the attic. It's not ideal because I would be limited to making stuff that I can get down the stairs, but it's doable. I'm not a skilled craftsman but I enjoy making things with wood, and I'd rather have something made with real wood, albeit flawed, than some pressed-board junk that will be thrown away in a year or two.
My dad often spoke of the way my grandfather built a house. He set up a tent for a family of 4 (at the time) to live in and then built the house around it as money provided. He did so in a town in Iowa so whatever he did to shore up the roof of the tent in the winter, I do not know but you might be able to do the same thing in your back yard. Tent first, then wall by wall have a nice shop.
A potential problem is that I'd need a building permit to build one but I wouldn't need one if I moved one in.