The Art of Woodworking

The Art of Woodworking is a free book I am offering you. Why? I want to encourage you and the ones you love to pick up woodworking as a hobby or even can be used for a form or source of income. Scattered through this post are links taking you to a form where you can get your 440 page e-book with hundreds of tips and tricks used in modern woodworking. You will find 40 different projects you can build at home and I can’t say enough how I am thrilled about the section for kids.

I started thinking about all this and wanting to encourage young ones to take up some kind of hand craft because of the problems I had hiring people to work in my upholstery shop. For a hand full of years back in the late 90s and the beginning of Y2K. I would hire and train people to work in my shop to watch them leave to do more like work with computers and play video games. I had one working in my shop who every time I left I would return to find him in my office playing on my computer.

From as far back as man goes, there was wood, look into the Bible for example. No I am not here to preach to you unless you want me to that is. In the book of Isaiah a verse that speaks of wood both in a good light and not so good. You will find at Isaiah 44:1-28 a story about wood. And what, or how it came to be and how it can be used.

The wood-carver stretches the measuring line, tracing out the pattern with red chalk. He then works it with a wood scraper. Something like the one in the photo. Then traces it with a compass. Then making a pattern he shapes it to resemble a man. With such beauty and detail.

Then it goes on to talk about the one whose work was to cut down cedars. The selections are massive, yet he chose the mighty oak, he let it grow strong among the trees of the forest. Then plants a laurel tree, and watches it as the rains make it grow.

It has been chopped down, to become fuel for a man to make fire. He used some to warm himself; Building a fire to bake bread. But on the downside he also used it to make for himself a wooden idol, or god and worshiped it. Then he bows down before it. Half he burned with fire to roast meat then he eats it, until he is satisfied. He warmed himself and said: “Ah! I am warm as I watch the fire.”

The wood has done no wrong, but man the silly individual in the story thinks the same wood is a god not the creation of God. He used the rest of it to make into a god, into his carved image. Then he bows down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says “Save me, me for you are my god.”

Wasn’t that interesting, what can come of a simple acorn that is? My point is, here is a tree is a beautiful thing. It provides us unlimited possible uses and it will grow back again. Man has built homes, furniture, ships, wagons. The uses are countless.

My Favorite is the ship building, I have had a yearning to sail. Although I have never been on a sailboat I have the wish to build a boat from wood, driven by the wind. Oh but not any ship, no, no, no I want to build a tall ship. I’d settle for buying one but who’s got one to three million dollars lying around?

That is not all! I have built 2 planes using wood. Wood is like I said our renewable resource. The two airplanes shown here are both wood and steel tube construction of course. The wings are all wood and covered with fabric.

On the Fokker wood is used in the fuselage as well. The Art of Woodworking is filled with details about crafting wood into about anything. Within its pages are also 40 different projects from building furniture. Bunk beds, my favorite of course is the section on building projects with young ones. That is correct a section for kids as well.

When I was in my mid twenties I went to school in Auburn, WA. For concrete forms and floors. Also, included in the program was another of my favorites. There was a class on framing, but the cabinetry class was my favorite part of it.

In that class I learned “The Art of Woodworking” had to slip that in. How to build base cabinets, wall cabinets, we even

made our own doors. There was even a section on making drawers and drawer faces.

I am closing in on retirement. With lots of plans to build these wonderful wooden works of art. Also, plan to supplement my income making projects for others. My wish, is to build all the furniture for my home from my own hand. Or at least as much as I can. Having a background in upholstery I should be able to do more than most.

How It All Started

The art of woodworking has been a part of man since the beginning look at Noah for example. He and his 3 sons built a vessel designed to save mankind and all the necessary animals to repopulate the earth. Look at the photos of the model. I had the privilege to photograph this model at a convention I attended in an assembly hall in Casa Grande, AZ. Look at the cranes and woodworking tools shown.

Imagine lifting these giant timbers to build this massive life boat. The dimensions of Noah’s ark in Genesis 6:15, are in cubits (about 18-22 inches average of the length from elbow to fingertips) length 300 cubits, breadth 50 cubits, and height 30 cubits. If we use the lower value of the cubit, this gives dimensions in feet of 450 x 75 x 45,

Almost everyone who knows who Jesus is knows he was the son first of God. But I am thinking of Joseph, this man taught Jesus to work with wood at a young age. Having said that, you are in good company.

Think about it for a minute. When man began working with wood, there was no Home Depot or Lowes, or any other lumber yard or big box store to go gather supplies. Nope, they had to go out into the woods, cut down a tree, drag it back to where they wanted to work. Of course this was green wood. I’m not sure about drying it out, although I do know green wood has a tendency to warp and twist as it dries out (aren’t you glad you can get kiln dried lumber)? They were not working with green wood alone, they had to cut it into usable pieces. Look at some scenes in movies, photos etc. This was rough compared to what we have today.

This brings me to tools, what did they do this with? An ax, a saw, For certain some sort of chisel and wood carving knives. They had wooden hammers and a lot of the joinery at that time was through wooden dowels and carving crude tenons, imagine cutting those by hand.

Around 1300 BC the Egyptians developed a lathe that required two people to run, one would turn the work while the other operated the tool cutting the stock. Later the Romans improved on these designs by developing the bow lathe. This practice was adopted by woodworking craftsmen in Germany, France and Britain.

In the Middle Ages a pedal was introduced which replaced the need for hand-operated turning, this had positive results in freeing both the craftsman’s hands to hold the wood turning tools. The pedal was then connected to a pole, this pole was often a straight-grained sapling. Today this system is called “spring pole lathe”.

Spring pole lathes were in common use into the first part of the 20th Century. Imagine a two-person lathe, called a “great lathe”, this allowed a piece to turn continuously. The master craftsman would cut the wood using his wood turning tools while an apprentice turned the crank. This could be a laborious process, can you imagine being the guy turning the large crank? Even this antique lathe in the photo could be laborious.

The foot powered bow lathe was another development. The way this thing worked was a frame held a head stock and tail piece which was simple. There was then a piece of rope stretching from a bow over head to a foot operated pedal on the bottom. The bow lathe being much like the spring pole. This rope was wrapped around your work on the tail stock which would rotate back and forth giving you one or two full revolutions depending on the diameter.

Of course this was a later design. You should see the hand operated bow lathe. Picture the hand held bow imagine trying to hold a bow to turn your work, holding at the same time a tool for cutting the work. Aren’t we glad we live in a time when this can now be powered by an electric motor.

Keep your eyes open, this guy (me) is going to build these tools, so I can display them and make videos with them for future blogs.

The purpose here on my blog isn’t to teach you the history of woodworking, though I will continue to include tidbits in future blogs about woodworking history. As I said in the outset, I love working with my hands. I will be providing every possible tidbit on making new projects. I plan to make available all I can to you with research and contributions from folks like you. Send those pictures of your projects.

My focus is on young ones, the reason being that none today are interested much in learning about anything other than working with some gadget or video game. Well, I shouldn’t say none, after all you are here reading this. I am glad to see you here. I am offering a free book, including 40 different woodworking projects. I am thrilled about the section specifically aimed at the kids. Imagine making your own toys. Or making your own dominoes, also in the section for kids is a kid size picnic table.

Do you remember the old Lincoln logs? What about Lego building blocks, these were not available much when I was a kid. But building cabins from the Lincoln Logs was a blast for me. Do you know the best part? The batteries never ran down on my Lincoln logs! This is probably where I developed an interest in working with wood.

Watch for the Father Son, Mother Son or daughter project video contest coming up soon. Watch for the details on this blog Get your copy of “The Art of Woodworking” and sign up for the blog here. This contest is designed not for fun but to encourage young ones to take an interest in woodworking. Watch for the details, it may well be fun regardless.

Imagine being able to work with your son or daughter building something as simple as a bird house. I did all these while growing up and can’t emphasize enough how much it would have meant if I could have done this with my dad. He died when I was 20 and still in the Army. I didn’t have that privilege.

I was able to learn these skills in the wood shop classes I took starting in 6th grade and on into high school along with the machine and welding classes (had to learn the metal classes to build boats and airplanes). Not that I didn’t enjoy them of course. Also in the mix was making candles and polishing stones with a rock tumbler. I even took an old electric guitar that was gifted to me to school hoping to repair it. We never got it repaired but I still learned how, I didn’t have money to buy parts for it.

It works. I have plans to build guitars in my shop after I retire. Getting close, I could start drawing on Social Security as soon as next year though probably won’t yet.

To close out this post I wanted to once again encourage you to pick up your copy of “The Art of Woodworking” this e book is free. I ask that you do watch the video on the next page when you are signing up. I will tell you about 16,000 different plans and projects along with some other bonuses available to you. The thing is you would be doing us both a solid. As you may have guessed the 16k plans and projects funds this blog along with any other sponsor found on my site. Yes a small commission comes to me from my sponsor. Thanks for reading this post and I would be thrilled to see some of your project photos in the future.

Thanks again:

Garry Wise

mktgtips@garrywisemktg.com