“Regarding your most recent article, I keep in mind what my dad (a great woodworker and welder) always told me: Don’t buy cheap tools. I have followed that advice religiously.” – Bob Sofchek

“One of my very first antique tool acquisitions was a Millers Falls hand drill. I remember I paid $39 at an antique warehouse 30 years ago. Seemed like a lot at the time, but it has paid me back many times over when it is the perfect tool for a small job.” – Jerry Levy

“My favorite tool is also a Starrett type combo square. Mine is ancient, patina stained and has no visible markings of a manufacturer. It belonged to my grandpap from when he worked in a pattern shop for a large foundry. He created the mold patterns for the sand-casting shop, and I’ve been told if it could be designed for metal, he could make it in wood. He passed away 45 years ago, and the foundry still exists. The combo square is still accurate AND has his initials stamped into the frame to prevent coworkers from (permanently) ‘borrowing’ it.” – Greg Harmon

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“I also took woodshop in junior high school (it wasn’t called ‘middle school’ yet) in the late 1960s. Made some stuff, but I wasn’t hooked yet. I’ve always been a ‘maker,’ and at some point I switched to making with software (paid way better). But as I prepared for retirement, I refaced all the kitchen cabinets before I sold my house and rediscovered a thing that was hiding in me! When we moved, one of my criteria for the new place was a shop. I got it. I now have almost 1,000 sq. ft., and I’ve completely traded bytes for router ‘bits.’ And I’m not looking back! Making furniture, or turning bowls, or whatever suits my fancy, feeds my need to create, and this keeps me busy and out of the house. I’m now 68, and I’ve been retired for 8 years. I get warnings from Google that I have too many pictures—and 90% of those pictures are of stuff I’ve made in my shop!” – Steve Kendal

“For me, it was when I took the motor out of a 78 record player and used it as a lathe to make a toothpick holder out of a chunk of cedar.” – RileyG

“I’ve been making things from wood for several years. I started when I decided to replace all the door facings and jams and baseboards in our home with molded red oak.  Of course, that spiraled out of control. When did I know I was a woodworker? I am still not completely sure I’ll ever be a real ‘woodworker.’ I’ll probably die trying to become one.” – Charles Tubbs

“Nice to know that I’m not alone in early ‘rough cuts.’ I used to say that I do rustic woodworking, because that was the only level of precision I was capable of! I did shop in high school, but I was absolutely 100% terrible at it! I became a woodworker in the process of building meditation benches. I couldn’t find anything the right size for that purpose, so I resolved to build one. YouTube made it possible. Along the way, I’ve generally discovered that A) I needed the right tools (or better tools) to make things happen, and B) I needed to know how to use those tools. Even after learning how, I needed to acquire the skill to actually do it. (Much less easy than it appears in most videos, as I discovered so frequently. It gave me a whole new respect for the trades, I can tell you!) My first ‘bench’ was nothing more than a box, minus front, back, and bottom. It wasn’t anything I could put on the market, but I still use it today. Using it convinced me of its value for yoga and for meditation, so I wrote a book on the subject (at Amazon), and I began working on something I could put on the market. Eight years and thousands of dollars later, I’ve gone through 12 iterations of the design, and I have a heck of a lot of equipment I needed for versions I no longer build! (Egad. But the good news is, I’m prepared for almost anything.) Of course, my website still has the $450 version that was my 2nd iteration. I need to update with the $200 wooden version and $85 resin-molded plastic version from an end table I modify with my equipment! Then maybe, at long last, I’ll actually be on the market! (Where a whole ‘nother set of skills lie waiting to be acquired.)” – Eric Armstrong

“Growing up in the 1950s, my grandad owned a corner grocery store, and there were always small wooden crates in the basement. Occasionally, I’d ask if I could take one to make something (bookends, bird houses, etc.). Fast forward to 1969. My wife and I married while I was still in college. Like you, money was really tight. Our first apartment was furnished in family attic cast offs that we repaired, stripped and refinished (a small mahogany drop leaf, a grandmother’s antique bed, another grandmother’s cedar hope chest, a card table and chairs). One of our first purchases was a turntable, amp and speakers. These sat on the floor of our empty living room for almost a year, when my wife wondered whether I could build a record cabinet to house them and our albums. Her grandfather gave me a few reclaimed pine boards that I cut to size with a hand saw. I bought a Stanley No. 4 smoothing plane that I used to joint the boards to glue up the sides, shelves and top of the cabinet. I also used the plane to raise the panels for two raised panel doors on the piece. I designed a base molding, and a talented older friend showed me how to cut the coves in the molding on his table saw. As we worked, I said it would be cool if someone made furniture kits with the pieces of wood already milled and cut to size for guys like me who had the will but not the tools to build furniture. The record cabinet came out better than I expected. That started my love affair with sawdust. A couple years after this first successful project, I saw an ad for a grandfather clock kit from the Emperor Clock company. It had all of the lumber and parts milled and pretty much ready to trim or miter and glue/screw together. I built two of these (which are still in the family). I learned a LOT repairing and refinishing antique pieces, observing how they were designed and constructed. That experience has colored everything that I’ve built. Fifty-plus years on, I’ve acquired a collection of tools that make wood working much easier and have built about 100 different tables, cabinets, built-ins, chests, sideboards and small projects for members of the family. My proudest achievements include a reproduction cherry armoire to match an antique Eastlake bedroom set (bed, dresser, and commode) that we have, a slate bed oak pool table and a black walnut bourbon storage/service piece called a Cellarette. I could never make a living as a cabinet maker (it’s a hobby and stress relief), but I love every minute I get to spend in my shop.” – Mike Campanella

“I have a picture my parents took of me with my diapers on, nail apron and hammer in my hand. My dad did a lot of house renovations and I was right there. When I was young, my dad said he always bought an extra pound of nails for me to drive into wood. I was told I started making a bird house and after hours of cutting and nailing I threw my tools in it and said, ‘It’s a tool box.’ I built projects with my dad, curved top pirates chest, real bird houses and back yard play houses. When I got into high school I met the new shop teacher, Mr Smith. With his guidance I made a complete bedroom set out of walnut. So when people asked to make things for schools and the town, he would pass it to me. I won regional woodworking shows. I bought an old house and restored it, making many of the moldings, adding a porch, building a garage (which is my shop) and do projects for others. I have taught many children and adults how to woodwork. I like it to this day and still make one-of-a-kind pieces. I am 72 and going strong.” – Mark Erickson

And several weeks ago, Chris shared a story of a former executive he once knew who retired reluctantly and without hobbies. It has prompted several replies from fellow readers. – Editor

“As a junior/senior high school woodworking teacher of 37 years, I am retiring (graduating) from high school this year. Like you, my plans are to build a very large shop/garage and continue doing what I love, second to teaching, and that is working in the shop. I have been fortunate enough to have large wood, welding and mechanical shops at my disposal on my weekends, but I have collected most of the tools I will need for my shop. I am excited to start my new ‘job’ and travel with my wife in the future. I have seen too many people retire and die from boredom (literally and figuratively) because they had nothing to do.” – Darwin Feakes

“I can’t tell you how much I agree with you. I have a family business, and I see employees all the time who don’t want to retire. They say, what would I do at home—sit around and watch TV? And I think, OMG NO! I would build so many things, and when I was done building all the things I needed, I would build things to give away and teach others to build things. I guess I can finally see the value of not doing woodwork for a living. I have not grown tired of it, and I look forward to doing it in retirement. I feel for those who don’t have hobbies that they look forward to doing for the rest of their lives.” – Todd Teresi

“(Retirement) is more complicated than that. First you need to increase your volunteer work to help others. Maybe start at your house of worship or kids (or grandkids) school. What can you help organize, or fix? Plan some of those trips that you wanted to go on while you still have your health. Do NOT plop down in front of the TV and let your mind go to mush or you’ll die within the year. Try to work in some woodworking as a special treat for yourself. And once in a while, ask yourself how you got everything done and still went to work? I can’t seem to get everything done that I want to and I’m not going to work. Right now, I’m checking the emails in between waiting to apply the next coats of finish to something I’m modifying for someone at our synagogue, after doing online continuing education to keep up my pharmacist’s license, and doing data entry on a project I help my wife with while she’s at work. It’s a good day. You might also ask how you got here already…didn’t I just graduate from high school? But we’ve got our 60th (seriously!) graduation reunion this summer. Send your article to your previous editor and mention that you are thinking about him.” – Paul Tanenbaum

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“You mentioned the American chestnut in last week’s editorial, and it made me recall that my grandfather worked with chestnut until the mid 1970s. After that, he couldn’t find it available anymore. As far as ash is concerned, I think they have developed an ash tree that is resistant to the emerald ash borer, but the new tree is still not widely available to replenish the older ash tree varieties. I hope we get smarter with conserving our resources as time goes by.” – George Moore

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“Speaking of tiger maple and the beauty of its chatoyance, I thought I’d send you these pics of a matching pair of waterfall trinket boxes I just completed two weeks ago.” – Ed De Mott

“I made a pizza paddle or pizza peel for my wife. It took way too long but then she reminded me she has four sisters so… back to the garage/shop. I used walnut, rock maple, purpleheart and cherry.” – Earl Slack

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“You’ve landed on yet another topic I have some thoughts on. Reflecting on my many years of woodworking, I think that box joints have remained a construction technique staple for me. Some of my earliest projects—a toy box for our children and a (fairly large) firewood box for a friend— were constructed using box joints cut with a vintage 10″ Rockwell/Delta Homecraft bandsaw, no less. Their strength and elegance obviously made the tedium of the above technique worth the effort. As time went on, it was my go-to for making all manner of waste baskets, smaller firewood boxes for myself and my in-laws as well as small, lidded boxes to hold nothing in particular. By then, however, I’d gotten a table saw and dado set and built the common homemade jigs to achieve my favorite joinery. Most recently, (in the past 5 years, or so) I invested in the Incra I-Box jig and have been very pleased with the tea boxes, pencil boxes and cremation urns it’s turned out for me. Thank you for asking.” – Jayme Johnson

“Box joints resonate strongly with me. I love them. I own an Incra I-Box, but I seldom use it due to its hugely time-consuming setup and tweaking process. I find that if I have a bit of scrap, I can make one for whatever size I want the fingers to be faster than I can set up the I-Box. The one in the photo above is using a 1/4″-wide saw blade from Infinity Cutting Tools. It’s a perfect 0.025″, and I use it often for box joints, drawer bottoms and making groove/dado box corners, mostly for drawer construction. I love the extra glue surface, and all of them make an almost self-squaring corner; they never need much tweaking to be sound.” – George West

“Yes, I also spent many Saturday mornings with Norm! True to the ‘New Yankee’ principles, I go cheap and low tech for box joints, as with most things. I’ve made a small crosscut sled that has plywood with pin clamp-on attachments for 1/4″, 3/8″ and 1/2” box joints. I certainly don’t use them on every project, but when I do, there tend to be a lot of them. It was very tedious and time-consuming until I found a way to cut the time almost in half. For each pair of mating pieces, I start by cutting the initial slot in the first piece as usual. Then, without finishing all the slots in that piece, flip it and use it to index the initial cut in the mating piece. Now, mount both pieces with their initial slot on the alignment pin and proceed to cut all the remaining slots in both at the same time. Of course, you’ll still need the usual test cuts and adjustments to get the pin and slot spacing just right, but from that point on, it goes almost twice as fast as with the traditional one piece at a time approach. I haven’t found a downside, but I’ve never seen this suggested in any article or video and I’ve always wondered why.” – Henry Burks</strong

“I build Langstroth beehive boxes for a friend. The sides are joined with box joints glued and nailed with long galvanized nails—it’s very strong compared to nailed-butts. I made a jig for the table saw to cut the joints. It did not work and I was not comfortable working so close to the blade. The joints are now cut on the Hegner Polycut saw, very quick and very little fettling to fit.” – Phil Dupreez

“I used a box joint jig to make a speaker grill, part of a Bluetooth speaker box (see photos, above).” – William Aulick

“I recently completed a walnut bourbon storage box (a cellarette, see above), and used 1″ box joints to join the sides of the box. I had never tried to do joints this large and ended up building three different box joint jigs before settling on the one I used to cut the 1″ pins and notches in 7/8″ black walnut. The first jig was a simple 1/4″ plywood routing template, but I was not pleased with the results. I couldn’t get the pins and notches perfectly aligned, no matter how carefully I measured and cut the template. The second was a sliding fence jig for my router table. It took me a couple of days to fabricate the jig and when I tried it, I found this jig good for milling small pieces of thin stock (jewelry box size projects) but impossible to control with the 18″-long x 13″-wide walnut as it passed over the 1″ router bit. I finally settled on an adjustable finger jig that I could use with my palm router and a 1/2″ inch pattern bit. This one turned out to be ideal for this job. The fingers are made of ipe, which is very hard, and attached to the jig base T-track with countersunk stainless cap bolts and square nuts. I was able to adjust the fingers to ensure that the pins and notches in the box sides aligned perfectly. I could clamp the stock securely to the jig to keep it rock steady during milling. The palm router and 1/2″ pattern bit were easy to control in the thick walnut. I could lower the router bit in increments to sneak up on the depth line so that there was almost no sanding required to make the pins flush to the sides of the box when I was done. The 1/4″ plywood template cost a couple dollars. The sliding fence jig was constructed from some leftover plywood off cuts (probably $10 worth of materials). The T-track, stainless cap bolts, square nuts, scrap lumber and ipe made the third jig the most expensive (probably $30 to $40). So, not particularly expensive, and it worked better than I might have guessed.” – Mike Campanella

“I guess I’m a bit odd in that I actually prefer the aesthetics of box joints to dovetails and similarly have made a great many projects with them. I make them almost entirely on the router table, and early on I got a Rockler jig. Even a dedicated jig as you know takes a number of test cuts to dial in perfectly, and I then batch out more parts than I need, just because. Those spares always turn into something for someone though, so no real loss of time nor materials. Here are a couple box joint project examples that I happened to photograph: the quintessential wine presentation box and a model train carrier. Keep the appreciated articles coming.” – Bill Hewett

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“I spent a couple of years involved with a relatively high-end craft fair where patrons paid a small sum to attend. The event lasted three days, so I spent most of my spare time during the year building my inventory. My primary offering was turned bowls. My biggest challenge was pricing my wares; I was told several times that I underpriced my bowls. Lessons learned: people gravitated to segmented bowls instead of solid-turned bowls. The most popular woods were walnut and cherry; little interest in maple except as accents in segmented bowls. People had to touch and feel the finish; a super-smooth glossy finish was preferred to a satin or more natural oil finish. And it had to be smooth; there was no interest in a more natural finish. People may not understand the intricacies and challenges of turning, but everyone understands smooth vs. rough. Finally, people were not impressed with exotic woods and were not willing to pay higher prices for the exotics. Making the bowls was fun, but a serious illness and the pressure to have enough inventory made it feel like work instead of an enjoyable hobby. That’s when I stopped participating. Probably the most enjoyable part of the entire process was talking about wood working to the patrons at the fair.” – Glenn Deuchler

“Our small town has an annual Christmas festival with craft vendors invited for a modest fee. The first year, I took snowmen and Christmas tree cutouts. Didn’t sell a thing! This past year, I took woodturnings and charcuterie boards and barely sold enough to cover the fee. Other vendors had similar results. People came for the festival, not the crafts. The lesson: Stick to craft fairs.” – Bob Weaver

“I retired four years ago and decided to keep myself busy by putting out a shingle on craft markets two years ago. We have been successful and tried a lot of things. We now market only in the fall, taking advantage of the holidays. My focus is on quality, so I only sell things I would give to family or friends. My items are cutting boards, charcuterie boards, boxes, bottle stoppers and pens. My biggest seller in quantity are the pens! They sell for an average of $40. The charcuterie boards range from $200 to $400. I try and provide a price point for all interests. We learned to buy a quality tent. Gone through two so far. I made my own display cabinets, since I am a woodworker. Also, a simple website is essential for after-sales and as a marketing tool. From the website sales, I sold a $350 board to a customer in Boston I never met!” – Tracy Novak

“I have attended one craft show in my life as a seller. It was at a church fall bazaar. I had a wide variety of turned and other wooden items for sale. I did not price things too high, considering the venue. I made my $25 dollar table fee and maybe $5 more. I also had to donate an item to the silent action. If I had a dollar for every person who stopped by my table and complimented my inventory but didn’t buy anything, I would have walked out of there rich. It’s hard for me to stop by someone’s setup who has nice woodworking items at shows. I get many good ideas and don’t buy because I know I can make the same thing or already make it, and I don’t want to be one of those people who say, ‘You have nice work!'” – Tim Lange

“I’m in rural east Tennessee, so my dollar figure may be lower than those in a metropolitan area. I’ll do about ten craft shows a year between September and May. I could do more, but I try to stay out of the summer heat. I sell mostly the kits that you can get from Penn State Industries, Wood Turningz and other similar companies (see photos, above). I also do some charcuterie and cutting boards. Booth fees are generally in the $50 range. My gross sales average about $400 per event.” – Paul Saladin

“A few years ago, I rented a booth at a very large and well-attended local craft show. My items were high-quality and fairly expensive, such as end-grain cutting boards. Most of the people were selling cheaper items. Some came with trailers full of merchandise. I only sold a couple of things and felt like my day was wasted. I’ll never do it again.” – ca.johnston

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Insert the clamp’s adjustable arm into the hole and tighten the assembly securely to your rip fence. Thanks to the dowel’s curvature, you can “steer” workpieces against it while resawing to adjust for blade drift issues as needed.

– Wade Meyer
Johnstown, Pennsylvania

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“I vividly remember my first power tool—a Craftsman drill on my 13th birthday! I can still picture me jumping around in excitement. I still have it 50+ years later.” – Rick Bird

“Your jigsaw story has brought back many great memories. My parents bought me mine when I was in seventh grade. I don’t know where my mom came up with the money. We were poor as could be in 1974. I still have mine (I’m now about 63) and it sets proudly on my shop next to my olive green saw I got the summer of ’77. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.” – Douglas Palmer

“I will never forget my first woodworking tool. My father was an engineer with a woodworking ‘hobby.’ He and I would build whatever he thought we needed from shelves to cabinets to sometimes furniture. I envied the Shopsmith he purchased in the summer when I was about 13 years old. It had so many different features. Even at that age, I was permitted to use the lathe to make a few projects. I even made a baseball bat-not major league quality but it looked like a bat. But that is not the tool. That Christmas, I received a scroll saw. I had seen it in the show room when my father purchased the Shopsmith. The sales guy said it was a great ‘beginners’ tool. Little did I know that it was included with the order for the Shopsmith. Now I actually have my very own first woodworking tool. I can’t tell you how much wood I went through that year. Now that I have ‘matured’ to the age of 70+, I have expanded my woodworking arena to include more tools than I ever thought I would have. Thanks for the memory jogger.” – Mark L. Sanders

“When I read ‘an olive green, single-speed jigsaw,’ I couldn’t help but wonder if it was the mate to the first electric drill I had. It was a Sears Companion (see above photos), the less expensive brand to Sears Craftsman. While that drill, given to me by one of my uncles, was and still is a special tool to me, the first special tool was an old hand saw that belonged to my mom’s brother. I have a picture of me, at 3 years old, using it to cut a piece of wood that was propped up on a tree stump behind my grandmother’s house when we visited her in Ireland.” – Ed C.

“My dad was big into model railroading. When I was very little, he had a layout in the garage and was always in there tinkering. I remember so many tools that fascinated me, but your story reminded me of the Craftsman jigsaw my dad had. Shiny and silver. That thing weighed a ton, by my little-hand standards. I would watch in wonderment when my dad used it. Back in those days (’60s) he also had an old-timey hand crank drill. I could play with that thing for hours. I got into model railroading at an early age because of my dad, and I put together a lot of wooden kits. Combined with the wood used for the bench work, working with wood was always something I enjoyed. Funny how it took 50 years to get into real woodworking, but I’m glad I did.” – Robert Hancox

“Way back when I ‘graduated’ from eighth grade in 1966, my uncle Ed gave me a wooden miter box with saw, a square and a hand drill with bits held inside the handle. I’ve made many small projects with those tools over the years, and to this day I still reach for the small square when working on smaller projects, even though the markings are worn and getting hard to see. The square and hand drill have their place on the pegboard over my workbench, and the miter box has its resting place underneath. The saw gets occasional use as well.” – Jim Higgins

“I think I had that same jigsaw (if you are using jigsaw in the sabre saw sense)—see the attached photo from an eBay listing—I don’t think I still have it. Mine was a Black & Decker, and I actually won it in the seventh grade selling magazine subscriptions for my school’s fundraiser. Looking back, I’ve gotta think that my school mates had to wonder why I chose a saw from the long list of prizes you could choose. I also kinda wonder why it was on a list of prizes for a school fundraiser. A couple years later, I asked for and received a Craftsman radial arm saw for Christmas. You could do everything with those (according to the book that came with it). I did rip wood with it using every guard and anti-kickback device it had. I thought I was lucky to get it back then; now I think I was lucky to use it at that age and still have all my fingers. I still have that saw, kinda buried in my shop, a victim of the sliding compound miter saw. I have continued my woodworking hobby over these 48 years, sometimes taking a bit of a hiatus when I was busy raising kids. But I have always come back to it, and now I make gifts for my family, including my grandkids. I never did it as an occupation … maybe that’s why I still love it!” – Todd Teresi

“Teach a child a useful skill and he may just turn out to be a good person. Especially if you stimulate his imagination with something like a jigsaw and a pile of scrap wood. The year I graduated high school, my hometown of Lubbock, Texas, was hit by a severe tornado. (That tornado spawned the development of the Fujita scale.) Large portions of the city were leveled. I spent the summer helping an electrical contractor rebuild his shops, and then we rebuilt his home. I worked alongside two master carpenters. I learned a great deal regarding tools and techniques. I also hit my thumb a few times because I was watching them. It was inspirational to stand back at the end and say, ‘I built that.’ Three tool developments occurred as a result—I will confess I was a tool nut from about age 6: 1)I bought myself a 16 oz. Plumb hammer, which was what the masters were using. Great hammer. Wish I still had it. 2) I bought my father a Skilsaw for his birthday (kinda like giving Dad a baseball mitt, right?). That saw finally gave up the ghost after about 50 years of hard use. 3) I developed a powerful desire to own a proper table saw. One of the masters had a Craftsman contractor saw set up on the driveway. We rebuilt the roof of the boss’s house, stick by stick. This was not a simple hip roof. We had rafters going everywhere. We would measure the distance from ridge to top plate for each rafter. The master would open a little black book, set the proper angles on the Craftsman and hand us a rafter cut to fit perfectly. It was magical. Years later, I did finally own a Craftsman saw. Then I bought my current cabinet saw and never looked back. I think the maker’s motivation is to leave the world a better place. Tools help. Good tools help better.” – Steve Dragg

“Origin stories…something like this?” – John Calcagno

“The jigsaw story brought back a few memories of my own—especially since my father had the great idea of building a size-appropriate workbench and gifting me a ‘Handy Andy’ tool set for my seventh birthday. I used the workbench (and some of the tools) in our basement until I was in my twenties. I kind of wish I still had it.” – Robert Waldbauer

“I grew up in Maine (well, some say that I haven’t yet). My grandfather retired from a lifetime of raising laying hens, and at one time maintained a flock of 30,000. He candled the eggs in his basement and sold them in cartons to locals, and he sold fertilized eggs to other chicken farmers. In that same dank basement sat a mostly unused table saw, and THAT is where I got my start, putting things together with wood. I used his hand drill, with the old-style chuck key, chisels, and, as you portrayed, worked from the scrap pile that he had amassed through the years. That’s where I got my love for woodworking, and I still do ANYTHING I can, ANYTIME I can!” – Dan Willard

“My dad had all the tools a kid needed and taught me to use them, and I’ve now inherited and still use a few. My origin story is on supplies. In the 1950s, most produce arrived at grocery stores in lightweight wooden crates. Many of them were single-use and ended up as trash behind our neighborhood grocery. This was before dumpsters and trash compactors. I would take as many as I could carry on my bike and disassemble them at home. They were nailed together, not glued thankfully, so after pulling and straightening the nails I had wood and fasteners for my own creations. Of course, I later learned that true woodworking rarely involves nails.” – Henry Burks

“My first power tool was also a jigsaw purchased around the age of 10. I spent all my Christmas money and got a deal. Since the hardware store didn’t have a price tag on it, they gave me the three-speed for the price of a single. I recently replaced it with a more accurate and powerful one, but the 65-year-old one still works.” – Marc Webb

“Growing up, I was always a tinkerer. It was the start of the space program, and I kept up with every Mercury launch in a handwritten journal. This led me to several mishaps and near disasters, from finding out how much electricity a 9-volt battery has when you’re trying to build an antenna to listen to the spacecrafts as they flew overhead, and seeing how much power can be released by mixing certain chemicals (the exact formula is not given to protect future generations) while trying to build a miniature booster rocket. All of this imagination and experimentation let me to my earliest woodworking skills. When I was nine years old, my parents moved to the countryside outside of Houston (when Houston was a little town, now that house is near the center of town). I watched the builders construct homes on the empty fields surrounding our house. (There were no other kids in the neighborhood my age yet). The construction workers noticed that I was paying close attention to what they were doing, and when I asked them if I could have any of the lumber, they showed me the scrap pile and told me I could take anything I wanted from those piles. Fast forward: the now 10-year-old started to put all that lumber that I had collected into a project. My father ‘let’ me use his hand saw and one of his hammers, and I started to build a ‘club house’ in our backyard. That was an on-going project for over a year, with new modifications and upgrades constantly being added. It got to the point where my dad, my grandfathers and even the construction workers would come by and give me pointers and suggestions. With the support from all parties, that club house became a 10 x 12 ft. room with a wooden floor, a gabled roof, attic space, two windows, a door on hinges with locking handle, a bed and desk and electricity (via a 100-foot extension cord). The club house survived a hurricane and it survived being moved 14 in. back to our property line with automobile jacks and bricks. Fast forward once again, and as I entered my mid-teenage years my interest went in a different direction and the club house was not utilized any longer. So, I added demolition to my skillset but always used my building skills around the house as I got married and started a family of my own. I started woodworking as a hobby about 10 years ago with simple boxes and picture frames on a workbench in my two-car garage. When I got ready to (semi) retire, my wife let me use the one-car garage (so I would stay out of her two-car garage) as my workshop. I am now making more things for the grandchildren that keep coming into our lives. More important, I am teaching my 6-, 10- and 16-year-old grandchildren how to use that handsaw and hammer and teaching the 3- and 4-year-olds how to sand by hand. I think that I am getting more enjoyment out of watching all of them learn than I ever got from building my club house. Who says that you can’t teach an old man new tricks?” – Almer Engle

“In June of ’69, my dad gave me a hammer and allowed me to borrow his handsaw. I was 8 and built our boxer a huge whelping box with two boards taller than the other two. She had her litter of five pups in that box, the day Apollo landed on the moon. Guess which event was more important?” – Elaine D.

““During woodworking shop in the ninth grade (1953-54), I fell in love with the lathe. The sound of our big planer was mesmerizing. So many of us were trying to build cedar chests.” – Ned Moore

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– Jim Wilson
San Marcos, Texas

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“I like cherry for boxes, tables, etc. It ages so nicely. Most of my living room furniture, which I made, is cherry. Mostly black cherry, but also some ornamental cherry. But I also like walnut, ash and cedar! All my patio furniture is cedar from my backyard. The bread kneading table I made for my wife is eastern hard maple. I also use exotics, and I’m currently making a bunch of bud vases from ipe (Brazilian walnut). I have slabs of Pacific Maple from Oregon, black oak from California and some hawthorn and holly logs. I guess my point is, I do love cherry, it’s my fav, but I’m flexible. Especially if it’s FTM (free to me) wood!” – Steve Kendall

“While I don’t have a lot of years under my belt, woodworking-wise, I have come to love working with cedar. I make bird and squirrel feeders that I sell online, and I use simple cedar fence pickets. The pickets don’t look like much in the store, but after I’ve cut the pieces and sanded them, I come across some amazing grain and color. And of course, the smell — well, ’nuff said, right? The only other woods I’ve tried so far are pine, poplar, walnut, maple, padauk and ash. I love the color of padauk, so if I were to give you a second choice, it would be padauk.” – Robert Hancox

“Cherry is the love of my life. Thought I’d share this photo of a cherry table I’ve built.” – Ed De Mott

“As you surely know, there are as many favorites as there are species! It is difficult to choose just one, so as you have noted, I think cherry is a wood species that is hard to beat for many uses. It has a rich color, a tight grain, a useful hardness, and it cuts, turns and finishes beautifully. I might just go work up a little cherry project now!” – Dan Hays

“Cherry is my favorite wood, and the best part is it comes right off my farm, bringing new meaning to ‘farm to table.'” – Bruce Patton

“My favorite is walnut. It is a wood that always accentuates any project. This has a goldfinch inlay in yellow wood.” – Randy Wiles

“Since you asked, my favorite wood species is cherry. Widely available. Hard but easier on tools. Ages beautifully. Not dark and dingy. Not shipped in from halfway around the world. Often locally harvested and sustainable.” – Jeff Feldman

“I share your love of beautiful cherry, Chris. I managed to score some a few years ago and finally used it to build a new dining table last winter. With a clear finish, the wood really pops. Walnut is a close second.” – Brian Sigmon

“Hands down, black walnut is my favorite, but cherry is a close second.” – James Eames

“My favorite wood will probably vary depending on the project that I’m working on and the ultimate use of that project. With that caveat, I’d probably say that walnut ranks pretty high on the list. It is beautiful and it is so very pleasant to work with. It cuts and planes easily, and its beauty really pops when the finish goes on.” – Charley Robinson

“The woods I use most of the time are hard maple, walnut and cherry. Often I use them in combination.” – Keith Mealy

“My favorite woods are cherry and mahogany. In spite of its challenges, cherry is one because of its richness as it ages, and I like the smell of it as I am milling it. Mahogany because of its beauty and it’s easy to work. However, it does make a lot of dust, which is the only downside of mahogany for me.” – Neil Carpenter

“My favorite wood is redheart. I use it in small quantities as an accent for bowls, cribbage boards and other projects. After that, I really like walnut. This bowl is a take-off from one of your segmented bowls in Woodworker’s Journal Magazine.” – Terrence Greenwood

“I appreciate most species of wood. As long as they work and finish well, I keep and use them. As of late, I acquired a lot of red cedar that has been stored in the loft of a barn/shop. The deceased family conducted an estate sale, and the oak and cherry supplies had been bought prior to my visit. I purchased the cedar. It was very dry and hard! Anyway, I also bought a Rockler router table and stand that is very sturdy. To provide a means to secure some accessories to the stand, I cut some of the cedar and lined the interior of the stand framework with the cedar. I had wanted to experiment with wood dye for some time, so I added several drops of Trans Tint dye to some neutral Danish oil and applied it as a finish. I was blown away by how the red dye made the cedar pop! It’s been at least two years since I applied the finish, and the cedar still is beautiful.” – Tony Newman

“How can anyone have just one favorite wood? Surly thou dost speak in jest. Possibly the error lies in me. Is it even possible I may be somewhat different? Nah! I simply cannot settle for only one. I love black walnut for special items, gun stocks, knife handles, beautiful boxes and photo frames. For house things it has to be red oak. It is just so much fun trying to drive nails into old dry red oak, but it does make such gorgeous moldings throughout the house and actual furniture. Of course, my go-to wood for the outside has to be white oak for all the right reasons. Naturally there is still room for pine, fur and white wood for all things they are good for. Settle for just one wood? Sorry. Just not possible for this 80-year-old boy!” – Charles Tubbs

“Depending on the project I use both domestic and exotic woods, frequently mixing the two. I guess my favorite is sort of plain-vanilla maple, in all its forms, especially tiger and bird’s eye. The visual effects can be very striking, and the wood is relatively easy to work with. Here’s a picture of a car that I made for each of my eight grandchildren. All are made from rough-cut boards except for the axels, which were store-bought. I made these early in my woodworking hobby/career, so to speak, so I bought a plan and modified it for my use. Today, I’d make my own plan.” – Barry Meyers

Several also asked to see the blanket chest Chris was referring to in his editorial. It is below. – Editor

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