Woodwork

A lot of hobbies require a lot of time and money, but at the end of the day, you have nothing to show for it except the experience. Don’t get me wrong; the experiences we have in life are important. But perhaps you’d like to spend your time making something with your hands other than a bad golf swing or fishing cast.

Woodworking allows you to be creative. Even if you make every project from a plan and never create a unique plan yourself, you are still building something that can become an heirloom passed down from generation to generation.

There is just something indescribable about working with your hands to take a raw board and turn it into something that possesses beauty and utility.

You don’t have to build a mahogany highboy chest of drawers that take months on end to build, although you may want to someday. But starting out, you can do like I do and make gifts for your friends and family like cutting boards, birdhouses (even if they turn out as hideous as our first ones did!), wooden pens, boxes, small tables, and the list goes on. But you wont know until you give it a go.

The main purpose of having a hobby is to do something that allows you to spend your time not worrying about your job, the stock market, or the current state of world affairs. The time you spend in your woodworking shop will take your mind off these pressures and allow you to feel like you’re in your own world with just your wood and tools. You’ll be amazed how quickly time will fly by as you cut joints, assemble your projects, and finish them.

If you met me, you would think I haven’t spent much time in the workshop but believe me when I say woodworking can be a form of exercise. In fact, if you dislike exercising on purpose, then you make want to start woodworking for the physical benefits you’ll obtain without thinking of it as working out.

Carrying heavy boards around the shop, using a hand plane, and just getting off the couch and moving around the shop will provide physical rewards of their own.

Woodworking with your children or spouse can be great quality time spent together. You can create stronger family bonds with the TV and smartphones off and the workshop lights on.

Imagine your family would like a new sofa table. Together, you can pick out a plan or create your own design and then spend time together building the table. It won’t matter if your kid accidentally drops a tool on it and dings it just after the final coat of finish dries because that will just add to the story of how you and your family came together to create not only furniture but shared memories.

You may be saying that you can’t afford to take up woodworking because the tools are too expensive, and you’ll never be able to equip your workshop. It’s true that you can spend thousands of pounds for a well-equipped shop. However, just think of the fancy antique furniture you see in museums and then realize that the £25,000 Chippendale highboy cabinet was built with hand tools.

Hand tools like those used to build that valuable antique even today would not set you back more than a summer of golfing and certainly much less than that boat you’ve been eyeing.

You can always start out with a few hand tools or even a small band saw, scroll saw, or lathe and never make another purchase even after years of woodworking. If you do decide to expand your tool collection, you can add pieces as you can afford them.

You don’t have to be a full-time furniture or cabinet builder to make money with your woodworking hobby.

You can use your woodworking hobby to generate some extra income by making and selling craft items, like cutting boards, small bowls, decorative signs, and wooden pens at local farmers’ markets or flea markets. This money can be used to fund purchases of new tools, family vacations, or even to pay down some debt.

You’re not going to get rich with woodworking but the extra jingle in your pocket never hurts!

If you are interested in giving woodworking a go, get in touch with Veterans Woodcraft before you pay out for tools that you may only use once.