What does Woodworking mean to me?

I’ve been pondering this question ever since I took up the hobby during lockdown. From humble beginning when I banged a few odd bits of wood together, to now where I revel in the tight fit of my dovetails, why do I do it?

I think the answer lies simply in the creativity of it all. I love turning nothing into something with just a few hand tools.

One of my projects started as a challenge – It was a tall, angled bookcase known as a Shoreditch, but it wasn’t until I tackled the two drawers at the bottom which needed very careful fitting and dovetail joints that I started to enjoy it. Yes, working out how to put it all together was an interesting challenge as I wasn’t following a specific design (just a picture from a website), I had to work out the angles etc, but there wasn’t much creativity in the project.

Contrast that to making the Star inlay on my craft box, wow that was something fun to do. One slip of the Chisel or hand Router and I would have ruined the whole box.

My day job is IT transformation for a financial business. It's interesting, challenging, and stressful at times. Home life is rich and varied with lots of travel, sport and local community activities. But none of that was satisfying my craving to be creative. To make something from nothing.

Teaching myself woodworking and in particular the satisfaction of just using hand tools has scratched that itch. Friends ask me why I don’t use power tools? That misses the point. That would be sensible if speed and the end was the purpose, but for me it’s the journey that is the purpose. I guess that is what I also enjoy through my work. It's not all just about the end result, it's problem solving along the way.

I don’t really relish repeat projects – well maybe one or two as I’ll have worked out the kinks and corrected my errors by the second or third attempt, but when Mum asked me to make her four dining chairs the other day, I politely declined. One would be fun, perhaps two, but four? No thanks Mum.

So where next? Honestly I’m not sure other than filling up the house with more wooden creations. But then again maybe there will be an opportunity to pass on some of the skills I’ve picked up to others. Maybe there will be restoration projects – I love watching Will Kirk on The Repair Shop; Maybe someone will teach me how to monetise social media and that will lead somewhere. Maybe I’ll sell a piece or two, but I doubt it. What I do know is that working with wood has a strange addictive fascination. Fancy taking a flat piece of wood that wouldn’t get a second glance and turning it into something special.

As retirement from full time work is over the not too distant horizon, maybe I've found something mentally stimulating to fill the gap that work will leave one day.