Wood Working a thing of the past?

[truxton]

Picture of the tool box my son made for my grandson. Getting the younger generation into woodworking. [ATTACH]10680[/ATTACH]

[damagi]

I'm pretty young (under 30) and just started woodworking. I've always had an interest, but there were a couple things that prevented me from getting into it:

-Space
-Cost
-Abilty to move materials

Up until last year I was living in a condo (and various apartments prior to that). No space for tools, no space for materials. Beyond that, I drive a Mini Cooper - no space for tools, no space for materials. Its not an uncommon situation. Thankfully I was lucky enough to get into a house that has a 3-car garage...which means one slot is mine =) Lets face it, as our society moves to being more urban, space alone dictates that woodworking is a luxary hobby.

The reality is that I will not save any money building furniture rather than buying. I knew this going in - and its quite true. I built a changing table and crib for our newborn as my first project. It was ambitious, but I was motivated. I couldhave bought a good crib for a few hundred bucks, perhaps less if I got one used at a garage sale or craigslist. Figure $400 for a pretty nice one. I spent $400 on wood alone (S4S red oak from home depot), plus another $500 or so on my initial shopsmith from craigslist. I'm already more than 2x the original budget before I start worrying about finish, additional tools, etc. Simply put, the cost argument fails immediately. Plus, I had to borrow a truck to move the wood.

Don't get me wrong - I am really enjoying woodworking so far, and my wife & family were thrilled with the crib and changing table. Its a long term investment, and so far so good.

[beeg]

Damagi, bet ya paid a PREMIUM at HD.. Try and find a hardwood store near ya. I don't mean Woodcraft or rockler either, even though they should be better than HD.

[a1gutterman]

Hi Ed and others,

I have a different take on it. Too many parents thinking that it is too dangerous keeps the kids away from the equipment until they are "old enough to be careful". Only trouble with that is it is too late to interest them in it then. We need to introduce our kids and grandkids to this "dangerous" activity when they are interested, knot when we think it is a good time. Electronics are safe...and addicting.

[Ed in Tampa]

You all might be right but I hear parents complaining that their kids are either in school, doing homework or playing on some electronic device.

I watch people pay to have their yard maintained, the pool swept, house painted, etc while they go to gym to get exercise???????

This morning my neighbor need to go to the other neighbor, 6 houses down. He had to get his four wheeler out to make the trip.

My neighbor across the street doesn't own a tool, not one. No lawn mower, no hedge clipper, no shovel. He could not identify a wrench, this isn't a high roller he is a basic lower middle class guy.

I cut a huge Camphor tree down about 3 or 4 years ago. If you know Camphor it produces some beatiful colored grain patterns and some rich burl. I called every turning group I could think of offering wood in any size they wanted and I had exactly ZERO takers.

Loaded it into my truck and 5-8 trips later had it all at the recycle center to be turned into chips.

I really believe the mentality of the country views working with your hands as punishment for those that didn't go to college.

I worked with a guy that had a couple of sons. One got a full scholarship to a top notch engineering college where he got his doctorate. His other son wanted to be a mechanic.

I thought my buddy was going to die.

It was world war 3 in that house, but the son prevailed. Today he is head of a maintaince dept of a huge corp, flying his own plane around to the various corp sites. I don't know but I think his salary is far and away larger than his brothers.

My buddy who never went to college himself and is middle income worker still chokes when he has to tells people his son is a mechanic.

[ddvann79]

I think Tim makes a good point...

We need to introduce our kids and grandkids to this "dangerous" activity when they are interested, not when we think it is a good time. Electronics are safe...and addicting.

My dad tells me he got his first .22 when he was 8. I grew up around guns and machinery and yet I'm still alive, despite a few miscellaneous scars. It's a matter of disciplining and training of the child to pay attention to dangers. If parents don't do that the child is less likely to recognize danger when they are unsupervised, or worse - go investigate out of curiosity. They are still going to end up in the emergency room one way or another, even if from a baseball to the cranium or jumping off the roof. So I encourage parents to expose the young ens' to PTOs at an early age - say 18 months.

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My kiddo and his first "tool set." My brother also bought him a set of all metal toy tools that came with a plane that actually has a blade! You can bet Playskool didn't produce that one.

That said, Ed makes a compelling argument. Many people are just plain lazy. I think the new economic reality in our country (at least for the next decade) is going to change that a bit. People tend to mow their own yards and change their own oil when times are leaner (and go to church more). But...

I really believe the mentality of the country views working with your hands as punishment for those that didn't go to college.

...Ed is right again. Blue collar jobs are looked down upon to a large degree but there is nothing wrong with tech schools and apprenticeships. In fact, working with your hands is often more rewarding. That's why I come home from my cubicle jail and go out to the shop. I'd say that out of the 10-12 folks in my office in my age group, a full half of them do the same thing. One went back to school to get this white collar job and now makes less money than when he was a construction superintendent.

That leads me back to my point in my earlier response to this thread: I see an increasing desire to return to self-sufficiency and craftsmanship. Then again, my perspective might just be biased.

Man, it's good to have people to talk to about this stuff!

Oh, and while I'm typing...

After a some application of Liquid Wrench penetrating oil, the quill in my Dad's Goldie broke free and travels through the full range of motion!!!! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it.

[robinson46176]

Of my wife's 4 brothers 3 are avid woodworkers and the 4th does a little sometimes in one or the other's shops. Of her 3 sisters 1's husband is an avid woodworker. In the next generation my son (38) is the only one that I know of that does any woodworking. They are however all about the age that many start getting interested.
I believe that the biggest blow to woodworking has been the dropping of all shop classes from many schools...
I also maintain that it has lost much of its "craft/art" status by shifting so far from "working" wood to "machining" wood.
Most things are on a pendulum however and I suspect that it will swing back to at least some extent one day.
As someone mentioned we have a huge loss in the number of people who can do anything at all involving even basic manual skills. "Call the guy"...
One of my many hats over many years was that of owning and operating a boot and shoe repair business (over 20 years). There are a surprising number of similar skills needed for WW and the shoe rebuilding trade. There have always been a few shoe cobblers that turned out really terrible work. Usually they were someone that jumped into the trade that had no manual skills to start with and didn't bother to learn even the basics. They were also apparently blind to their own lack of skills when looking at their finished work. I was absolutely shocked recently though when I was looking at some special tools on Ebay and saw a listing that was an add for a shoe repair business where the person was expounding upon how many years his family had been in the business and how many years he had been in the trade. He really talked up his excellent skills and qualifications to work on all kinds of higher priced shoes. The downfall was that he showed an example of his work...
http://cgi.ebay.com/Shoe-Repair-New-Soles-Heels-Boot-Repair-/150281796571?pt=US_Men_s_Shoes&hash=item22fd7e3bdb
I'm sorry but that is not extra high quality work...
Just as many customers do not recognize that the example is not high quality work many/most potential woodworking customers do not realize the differences between quality craftsmanship and the cheap plastic covered particleboard crap.
The upside is that if we want to sell some production we don't need all of those people and while it is sort of sad we need to hold on to the fact that there still are a lot of folks that do know the difference and will pay for it.

[curiousgeorge]

I agree that it seems as though there are no new woodworkers coming up, but I have to question that when I look around at all the woodworking supply stores, tools/gadget companies, magazines, web sites, etc.. I must be an optimist, but where are all the millions (billions?) of dollars coming from to finance all these?

[ryanbp01]

I prefer to think of woodworking as a thing of the future! Look at all of the new the new technology that's out there (including the Power Pro)!!

BPR

[Stitch]

I prefer to think of woodworking as a thing of the future! Look at all of the new the new technology that's out there (including the Power Pro)!!

BPR

I sure hope so because I just got interested and am preparing to buy a Mark V - unless someone has a cheaper way to get one.