Wood Working a thing of the past?

[Ed in Tampa]

This past weekend we had a garage sale and my wife finally convinced me to thin out my tools stock.

I placed tools out there that weren't first line but were clean and very useful and I nearly gave them away.

20 years ago when we had our last tool sale I practically had to use a ball bat to keep people from my tools that I didn't want to sale.

We had excellent traffic and plenty of customer but there was absolutely no interest in tools. My neighbor's experienced the same thing and I know one gave away an great lathe bench, and I basically gave away my tools.

To get rid of an excellent condition but 30+ year old router I had to package it with a 30 year old craftsman router table an sell it for $10.

I last used the router on my last project so it wasn't a throw away to any extent, I just needed room.

My theory is if you get it out for sale, sale it. If not I would have kept it.

I know none of grandsons have any interest in my tools so I guess when I hang up woodworking many will go to idiot collectors that hang good tools on walls to look at.

What a shame is this really the end of woodworking?

[riot_nrrd]

What a shame is this really the end of woodworking?

Why build it yourself when you can by a melamine version at Ikea? Sure it only lasts a couple years, but it will be about time to replace it then.

Times change, my friend. The fast food nation doesn't have patience for bespoke goods... and soon, we won't have the skills.

That's part of my reitrement plan... I figure by the time I retire, people will think it is worth $150/hr for me to nail a couple boards together, 'cause no one else will know how to do it. Drawers with dovetails? Collector's pieces.

[fjimp]

I seem to remember times when different special talents such as wood working seemed doomed. In fact I frequently read stories right here where new and upcoming woodworkers are thrilled at the treasures they find. I love listening to old timers help them through growing pains. Ed you are one who leads the pack in that regard. I learned long ago that my son has very different goals from mine. Yet he has learned welding and become highly efficient. May I suggest we work toward training the young and pray for the future of self sufficiency. fjimp

[bvrsbro]

I guess I'm blessed!
My daughter has been using my woodworking tools since she was a young girl advancing to a metalsmith. Her husband is a woodworker, I'm rehabing a 56 greenie for him. They already have a radial arm saw and band saw of mine. So I know my tools will find a good home.
My three nephews also are wood workers one has three young boys and they build bird houses and bird feeders together.
I have a hard time finding tools in southern Maine, I have to ask when I go to yard sales for any type of tool, few and far between.
Most of what is available seems to be on Craigslist. As I think about it, other than those I have mentioned, I have only one friend that is a woodworker. He just picked up a 10er. Rehab time!
Just keep on making sawdust.

[cincinnati]

This past weekend we had a garage sale and my wife finally convinced me to thin out my tools stock.

I placed tools out there that weren't first line but were clean and very useful and I nearly gave them away.

20 years ago when we had our last tool sale I practically had to use a ball bat to keep people from my tools that I didn't want to sale.

We had excellent traffic and plenty of customer but there was absolutely no interest in tools. My neighbor's experienced the same thing and I know one gave away an great lathe bench, and I basically gave away my tools.

To get rid of an excellent condition but 30+ year old router I had to package it with a 30 year old craftsman router table an sell it for $10.

I last used the router on my last project so it wasn't a throw away to any extent, I just needed room.

My theory is if you get it out for sale, sale it. If not I would have kept it.

I know none of grandsons have any interest in my tools so I guess when I hang up woodworking many will go to idiot collectors that hang good tools on walls to look at.

What a shame is this really the end of woodworking?

IMHO it is more the fact you live in Florida. Many retire to Florida and take all of their things with them. Things are very plentiful at estate sales in Florida.

[ddvann79]

This past weekend we had a garage sale and my wife finally convinced me to thin out my tools stock.

I placed tools out there that weren't first line but were clean and very useful and I nearly gave them away. ...
To get rid of an excellent condition but 30+ year old router I had to package it with a 30 year old craftsman router table an sell it for $10.
...
What a shame is this really the end of woodworking?

Ed, for what it's worth, I'm living proof that there is still interest in woodworking. I was born during the Carter administration. I have a small, 12 x 16 shop and mostly have hand tools until recently. I recently acquired my dad's derelict MKV brownie and I relish the challenge. Right now I'm putting the finishing touches on a homemade table saw. I started building furniture when I was 23 until my shop burned to the ground and had to start over. It killed me to see what was left of Daddy and Paw Paw's hand tools in the ashes. I grew up working with hand tools and watching The New Yankee Workshop, This Old House, and the Woodwright Shop. Handcrafting and the heritage that goes with it means a lot to me.

Where I live, garage sale tools are not so cheap and you have to get there pretty early to get them. I would LOVE to have a 30-year-old router! But they are priced almost at retail at local pawn shops, even with a lot of people having to sell stuff to make ends meet! I picked up my very first joiner a month ago that was built in the 50's and it sits on a shop-made stand.

Yes, interests have changed but I've also noticed that the satisfaction my generation gets from such devices as the iPod tends to be fleeting and disposable. Consequently, I find more and more of my peers turn to gardening, mechanicing, metal work, tinkering, and woodworking for substance. There is nothing like the feel of paper thin shavings from a well-honed block plane, running your hand across a perfectly smooth joint, or the reflection from a glossy tabletop.

As I write this, I'm sitting next to my grandfather's oak table I refinished myself and learned the hard way that belt sanders like to leave groves. The top drawer in my chest of drawers in our bedroom squeaks when I open it because my red oak slides weren't level or parallel, but we love the piece. My wife cherishes the canopy bed I made for her when we got married, even if it was six inches too wide.

OK, enough reminiscing. But I hope I have effectively conveyed the way I feel about the craft and the lessons that come from it.

Two final points:

1. I know the love for woodworking is alive. Otherwise websites like The Wood Whisperer and my favorite, Woodgears, would not be as popular as they are. Both are run by young guys, neither of which you would suspect for a craftsman by their appearance. If the craft was dying, I doubt Rockler would still be selling over-priced gadgets either.
2. My brother lives in Lakeland, east of Tampa. I can't tell you how many times he called me early on a Saturday morning, excited to tell me about his latest tool find "on the cheap". In Texas, I can't duplicate the deals he's able to find there in Florida. It seems that the tool market took a plunge with the housing market over there (maybe you'll see the same thing on the West Coast). Maybe people aren't looking for tools near you because they are really kind of a luxury right now.

I am optimistic about the increasing desire I see out there toward self-sufficiency and craftsmanship. I even see city dwellers looking for garage shops, reclaimed lumber, community gardens and back yard chicken coops. I find young women learning to can, sew, and crochet. Around here, specialty hardware stores are keeping their doors open right along with the big box guys. Sure, there are the punks who don't see the difference between particle board and hardwood and yuppies dependent upon cappuccinos and pink polo shirts. They may be in larger numbers than they used to be, but didn't they exist 50 years ago too?

We all see things through the lens of our experience, but I'll do my part and I know a lot of my friends and family will too. I've already got my little shop helper out there at 10 months. And if you ever want to get rid of some tools, I know a poor young preacher in Central Florida to call!

[JPG]

Yer avatar! NICE!!!! Glad you are passing on yer 'legacy from your gpa!

[nuhobby]

GREAT post from ddvann79 !!

It articulates many of my own thoughts very well.

I'm 44 now. Following 8th grade Shop class, I didn't touch woodworking for about 25 years. It has been fantastic to get back to it.

I'm an engineer but I frankly feel a lot of high-tech electronics products coming out encourage sedentary and gluttonous habits.

I know one teenage Niece in Canada had a school shop class where she ran a lathe. This seems to be very rare any more. She was delighted to turn a pen with her uncle last summer.

Sometimes I think about how Gandhi encouraged people to spin their own cloth fibers and harvest their own salt. We can learn something from that here and now, too.

[Ed in Tampa]

2. My brother lives in Lakeland, east of Tampa. I can't tell you how many times he called me early on a Saturday morning, excited to tell me about his latest tool find "on the cheap". In Texas, I can't duplicate the deals he's able to find there in Florida. It seems that the tool market took a plunge with the housing market over there (maybe you'll see the same thing on the West Coast). Maybe people aren't looking for tools near you because they are really kind of a luxury right now.

And if you ever want to get rid of some tools, I know a poor young preacher in Central Florida to call!

Actually Lakeland is only about 30 minutes from me, so what your brother is seeing I'm probably seeing too.

I guess I was frustrated and surprised I was trying to help some guy pick up some good tools at a cheap price, instead I ended up virtually giving them away to a older guy that I suspect will probably set them in a display case.

I will keep your brother in mind if I ever decide to unload my tools, I would love to see them go to someone that would use them but since I'm only in my lower sixties I think he may have to wait for a few years (I hope). By the way what church does your brother pastor.

[truxton]

I have a 25 year old son who in the last couple years has developed a very intense interest in woodworking. I am not sure if it was first kindeled from when he was younger and working with dad in the little basement shop. We did alot of different projects with the cub scouts, pinewood derby cars, arrow of light awards, dozens of birdhouses as fund raisers. Many times we had 15 or more cubscouts in the shop assembling the birdhouses. I had precut all the pieces for them and they brought thier own hammers nailing the bass wood parts together. I can still remember the sound of dozens of little hammers going all at the same time. With a few dads to help we must have made over a 100 of them. The kids went door to door in thier scout uniforms and sold them in the nighborhood for $5 a piece. Now my son has 3 sons and his own place where he has set up a woodshop in his garage. With a craigslist delta contractors table saw, a used drill press, my old router and radial arm saw he on the way. I am standing firm on the old Shopsmith MKVII, so far that is still in my shop. He is passionate about woodworking and he does alot more with hand tools than I ever did. So I think the craft is alive and well amoung the younger generation.