Monday, January 3, 2011

One of the Best Ways to Learn Woodworking

If you had to make a list of the oldest skills that man has learned and developed, woodworking would be pretty high on there, which means that deciding to learn woodworking is nothing knew. People have been carving and constructing tools, decorations and pieces of furniture from wood for as just about as long as we can measure, and it remains a great craft to pick up. While deciding to pick up woodworking probably isn't a life or death decision for most people these days, it can still add a lot of enjoyment and pride to your life- not to mention the money you will save when you no longer buy expensive store furniture. Here are the basics you need to pursue to learn woodworking.

The first thing you need to learn is all the safety precautions and steps that you need to take when woodworking. While it's not the most dangerous hobby you can pick up, you will still be dealing with hand and power tools that can be very risky and very sharp- things like awls and especially saws can really do some damage if you don't know how to safely use them. Not to mention all the byproducts of woodworking, like sawdust and motes that go flying as you work. Before you get started, you have to learn how to take the proper safety precautions to make sure your hobby remains as safe as possible.

Next, you need to learn about the materials that you will be working with. Obviously you will be working with wood, but for starters there are thousands of different types of wood stock that you can work with. Each of these has its own properties and characteristics, and each is good and bad for different projects. While most plans will tell you the best type of wood to use for the job, it's still a good idea to be well enough versed in your options to understand why you're using the wood that you are using.

If you are going to be taking your woodworking seriously, than it will pay off to carve out some space in your house or garage for a proper wood shop. This will insure that you have a safe and predictable space that is easy to get around and that provides plenty of space for working with your tools and materials.

It would be impossible to construct anything if you didn't know a number of different methods for joining pieces of wood to each other, so you'll need to learn at least the basics of joinery. You have a lot of different options here, including nails and screws and other fixtures. Of course, there are also lots of ways to join wood that don't require any kind of mechanical fastener, and these can be really helpful to know.

Finally, you're going to want to learn how to pit the finishing touches on your masterpieces. Learning how to sand and finish wood is a crucial step that makes the difference between making a piece of woodwork that is functional, and making one that is also beautiful. There are a number of different techniques for finishing, and mastering them will really give your piece the "wow" effect it deserves. And why learn woodworking if you aren't going to Wow people with your new craft?


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