Woodworking Talk banner

Advise to new woodworker

2K views 5 replies 6 participants last post by  wsommariva 
#1 ·
A friend of mine called and told me that her son, who is a recent college grad. and can't find a job, is interested in woodworking. I think he has done some small projects in the past. Not sure if this is an interest as a profession or as a hobby. I assume he will have to get his feet wet before he decides. Besides taking some classes at the local Woodcraft store and talking to me, does anyone have any advise on getting him started in his learning process before he invests in tools big time? I am at a loss in what to tell him since I have never taken any classes and learned by the seat of my pants. Any good books, videos, etc. he might try? Any advise is appreciated! Thanks in advance.
 
#2 ·
Rocky,

Some local community colleges offer classes in woodworking. Trade schools would be another idea but if your friend just graduated from college, going right back to school full-time may not be something he'd want to do.

An apprenticeship with a local company would be another idea.

Bill
 
#3 · (Edited)
You Tube and other sites

You can spend hours watching and learning most of the primary methods and some exotic ones on the web. Just go to You Tube and search. www.woodmagazine.com has some great videos. Charles Neils web site
http://www.antiquesbuiltdaily.com/aboutme&.htm has great ones also.
http://charlesneilwoodworking.com/category_player.php?type=1&cat=2&video=smarttails.flv
After that some hands on experience will make a lot more sense. :thumbsup: bill
BTW our site has a lot of good Videos in that section.
 
#4 ·
Rocky,
I saw your site, and I think that you might be one to mentor, or even apprentice him. Your work looks good! Everything I know about carpentry, I learned on the job, from tradesmen with little to no formal education. Fine woodworking, I suspect, is much the same. That said, I'm no woodworker, but I am a competent carpenter. DVDs and magazine articles cannot replace over the shoulder guidance,
Just a thought...
Mick
 
#5 · (Edited)
I have been in the woodworking field for over 60+ years. I have been teaching for over 30 years established a Cabinet making business for a period of 15 years. Retired some ten years and went back teaching for a year, only my students were Blind or had at least 10% vision. I introduced them to the router and I had the best class in all my teaching career.
I have developed New Routing skills with the router which introduces more safety awareness with the use of the router. In an effort to show what really is capable with the router I have submitted some video of what would have been presentations at a number of wood shows I had conducted throughout Australia over a period of 20 years. Even now I am still introducing newq routing techniques. These are available on You tube 'Routing with Tom O'Donnell'
Tom
(Template Tom)
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top