Hello To All ,
I was just thinking what it is about wood working that makes us Love it ?
I was bringing in tonights firewood , some was Fir that I had split a few weeks ago .The smell of the Doug Fir was like an instant hypnotic reminder how darn good it smells . When was the last time you ran a piece of Pine through your TS or hand plane just for the smell of it ? No pun intended
Cherry , Cedar , Red Oak , Mahogany , hey what about Rosewood ?
Is it the Love of the wood , it’s feel and smell and look or is it our connection to tools that makes us wood workers ?
I know we are all concerned about this forum and as of date it has fallen on deaf ears , so we are on our own so to speak . We can make what we want of it . We can continue to be helpful to those in need until there is no forum or we can just be angry about it while not actually participating in a positive way , it’s up to us .
happy holiday hope to hear from you all soon , dusty
Replies
Hey Dusty,
My sentiments are similar to yours regarding my love of wood.
Even though I'm a relative newby here, I'm hanging in there despite the site problems.
I'm here because I like the discussions and the people.
Maybe it will get better.
Bret
White fir.
oldusty:
Well that solves a mystery. Where I got it and how it got mixed in with a bunch of pine cut offs I don't know, but last year I cut some nasty smelling wood and couldn't figure out what was wrong with it. It must have been white fir.
Love the smell of cherry, oak and pine but I really miss the smell of burning leaves in the fall. Not allowed here in town.
Got Wood ?
Hi swenson ,
About 35 years ago I built a saw bench for the shop , after a few days there was a terrible smell ,,, I really thought one of the cats got into the shop and sprayed . For the next few weeks I kept sniffing around until I finally found the offending 2X4 , fortunately it was screwed in so replacing it was simple and the odor went away with it .
When we lived in town and the mills were still running every now and then and when the wind was blowing towards our house we could tell when the mill was running White Fir .
Currently I am building a job out of Madrone or Pacifica Madrona ,usually when I get a load of Madrone we are talking firewood .I must say that the Madrone lumber is beautiful with color from pale to deep Red .Talk about boards with stress in them Whoa man .I ripped an 8/4 plank to check the stuff out , about 12" from the end the board started to explode as I got near an end check ,I shut it down and flipped around but learned to chop the ends off first to avoid the checks.
The Madrone machines much like Hard Maple .
regards , dusty,boxmaker
ah the smell..
About two years ago, I had some aromatic red cedar, andthe client wanted a hope chest, full sized, made from it. The shop smelled GOOD for a few weeks after that little job!
Got Wood ?
White dog ,
I did a few jobs out of Port Orford Cedar grown from right here in Southern Oregon .
The Port Orford Cedar smelled like Janitor in a drum to me but was a light creamy color not Reddish and was easy to work..
dusty,boxmaker
Dusty,
I'm sure the source for the love of woodworking has a lot of different origins...I basically ignored it for about 55 yrs even though my grandfather was an excellent craftsman as was my younger brother...my journey started with the cajoling of my bride who resisted my suggestion that we hire someone to replace some rotted deckboards...a circular saw lead to a craftsman miter saw and soon I had a Delta contractor saw.....I really enjoyed the creativity (looking back at the quality of my early work, I realize that was a delusion)...things really went downhill when I signed up for a Building a Tool Box with Hand Tools course at Marc Adams School with Chris Gochnour....I didn't know a router plane from a moulding plane and couldn't sharpen a pen knife let alone a plane blade...the first time I used my LN bench plane to smooth out a board I was hooked...somehow I felt a primodal connection to a past life and though I use power tools for expediency I much prefer the closeness to wood that hand tools provide....I love to walk into my shop (a detached 2 1/2 car garage from which cars were banished long ago) to be greeted by the smell of cedar or walnut and a hungry cat...I'm far too slow at it to ever consider it for a career but I certainly love the feeling of cutting the first boards for a new adventure....
Neil
Yes the smell of freshly cut wood
Hey Neil ,
I suppose it may be one of our earliest ways to tell if we like things , tasting and smelling are sensual signals.
Hey as far as sharpening goes , I'm not sure why but some days with a few strokes my chisel or pocket knife are like a surgical tool and other days I just can't even sharpen a pencil .Maybe it's kind of like Golf , heck I know how to play but I don't always get the results desired , oh well .
good to hear from you , regards ,dusty,boxmaker
Talk about woodworking?
Wow, what a concept! ;-) Thanks, Dusty. I agree - let's make the best of what we have here.
For me, the love of woodworking is a combination of a love of wood (the look more than smell, the latter being all to fleeting), and a love of good tools. The love of tools is an infection passed on to me by my dad, who managed an old-style hardware store for decades. As you might guess, my son has it now, too.
But, the wood needs to be turned into something useful, something we can touch as well as look at. That's where the feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction associated with woodworking comes from. Besides, stacks of nicely finished wood samples would look a little out of place in the living room. ;-)
Ralphs jigs feel so pretty and witty '''
Hi Ralph , thanks for chiming in and for your continued participation in the forum .
I've never paid a penny to use Knots but have been a FWW subscriber since near the beginning and to me they are separate things , I enjoyed the magazine for many years and then discovered Knots about 5 years ago or so and thought there was some great contributors and typically I can learn from others wisdom also .
I still enjoy the forum and still can learn and help others , it;s that desire to pass on our craft that drives me to help others , maybe that's why I have not left .
There is an unwritten creed of honor for a Craftsman to me : we must pass it on .
The way this forum works is out of our Circle of Control we must have no influence on Taunton otherwise they would " come out " with it , the Truth an evasive commodity .
I think tools had me more infatuated but along with wood it's all good .
Got Wood ? best holiday regards to you dusty,boxmaker
dusty and the lot of ya, up
dusty and the lot of ya,
up until last week, or so, a column on the left side of the page with the various topics appeared whenever i logged in. now there is no such column and since i am mostly dim-witted at the computer, i do not know how to access the topics list. any ideas?
eef
ps
my woodworking days started by way of carving. then a few years later a yearning to make boxes with lids overtook me and from there it was easy to slip into cabinetmaking.
Another Carver
eef , so you carved first , then became a cabinetmaker , very interesting .
Mesquite smells good in the bbq , I've never had the pleasure of using the lumber , you have I remember maybe ?
nice to hear from you & best regards ,dusty,boxmaker
dusty,
yes, i have carved it, a walking stick, if i recall correctly. it's beautiful stuff. i think the trees are wonderful. we're blessed with several species down here, tis a desert dweller.
it was back in about '77 when fww was just getting going that i got the carving bug. in '85, after 11 years of factory work and two babies at home, i got laid off, got on the dole, went back to college (los angeles trade tech) and did handy-man work for under the table $. did kitchens, bathrooms and the usual entertainment centers, lots and lots of carpenter- hammer-swinging and now i teach high school woodshop, take on ww for the rich in the summer and make something that i want to every now and then.
by the way, is anyone else NOT seeing the topics list/column on the left?
eef
navigating
At the top of the column of posts are links to "Home" (the main section index) and the section one is in. I've always used those links, combined with the browser back button to navigate around. You don't get a list of recently active topics, but the index shows when the latest post was made. That's close enough to tell if there's something new.
say hey, ralph!
but you did used to have the column on the left, right? it was nice cuz all ya had to do was click on the subject and a drop down would happen and a topic could be picked. now, no more. quite curious.
eef
Ah ! the smell of Walnut in the Morning
Hi Jim ,
Nice to hear from you down there in the warm zone , we still can learn and share .
Lets face it , few of us could even agree on what day of the week it is but to me that ads interest so many ponts of view .
thank you for all the wisdom you have contributed to this forum I have learned much from you
regards , dusty,boxmaker
are you talking about hemlock?
there is not much worse in smell than wet hemlock. back in about 61 ,one of my first jobs was at a sawmill that cut a lot of hemlock. every so often I had to go on cleanup under where they were cutting the green stuff. That smell would drive a dog off of a gut wagon on a hot day
ron
Perhaps Hemfir ?
Ron , The Silviculturists have engineered a faster growing Hybrid specie called Hem Fir and it has been forested for many years in the Pacific Northwest .
It looks just like Fir or Hemlock a tad harder then Hemlock and approved for load bearing construction .
The Hemlock I have used did not smell anything like the White Fir .
Hows your bad self anyways ?
Any new projects from your shop ?
best regards , dusty
just finishing up a 16' table out of muninga. customer supplied the material. he brought it out of africa 33 years ago
ron
Wood Smells
Hi Dusty
Know what you mean, I have a lot of Camphor Laurel trees around my place and the smell is magnificant when you work it. (Good for colds too).
Its especially nice when the leaves have fallen and you are mowing the lawn. The smell is almost overpowering as you chop the leaves up.
wot
Be careful with Camphor wood
Hello wot , Been missing you for sure .
I only worked Camphor wood when I apprenticed we restored an Oriental Silver ware chest .
Apparently some folks develop nasal cancer from the dust , did not know the Camphor tree was a Laurel .
Here in Oregon and in Jerusalem we have Myrtle wood not only a beautiful wood but the leaves may also be used for spice . The leaves when crushed in your hand smell a lot like Eucalyptus only stronger .In fact the first time I was in a Myrtle forest I sort of O deed on the fumes from the leaves , my sinus's were burnt I could not resist smelling them , never again .
But you can smell the Myrtle trees when you are close in the wilds.
best regards , dusty
I Just got back from walking up to the shop to get a reference book and when I opened the sdoor I was greated by the wonderful aroma of oak and walnut that I milled the previous day. What an incredible and marvelous way to start your day.
That's What I'm Talking About ,,, right There !
Doug , Yeah , that is what I thought , there is a bit more than tools and making stuff with wood .
I'm working some Poplar today , paint grade job the wood is not my favorite , Green boogers and such .
Most folks especially Women that come into my shop all say it smells so good .
thank you for sharing
best regards dusty,boxmaker
Old Pine Flooring
Is also a nice aroma for the shop. Old barn wood, on the other hand, well, one has to get past the "barnyard" smell. Old flor boards? FWIW, here is a picture, or two of some of that wood in action. As you look over the pictures, just imagine the same design only in aromatic red cedar. The ARC came from an old tree that the owner had cut down. It had been in the pole barn's loft for a few years. The floor boards came from an old school house.
the woodworker in all of us
I was wondering about Dustys thread - what IS it about woodworking that drives us. Seen posts from so many of the usual contributers, here is my bit:
I think I always wanted to do woodworking for a living buy like Mel said, "had to pay the bills and put the kids through college" so got myself a "real" job that paid well and did the woodwork as a hobby for the most part. But the "real" job does not have the creative aspects of the craft. The "real" job does not have the smell of fresh cut cedar pine oak and cherry. The "real" job does not provide the same challenges and sense of accomplishment that the woodworking does. The passion for the craft for me has been (and continues to be) the search for greater skills and knowledge; The development of my own designs and techniques and finally the sense of accomplishment that can only happen when you succeed at something you were not sure you were capable of until you did it.
Robert.
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