If I thought I needed to know everything, or even anything, to start doing things or buying things or building things I would have never even started.
I began woodworking with zero skills, experience, or knowledge. I was simply curious about working with my hands and building things from scratch. There are probably many others like me who started at home from zero, learned by making mistakes and slowly figured things out through experience.
Technically my first ever project was a wall shelf made from a pallet. I wanted to try some DIY and do it for free, I can’t remember where the idea came from but I guess I at least knew pallets could be free wood. I found a clean one at my workplace at the time and brought it home in an Uber. I had no tools, I had no idea what I was going to do.
I mentioned my ambitions to a colleague and he offered the use of his circular saw. I had never even used one before, nor knew how it worked! I actually struggled with the blade guard thinking it was like a cap to be removed before using the saw. In the alley behind my then apartment, I cut the ends off the pallet to make two two-level shelves. I screwed cheap brackets on them that I picked up at Home Depot – by hand, I did not have a drill – and when they were attached, I screwed them to a wall.
Boom – I had custom shelves, built with my own two hands and for less than $20. Sanding and finishing? Forget about it. I didn’t even know what they were. I had built something. I transformed one thing into another thing, that was useful, and looked cool (at the time), and had done something I never did before. It was satisfying simply to have an idea and follow through.
The next project was the bench. Read about it here. Take a look at my workshop (top) that I used to build the bench. Zero tools, some wood, in the kitchen.
After this my curiosity was piqued even more. I got a jigsaw and bought the cheapest handsaw and chisels I could, and some sandpaper. In comes the coffee table. This was a challenge, and a struggle. Designing, measuring, executing the steps required, finishing. The whole process was sloppy, I was clueless, our whole one-bedroom basement apartment was the workshop, but we got a coffee table.
This woodworking stuff is actually possible.
A couple of trips to the Toronto Tool Library and some failed projects with valuable lessons learned, off I go down the Youtube rabbit hole, finding makers and DIYers, believing machines ruled all.
Until I encountered twist and bow. I will never forget the Home Depot 2×2 that changed it all (it was supposed to be a simple side table). After this one, the question “how to make wood straight by hand” punched into Google sent me spiralling.
This was mind-blowing for me. Seriously, for some reason, this just hit me like a ton of bricks. The hand plane. So graceful, so exquisitely effective, peaceful, and elegant. This was everything I imagined woodworking to be.
No longer curious, now I’m hooked.
My first Bailey #3. Then the measuring and marking tools. Then the hoarding begins, scrambling to get my hands on any precious hand tools even remotely related to woodworking.
Over time, constantly just doing and learning and trying things, gaining some experience and skills slowly and at times painfully, challenging myself with each build. I managed to get my hands on some quality tools and began to grasp using them too. I began to understand the process and wood and get better at each stage each time.
If I thought I needed to know everything, or even anything, to start doing things or buying things or building things I would have never even started. I started small and simple and each experience moved me forward a little bit, or a lot.
There you have it. My step by step instruction on starting woodworking with no tools, space or experience. Just start. Get wood and do something. Then do the next thing. Find some momentum, learn, research, keep moving forward. Enjoy the process.
Anyone can start where you are with what you have. Looking back I’d say the two most important things I had (or didn’t) were no expectations and a willingness to try and fail. At this stage I’ve barely scratched the surface but I’m a lot further along than I was before I started, and I’d rather be here now than never have tried. At least now I have some tools, a small space and a little experience.
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