What kind of carpenter do you want to be
After many years as a professional carpenter, I think it is time that I talk about some of the decisions I have faced and the ones you will be facing. I think for those of you who are just starting out, it can be helpful to know that there are many ways to go about it. You will have to go your own way and, in light of this, it might be helpful to know what your choices are so that you can start in the right direction from the start. For those of you who have a little more know-how, it is not too late to redirect your general objective and discover something new.
To begin with, there are two main areas of woodworking to consider (carpentry and fine carpentry) and, when you have chosen between them, you can continue in your chosen area of knowledge. These decisions need to be made not only about what you want to do but also what you can do well. Not everyone was born to play the violin or to be an astronaut, and the same goes for woodworking. To begin with, what I insist on is choosing a section of woodworking that you prefer or that suits your goals, giving everything and determining if you have the skill to go further and be really accomplished in what you do. If you find that you are "barking the wrong tree", so to speak, don't stop, try something new.
Using an example, I quickly understood that even if I used hand tools, I had the talent of an artist. I tried woodturning on the lathe and had a similar result. However, when I started to design and build furniture, using machines, my projects started to go so well that I got started. In no time at all, I had clients at the door and up to seven carpenters working hard to make my furniture designs and fulfill the orders that were piling up. Speaking of talent, I hired two different types of employees: those who built the furniture and those who sanded it to prepare it for finishing.
This is just my experience. It will probably be very different for you. Let's examine the big decision to make immediately between carpentry and carpentry. Make no mistake about it; I have a lot of respect for both types of skills. I see them as difficult but in different ways. For me, carpentry is the art of building structures such as houses, terraces, sheds and gazebos. Materials include lumber, usually fir, plywood, concrete, drywall and the like. There are carpenters who build forms for foundations, framers who build walls and roofs with studs and rafters, drywall installers and finishers whose skills resemble those of a carpenter, but which are not exactly the same. You always have to get the job done on time and within budget, but you also absolutely need work of professional quality.
For me, woodworking is about building beautiful pieces from rare hardwoods. The triumph of any piece is in the eye of the beholder. Imaginative but functional design is everything. Each finished product is a work of art, in its own way. Particular care and a high degree of precision are required at each stage of the process because the price of a plank of ebony, cocobolo, rosewood or kaa is much higher than that of a 2 x 4 fir tree. has an old carpentry saying twice, cut once “, which is even more significant in fine woodworking than in carpentry. Carpentry needs specific plans or plans. The same can be said for fine woodworking, but more. Carpentry work is generally carried out indoors in a carpentry workshop,
In fine woodworking, sanding a piece requires about the same time as its construction. Sanding woodwork is an art in itself. Although men and women are about as skilled in building furniture, most of my sanders were women because they seemed to have a finer feel and more patience to produce a perfect surface, ready for finishing. .
Finishing is also an art in itself. The purpose of all finishing materials is to protect the wood and bring out the grain. Defects due to imperfect sanding work will be as easy to see as the nose on your face after finishing. In this case, the only solution is to sand the entire finish, redo the sanding job and apply the finish again. It is not only a waste of time but costly if you are hoping to make money. That's why competent sanders were so important to my business.
There are many specialties and sub-specialties in the fields of carpentry and woodworking. Some of them are: design, assembly, wood turning, sanding and finishing. If it is quite common for a talented carpenter to be gifted in more than one of these specialties, it is unlikely that he will become an expert in each of them. Keep working and trying new skills. Soon you will do what you love and you may even become very skilled at it!
