Woodworking
Woodworking for me is more then a hobby, it is also one of the ways that I stay healthy, I exercise both my physical and mental abilities buy continuing to develop my skills and I use it as a creative outlet. Furniture building is something that I truly love to do and is a way for me to leave a tangible legacy. Hopefully the fine furniture pieces that I build will last for many years past my time and my grandkids will be fighting over the pieces long after I am gone.
Over the years I have changed my style of working. Early on I used whatever tools I could get my hands on. My dad was a big influence on me getting into wood working. One of my fist big projects was making signs for a prayer garden at church for my Eagle Scout project. We had to learn to use a table saw, chop saw and a router to make the signs. After that we made road cases for Drums and ultimately made a line of audio road cases and we created Ricks Racks.
After I got married, I got more involved in building more refined pieces such as tables and some chairs. I also managed to completely remodel a Kitchen from the ground up building all the cabinets myself. This is where I fell into the gadget stage. I bought every gadget and power tool that I could afford and every year my wife bought me one major power tool to add to my collection.
A few years later my wife gave me a class at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking. It was there that I learned that not all tools were created equal and usually a gadget was just a gadget. I started heading down the hand tool route, learning everything I could under the tutelage of Marc Adams, Graham Blackburn, and Steven Procter.
I have now come full circle and believe that with an appropriate mix of power and hand tools, you can build just about anything you need. Now I am a student of Sam Maloof, Chris Schwarz, Marc Adams and many others.
Over the years I have learned many skills such as furniture design, sculpting wood, marquetry, many forms of joinery, wood turning, veneering, and bending. I still have a lot to learn, but it’s time to start putting all this learning to work and really start to crank our some legacy pieces.
