On today’s Wood Talk “Weekend Edition” we’re talking about our potentially scandalous woodworking confessions!
How about you?
Do you have anything you might be hesitant to admit to your woodworking buddies? Leave a comment below and we’ll only share your confession with a few thousand of our best friends!
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8 replies on “WT251 – Woodworker Confessions”
No wonder you guys don’t review video’s any more. … Enjoyed those shows, but now I understand!
We really tried to force it, but it was always difficult coordinating the time. That’s not to say we won’t do some more reviews in the future, but it’s more likely to be when something comes out that we are particular excited about, and we all make time to watch it.
Great episode. You guys were brave to admit not watching videos, mostly. However, I can’t relate.
I’ve been woodworking 25 or so years and like to think of myself as fairly competent. I still look forward to my magazines (and I read them, although not always all the articles) and love the various videos and blogs out there. I’m still passionate about this hobby, and continuously discover new techniques and am always being inspired.
I’m am engineer in a very technical field and have to continuously read and investigate what’s happening ‘out there’. I don’t really have to, but if I want to excel, I do. I think this is true of the best in all communities, including woodworking.
I think if you turn off the valve (or only let a trickle through) to the woodworking world you will become insulated from it. Of course you can still produce work, but is it really the best that it can be? I’m positive you guys don’t believe you know every thing you need to know (this is meant as a compliment), so how will you continue to grow without reading and watching?
And particular for you guys, who are supposed to be (I think) woodworking social animals, it would seem to me that you absolutely need to keep abreast of what’s happening out there. If you don’t you risk becoming irrelevant to the community – we don’t want that to happen.
So I encourage all of you to stoke the woodworking passion flames and engage with the community, if only passively (reading and watching). You’ll benefit and we the listeners/watchers will benefit.
Love the podcast.
Well first let me say that we DO engage with the community. Just because we don’t make time to watch all of the new woodworking videos certainly doesn’t mean we aren’t “social.” All three of us communicate on a daily basis with woodworkers via email, website comments, YouTube comments, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and forums. We also continue our learning process by actually doing the woodworking, chatting with other woodworkers, reading books, taking classes, teaching classes, attending seminars and local meetings, and simply seeking out information on an as-needed basis. I also have monthly live meetings with my Guild members and I do TWWLive on the free site. I feel like my social cup runneth over. And I’m guessing this news about woodworking videos was a surprise to you, so we must be doing something right in spite of our infrequent viewing habits. 😉
Keep in mind that one can still be a very learning-focused beast without watching a single woodworking video online. Woodworking is NOT like engineering. In very technical fields, you really do have to read the latest literature to keep up with industry progress and developments. In woodworking, you can pick up an issue of Fine Woodworking from my birth year and not only learn something new to you, but also find out just how little tools and techniques have changed in the last 40 years. If you’re in the maker space and you’re working with electronics, the situation might be different. But when it comes to pure woodworking, most of us are just regurgitating our own (more entertaining) interpretation of VERY old concepts and ideas.
So I don’t think we’re guilty of not engaging the woodworking community. Our content, websites, and businesses are inseparable from the community they serve. What we are guilty of is not heavily engaging in the woodworking video-producing community, which is a different thing all together. This sort of thing has it’s own set of drawbacks and ramifications and we’ll each have to decide for ourselves how we want to move forward. But please don’t take that as a sign of us somehow being insulated or unwilling to learn and share. Nothing could be further from the truth.
I guess mine would be that I spend far more time looking at online woodworking content than time actually woodworking
The full text is:
“Hail Norm, full of sawdust, blessed art thou among woodworkers, and blessed are thy plaid flannel shirts. Always shalt thou read, understand, and follow the rules that came with thy power tools, and knoweth that the most important safety rule is to always wear these – safety glasses. Always shalt thou wipe down thy glue joints with a damp rag. Remember that ‘assembly’ is a four-syllable word, and that though Bob Vila created thee from nothing, thou shalt never say His name. Amen”
I’m glad to hear you guys don’t watch everything that’s out there, I was always wondering how you guys find time to watch all the videos and woodwork and hang out with your family, it makes me feel more able. Thanks for the confessions!
I love your show and spend a lot of time listening to you and watching videos on YouTube. In fact, I feel like a commercial I saw on TV with a guy sitting in front of his computer and “The End” comes up on his screen. He tells his wife he has reached the end of the internet and seen everything. I am starting to watch the videos over. Geeeez! But, I will say, that buying all new tools and just starting in the type of woodworking I am looking for retirement, they have been indispensable for me to learn from as I live out in a rural area. I will say for you young guys, listen to your children, you won’t see it now but some day you will realize where did all my time go while they growing up. If they ask you to take a break with them, think twice before saying you are to busy right now. Make shop time with your children too and maybe as they get older, watch one of those woodworking videos with your child. I wish I had spent more time with mine.