There is a grandmother clock that stands in my living room. It's a simple clock as clocks in the "grand" category go, and I think that is one of the things that endears me so much to it. It was built by my grandfather for his wife in 1972, the second of four clocks he built.
My grandfather had a woodworking shop in his basement. He had all the major power tools that made up a woodworking shop, as well as the unpowered tools of the trade. It was a hobby that kept him busy after he retired.
He was more then happy to show my brother how to use them. I remember because I watched. Back then, it was something a boys learned in high school. "Shop" was where you learned how to handle tools and make things. Basics in carpentry. Back then I was in home economics, sewing and cooking. Not that I minded learning those two skills, but I always wanted to take shop. Back then, it wasn't something girls did.
I can remember playing around in my Dad's shop in the cellar. The only power tool I used back then was the drill, and that was mounted in a bracket on the top of the work bench. Mostly I used a hand saw or drill. I remember making a plane out of wood scraps. It would have flown like a brick, but it had wings and a propeller that spun. I was pretty proud of it at the time.
In junior high I wanted a book shelf for my room. We'd looked high and low, but I never found anything I wanted. So I designed one and my grandfather built it for me. I also designed a shelf to hold all my painting and drawing supplies, although I can't remember if my grandfather or my father built that one.
I'd always wanted to learn how to use those tools myself. So in the last few years, when I had some credit time built up at work, I've asked the guys in the shop to help me learn. It started with a simple project. The wood bench had rotted out and I wanted to replace all the slats. Dave helped me rout the wood and drill the hole in the precut boards. Then I varnished them. Simple.
From there I thought of a few more things to build, things we've needed, a cabinet for DVDs, book shelves, the cover for a putty colored metal file cabinet to make it match the desk it sits next to, a box from Sandy's log. The problem over the years has been that I tend to think of projects that are insanely beyond my skill level.
When we moved into the house the windows had been trimmed with 8 foot cedar boards, 2.5 inches wide, stained, painted peach and then painted white by the previous owners. We took those boards down 6 years ago and put them in the garage thinking we might use them for something one day. Then about a year ago, we received some nice pine boards a friend had used for shelves. That got us thinking. We needed more space for our DVDs. I could make two cabinets that fit under the windows in the dinning room. We could use both the pine and the cedar to do it.
Remember the comment about projects insanely beyond my skill level... Yeah, I'd done it again.
I started the cabinets the week after Thanksgiving, only working on them after I'd put in my time for the day. We're allowed to use the tools in the shop at work as long as it doesn't impact the real work being done down there. All the cedar needed to be stripped and sanded, as did most of the pine. That took a week. Joining the cedar to make the doors and cutting and assembling the the shelves took another, especially since I kept thinking of details to make them nicer, like the blind rout on the top, or the inset for the back board. In the end, I finished the final sanding and putting on the handles the last afternoon before vacation, using all my accumulated credit time and some vacation time to get them done. I still had to stain them, and that I did in our garage the week before Christmas.
The cabinets turned out fantastic. They fit where they are supposed to fit and they even match some of the other wood in that part of the house. More importantly, they are what we wanted. A narrow cabinet, custom built for the space. We've always had trouble finding furniture to fit where we wanted it to go or how we wanted it to look. Being able to custom make a piece is nice to be able to do, and I'm glad work allows me to use their tools on my time.
I've always had a desire to make things. It is my craft, be it crocheting, or painting, sewing or stained glass, even photography fulfills the urge to "make". I get a deep satisfaction from creating things. I liked to watch my grandfather in his shop, although it didn't happen often. These days, when New Yankee Workshop is on, I love watching Norm Abrams build things. A part of me loves to know how things work and fit together and wood working always fascinated me.
I still have the bookshelf shelf Grandpa built for me. The clock chimes the hour and the half hour in the living room. Reminders of my grandfather. These days when I think about something to make from the wood we have lying around, I think about my grandfather and his tools in the cellar. I think I inherited the woodworking gene from him. While it's only a small part of my desire to build things, I think that it has always been there. I think it always will. Work has given me the tools to explore that legacy. And to that end, I think Grandpa would be very proud.
