What woodworking sources did you learn from and are you learning from now?

I too watched New Yankee Workshop religiously. Today it is Woodsmith, Roughcut Woodworking, this site is Hugh for me, and all the magazines and on line videos. I learn the most by trying and doing. I see and try and copy.

My wood working skills really took off when I subscribed to Woodsmith back in the 80’s. I built a lot of Woodsmith projects over the years. Now I’m getting more from PopWW and a lot of Utube on turning. I usually read something on woodworking nearly every day and I have a ton of books too. Bob Lang is one of my favorite authors although now he is gone from PopWW.

i learned in high school. Watched New yankee Workshop and other shows like it.
I worked with a friend in his shop for ten years. lots of learning by doing.
i dont copy others i come up with my owe version or just get inspired by other projects.

James i like the word "religiously"watching Ney Yankee ,OH yeh. Woodsmith does a greet job of simplifying joinery and breaking down a projects into bit size pieces.

Bondo always like your comments ,Woodsmith has great projects and making lots of them has to be a great skill builder.

RC Another Norm fan ,that’s great you got to work in a shop an learn.

I learned the basics in woodshop in 1969 – 72 , the rest was trial and error . I now have a life time subscription to Handy man , push a hole set of their hard copy books. I like new Yankey Workshop and Rough cut wood working .

Never had any interest in woodworking nor knew anyone who did until a little over two years ago. When the “bug” bit he took a big bite at age 69. I love it, it is my passion and I so regret not starting sooner. I started with classes at the local Woodcraft store and of course YouTube is a major resource. My scrap pile testifies to the fact I have benefited from trial and error. I think about the things I make and hope maybe two or three generations down the way some of my descendents will treasure them because their GGGD made them. Then again it might be like a beautiful Chess board I saw recently on Craigslist. A lady stated her grandfather make it and she wanted $35 for it. Who knows what will happen to our creations?

Jack, I think you may have just come up with the next blog question. What do we hope the future generations think of our craftsmanship? Could be quite interesting.

Thanks Jack and James very good points.

Great idea James, thank you.

I’ve read a lot of books and probably buy 2-3 different woodworking mags every month. This has taught me the basics on everything from sharpening/finishing/layout/design/joinery but the real lifelong challenge is to translate what I see and know in my head about woodworking design and technique into reality. Somehow the design that I start off building never turns out as sleek as I wanted it, and the joints never as flawless as I envision them….

I have to give credit to Lumberjocks and Youtube, I’ve only been into woodworking since my retirement 5 years ago and amazingly picked things up pretty quick. I’m now successful of making an extra earning selling my projects on Etsy and it’s been greatly profitable.

Thanks for your input guys

No pressure, but it’s you, Jim. I’ve discarded all my books, gotten rid of videos and am dedicating my time to waiting on your next post.

;)

I used to have a very significant library. Since my television didn’t offer up channels with relevant information, I relied on that and magazines. However, most my training came from making firewood. That wasn’t my intention starting out.

Aside the frustration of putting a lot of time into something, then having to destroy the evidence I did, it allowed or inspired me to progress, significantly.

While I may not have been familiar with the best methods of joinery, I over built and what, otherwise, might have been a weak build held up to use well.

One advantage of not having a lot of information to follow was, I didn’t know what I couldn’t do.

Several times, well known, at least to our world, experts began promoting a process years after I’d already been doing it (e.g., scary sharp sandpaper sharpening, mixing oils and finishes, etc.).

More than once, I adopted processes I learned, years after the fact, manufacturers stated could not be done with their product. For example, I used to buy my two part, fifty-fifty epoxy by the five gallon bucket. It wasn’t until nearly ten years after I’d been using it I acquired detailed instructions telling me I could not use it on vertical surfaces.