Woodcraft

There is nothing like taking a plain old piece of wood and carving it into something beautiful, functional and/or educational. Back in the pioneer days, the art of making toys by woodcraft was the pride and joy a father bestowed upon his children. He first made the wooden toys for his children when they were very young. Then when they got old enough, and were taught the safety of handling a knife, he taught them the fundamentals of woodworking.

Wooden building blocks advanced into educational toys by painting the letters of the alphabet on them, to help improve spelling and reading. If there wasn't enough money to buy furniture, the family made their tables, chairs and bed frames. Fine wood working has come a long way since then, with the use of wood lathes, power saws, routers, planers and a whole lot of other wood working tools.

Remembering back to my high school days; I took on the project of making four teak dinner plates on the wood lathe. I had no experience with this piece of equipment, so this really became a challenge. I had to first glue two pieces of teak wood together to get the width I wanted. Then I attach a face plate to the back of each piece for mounting onto the lathe. The instructor warned me not to put too much pressure on the chisel, so I would not damage the wood or make a mistake I could not correct. Each plate came out just a little different which made them unique and what a good feeling it was to see my finished work.

Now days, we have all kinds of books and magazines to give us ideas and to explain how to make all these different projects. Next time you look at a plain old piece of wood, let your imagination go wild and see what you come up with.