Reply To: It Must Be Me
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Ken,
I wouldn’t be discouraged. Without hands on/in front of the instructor instruction, it will take longer.
I would like to talk a little bit about my own progress through this world of woodworking, perhaps it applies to you as well. For a long time I spent more time reading and researching woodworking techniques and tools than actually working wood. After that came more time rehabbing old tools than working wood, so I would be able to use those tools for the specialized operations needed in advanced woodworking. The time spent flattening that #80 cabinet scraper when I haven’t made a project out of a scrape-able wood could probably be better prioritized (I mostly use pine and red alder, while both can be scraped they are not optimal for it, especially if you aren’t very good at sharpening the scraper blade).
I think the tendancy is to put off those inevitable failures in the workshop by trying to overprepare by researching/reading about woodworking. I’m certainly guilty of it. My solution (unproven at this point in time, but I’m hopefull) was to buy 60 board feet of inexpensive local red alder, and make a commitment to spend more time ruining it that I do sitting in front of my computer thinking about woodworking. As you can see, it’s only partially working, as I’m obviously sitting here writing a novel 🙂 In my defense, it’s pretty late here and I don’t think my neighbors would appreciate me chopping out the mortises in the bookcase frame currently covering my workbench.
In short, I think the secret to both of us improving our skills is less time watching cool videos that @Ken Haygarth posted on WWMC 🙂