Can one make a living working wood?

I think it very hard to compete with machine manufactured artefacts.

The only way I could see it working is if you designed something a bit off the wall and charged big bucks.

People would be buying more into the design than the actual craftsmanship.

Also you would not want to make 100 little boxes just to bring penny’s in you would want a different challenge make something different.

When I left school I done city and guilds in carpentry and joinery.

The thing is I always wanted to be a cabinet maker. but alas I ended up in the building trade and have been jack of all trades master of none. I make a living

Now I have decided to try and get back to what I always wanted to do. I know the basics so now time to refine the skills I have. In the end I know it will just be a hobby.

Nathan,

one possible solution, as a side income stream, is to work on antique renovation. My wife buys less than perfect antique furniture, I fix it then we decide if we keep it or put it back on the market. If the piece is too far gone to restore or not worth a full proper refinish, she paints it and sells it as “shabby chic” or I salvage parts.

While the side income is not yet at the level required to allow me to leave IT, it’s nothing to sneeze at. It has the added advantages of letting me inspect a lot of furniture up close to see what construction methods survive intact in the very long term and getting no objection raised when I buy yet more hand tools.

I will attempt the “build dovetail boxes at the market” experiment this summer to see if it works.

In a recent “Modern Woodworker’s Association” broadcast, Paul Sellers makes a compelling argument (and I paraphrase) that the Amateur will drive the future of woodworking because of the abundance of time and enthusiasm they have to devote to their creativity, free from many of the realistic constraints of production based professional woodwork.

In a perfect world, I would love to work wood for a living…but in reality, I doubt I could do that without having to:

1) Fully embrace/exploit the use of power tools.

2) Become buried in the vagaries (ie.. paperwork, sourcing raw materials, purchasing, hiring, leasing, legal matters) of running a business.

3) Find and maintain a talented crew to delegate portions of work.

4) Deal with the (justifiably) demanding customers who can afford your work.

5) Become stressed and ultimately fall out of love with working wood.

I suppose there are ways to “soften” the road, like supplementing your professional woodworking with teaching (opening up a WW school), authoring (magazines/books/videos), launching a brand via blogging/podcasting/youtube, selling boutique products (like wooden hand planes, saws, marking gauges, workbenches, etc). Grassroots methods. Keep the day job until the woodworking shows it can be profitable.

For now I will embrace my Amateurish freedom.

here is another question what is more important making big money or making a living working wood. what is a decent living and what are you will to give up to do what you love. anything is possible just go get it.

So, this past week as a “full time” woodworker, I broke down two shipping crates to salvage lumber that I am using for my workbench.  I then ran through my power planer, some of the 4×4’s for the legs and 3×4’s for the rails.  Then planed down the 3×4’s by hand to square and clean them up to get them ready to start the tennons.  I still have to hand plane the legs and get them ready to chop the mortises.  The rest of my week was spent at the mill with my “part time” job.

Then I see where Paul was busy too, he made a new mallet, two knives, and a bow saw, simultaneously conducting a 9-day course and finishing his coffee table.  He does this while filming, teaching, writing his blog, and having dinner with the class.  Yet he still finds time to to answer emails and have a spot of tea.

I believe I am doing something wrong.

@tedbastwock, yes, one can still earn a living working wood. I live in San Diego, which has an extremely high cost of living, and I also take classes at a local college which features a woodworking program designed to create graduates who earn their livings working wood.

To be clear, I am not a young person looking for a career, but I am regularly amongst them, and the point is that I see many young people going out and earning a living working wood, even here in one of the most expensive areas in America.

From what I’ve seen, it’s not difficult to get a job as a graduate of the program with one of many cabinet makers here in San Diego, doing custom kitchens, walk-in closets + that sort of millwork thing — and make a decent living doing so. I’ve also seen a number of graduates go right into careers making guitars, as we have some large manufacturers here, such as Taylor and Carvin, and a healthy number of smaller custom luthiers and repair shops.

I have heard it’s very difficult to make ends meet as a young graduate making furniture. That’s a very competitive space, and a much smaller space in San Diego — everyone seems to want wooden cabinets, but wooden furniture is not so pervasive — metalworking is at least as a big a contributor to custom furniture as woodworking, I’m told, so that has cut the available jobs in half, or perhaps raised the bar to the point where degrees in woodworking and metalworking would be required to have a good chance in this marketplace.

To your point about young people seeking work in the “trades”, yes, that’s also an option here. Construction is always a big part of the economy in California, and that industry always needs carpenters and framers. For a number of recent decades, that career path in California was shut down, as many of those positions were filled by very low-paid workers, but certain recent legal changes have made that less palatable for companies, opening up those pathways once again as more viable long-term careers.