Woodworking | Shaping Wood to Your Design

Custom woodworking is an ideal hobby to pursue as it involves many disciplines of shaping wood. Custom woodworking is not as hard as you think. All too often custom woodworking is confused with hiring someone to custom build or craft and expensive piece of wooden art. Custom woodworking can also be described as building or crafting something that you or one of your family and friends would want or need. It doesn’t have to be amazingly detailed or ultra fancy, just something you enjoy either as art or a functional item like a chair.

You don’t need to spend a bunch of money to buy all those wonderful tools; custom woodworking can include anything from carving to fine furniture building. Probably the simplest form of custom woodworking is shaping wood by carving or  “whittlin” as we say here in the south. A good piece of wood and a sharp knife can create any manner of wooden implement or art including walking sticks, whistles, and just about anything your imagination can come up with. Of course the larger and more complex the designs almost certainly results in the need for more TOOLS! Carving has literally hundreds of different tools for shaping wood in many ways.

As the Wood Turns

In my humble opinion the most enjoyable hobby is woodturning. Woodturning is more complex and requires more TOOLS than carving but offers a unique ability to start and finish a project with one set of tools. From bowls & boxes to wood pens, the lathe can be addicting and a great way to show off your individuality with unique creations.  Woodturning can also be combined with carving and other wood shaping techniques to fabricate  fantastic and beautiful creation.

Putting it all Together in Furniture

A more traditional branch of custom woodworking and shaping wood is furniture making. Furniture making is more than hobby status and can easily be the most involved, require the most TOOLS and know how of any custom woodworking area. The expertise required to build functional and beautiful furniture requires attention to detail and advanced techniques for shaping wood. You don’t have to have years of experience, but you do need many general woodworking skills and plenty of patience to achieve that finished look.

Whatever form of custom woodworking and shaping wood you enjoy, you will need a resource for knowledge, TOOLS and supplies. Aside from those tools, you will need plenty of finishing supplies like sandpaper, varnishes, oils and such. Visit our friends for everything you need to get and keep you going on all your custom woodworking projects.