Saturday, February 13, 2010

Tools of the Trade

There was a time when I was younger that tools were the last thing on my mind. I did not grow up being crafty and I wasn't considered handy by any means. Over time I acquired a desire to create and to make old things look like new. Slowly but surely this desire turned into a passion. It started out very primitive by me just doing repairs around the house. Then it grew into taking on more ambitious projects like building furniture. I built all types of tables, shelves, chests, etc. and during that time I realized that you are somewhat limited by the tools you have. The first dozen projects or so the only tools I had was a jig saw, circular saw, a few hand tools and I picked up a used router to make my furniture look more complete. As time went on I found myself becoming obsessed with tools. I wanted tools for every aspect of the building process. I bought a table saw, a bandsaw, another router, sanders, drills etc. It was getting to the point that with the tools I had bought and the jigs and fixtures I had built I barley had to touch the wood anymore. I also began noticing that I was enjoying it less and less with every project. I was always looking for ways to make the process faster, more accurate, more detailed. Where is the fun in that? I enjoyed doing more hands on than automated but furniture building doesn't lend itself to minimum shop tools being a positive. Then I discovered rustic furniture. You know, the kind built with twigs and branches and stuff like that. Now were talking! I could build a table with a camp saw, drill and a few wood screws and the branches I used had more say in how it was going to turn out than I did. The only problem was finding others that appreciated the pieces I built when they were finished. I did sell a few pieces but the fact that the pieces were pretty much in the raw as far as finishing went, most pieces looked like they belonged outside so my enthusiasm was somewhat dampered. My next big interest was airbrushing. Someone I knew taught me how to draw a pretty sweet skull ,which I never considered myself artistic until then, and since I was an auto painter by trade airbrush seemed a natural choice. I put out some pretty cool stuff but it was very easy to mess up a couple hours of work with one spit of the airbrush since I was working on hard surfaces so I tried airbrushing t shirts. That was going pretty well as far as hobbies go but I still felt like I didn't have enough control over the situation. The air brush was always a couple inches away from the surface and if you made a mistake the shirt was trash and you had to start over. I also found out that even though I was a painter for so many years I didn't really care for all of the bright colors involved with painting t shirts. I took a stab at wood carving and except for a few wood spirits and a couple failed attempts at bird carving that never really went anywhere. Then, last Christmas I got a scroll saw. This is, for me, the one most creative tool I have ever owned. I can make endless amounts of different styles of art with this and it is a very cheap hobby. I paid less than $200 for the saw,the blades run about .20 cents each if you buy in bulk and the projects are usually pretty small so that means a low material cost. Another advantage to this type of art is that it is shipping friendly so you can sell your work online. So looking back I have spent quite a bit of money on tools to get to where I am at but a lot of them I rarely use if ever. I would conclude this post by saying that if you are interested in crafting there are a lot of ways to craft with little or no tools. Having every tool you think you may need can actually take you further from your craft and closer to maintaining a lot more tools, a bigger space, a lot more noise and a lot less fun. I like dabbling in several different crafts so it doesn't hurt to have some tools of the trade but I know that you can do a lot with a couple saws and a few hand tools. Remember this: Use your head before you use your cash!

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