Around 15 years ago, a friend asked me how to get started in woodworking, and they didn’t like my answer. You’re probably going to feel the same way.
I’ve been seeing “how do I…” questions a lot on social media, Reddit, and elsewhere. “How do I get started in robotics” has been bugging me the most, and it brought to mind one of the most common questions I see about woodworking.
How do I get started in woodworking?
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Well, what do you want to make?
I don’t know.
So what do you want to do?
Make something with wood?
What do you need to make it? What are you inspired by? Where do you want to start?
Umm, maybe pocket hole stuff.
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Some hobbies, activities, or skills are easier to get into than others. Woodworking is a little more complicated, as there are a lot of different paths to set out on, and you’ll need some tools or equipment, but it’s really not that difficult.
The first step is to determine what you want to make. Is it a small box? A stand for something? Organizer? Pencil cup? Built-in bookcase? Outdoor planter?
If you can’t answer this yourself, go to the library. Maybe skim through the first book about woodworking you can find, or grab a print or digital copy of one of the few woodworking magazines still in publication.
Because of their linearity, books are great for beginner, intermediate, and advanced learning. Start researching online, and you’re bound to get sidetracked or stretched into many directions.
After that, break your goal or potential project into stages. Making a planter, for example, might requiring cutting wood, joining it together, and finishing it. Many projects will require sanding.
Then seek to solve your problems.
How do you get wood? What kind? From where? These are easy questions to answer.
You want to ask specific questions that can be answered either via your own research or by others.
What skills do you need to learn to make a wood laptop stand? What tools might that need? There are many ways to answer this, and few will be wrong.
But if you ask about how to get started in woodworking, do you want to make a pencil cup or build a gazebo?
I absolutely understand being lost and uncertain about how to move forward in different areas. But if you don’t know where you’re heading, that’s not something others can help with.
Whether it’s woodworking or other skills, hobbies, or interests, the first step is to form a goal. If the goal is too big, break it down into smaller goals.
Here is the second most frustrating question I’ve been asked about woodworking:
I want to get into woodworking, what should I buy?
Again, what’s your goal? If you want to learn how to cook, there are some basics you need to pick up, but much of what you buy will depend on your interests or the recipes you wish to follow.
I’m sorry if this sounds harsh or unhelpful.
My kids are still young and sometimes they’ll ask for help either because they cannot do something, or because they’re not confident.
When fitting, I’ll ask them what part they need help with, and I’ll ask them to show me. If they need a pointer, such as in how to pour milk into a cup without spilling it, I’ll instruct them.
I am always willing to help, but I need to know what problem needs fixing, or what obstacle needs to be cleared.
How do I get started in woodworking?
Well, what’s your goal? What challenges do you need help with? Where are you stuck?
You’ll get better advice if you have an idea of what you want to make. Seasoned woodworkers or hobbyists can help point you in the right direction, but only you can set the destination.
If you need help setting the destination, that’s a different question. “What should my first project be?”
For that, you can search Google, Pinterest, Instagram, or YouTube for “woodworking projects” – there’s plenty of inspiration. Or, you can ask something like “what first woodworking projects doesn’t require a lot of tools?”
It comes down to this: “how do I get started in woodworking” doesn’t sufficiently describe what obstacles you need help with. Set a goal or destination, and you’ll get much better advice.
If you goals are too ambitious, focus on smaller skill-building projects to help you get there.
CharlieD
One thing I heard when I started doing a bit of woodworking is that you have to use high quality hardwoods or there is no point even trying. Big Box lumber is all trash and you can’t make anything worthwhile with it.
The reality is that in many places getting high quality wood is very expensive. And when you are learning you can’t really afford to mess up hundreds of dollars of wood just to learn how to make a saw cut or take proper measurements for said cut.
There are thousands of projects you can make with inexpensive wood. Both practical shop projects and more decorative items, with sheet goods and dimensional building lumber. Yes you do need to actually LOOK at the wood you buy from a big box store. Pay attention to the knots. Pay attention to the grain and bow/twist of what you are buying. But don’t be afraid to just find some plans for basic stuff and…build it.
Robert
Agree. But even the “cheap” wood jumped up in price during Covid and has not seemed to come down. The relevance to this discussion is that wood is no longer “cheap,” and so it’s more likely the newbie is going to get more easily discouraged because the cost of their mistakes is much higher.
Stuart
You can do a lot with pine and poplar project boards from the home center.
You can buy serving boards or cutting boards fro IKEA and shape them into new things.
I was able to make functional projects in college with boards purchased from Home Depot or Lowe’s. There was no other option, and it wasn’t like today where you can order surfaced and planed boards to your doorstep if you’re willing to spend more for it.
If someone wants to create with wood on a smaller budget, there are plenty of smaller projects.
Messing up.is part of learning. The great thing about wood is that it can often be salvaged and cut down or glued-up for other projects.
Big Richard
HD and Lowes have a fairly underwhelming selection. I do wish they had more options. For anyone in the Midwest, Menards has a decent selection of hardwood boards in stock in various 1/2x and 1x sizes. Maple, poplar, aspen, hickory, mahogany, red oak, and alder are all readily in stock so you can get your hands on them before buying. They also have different grades of pine, with their “select” pine boards being knot free radiata pine. It’s a pretty easy wood to work with, and inexpensive compared to the hardwoods.
I’ve been doing a lot with hickory, has character to it and it is so heavy and dense it’s practically bulletproof. The contrast of maple and mahogany is another popular choice.
Influencers have made it that working with anything other than purpleheart and padauk is blasphemy, but I’m with you that you can do a lot with home center boards.
Stuart
Underwhelming, but workable. The home centers near me have oak project boards and buy-by-the-foot maple. The premium pine is quite nice and beats having to select and process 2x4s or other construction lumber. Its a soft wood, but highly workable.
MM
Sadly in my area the options beyond construction lumber are pine, red oak (very small selection), and poplar. Workable, yes, but very underwhelming. Luckily there is exactly one local lumberyard which stocks baltic birch plywood. I have a very good full-service hardwood store that mills to order and has a massive selection about 2 hours away, but honestly I prefer to mail-order what I can’t get locally. I wish I had a local source for white oak, maple, or hickory. I often make things that need to be strong rather than decorative and while it sometimes works the red oak the local places have splits easily and has very open grain so sometimes it’s not appropriate.
Brandon
I have a Menards within walking distance to my house and I will agree with you on the selection of hardwood boards there. Now I would never pay that price for it (I am a woodshop teacher), but for those who don’t have the access that I do, there can be decent material to be had.
It may be worth anyone looking into the ability to purchase material from a local sawmill/lumber yard. I just bought 1000′ of 4/4 #1 common soft maple for $0.85 per bd/ft. Since covid, lumber prices at the mill I buy from have dropped, and for some species, are cheaper than some dimensional lumber from big box stores. May be worth a look.
Bonnie
Depends a lot on the individual store. The HD near my old place stocked surprisingly nice S2S Walnut. It cost an arm and a leg but it was there if for some reason you were desperate.
My new store doesn’t carry any hardwood except oak balusters, but has way nicer plywood for some reason.
Goodie
Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, I built a lot of projects with pine as a kid. It helped that I had family working in the timber industry and could occasionally get some scrap from the local mills. It’s a pretty good place to start. Very workable, inexpensive, and affordable for those first projects. Many of the pine boards folks buy at a home center are already S4S and don’t require milling.
MM
To add to what everyone has already said here about useful things you can get from big-box stores, I think the internet now has a lot of great resources for sourcing woodworking materials. The ability to buy wood online means you can buy exactly what you need while minimizing waste. Back when I was in college I built a set of speakers and I needed a small piece of ebony to make the terminal blocks. I drove an hour and a half to a hardwood specialty store for my materials. They had the Ebony, but I had to buy quite a large (and very expensive) board just to get the piece I needed. Had that been today I could have simply mail-ordered a piece much closer to the size I wanted with minimal waste.
Pen turning blanks are all over the place online and can be economical for getting samples of new woods. The pieces are small but they are large enough for many parts of larger projects, and they can be glued together to make larger pieces. They can also be used for accents and inlays, adding a little character to a larger board of cheaper material. Buying an assortment pack is a great way to get hands-on experience with a bunch of different exotic woods without spending much money. There are other good “grab bag” assortments out there too, I’ve bought this one multiple times:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H2AF2FO
…if you buy two of those at the same time you actually receive a single 20-lb box that contains larger pieces rather than two individual 10-lb packs. There are deals available up to 25% off if you buy multiples, and sometimes additional coupons on top of that. I found that to be a great way to get some more interesting pieces of wood on hand for projects and for inspiration.
And now we also have resources like ebay, etsy, craigslist, that makes it easier to find reclaimed wood, not just new material.
MM
Excellent article! I agree, you need a goal of some kind. Maybe that’s some specific project like “build a rocking chair”, but it can also be something more basic, like “learn how to hand-cut dovetails”. I can’t help but think that anyone interested in woodworking must have some project(s) in mind or process they want to learn, and any of those things can be broken down into smaller individual goals.
I’m getting more into woodworking lately than I ever have been. I do have some specific projects in mind but those will come later, after I’ve improved my skills and obtained the right equipment. Until then I’ve been doing a combination of:
-fun projects that are just an excuse to play around with new techniques and ideas
-looking for practical around-the-shop projects that need doing, things like tool handles, jigs, organization, etc.
-homework. I’ve been doing simple carving projects and making different kinds of fancy joints just to get more practice.
Stuart
I’ve been seeing a lot of “how do I get into…” and “I want to get into…” questions and posts on social media and online communities. It’s the same, over and over. They ask how to get started, but there are no specifics. It brought back an argument I had with a friend a while back, and that prompted this post.
Some people ask for help because they want all of the work done for them. However, I think that most people are overwhelmed with starting new things, and the internet has gotten so noisy so as to make it difficult to research the paths forward.
Woodworking gets discouraging when beginners try to follow other’s paths.
Setting a goal, heading, project idea – anything – can help. Momentum depends on velocity (in part), which requires direction.
MM
I see similar questions on various forums, but I can’t but wonder if many of them are “engagement posts” designed to get people talking to promote the forum rather than coming from a human being who is honestly interested in the topic at hand.
The lack of specifics is what is puzzling to me. I understand that a beginner might have no idea where to get materials, what tools they need, and so on, but surely they must have some idea as to if they’re interested in carving garden gnome statues, building replica 18th century French furniture, or making strip-built canoes. I feel that people must have some project or process in mind when they express interest in woodworking, so it’s logical to progress towards that. If the end goal is far away then it’s just a matter of taking smaller steps to get there, building skills and confidence along the way. Even the most complicated of projects can be broken down into a list of simple steps.
Josephus
I’m doing this right now. Building a small insulated cat house so the strays have somewhere to shelter from the rain. Work lets me take pallets home for free wood so messing up doesn’t bother me so much. Not like it’s expensive wood.
Stuart
Just make sure they’re not treated; a lot of pallets are made with nasty chemical-treated wood.
I’ve seen things escalate where someone might see reclaimed wood projects online and seek to do the same, only to later realize they used toxic leeching wood in veggie and herb garden.
Josephus
They’re not treated, no HT or MB markings, no chemical smells. Not trying to make them coffins. Mostly just using the 2x4s to keep the house off the ground.
John E
Salvaged cedar fence pickets are great for this. I made several feral cat houses and two I know of are still going strong after 20 years. Shingle scraps for the roof and offcuts of plywood for the floor. Old fence posts for the legs.
Jayden
Unfortunately with YouTube alot of people who are hobbyists are constantly fed into you need this tool or that tool for your next project. Just acquire the basic tools needed and go from there. Also don’t quit your full time job and think woodworking will cover all your expenses. It won’t.
Jonathan OAF
Thank you for this article. It’s a nice way to organize one’s thoughts to arrive at one’s goals.
Alexk
When first thinking about getting into woodworking, I would have liked someone to suggest that I build a box. A wooden box like a milk crate would use a small amount of wood and teach two basic aspects of woodworking. Using a saw and a hammer. Cutting and joining. Once you make a box, you can make a work table, shelving, cabinet etc. or go in a different direction. In my tool backpack that goes in any vehicle I’m driving, there is my hammer and drill and a folding Japanese style saw and multi tool. Chances are if I’m fixing something, it might require cutting and/or joining two pieces.
MM
A box of some kind is probably the most classic beginner woodworking project, and seems to be universal. It was the first project I ever did back in scouts many years ago. I like to flip through woodworking project books at the secondhand bookstore to get ideas and boxes are always very high on the beginner project lists. The book Japanese Woodworking Tools: Their Tradition, Spirit and Use by Toshio Odate recommends a toolbox as a first project and provides instructions on how to build one. I don’t think you’ll find many people disagreeing with this suggestion!
Nathan
I think part of why you see that on social media is also social media. People with no training and probably little schooling in mechanics or geometry. Not saying college degree in engineering but say hs geometry. And they see “makers” building stuff in 30 minutes or so on …….
Oh I want to get into word working with scrap pallets like … .. oh wait it takes a whole day to get enough wood pieces together and you use 2 gallons of glue and epoxy.
They don’t see what’s involved in getting there as much. I see the same with car restoration/repair. Why does it take 2 hours to change the brakes. Well you don’t have a lift a shop air tools and …. Ok but 2 hours with a jack in the driveway is good. Ticktetly rock guy you watched cut out probably an hour of his job to show it.
Ben
Spot on.
I changed the pads and rotors on my car this weekend, having never done it before. Most of the how-to videos I’d watched were 15 – 20 minutes; everything came off easily, nothing broke, and there was minimal rust on all the components.
I budgeted 5 hours. It took all 5 hours, between getting the wheels off (rusted to the hub), caliper bracket bolts extracted (one snapped due to rust and overtorquing by whoever did it last), rotors off (also rusted to the hub), trips to the hardware store to get more supplies and a new bolt, getting as much rust as possible off everything, getting interrupted every 10 minutes by my kids (whom I love to death) asking if I was done yet, etc.
I expect it to be easier next time, but man, I wish people filmed car repair videos somewhere where salt is used on the roads, and there are actual winters.
Bonnie
The first time you do anything it’s to take several times as long even if there’s no problems.
Jared
Wood working or any other project, I think your advice rings true. I don’t know if I’ve ever made something just to do it (e.g. to “get into woodworking”) or even specifically to learn a skill (excluding perhaps, way back in shop class where projects were selected for me).
Instead I make stuff because I want that thing. I might be trying to save money over buying it, or more often these days because I want something extremely specific or something that doesn’t otherwise exist – e.g. an organizer that fits MY drawers and tools, a picture frame done exactly how I want to match a photo, a torch holder that clips onto my table, etc.
Having a goal in mind like that also helps the inevitable stage in seemingly every project where you realize it’s going to be more work and take longer than you envisioned and your interest and attention wanes. Or maybe that’s just me…
Stuart
It’s not just woodworking. Figure out what you want to do, research to see if it’s feasible, and repeat, asking for help solving specific problems or getting past specific obstacles along the way.
Fowler
This is my favorite way to learn, and it’s how I got into electronics when I was a kid.
Usually I’ll watch or read instructional material for long enough that I understand the basic methods, and eventually I have enough knowledge to start figuring out how I can actually accomplish the project, even if I’m not directly following a set of plans. Then I just take it slow and double check my methods as I go and things usually turn out pretty good.
There’s always stuff you learn that could’ve gone better, but that just helps inform your process for the next project
William Adams
Agree having a project to start is a necessary impetus.
That said, an excellent resource, one which I’ve bought multiple copies to hand out to folks (and which when loaned out, has consistently failed to come back) is Andy Rae’s:
_Choosing and Using Hand Tools_
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2340743.Choosing_Using_Hand_Tools
KokoTheTalkingApe
I’ll have to disagree. I think you should start with a particular construction technique, and come up with projects that can use that technique. Then learn another technique, and more projects that use the two.
Too many times I see people on Reddit posting a picture of a Regency armoire, asking “where do they start” with that project. They have no idea how hard it is, because they have no idea how to build anything at all. Nor how to plan out the construction process, step by step.
So I would start with a very simple technique, like simple lap joints, glued and screwed. Make a few for practice, then make a few simple projects, like sawhorses or even a workbench. Then move on to half-lap joints, then biscuits or dowels, then mortise and tenon, etc. (Throw sanding and finishing in there somewhere and return to it periodically, because finishing is deep. And include something early on about wood, the various kinds of wood, and the various other materials.) Each new skill will help them imagine new things they can build. They will also help them learn to visualize each step, and their necessary order.
That’s how I would do it. I actually made a few lesson plans for Woodworking for Absolute Beginners, but the nonprofit where I would’ve taught it went under. :-/ Lessons included How to Make Things Strong, Dealing with Construction Lumber, etc.
Stuart
This book comes to mind – 52 Boxes in 52 Weeks: Improve Your Design Skills One Box At A Time https://www.amazon.com/dp/1631868926/?tag=toolguyd-20
A progression of general skill-building projects is a good idea, but it’s not going to be a good fit for everyone.
Goodie
Beginners really should take some classes if they want to work with powertools. Youtube has some very good content, but there’s also so many people being unsafe with tools; it’s a better resource when someone has a decent safety baseline and skillset so they can filter out the garbage from the gold.
Rockler and Woodcraft often offer classes to build bookcases or cabinets. The store near me offers a make & take bookcase class for $540, which sounds like a lot until you factor in that you get to take the bookcase home and receive instruction on all the powertools. There’s another course (building a pine stool that you get to take home) for $120. For folks near a good woodworking store, this is a great way to start.
I also think that home improvement is a great place to start as a woodworker. Build some shelves, a bookcase, or cut some molding for your house. It’s a great way to learn how to measure, make square cuts, and perform simple joinery.
Brent
To get started in woodworking if it’s furniture making, I strongly recommend looking at the course offering at your local junior college/community college. I do IT support for a college that has their beginning furniture class’s skill project refined and packed full of skills. It’s amazing, a 15-week class with 6 to 8 hours a week. Taking you from zero knowledge to a solid foundation on machine and traditional hand tools; planes, chisels, cabinet scrapers, etc…
20 years ago, when I took the class, it started out as a shaker style wall cabinet. Now it has evolved into an Arts and Craft styled wall cabinet with a Japanese Kumiko (wood lattice work) window in the Frame and panel door. The door is assembled with mortise and tenon joinery. The panel is book matched veneered in a vacuum press. The box of the cabinet I’ve seen them assemble it different ways over the years sliding dovetails, through tenons, loose tenons(domino’s) biscuit joinery, dovetail, box finger joint, etc. With the back of the cabinet made of re-saw boards joined with tongue and groove done on the table saw with very simple, but impressive set ups using the standard blade, feather boards and applied secondary fence like what you use dadoing, only it is place with a gap, allowing the tongue to slide under the fence, but the shoulder to ride the fence, enabling you to have one set up to cut the v-notch both the tongue side and groove side of the back boards. OK I’m rambling but they show you like at least a half a dozen other techniques, including how to dovetail a small drawer with a handsaw, fitting butt hinges, etc. Because it’s such a well-equipped shop they show you at least two or three different ways to do many things, partially to spread people out on the various equipment but also so that whenever you’re working with in your own home shop with more limited equipment, you’ll be able to complete a task because you’ve been exposed to various options.
Their second level course is a bowfront hall table with drawer. The bowfront is bend lamination is accomplished with vacuum veneering. Then there’s pattern routing for the tabletop has starburst veneer panel with a decorative banding with hardwood frame, all flush. A lot of skill development very quickly in 9 months across the fall and spring semesters.
But if a good program is unavailable near you. I recommend if you’re wanting to start from a DIY carpentry power tools point of view look at Popular Woodworking’s “I can do That” series they have a bunch of projects and a PDF manual outlining techniques for basic power tools like jigsaw, miter saw, circular saw, power drill, pocket hole jig, router, etc. And they avoid tablesaw, jointer and planer to keep the projects accessible “low-cost” tools. They also tend to be light on hand tool skills in these projects. https://www.popularwoodworking.com/i-can-do-that/ They also have a book and a video series.
If you want start with hand tool skills I would recommend checking out Chris Schwartz’s Anarchist Design Book https://lostartpress.com/products/the-anarchists-design-book You can get a free PDF of it, but I highly recommend the Lost Art Press’s physical books they are made beautifully, well bound, nice paper, etc… I own dozens of the books that they’ve published.
If you’re looking for beginner hand tool instructions on YouTube, I highly recommend Paul Sellers YouTube channel. Rex Krueger’s is also nice. Grandpa Amu for Chinese Woodworking and Shoyan Japanese Carpenter for traditional Japanese carpentry.
Finewoodworking.com for Intermediate to advanced videos and articles.