Making Custom Furniture: Where To Begin?

I get asked fairly often for woodworking advice and I’m always stumped. I am, for the most part, self-taught (that is, as much as anyone can be self-taught these days with a connection to YouTube).

My godfather was a true jack-of-all-trades. From plumbing to working on cars to woodworking he could do it all. He had a shop at his house and lived two doors down from me. His three sons and my two brothers and I were always in that shop. We were all between four and ten and it was the ‘80s, so we were typically making all that our G.I. Joe-and-Masters of the Universe-riddled brains could think of: Weapons. Our guns were usually made of pvc or metal pipes and duct tape, but our swords and shields were always wood. That’s when my life-long study of grain began.

Obviously it wasn’t anything scientific, but I have been cutting and manipulating wood since then. The most important thing I have learned about woodworking is the understanding of grain. Understanding that will unlock so many facets of woodworking. That and, of course, a trained hand. But those come together. So, What’s my advice for you? 

Pick up a piece of wood and make something out of it. Whittle a spike out of a stick you find on the ground (8-year-old me’s favorite). Make an ugly end table or a cutting board you know you are going to have to throw away. Just get some wood and manipulate it! That’s it!