Preparing For The Woodcraft Shop

You're eager to get started on the road to woodcrafting immortality, and your first stop along the way will be at the local woodcraft shop. It is the ideal place to start, because the staff there will have already been bitten by the woodcrafting bug and eager to share their enthusiasm. They will give you the proper guidance concerning the tools and woodcrafting material for your first project.

But just in case you have questions, you can bring along a list of likely purchases, and get an education from the woodcraft shop staff about the necessity for each. Here are some suggested tools and materials to run past them:

Equipment To Consider Choose a tape measure over a yardstick, both because the tape measure will cover longer distances and because of its flexibility. Have you ever tried to measure around a curve using a yardstick?

Ask about your options for saws, knives, and cutters. You'll need some of each--saws for larger pieces of wood from which you'll cut the basic shapes of your projects; knives and cutters for more delicate pattern and corner work. The woodcraft shop staff will have a handle on how much fancy work is involved in your project.

If you have no hammer and nails at home, you'll need to get some. The woodcraft shop will have nails in a side variety of sized, so again ask the staff what is best for your task. And one of your woodcraft shop must-haves--really, don't leave the woodcraft ship without it--is wood glue. Wood glue will bond your work even when nails work loose.

Depending on the nature of your first woodcraft effort, you may need a router to create furrows in your wood in accordance with the design you have chosen. The woodcraft shop will have a variety of routers, or the staff will tell you that you don't need one.

You may not need a drill for your project this time, but if you stay with woodcrafts you eventually will. Ask about them.

If you want to give your woodworking a distinctive look, investigate the woodcraft shop's scroll saws. Power saws with very fine-toothed blades, scroll saws are the secrets responsible for the curved elegance of many a woodcraft project. Sooner or later you'll be taking one home.

The Wood Finally, you need to start talking wood. You will have to think about the best wood or woods for your project plans, and you can't do that without knowing the qualities of the many woods available. Tell the woodcraft shop staff how you envision the finished effort, and listen to their suggestions about which wood will make it happen.

All the above tools and materials, including the power equipment are user-friendly and manageable even for novice woodcrafters. But you have to decide if you are committed enough to woodcrafting at this point to invest in the power tools. They will certainly make your first project go more quickly, but if it turns out to be your last project, you may regret the expense.

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You can also find more info on Woodcraft Shop and Woodcraft Store. Allthingswoodworking.com is a comprehensive resource to get information about Woodcrafting.