Photo Essay

Woodworking, one of my favorite hobbies I've been doing for six years now. It's one of those things that takes years to learn but many more to master. I’ve built many things from some simple salad tongs to a four-foot wide tv stand. Sometimes the process of turning a few sticks of wood into a piece of furniture still amazes me to this day. If I could describe what woodworking is like I would say a jigsaw puzzle, but you carve out the pieces, you put it together, and you make the picture. Surprisingly the project that was most memorable for me wasn't some tv stand it was just a cutting board I made in high school.

This day was like any other day of high school woodshop. All I had to do as the teachers aid as well as a fourth year student was do any project my instructor asked me to do and help teach the young students. For this day I was asked to make a cutting board for some old man who donated some wood to the school. The wood I was going to make the cutting board out of was the same stuff the old man dropped off. This wood was terrible to work with due to it once being used in shipping containers. The pieces were bent, warped, and smelled like old oils. With careful cutting from the table saw and the sharp teeth of the planer I was able to make the pieces of wood useable. All I did after that was glue the pieces together, sand, and stain. When that was all said and done, I handed the product to the old man. What happened next, I didn't expect. The old man was speechless and looked like he was about to cry. I shook the man’s hand, and he was on his way. what I did was make something beyond someone’s expectations and made him extremely happy and I think that moment will stick with me forever.