50 plus years ago I built a table

[curlyoak]

The boss was on vacation and said I could do my own work in the shop. A friend needed a small dining room table. The entire table was the lowest grade walnut so I bought it. All I could afford. It was mostly juvenile wood. I thought the table was a complete failure. It did get cracks in the top. The owner of the table fills and sands a lot over the years and likes the work. The apron and legs are still connected. And they dont mind the sanding. They look forward to it. It turns out that various family members  use it  from a year to ten years at a time have used and enjoyed having it.   And it is in current use for the last 9 years. 

It is the first thing I built on my own and expected it to be firewood.  And there was an early and valuable lesson learned! The wood matters. Understanding wood matters. Experience is my best teacher.

When I knew them I was into baking bread. I gave them some bread. My bread with my name next after the bread in their recipe book. And they still make the bread.

[Beechwood Chip]

When my father was a young man, he knocked together a fast and dirty set of drawers for holding his tools.  He used it continuously for decades, and I learned the names and uses of all the tools by helping him on projects.  "Bring me the 8" adjustable crescent wrench" and I needed to know what tool that was and which drawer to look in.  After a lot of trial an error, I learned them all.

When he got older and I started woodworking, he gave the cabinet and tools to me.  I still have it.

Every time he saw it in my shop, he'd say, "If I knew how long it would be used, I would have made it better."