Woodworking in the Digital Age

It has been said that the world of the present runs on electronics and coffee. If you’ve spent time in an urban tech career, you probably understand where this saying comes from. As an expert computer user and a well informed e-commerce customer, it isn’t impractical for me to buy a wooden coat hanger online faster than I can walk outside, pick up a pine cone, and return to my chair. So why would the thought of starting woodworking projects, to make things like said coat hanger or the new dining furniture I’ve been thinking about even cross my mind?

Well, the idea is simple. You could say that computers and the economy have made woodworking obsolete, but doing your own woodworking hasn’t been cost effective since far before the start of the digital age. But I think that because we are so tied into our electronics in the present day, activities like woodworking have never been more beneficial, more productive, or more important.

Woodworking is a unique craft in that it combines an art form (something akin to sculpting) with the idea of making a practically usable and useful item out of a common building material. It combines construction and productivity with creativity to create a rewarding experience, and doesn’t require much skill at all. Even just spending a few minutes working with wood a day, or a weekend once a year, can prove rewarding over a much longer period of time. Coming home and hanging your coat on its hook, and remembering the weekend two years ago you spent making that hook, can be a very refreshing experience.

Woodworking is not usually the first craft that comes to mind when people consider how they can be creative and productive, and it can be difficult to know where to start looking for supplies or guidance to start a project. There is, of course, a plethora of information to be found online; as for the supplies, or if you’d rather leave the computer off for this project, you can always rely on your local hardware store like Home Depot or Lowe’s.