First, get a good handle on the basics.
This answer is generally from a hand tool perspective, but much of it also applies to power tools.
These are some of what I consider to be the basics of woodworking:
- Understand wood, its structure, and its limitations. This will help you select quality boards, process them, as well as correct many of the defects that a particular piece of wood may have. Keep in mind that wood – unlike plastics and metals – changes dimensions with changes in humidity, not changes in heat; it is a factor that affects your design, joinery, and many other aspects of building a piece of furniture. Learn how to read the grain in the board. This will help you determine the best direction to cut, plane, scrape, etc. Planning against the grain and causing (severe) tear-out is one of the faster ways to ruin a good piece of wood and a project.
- Perform accurate marking and measuring. If your marking and measuring are inaccurate, then you’re just wasting wood. Accurate marking and measuring requires accurate marking and measuring tools. For furniture building, a tape measure and a cheap hardware store combination square are not going to do what you need them to do. Spend the money on a good quality steel rule and a Starrett combination square; you’ll be glad that you did. Buy an accurate try square, or make your own. Use a marking knife to mark your cut lines; darken the knife line with a .5 mm mechanical pencil, if necessary. A pair of dividers and a knowledge of basic geometry will save you a lot of time in layout tasks and help you avoid trying to measure ridiculous dimensions like 37/64ths of an inch wide dovetail pins.
- Learn how to cut to a line, whether using a hand saw, a back saw, or a table saw; this includes trimming to a line using a hand plane, spokes have, or a chisel. This becomes particularly important when you start cutting joinery, such as mortise and tenon or dovetail joints. Accurately cutting to a line saves you much time and effort with trimming and fitting, and results in a better looking piece.
- Learn how to effectively use a hand plane. A hand plane can help you sneak up on a perfect fit, shape your wood, and will save you lots of time and effort putting a final finish on your surfaces; it also saves you from all of the dust and tedium of sanding through the grits. A hand plane also allows you to dimension wood that won’t fit on your power jointer or through your thickness planer, without having to cut the board into narrower pieces.
- Learn how to effectively use a chisel. Not only can chisels be used for chopping, but they are very effective for doing minute, precision trimming, flattening the bottoms of grooves, chopping mortises, etc.
- Learn how to accurately bore a hole. Whether using an egg-beater hand drill, a bit brace, an electric hand drill, or a drill press, you need to learn how to control the tool to put the hole exactly where you need it, at the necessary angle, to the proper depth, etc.
- Learn how to sharpen. If you are going to use hand tools, you must know how to sharpen them. Otherwise, you’ll be endlessly waiting for your sharpening service to get them back to you. Besides, dull tools are dangerous, don’t work properly, leave a poor quality surface, and are a trip to the emergency room waiting for a time and place to happen.
- Understand finishing: what the various finishes are, their strengths and weaknesses, their appropriateness for different uses, safety, stylistic effects, period appropriateness, application techniques, troubleshooting, etc.
- Learn how to build and use the various appliances – shooting boards, bench hooks, bench jacks, sawing benches, etc. – to make your work more accurate and more efficient.
- Build a woodworking library: books, magazine articles, videos. These will teach you new methods and techniques, and will also serve as a reference library, for when you want to double-check a technique or other information.
Next, learn how to create quality joinery. At the minimum, I would suggest becoming proficient at making through and half-blind dovetails, through and stopped (draw bored) mortise and tenon joints, and sprung joints (for creating panels and table tops, etc.). Sliding dovetails, dadoes, and variations on the M & T and dovetail joints can come later, as you need them.
Learn how to make your own moldings. Matt Bickford’s book, Moldings in Practice, is an excellent primer on the subject.
Learn how to turn. You don’t necessarily need to become an “expert” turner, but you do need to become sufficiently proficient that you can turn your own table legs, chair spindles, finials, etc., for the furniture that you want to build.
For shop projects, see #9, above. Robert Wearing’s books have a wealth of information on shop aids, jigs, appliances, etc. A solid work bench would also be one of the first things to build, if you haven’t already. Chris Schwarz’s books on benches are well worth reading before building your bench. His The Anarchist’s Tool Chest is also well worth reading, for ideas on tools and storage, as well as a bit of woodworking philosophy. A tool chest or tool cabinet for storing and protecting your tools is also something that I would recommend as an early shop project.
Once you are ready to go, then select an area that you want to explore, become proficient in, specialize in, etc.
That area might be tables, boxes, chairs, casework, etc. Choose one and get good at it. Then expand you skills in a different area, but maintain your proficiency in your original area. Over time, you can, if you so desire, become proficient in several different areas of woodworking.
For traditional hand tool woodworking subjects, Lost Art Press has a wealth of information – books and videos. Lie-Nielsen Tool works has a very good selection of woodworking books and, especially, videos, mostly hand tool oriented and many of which were very professionally produced in-house. Fine Woodworking’s books and article compilations are also very useful. Popular Woodworking published three compilations of Woodworking Magazine’s volumes, which are very informative on hand tool woodworking subjects.
Good luck, and best wishes for an interesting, fun, and successful woodworking career!
