I frequently mention that traditional woodcraft and other period crafts are useful tools in developing life skills. What is it about these skills that are still attractive to the modern family?

Developing mental and physical skills is an important part of childhood development. Indeed, it is a process that should continue throughout life.

First of all, let’s just say that not all 18th and 19th century methods of work are worth repeating. Frankly, there just isn’t a lot of modern attraction for the general public in developing skills in things like traditional deep mine coal mining, pit sawing (manual sawmilling), steelmaking, shipbuilding, and so on.

Many of these are technologies that shouldn’t be lost, but they just aren’t practical or desireable for the average family. The cost, labor, or risk is too great for the importance of the skill and creativity involved.

Actually, I would like to try pitsawing some day, but I certainly don’t want to saw stacks of lumber that way. The barrier to entry is very low, but the labor inputs are extremely high and little skill is involved that isn’t also involved in running a modern mill.

There are other skills like shoemaking, tinsmithing, blacksmithing, leartherworking, pottery, hunting, fishing, woodworking, boatbuilding, gardening, and animal husbandry that still have a lot to offer. These are skills that tend to offer opportunities for high levels of creativity, craftsmanship, and personal expression while still being relatively safe, and easy to get into. They also provide us a glimpse into our past.

I’m not suggesting that these crafts are the most profitable ways to earn a living. There are, however, people involved in various aspects of these types of crafts who do make a reasonable living.

For most people, the benefit lies mainly in training the hands and mind to work together in a creative way. In today’s world, the types of skills young people can developed through these crafts can serve very well in the modern marketplace. For many, they may also lead to a life long hobby fueling personal creativity. Yet others will be so attracted to their craft they will be irresistably drawn in until they find ways of making a living doing what they love.

Proper parental supervision is always adviseable. (Do I really have to say that hot blacksmithing isn’t appropriate for kids?)

I try to be involved with my kids, but not overbearing, helping them be creative on their own terms. I’m not always successful at either one, but my kids really appreciate it when I do get it right.

There’s life after school,
Luke Townsley
SaltMakers.com

Do you know how to find a job? Do your kids know how to find a job?

It seems most people don’t.

Proper compensation for work

First of all, I really don’t like the idea a lot of people have of “getting a job.” I prefer to think of it in terms of getting properly compensated for the value you offer. No one owes anyone a job. The bottom line is that payment is made for services delivered. Or even more to the point, in a job, payment is made when you make someone else money.

How to make money

I believe you should have the mindset of an entrepreneur in the sense that he is responsible for his own income. But even having a reasonable mindset, that still leaves us with the niggling little detail of how to actually make money. The answer to that question is a very personal one. For one person, it might be selling used cars, for another, it might mean selling ebooks, for another it might mean computer programming.

In spite of the complexity of the question, there are still some common themes we can discuss  here.

Figure out who you are

This is actually more difficult than it might seem at first. Middle age people with the benefit of a lot of life experience might have an easier time than younger people, but for any adult, it is an important question. It is also an important thing for parents to discover in their children.

Some people make the mistake of spending most of their time focusing on weaknesses.

The problem with that mindset is that it doesn’t work well and is very frustrating for all involved. It is also very limiting since our greatest successes will always be in areas of strength.

As a simple illustration, I have a toolbox full of tools I use to repair things. There is no hammer in that box, but there is a big pair of locking pliers. In a pinch, they can be used to hit things, sort of like a hammer. But guess what! When I am pounding in large nails, I will always reach for a hammer. Why? Because that tool was designed for that.

We are a lot like that in that God designed us with a specific bent. When we find out what we were made to do and spend most of our time developing that. we will find our greatest success.

Your temperament

I believe the first place to start when considering a long term career choice is our own temperament. The impact our temperament or personality has on how we work and relate to people is quite phenomenal. Happily, it is also one of the simplest things to figure out.

Some people like the DISC profile. Although very useful, it seems to me to have some significant shortcomings. Perhaps I just don’t understand it that well.

As far as I am concerned, the “gold standard” for temperament profiling is the Myers-Briggs type indicator.

Either of these are relatively easy to discover and many people find them quite useful. There are other methods out there also that might be of some usefulness.

Books teaching success principles

Now to be clear, I love learning and think college can be a great thing. I also think it is vastly overrated. In any event, many college graduates can testify that having a college degree does not necessarily translate into being able to get a job.

Before you spend $40,000 on a college education, how about reading a few books first to learn basic success principles that aren’t taught or even “caught” in most college classes?

Here are some suggestions (note: these Amazon affiliate links are listed in no particular order):

1. How to Win Friends & Influence People
2. Gifts Differing: Understanding Personality Type
3. What Color Is Your Parachute? 2012: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers
4. 48 Days to the Work You Love: Preparing for the New Normal (Dan has a GREAT podcast at 48days.com)
5. Born to Win (Made for Success Collection)
6. The book of Proverbs in the Bible
7. What Happy People Know: How the New Science of Happiness Can Change Your Life for the Better
8. You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Start & Succeed in a Farming Enterprise (More than farming, a practical way of thinking about life and starting a business)
9. The Power of Who: You Already Know Everyone You Need to Know
10. Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered

Depending on your unique gifts, you will certainly want to substitute or add a few choice works to this collection.

You can find great work

With the right perspective, having discovered your gifts, and with the knowledge to figure out how to get it done, do you believe you can find great work?

Do you wish you had started this process when you were 14?

There’s life after school,
Luke Townsley
SaktMakers.com

The term “dengineering” probably isn’t going to appear in next years dictionary, but Doug Stowe thinks it should. His article is better than mine, so perhaps you will just want to stop reading here and read his first.

Here’s my take on the subject. Kids should be able to break things. When an article has passed its useful life or is in need of repair, why not let them take it apart, provided the item is not dangerous and they are properly supervised and of sufficient age? Whether or not they can actually fix it is pretty much irrelevant. The important thing is to learn how it operates and to demystify things.

When I was a kid, I was always looking for stuff to take apart. I recall taking apart a worn out lawnmower engine when I was in about 5th or 6th grade. (It never ran again, but it helped demystify the inner working of a small engine). There was the attic fan, my numerous inventions (I don’t remember any that actually worked, but I learned about what it takes to make things work and why some designs are better than others), the old flash camera I got an electrical burn on, the broken mixer (I think my Mom may still be using it today), bicycles, lawn mowers, some simple stuff on the cars, building projects, and a lot of other stuff. If something in the house broke, standard protocol was (and pretty much still is) to take it apart  before throwing it out to see if it can be fixed and put it back in service. If it can’t be fixed, at least I learned how to take it apart and something about how it works.

A lot of this knowledge takes time and experience to become resident in the hands and mind. It doesn’t come overnight. In spite of all of my (mis)adventures, there were a lot of things I didn’t know how to do or only had a vague idea of when I left home for college just after my 17th birthday. Particularly over the last fifteen years or so, after college, that body of knowledge and experience has continued to grow and expand.

I’m hardly an expert at fixing things, but some of my friends are really impressed by the stuff I can do. I do my own work on my computers. I keep my 1986 diesel truck running. I’m confident I could restore it if I wanted to. I do most of the maintenance and repairs on our van. I can restore old fashioned hand tools. I would be pretty comfortable wiring a new house or rewiring an existing house. I can do carpentry and home repairs. Plumbing isn’t a problem. Anyway, you get the idea.

Some would say I am naturally good with my hands. Perhaps there is some truth to that, but there are people who are more naturally gifted in those things than I am. Really, most of the “blame” goes to my Father who allowed me to Dengineer.

I didn’t learn it all from Dad, but I learned enough to figure out what I really need to know.

There’s life after school,
Luke Townsley
SaltMakers.com

Lots of people have dreams of being their own boss. They should probably keep working a job.

If they start a business, they are likely to find their new bosses are much worse than their old boss.

Live your dream

A much better reason to start a home business is to live your own dream.

Are you called to start or run your own business? One test is to decide if you can do anything else. There are some people who have such a clearly defined vision of what they want to do or where they want to be that it is difficult to make anyone else’s dream fit theirs. If that is you, starting your own business is certainly something you should be considering.

Times are good

Fortunately, this is a great time to be starting a small business in any number of fields. We can choose to concentrate on the bad economy, which I think will get much worse and last a long time. We can look at the government intrusion on certain businesses. We can complain about local regulations.

Granted, there are a lot of things that could be better and that should be changed. There are also some businesses that just aren’t feasible anymore because of certain laws or regulations or other impediments. For instance, you really can’t start your own oil drilling company as a small business. Likewise, you can’t offer legal services without a law degree.

I hate it when government interferes with things it shouldn’t and likewise when it overlooks things it should take care of. The interesting thing about it though, is that even these injustices can offer opportunities to the savvy and properly prepared individual or company. Indeed such injustices have given rise to whole new industries. I’m not suggesting they are for the common good. I’m just pointing out that often there are ways to profit in spite of and even because of them for the creative and properly positioned.

Getting back to my point, times are good for small business. The internet in particular has opened up a wealth of opportunities that didn’t exist before. Overall, it is pretty easy to get into most kinds of businesses. Times are changing quickly, meaning there are market opportunities for creative individuals.

Are you ready?

Maybe times are good and maybe you are a good candidate to start your own business. That doesn’t mean you are ready to do it.

Personally, I am probably one of the best candidates ever and yet it has taken me over a year to get up to speed on certain areas I was deficient in. In particular, I have had to study the legalities and paperwork issues of running a business. I have had to learn how to sell. For me, that is a big one and one I still have a long way to go on. I have also had to brush up on a myriad of other details.

I would point out though that one of the fun things in this process has been watching my kids grow through it. Meagan, who is eight, has really gotten excited about it and started thinking about selling things. It really is hard for me to imagine that she won’t be doing a significant amount of business (for her age) by the time she is a teenager.

When is the right time?

So when is the right time for you to start a home business? If you are asking this question, you should probably be starting now. My suggestion is to find ways to start small with a minimum of cash and time investment. If this process is new, you will make mistakes and fail. If you have a small investment, it means you have paid a small amount for that lesson! Be prepared to fail quickly and often. A lot of business ideas aren’t really failures in the sense of being bad, they are failures in the sense that they have to be discarded because they lead you to something better for you. Some have described this process as “Failing Forward“(affiliate link). In other words, realize that failure is the pavement of the road to success.

A mindset of entrepreneurship

I believe that parents should instill in their children a mindset of entrepreneurship. What I mean that they should take control of their financial destiny. For some, that will mean getting a job. For others, it will mean staying home with their children. For others, it will mean running a million dollar business. For others, it will mean engaging in the ministry or charitable work. For everyone, it should mean finding meaningful work.

I don’t mean to say having meaningful work is equivalent to godliness, but for many people, it is a very spiritual thing. And why shouldn’t it be? The unique thing about man isn’t his intelligence, but rather that he is made in the image of God. Engaging in meaningful work invokes many of those qualities.

There’s life after school,
Luke Townsley
SaltMakers.com

Have you checked into the cost of a college education lately?

Worse yet, have you seen what people are getting degrees in nowadays?

I see it like this. If you are going to get a degree in studies of laugh lines from failed ’80s movies, you should realize you aren’t likely going to be able to get a job using your degree to pay off your student loan.

For that matter, there are plenty of people getting useful degrees who can’t find a job either.

Hopefully if you are reading this blog, you are already considering what the degree is worth in the real world compared to what it costs before you sign the dotten line.

A lot of people automatically associate a university degree with getting a good job. I see that as a big mistake. Jobs can be gotten without degrees and degrees can be gotten without jobs. Degrees can be useful to get jobs and for self improvement, but it should only be a portion of a anyone’s plan for job success.

I like Dan Miller‘s take on this subject, namely that you should see yourself as self employed. If you happen to be working for someone else, then you have one customer.

College or no college, learning and work experience should be priorities. Figure out what makes you tick and make it connect so things go “boom.” That is, boom in a good sort of way.

There’s life after school,
Luke Townsley
SaltMakers.com

I had a conversation with a friend recently that touched on the difficulty of getting into woodworking. Conventional wisdom holds that in order to get into woodworking, you need to build an insulated building at least the size of a two car garage and then fill it with about $10,000 in tools and paraphernalia before you get started.

If all you knew about woodworking was what they print in the glossy magazines, you can be forgiven for thinking that way.

Other people, trying to save money, go a similar route, but instead of setting up a full sized shop, they work in their garage and “collapse” everything against the wall when they need to get their car in.

Another popular alternative to try to save money is to buy machines that look like tools. I’m talking about the cheap tools you might find at your local chain retailer. They look, sound, and cost a lot like real tools, but aren’t prepared to do real work.

The truth is that there is a much better, safer, and less expensive way than the “conventional” options.

Reasons to use hand tools

Have you ever heard of, shhh, keep your voice down, shhhh, hand tools? You say, sure, I’ve seen router, circular saws, jig saws and the like before. And why are you whispering? You see, that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about old fashioned, muscle powered, find em at an antique mall, sharpen em yourself, tools you thought only Roy Underhill could love.

Granted, it is possible to spend a lot of money on hand tools, and you may want to add some power tools at some point, but there are several reasons why hand tools are the place to start for a hobbyist.

First of all, you can work in close proximity to your living space without creating huge clouds of fine dust that will filter between you and your spouse until it is wedged so tightly between you your marriage is destroyed. Hand tool work usually involves shavings and coarse dust that falls to the ground. Even when you pull out the fine sandpaper, it is for a light going over, not major reshaping. There are apartment dwellers who work in an extra bedroom.

Second, properly supervised children can learn many more aspects of woodworking with hand tools. Are you really doing to turn your ten year old loose with a circular saw? I hope not, but I think a lot of older children can safely use a handsaw with proper supervision and training. Not only is it safer, but teaches a higher level of skill.

Third, with hand tools, you learn actual skills. Indeed, you MUST learn real skills to be successful with hand tools including sharpening, working with the grain, measuring, how to move with the tools, and so on.

Fourth, you can work in a very small space. With power tools, you typically take the wood to the tool meaning each tool needs its own space. With hand wool work, the wood goes on the bench and the tools come to the wood. In essence, you need space for a workbench (a minimum size of around 2′x6′), a space in front of it and hopefully at the end of it to stand and a place to put your tools either over the bench on the wall, or in a tool box on the floor.

Fifth, hand tools cost less and generate lower ongoing costs. Most of the hand tools you are likely to buy can easily last several generations. Indeed, there are some wonderful tools out there that are well over a hundred years old, and there are still a few toolmakers making stuff to that level of quality and even beyond.

Sixth, woodworking has inherent dangers. It is quite possible to suffer severe injury. Most woodworking injuries could be avoided through proper technique, proper safety equipment, and better attention to work. However, it doesn’t require brilliance to realize that a hand saw is safer than a table saw, an bit and brace is safer than a drill press, and so on. As long as you keep yourself behind the cutting edge and don’t catch tools that fall from your bench, it is pretty difficult to get a severe injure from hand tools. It’s still possible though.

Getting started with hand tools

The big question that remains for a lot of would-be hobbyists is what tools to get, how to find tools, how to rehabilitate old tools, and how to use them.

Lee Valley, Lie-Nielsen, and Tools for Working Wood are three of the most popular sources for new high-quality tools. They all have excellent reputations for quality and customer service.

As for the other things, sign up at SawmillCreek.org and get on the neanderthal forum.

If I can toot my own horn, click on over to my other website at UnpluggedShop.com where there are dozens of active blogs aggregated together to give you an idea of what is possible with hand tools and help with how to do it.

What will it cost?

What will it cost to set up a complete woodworking shop? If you are very careful and do your homework, you could set up a pretty nice shop including a workbench and a nice collection of hand tools for around $1,000 and have a collection of tools that can last for a long, long time. If you buy new tools, you could spend several times that. A lot of people will choose to buy some new tools and make a few “bad” purchases and will end up spending a couple of grand over the first year or two.

Unlike your entertainment bill, for your money, you will actually be activating your brain, learning hands on skills, and making real stuff.

There’s life after school,
Luke Townsley
SaltMakers.com

Quick! How many tools do you have?

I’m shocked sometimes when I go into a home and there is a minor problem that hasn’t been taken care of in a long time and when the owner complains and I offer to fix it, the conversation goes like this: “Honey, go get the screwdriver!”.

If you are a one screwdriver home, you should think about expanding your skill set as well as your tool set. I understand that not everyone wants to be Bob Villa, but no one really wants to be Ernest P. Worrell either.

More to the point though, there are “tools” for everyone to help develop and use their interests.

A few screwdrivers and a socket set will pretty much let a teenager take apart a worn out lawnmower engine. A paint brush, drop cloth and a can of latex paint can get a kid going with painting. A needle and thread with a bit of cloth… A reel lawnmower… With a booth at a local fair… With a toolbox worth of tools, an old car or truck can be taken apart and sold piece by piece… With a violin and some lessons… With a squeegee and a bucket Jr or Miss is in the window washing business… With a pair of hair clippers and a few siblings…

Anyway, you get the idea.

When I was a kid, I hated going to “boring” houses. I still have a bit of that in me. I don’t need Tinkertoys and Lincoln Logs now. I would rather grow chickens, have a worm farm, aquaponics, garden, permaculture design, run a sawmill, and anything else that piques my interest.

Not everyone has the same interests. Find out what yours are and develop them. Find out what your kids interests are and give them the tools and encouragement to develop their interests. When you discover interests, you are also heading in the direction of discovering gifts.

Developing your interests is a bit like going to college, but you can do it while you are in high school, and it is a lot more fun.

There’s life after school,
Luke Townsley
SaltMakers.com

I asked three of my children the simple question, “What would you like to do today with Daddy?” I didn’t put any parameters or stipulations. I just wanted to hear what was in their hearts and minds.

The answers came back instantly.

Meagan wanted to finish the spatula project we started.

Benjamin wanted to go miniature golfing.

Andrew wanted to build a tool box for his tools. About a half hour later, he must have realized he doesn’t have many tools yet and came and asked to make some tools also.

The answers were telling on several levels. First of all, they indicated strongly that all three would like to spend more time with their dad.

The answers also hinted strongly towards personal interests, aptitudes, and temperament.

I wonder what they will say when they are teenagers?

There’s life after school,
Luke Townsley
SaltMakers.com