What is your favorite woodworking "therapy" ?

[CarvedTones]

Bas' post about firing brads (he mentioned it was therapeutic ) got me thinking and wondering..

What is the the most therapeutic thing you do in the shop? It isn't necessarily what you enjoy most; a lot of projects I really like to take on have some stress involved. For me, I think it is rounding green spindle stock that is reasonably balanced (when you have to chase the lathe around the room, it isn't quite as enjoyable :rolf. I have been doing a lot of that for future woodwind making. I have a love/hate relationship with the skew and rounding blanks is defintely in the "love" category. Sometimes when I am working on something else and it isn't going well, I will set it aside and round a blank and feel much better about life.

Anyway, what is your therapy?

 

[Bill Clemmons]

Now that's a great question. Unfortunately, you're going to look at my answer and say, "you're nuts". I've got a lot of space for storing small parts, nuts, bolts, etc., and I'm too cheap to ever throw anything away. But I'm also usually in too much of a hurry to carefully put every little item in it's proper place. They usually wind up in one of the coffee cans or on the bench you see in the photo.

View image in gallery​

So on days when I just want to be in the shop, but don't have a project to work on, or just don't feel like doing anything specific, I pull up the stool and start sorting things. I know, it sounds incredibly tedious and boring, but I find it very relaxing and "therapeutic". It requires very little thinking; it certainly isn't stressful; and hey, it's gotta get done sooner or later anyway: doesn't it? :nah: Alright, I've bared my soul, now it's someone else turn. :wsmile:

 

[Dan Bowman]

Jointing. I love seeing the rough surface transformed into a beautiful grain pattern. And sometimes, as with oak, it even smells good!

 

[Larry Rose]

Working with a sharp and well tuned plane or scraper on a well behaved piece of wood does it for me.

 

[cpw]

I find it all therapeutic, but my favorite "wood" therapy is actually not a shop activity.

I love taking in firewood - felling (don't do too much of that - I usually find trees downed after a storm), limbing, bucking, and ESPECIALLY splitting. I LOVE splitting. I get out a lot of aggression that way. One of the most specialized tools I own is my splitting axe.

Of course, I haven't done any of that for a while - been living in a rental with no functional fireplace for two years.

 

[CarvedTones]

Charles,

It's a shame you aren't closer by; I would be happy to let you split some spindle blanks for me, though I usually use a froe and maul (you have to make just one crack and stay with it). :rolf:

 

[rick7938]

While I love my power tools, I suppose the most therapeutic is working with my Japanese saws and chisels.

 

[woodArtz]

I get a lot of joy out of turning bowls, but as Andy mentioned, focusing on getting everything just right with a bowl design can be stressful. What I find the most therapeutic activity is rough turning a green bowl blank. Those long wet shavings are a joy to produce. The bowl gouge cuts through the wood like it's butter... man I love that! :eusa_danc

 

[Rob]

I get a lot of joy out of turning bowls, but as Andy mentioned, focusing on getting everything just right with a bowl design can be stressful. What I find the most therapeutic activity is rough turning a green bowl blank. Those long wet shavings are a joy to produce. The bowl gouge cuts through the wood like it's butter... man I love that! :eusa_danc

X2, I love rough turning green bowls. When the chisel is sharp, everything is going great, and the long wet shavings are just flying off. Nothing better.

 

[FredP]

the most joy comes with projects I WANT to do. the least joy is the things I HAVE to do.:gar-Bi the have to do's seem to take longer than expected and I get bored quite quickly.:dontknow: The wants to do's aint on no time clock and I can set em aside as needed.:rotflm: the hunnydo's are the worst! I like doing it MY way vs. HER way.:rotflm:

 

[zapdafish]

does aromatherapy count?

closing the garage door and opening a couple cans of contact cement.

 

[Gofor]

I'm torn to find a favorite:

If I want to just zone out to some tunes, and the body is feeling a bit used up, I enjoy sharpening tools: that includes saws, chisels, plane irons, card scrapers, etc. Of course, after you get it sharp, you have to try it out on something. Getting that perfect curl to come up or that dovetail saw to glide through in a straight line gives a great sense of accomplishment for the time spent getting there.

If I am feeling mentally stressed, about anything involving a chainsaw or ax works well. A few hours of sweat + adrenalin = a good night's sleep.

Of course, this is coming from someone who (years ago) used to pay to jump out of airplanes when the work stress got too much.:gar-Bi

Go

 

[merrill77]

What is the the most therapeutic thing you do in the shop?

Ok, you guys are going to think I'm crazy. I'm almost embarrassed to admit it.

I find cleaning/organizing my shop very relaxing. When I have a rough day, I'm not in the frame of mind to be concentrating on a project...much less operating power tools. But I need to get away from work and the kids. So I go down to the shop and clean up. Maybe put on some music. I'm usually thinking about my next project or the next step in the current project. When I leave the shop I'm relaxed and I've usually forgotten about whatever had me down...or at least have a better perspective on it. And the bonus is - next time I come down to the shop, it is clean(ish) and ready to go.

:dontknow:

 

[JJsWoodShop]

I too enjoy cleaning and organizing my shop. A clean shop makes me feel more relaxed and helps me think clearer.

 

[McRabbet]

Cleaning my shop is my least therapeutic time in my shop -- Froglips and I share that horror and I suspect both of our shops probably belong on the Chiller Channel as a result. But to answer the goal of the thread, my favorite therapy is planing a rough sawn board that I suspect has some hidden charm or a delightful figure or an indescribable new aroma to bless my sensory nerves. I happens with every board I plane and I love it!

 

[eyekode]

I would say taking off gossamer shavings with a sharp plane. The sound, the rhythm, the wisps of wood unraveling out of the plane. And as someone already pointed out some woods have a very nice scent. Better make it cherry. If it is maple or oak I am liable to have tear out and there isn't anything relaxing in that .

And you guys that find it relaxing cleaning and organizing are welcome anytime in my garage!

 

[Trent Mason]

Turning a green bowl is also my favorite/most therapeutic thing, for the same reasons Bob mentioned. Although another therapeutic thing I like to do is after a long day in the shop, I walk back down there with a cold beer, cut on the light and the music and just stand there and look at how everything was left when I decided to call it a day. That's always been cool to me. Which tools are laying where, sawdust, something glued up, etc. It's like a snapshot in time of the production of a project.

 

[Gotcha6]

Anything I can do in the shop that lets me listen to George Jones, Hank Williams, Hank Snow, Bobby Horton or anybody else in country music in the 50s or 60s. Oh - and Jerry Clower. That usually means the saws and the dust collector are unplugged. :wsmile:

 

[Rob]

I walk back down there with a cold beer, cut on the light and the music and just stand there and look at how everything was left when I decided to call it a day.

I have been known to do that, just listen to the music, enjoy the beer and look at what I've accomplished.

 

[Sealeveler]

Relaxing has gotta be when cutting something on the scroll saw and everything cooperates.Like when all the adjustments are correct and the blade just seems to follow the line on its own and I don't have a bunch of sanding to do.Tony