Frugal Woodworking

Woodworking Tips for Affordable Woodworking

About

As an avid hobbyist woodworker, I spend a lot of time reading woodworking blogs and forums and have developed an appreciation for the frugal side of woodworking.  We can’t all be Norm from The New Yankee Workshop and have every large power tool known to man at our disposal.   We also all can’t be the woodworkers who think nothing of dropping $200 on a handsaw to cut dovetails (a part of joinery that for most of history was intended to be hidden).

This site is for those who enjoy woodworking, but are unable or unwilling to give up your ability to put your child through college in order to make things with wood.

There are a couple of things to keep in mind with this quest for Frugal Woodworking:

  1. Frugal and Cheap are not the SAME
    Frugal means wise decisions that take all issues (safety, value, durability and  cost) into consideration.  Cheap just bases it all on the price tag.
  2. Sweat equity has value.   The time spent refurbishing an old plane or less than perfect plane is not just the time balanced against the cost of paying large amounts of money for a pristine highly polished finely finished plane.  Spending time refurbishing an old tool teaches you things that unwrapping a shiny new slice of perfection will not.
  3. Given the cost of health care, safety considerations should not take a back seat to up front costs.  An injury from a faulty tool or practice will cost much more than the tool that was created without faults.

I have chosen to operate incognito because I may on occasion take heat for something I say.  I will, like a super hero, use my anonymity as wisely as I can.

2 Responses to “About”

  1. Aaron Vertrees says:

    I like your site and the content you offer. Do you have an emailing list where you send out emails of new content. I’d like to receive it if you do.
    Thanks Aaron

    • Frugal Woodguy says:

      Hi Aaron, I don’t offer any notification of new posts by email, but you can subscribe to the “frugal RSS feed” with any feed reader. The reader will notify you when updates appear. I recommend using Google Reader