"Bob Davis" wrote in
link.net:

I want to get started making real hardwood projects - either a
furniture piece or fine decorative box.

Now I'm frustrated. I feel like I am halfway there in having the right
tools and skills. Skills come with trying. Tools have to be
purchased.

Bob

major snippage above...

Economics 105, basic stuff. Any endeavor takes inputs of three fundamental
types: Labor. Money. Intellectual capital, or know how. To some extent,
these can be substituted for one another. If you have enough labor, you
can build a home with hand tools. Our ancestors did that routinely. If
you have sufficient money today, you can purchase machinery that will
repetitively accomplish the most amazing joinery. Or you can learn the
craft. When you learn the craft, then you can appreciate the value of a
tool, or the value of the output of effort.

But probably not on the Internet, not by itself. The reason the craft, and
it's output has appeal, is that the human touch is evident. It is not just
the repeated output of machines alone. There is soul to the piece, and
with that, perhaps a certain lack of perfection. Certainly a lack of
numbing repetition.

Find a teacher or three. I was lucky, and found a couple of neighbors, who
brought me back to hand craft. And the local adult education classes, and
woodworkers' club have been great in offering resources, displaying
techniques, encouragement, and creative outlet. And no small amount of
challenge, to see if I could come close, or perhaps surpass, some of the
work. And most recently, these same classes have been a way for me to
share a few of the many lessons and blessings I've enjoyed.

The more I've learned, the fewer new tools I've believed I needed to
accomplish something. The more good people I've met, the more I've learned
from each of them. The more I share my shop, and my time, the fewer
mistakes I seem to make. And opportunities for new projects show up all of
the time.

And strangely, $4/bf teak doesn't seem like a gloat any more.

Patriarch,
who believes that it really is about people, eventually.