Woodworking: A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far Away

I owe my woodworking life to George Lucas. Yes, George Lucas. Or more specifically, I owe it to seeing the original Star Wars movie in 1977. While I look a boyish twenty-nine, I was actually five years old when the epic space opera hit the big screen. As an only child, I had enough toys to play with, and I had several Star Wars action figures bought at Harper’s Five and Dime. However, I really wanted a Star Wars playset. Specifically, I coveted the playset of the cantina in which Han Solo had the shoot-out. But, I grew up in Rabun County in the 1970s and 1980s. We were poor. Daddy has been a lifelong woodworker and I was always in the shop underfoot from the time I could walk. He did what any responsible parent back then would have done. He pointed at the scrap wood heap in the corner, handed me razor sharp hand tools and an electric jig saw and told me to build my own. Did I mention that I was five? Now we don’t let our kids outside without hand sanitizer and bubble wrap. Despite setting the stage for a trip to the emergency room, I made it through the project without any blood or smashed fingers.

I spent weeks working on that playset and ended up making a second one immediately afterword. I still have both. All of my friends who had the real store-bought one thought mine was the coolest thing ever. I believe they were just jealous that Daddy turned me loose with power tools while we were in kindergarten. It was like having Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor for a dad.

That early woodworking project planted the seed for a lifelong love of wood. A year or so later, I decided that I wanted to be a rock star and needed a guitar. Or at least a ukulele. Me and Daddy sat down and looked through the Sears and Roebuck catalog, and of course, he decided we couldn’t afford one. You guessed it… Build it yourself. I believe we got a book from the library and got ideas on proportions and made a Frankenstein ukulele type thing. Daddy used to make recurve hunting bows, and he braided different thickness pieces of bow string for the instrument strings. He helped me out and we had lots of fun building it. Too bad that I have the distinction of being the only person on his side of the family who has zero musical talent.

I have gone through a whole lifetime of trying new hobbies, but always kept woodworking. My skills progressed from the playset and ukulele to the point that I became a semi-professional woodworker and luthier. I’ve made too much furniture to count, and as a luthier I’ve made guitars, dulcimers, ukuleles, mandolins, banjos, and even a violin. Daddy is seventy-five years old and still in the shop with me when his legs let him stand for that long, and we have a whole list of projects we hope to build.  May the Force be with us.