George’s First Woodworking Project
George VondriskaDescription
Thank goodness for Moms, who are so good at saving things from our childhood. In this case, we’re talking about one of the first woodworking projects that George ever made, way back in his junior high school days. Here’s a throwback to how George got started in woodworking, leading to what he’s doing today. Although it was a simple project, it included a variety of woodworking tasks, all done by hand.
For George, Mr. Mathis was more than his junior high shop teacher, he was a mentor, and had a huge impact on George becoming the woodworking instructor he is today. If you had an influential teacher in your life, please take the time to tell them about the positive effects they had on you.
The simple tray in this video shows the importance of holding onto some things your kids have produced over the years. How great it is, as adults, to be able to look at these items, and remember the paths they helped us get started on.
Last time I was down at my mom's house a couple of months ago in Chicago, she gives me this bag of stuff, which is stuff for me to bring back up here to Wisconsin. And in the bag was this little thing, well, thank God for moms, because my mom saved this thing. This is probably not the very first thing I ever made outta wood, because I was putzing when I was pretty little. But probably the first organized project I ever made outta wood. This was a tray that we made in junior high, because we called it junior high then, not middle school. I can't remember, we started as sixth or seventh graders, so I was somewhere around 11 or 12 years old, which means this thing was made 40 some, 43, 44 years ago. So, the premise with it from a teaching perspective was, different skillsets that we had to do in order to make the tray. We did everything with hand tools. This was bored with an auger, and then a coping saw was used to cut the curves. We used a rasp to clean it up, so it's not that smooth in there right now, 'cause I didn't do a great job of that. The rails on each side had to be cut to length to match the length of the main body of this thing. From the bottom, here's how old it is. Who the heck uses slotted screws anymore. And those handles are held on with a couple of slotted screws. If I remember right, and maybe somebody who was in junior high woodworking with me can correct me. Mr. Mathis, one of my big mentors, got me into woodworking, was the teacher. I think that we built this outta willow. It was a wood that was inexpensive, and it looked pretty cool. It's kinda too bad I stained it because willow's got a pretty cool natural color to it. Staining was probably part of the teaching process though. The only thing that was kind of bad about willow was it smelled a little bit like urine when you cut it and sanded it, but pretty nice material to work with. So I'm really glad this thing surfaced at my mom's house. It was a great trip down memory lane to when I was first getting started in woodworking as a little kid, and really big impact. Mr. Mathis, the teacher from this class is the guy who really got me where I am today, because by the time I was a couple of months in shop class, I said, I wanna be just like Mr. Mathis. And went to school, the same college he did, to be a shop teacher, and here I am. So, that's a throwback to my early woodworking days. And boy, like I said, thank goodness for moms who save stuff like this.
Me too. My mom and I made a shoe shine box from a wooden orange box 68 years ago. (Remember those? 1" thick ends an 3/8" thick slat sides. A dream collection of scrap wood.). It had a foot rest/handle, gabled lids that came together at a 45⁰ angle and a stain and shellac finish. I was given a major achievement award and I used it to explain who I am and what made me what I became. Anybody else's mom introduce to wood working?
My grandfather used to sit on the front porch and whittle as he told stories to all us young pups. Me, wanting to be just like grandpa started whittling around 6 or 7. I got the smell of wooden dust from him and still to this day Enjoy it and often look back at those memories. I have a couple of pieces he did and a few I did with him as he showed me how to make it just right. He whittled up until the day he left us at the ripe old age of 97. When he passed I got his old wore out pocket knife that I carry to this day. Often wonder how many toys, yoyo's, sling shots, spin tops this old knife as made with grandpas loving gentle touch. Thanks for sharing the trip down memory lane.
My mom kept my projects, too. When she passed I got them all back, A cutting board, a knife rack, and couple of other small things. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for sharing
George, did that bring back memories! You're a few years younger than me, but I had much the same experience as you did in Jr. High in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I wrote about it in a blog post last year -https://mattnp2.wordpress.com/2015/11/27/wood-shop/. Thanks for sharing that.
Interesting George.. I do not have any childhood projects but I do have a wooden box made by my father back in the mid 1940's when our family moved from one town to another. He made about 20 of them, different sizes, all with locks and painted. This one serves to store seldom used tools now but it is still just as solid as the day my dad made it.