The Plane Truth About Freedom, Marksmanship, and Dovetails.

When it comes to really expensive hobbies, woodworking is my second love.  My first love is as a gun guy.  Now, as a gun guy I spend many years as your typical amateur.  I bought the guns the magazines said I should and I really wasn't that great of a shot, I mean, I was ok, but not great.  That all changed several years ago when I started shooting in earnest.  Now I am an NRA Certified Instructor, and a military Firearms Instructor, and was a professional gunfighter until an injury motivated me to change jobs.  And I know how to shoot.  Like "I can score a head shot on a moving target at 25 yards with a pistol while advancing on the target" know how to shoot.  

Over my time as a professional gun guy, I have learned self-reliance, focus, discipline, and the spirit of accomplishment that comes from knowing a skill well.  This was satisfying.  So, what does this have to do with woodworking?  I think quite a bit.  Woodworking tools make great weapons, especially the table saw.  I am currently working on a holster and a really long extension cord for my table saw....just kidding; keep reading.  

I was watching an episode of The Woodwright's Shop with Roy Underhill, who has become one of my heros, and he had Chris Schwarz (another one of my new heros) as a guest and was talking about sawing techniques.  As they described the prober way to hold a dovetail saw, I had an epiphany.  A dovetail saw wants to cut a perfectly straight line, if it fails to do so, it the sawyer's fault.  Likewise, a gun wants to shoot in a straight line, if it fails to do so, it's the shooters fault.  

As it turns out, it is all about how you hold it.  Here are the proper grips for a pistol and for a dovetail saw, let's see if we can see any similarities.....

hmmmmmmm.  Very interesting.  So here is the rest of my epiphany:  Many of the same physical traits and body mechanics you use for shooting apply to woodworking, and woodworking also builds the same sense of self-reliance, and the same focus, discipline, and the spirit of accomplishment that comes from knowing a skill well.  So I found that woodworking fulfills in me everything that shooting did, but the huge difference is that woodworking also fulfills my need to create.  In the woodshop, I am a happy man, I am an artist, I am a craftsman, and I am fulfilled.  

Even though shooting may be my first expensive hobby love, woodworking is now for me so much more than a hobby, it is part of my identity part of my soul.