Wait, I thought the saying was...one man can make a difference?

Well that may be, but I am referring to three men I feel are the most responsible for my woodworking passion. First, my father! A welder by profession and someone who always thought up and made things (mostly out of metal of course) to solve problems around the house.

My grandfather, Harvey. He was always someone who would have given the shirt off his back to help someone if he could. He was also someone who taught me the meaning of hard work and you didn’t need something just because someone else had it. I remember going up into the woods to drag out downed trees that he would split up to fuel the furnace back at the house. Even though I was too young to run a chainsaw, he would let me help place logs on the splitter and then throw them down into the basement wood pile.

My high school woodshop teacher, Mr. Klapperich. Taking every woodshop class available during my high school career, I had the opportunity to learn the basic skills and really come to enjoy making things out of wood. I enjoyed this so much that I became a shop assistant for Mr. Klapprich my junior and senior years, helping the 8th grade students in the shop.

Now as a husband, father, and homeowner myself I am putting together the knowledge from these three great men by building some of the things we need around the house instead of buying the same (often expensive yet poorly made) things everyone else has. Not to mention having fun while doing it. After all, that’s what hobbies are for, right?