Fixedgearhead

I apprenticed as a carpenter in the 1950's in a trade school/high school. Worked as carpenter all week and went to night school for the high school part of it at nights. Continued working as a high rise carpenter, and worked on the highway building projects of the era. I then moved to San Francisco, and continued working high rise construction off and on, because of the downturn in construction, switched to interior remodeling. I continued at that and took ever increasing numbers of higher end types of remodeling jobs.At about that time I married my wife and we only had cheap spinster and bachelor type of furniture. I made a mohogany dresser for my wife for a wedding present, and just kept going from there. I did use some reference books for inspirational ideas. I always was interested in beautiful furniture and how it was made. San Francisco had a lot of high end antique stores which had some lovely pieces. I used to haunt them and look at what they had and the interior construction methods. We used to travel and were always on the lookout for local museums with collections for inspiration. and that about sums up the path I took. In the end of my career. (I retired at age 50) I was pretty much only doing furniture making for select clients, whom I had worked for, for a number of years. This was in the affluent suburbs of San Francisco, which could support that sort of business. I have been retired now for 20 years and have continued to up grade my own furniture collection and made things for relatives and a few close friends, but not for sale. I guess you could say I got into it because of necessity. I liked the nice things I saw but couldn't afford to buy them. So there you go. One carpenters journey.
John