Twenty years of woodworking – if you’ve been doing it seriously for two decades – comes with a long list of things you now do without thinking that you wish you’d started doing on day one. We asked our readers with the longest track records to share the habits that, looking back, made the biggest cumulative difference. Not techniques, not tools – habits. The things you do consistently that build up over time into the foundation of a functioning practice.
The end-of-session note. Before you leave the shop, spend two minutes writing down where you are in the project, what the next step is, and anything you noticed that needs attention. Write it on a notepad that lives at the workbench. When you return (two days, two weeks, two months later), read the note before you touch anything. You’ll restart in 30 seconds instead of 15 minutes of staring at the project trying to remember where you were. Over twenty years, the note-taking habit has saved reader Ron “literally days of re-orientation time.”
The tool condition check. Before any session involving a cutting tool, check the edge. If it’s not sharp, sharpen it before you start. Don’t start with a dull tool intending to sharpen it later. You won’t sharpen it later. You’ll struggle through the session and sharpen it for the next person who uses it, which is future you, who will have to do the work that past you rushed through. Sharpen before, not after.
The finish test piece. Every finishing session starts with a test piece – ideally from the same board as the project, or at minimum the same species and cut. Apply the full finish sequence to the test piece before touching the project. This habit has saved more project pieces from finish disasters than any other practice our long-term readers report. What habit do you wish you’d started on day one? Share your 20-years-in wisdom below.