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If you asked me what the most important thing in life is, I would say, it is purpose. This can change throughout one's life and it often does. I sought it through various other means and skills but it always boiled down to a basic need. The need for expression. I couldn't draw, I couldn't dance (still can't) and I wasn't great at poetry (those notebooks are long burned). Around 2019 I began building a MagicMirror. Its a Mirror that uses a Raspberry Pi computer and TV or monitor for a display. You load up some apps on it and presto, you can look at your own face while watching a live feed from the International Space Station overhead. Pretty cool! What wasn't cool was all the power tools I bought to build it. A table saw, a router, a orbital sander, etc. And oh yea, it tripped my circuit breaker enough times for me to buy a hand saw. And the dust...
But you know what? I loved it. I wasn't taught any of this as a kid. I was an immigrant child raised by a single mom. There was no time to teach me how to hold a chisel. So I knew that if I wanted to keep this hobby in my life, I had to do what I always did. I had to go all in on it. So I parked that table saw in a corner, threw that router and orbital sander in the closet, and got me some hand tools. Hand planes, chisels, saws, dividers, drawknives, spokeshaves and much more. I researched and read, but more importantly I practiced, whenever I could. Every non-working hour (I had a full time job) was spent practicing. Every weekend and weeknight was used to prove to myself and others that the tools are only a small part of the craftsman. The emphasis in hand tools, is on the "hands". And I was determined to put in my 10,000 hours. To prove that good furniture can be made well, reasonably quick, with less dust and noise and all by hand. Craftsmen have in the past and they still can in the present. The clock has started.