My "Super Powers" that Help Me When Woodworking - Grit and Deep Focus

 My life has been pretty good.  I am very happy I found woodworking as a way to use my hands again now that I no longer work in a lab.  My work certainly isn't prefect, but it isn't horrible.  Considering I have mostly learned remotely, I can't complain.

One of the things I think helped me has to do with my personality and less about woodworking.  When I am really interested in something, I have a lot of grit and determination to learn how to do it and to stick with it.  I've done this for another hobby.  Also, my Ph.D. in chemistry was accomplished this way.  I wanted to study and learn more about chemistry.  Period.  Nothing else mattered no matter how hard it seemed at first.  By sticking with it and studying, little by little it became easier.  To me, woodworking is the same way.  Instead of exams, we make things.  My first dovetail joints weren't that good.  However, little by little, by keeping at it, they slowly started to look better.  I think for many things, us just having determination and grit is what it takes to succeed.  Now, mind you, I'm not talking about being a savant in a field; rather I am talking about being a solid individual.

The other thing which really helped in grad school was my ability to be patient and go the library (pre-internet) and do the research to read and learn what I needed for the task at hand.  I would spend a lot of time reading to learn what I was about to do.  Prior to the internet, it was harder (but not that difficult) to find information.  It just took more time.  I can think of one case, where I found what I really needed was in a Harvard Ph.D. dissertation.  I needed to get the Harvard library to send it to my university so that I could read it.  When all was said and done, it took a few months.  Again, not hard, just needed to get it in the works.  For woodworking I enjoy reading and doing.  I think the reading part helps me understand what has and hasn't been done and tried and what does and doesn't work well.  With this information, I feel better informed.  The current thing I am trying to find info on (that I don't see much) has to do with fuming oak with ammonia.  As a chemist, I have worked a lot with ammonia.  I know folks talk about fuming.  My question is, why not just wipe the ammonia solution directly onto the wood?  Yes, it will raise the grain.  However, I think it will give a much higher effective concentration of ammonia to react with the tanic acid in the wood.  It's too obvious for it to not have been done but I have yet to find good info on this.  There is literally one line (don't have handy) in the Lost Art Press book by Charles Hayward entitled "The Woodworker's Pocketbook."  Will I try it myself?  Sure.  Ideally I'd like to see what has been written about this approach as well.  Obviously in this case, this is easy enough to just go and try but the questions I have grow from there to be expensive or time consuming and ideally I'd like to see what others have discovered before me.  There is very little new under the sun when it comes to woodworking; at least I think so. 

So, I enjoy the doing in woodwork.  What helps me get through the humbling learning phase is grit to stick it out and a curiosity to go and read and learn what others have said as that both inspires and informs me.  I call these my superpowers and have helped me beyond just woodworking.  If I could only figure out what/how I can lock onto the thing and become transfixed  Organic chemistry did it, woodworking did it.  Few other things have held such a strong hold on me.  If there was a way I could sort out what causes that hold, I'd likely have a whole new career to teach others.