Back to posts
Life 2 min read

How Important Clamping Is For Woodworking

A little story about car-carpentry, the van build that taught me everything, and why clamps are the most underrated tool you'll ever buy.

A little story about Car-Carpentry.

I think about people that are skilled carpenters the same way I hear people describe software developers.

Carpenters do some sort of black magic to make things we interact every day with. Most of the time the black magic they perform is so potent that we don’t even notice how impressive somethings build quality is, or the elegance with which it was put together until it breaks.

I really enjoy trying my hand at the odd bit of wood working because it seems endlessly creative, keeping your mind and hands engaged. This is sadly not something you get these days with most office jobs, so to me it is somewhat of a luxury to get to say I am using my mind and my body at the same time.

My workshop on the road.

The back of a van, tailgate up, full of timber and tools everything you need, nothing you'd call a bench
The workshop: the back of the van, full of timber and tools

This might not be the most flattering image to share as its just the back of a van, however I think its representative of my attitude towards order during my woodworking projects – or lack thereof.

A spirit level on a plywood platform inside the van, bubble slightly off "level" · the bubble disagrees, slightly
A spirit level on what looks like a barely level platform

You might not be able to tell it from a distance. Behind the camera was a very, very exhaust and elated Jonah. I was grinning ear to ear. I really, truly, felt as though I had reached one of my personal performance peaks in life at this moment. Don’t worry I know the platform was barely level.

This post is a work in progress and will likely grow over the next few days as I flesh out the rest of the lessons I learned wood working from my humble setup on the road. I like to publish these as I work on them as motivaiton to finish them and not end up with 1000s of posts that are half written. I appreciate your patience of reading this far.

// join 78 subscribers

Enjoyed that? There are more.

Hi! I'm Jonah and I have thoughts that I share — sometimes. Sign up to receive awesome content in your inbox every week, month, when I get around to it. We don't spam. That's yuck.

Double opt-in — check your inbox (or spam folder) to confirm.