[spoonman]

im really new to this site and was just wondering what every ones day job is.
I work at a lumberyard in deptford, new jersey and only resently found wood carving. hopefully one day i can be as good as all of the members of this forum

[BobD]

I'm the associate editor of Wood Carving Illustrated and Scroll Saw Workshop...and I also hope I can someday carve as well as half the people on the board. I see the greatest carvings in the world right now, and get really critical of my own carvings <grin>

Bob

[Paul_Guraedy]

I suspect that you will find a great number of us are retired. There are some who are gainfully employed and manage to become good woodcarvers (not counting those that do it for a living). But most are probably like me, I hacked away at wood for about 15 years, retired, had time to take instruction, and became a woodcarver (10 years now). Wish I could disclaim the early stuff!

Before retiring I was a ranger with the National Park Service.

[Just Carving]

I work as a civil draftsman, working on mostly municipal and county projects for a civil engineering consultant, drawing bridges, roads, sewers, and whatever else is falling apart and needs fixing here in New Jersey.

[Ron Davidson]

I am now disabled due to blindness. I worked as a cabinet and furniture builder for 35 plus years and took up carving about a year or so ago I couldn't stay away from the wood. I only hope to be as good as I can which will never match most everyone here but am proud to call them my friends. Ron

[AlArchie]

Retired Michigan State Trooper (25 years on the road, traffic enforcement AND criminal investigation). Been a "bum" for the past 12 years.....worked four summers at a Scout camp since retiring, two as an area director and two as the camp director. Been a good ride, so far!

Al

[Kenny_S]

Took Early retirement 2 years ago from a Imformation Technology(IT) department at a major Oil comany. Now, when I can, I carve, that is if the little bride doesn't have Honey dos for me to mark off her list. Oh, They don't get done, but I mark them off anyway.

[Blake Lunsford]

I work for a large grocery chain as the Loss Recovery Manager collecting on bad checks. After putting in my 8 hours I am a new father to a 6 month old baby girl who is the light of my life. I am trying to find time after she goes to bed and on the weekends to do some carving. I find carving to be a great way to relax. It allows me to clear my head of all the daily grind of life, express my creativity, and hopefully bring some happiness to others.


Carve on!!

vacaricature carver

[Mitchell]

I work for a textile company that makes fabrics for automotive upholstry (seats, doors, and roof lining).

[LCorbett]

I've been carving, writing about and teaching bird carving full-time since 2000. Prior to that I had a drafting business that specialized in structural steel detaling and rebar detailing. Steel detailing entails taking an engineer's set of plans for a building and preparing shop fabrication drawings for each beam, column, brace, etc. in those plans. The detailer takes each individual piece of steel and draws it separately showing how long the piece must be, where the holes are to be made, where and how many bolts are required to connect it to other pieces, how much and how large & where specific welds are made. These are sent to a steel fabrication shop where each beam, column & brace are made to the detailed drawings I've provided. Another set of plans called an Erection Drawing are prepared for the iron working crews in the field. This shows all of the pieces and how they need to be hooked together...Beam "A" fits to Beam "B", Beam "A" and "B" fit to Column "C" here, etc.
Rebar detailing consists of preparing plans for the concrete workers that show where the reinforcing steel needs to be placed. Each piece of rebar needs to be fabricated, e.g. cut to length, bent a certain way to fit various corners, curves, etc. in the building. These in turn must be called out on a separate plan for the concrete people. where each shape of bar goes, how many & and what spacing.

I'd been doing this type of work since I was 20 years old, and had clients all over the country. There's a high rate of burn-out in this particular field since it's such a high pressure, fast paced line of work. If the building falls down or things don't fit, the first one investigated is the detailer.
(Fortunately, none of my buildings fell down...grin).

I've been wanting to do art for a living for a very long time. I set some goals to meet towards doing art full time. when these goals were met, I told my clients I was taking a Sabbatical (didn't want to burn bridges...but I had no intention of going back), and haven't looked back since. It was an interesting line of work, though and I do miss the iron workers.