Two talented students here at Talawanda High School have an interesting hobby of woodworking. Here is an interview with Eliot Berberich and Anthony Greene about their hobby:
Question: How did you get into woodworking?
Eliot: I guess it’s kind of a generational thing with me. My great grandfather was a framer. He owned a framing shop in Kentucky, and he did that for maybe 40 or 50 years. My grandfather worked in a machine shop at first, so he had those technical skills. He took what he learned from his father and has been woodworking as a hobby. My dad worked in my great grandpa's framing shop, and he learned from that. I guess I kind of inherited that tradition.
Anthony: For me it’s a similar thing. My great grandfather worked building boats, and then my grandfather got the skills of woodworking kind of from him. My grandfather was an art major at Miami and he applied those skills to pretty much anything that he could get his hands on including wood. My dad, who really started to pick woodworking back up in my family, took the artistic talents of my grandfather that he was taught and applied them to woodworking. I kind of did the same thing.
Question: What is your favorite project that you've done so far?
Eliot: My favorite project is probably building my lathe. It has so many different types of woodworking in it. I learned a lot of joinery. It wasn’t a high stakes project, so it didn’t have to make it the most beautiful thing. It was just good practice. It helped my adopt wood turning.
Anthony: My favorite project is probably a waterfall table I made. Essentially, you take a board and cut it at a certain section. Then you put it together with one side perpendicular to the other piece to make it look like the grain is running down the side in a waterfall effect.
Question: What is the most useful thing you have created?
Eliot: I guess one of the most useful things that I’ve made is a wooden top for a plastic folding table that extended it because I’m in a learning pod. When it was warm we could go outside and the extension gave us enough space to spread out and do our work.
Anthony: My most useful thing was either the waterfall table or a picture frame I made for a friend. I don’t generally make pieces that have a function. I prefer to make artistic pieces because I find them nicer and more fun to make.
Question: I heard that you've made things to give as gifts before. Do you have any stories about them or favorite gifts that you've given to people?
Eliot: Probably my favorite gift that I’ve given to anyone is the gavel that I gave to Waxy. She is very good at expressing her gratitude for things. I also made my friend an ipad stand for his birthday to use while he was cooking. His mom actually liked it so much that she paid me to make four more to send to her relatives for Christmas.
Anthony: If anyone knows Robert Schonlau, he left this winter to go to Colorado. Before he left, I built a picture frame and put a bulletin board on the inside and got together a bunch of pictures to put on that to get him a memory from his time in Oxford and at Talawanda. That was one of my favorite gifts. I also make a gift every Christmas for at least one person. One of my favorite things is being able to see people’s reactions when they get something.
Question: What is your favorite wood to work with?
Anthony: My favorite wood is Walnut because it smells amazing once it is freshly cut. If you can sand it right it can feel very soft and smooth.
Eliot: I would have to agree that Walnut is probably the best wood that you can work with. It is really common, but it is expensive.
Both Eliot and Anthony plan to continue woodworking in the future as a hobby. It is a very time and resource demanding hobby, so they hope that they will have the resources to do so.