If you’re like me, you might be itching to get into woodworking after staring at these cool projects (I especially loved the owl art piece, but what about you?). I gave it a go when I was little, but back then, I didn’t have the patience and willingness to fail to see my projects to the end.

While I personally know the most simple principles of working with wood (go with the grain, take your time, wear gloves, be careful with the electric saw, don’t expect to finish everything in a single day), they don’t even scratch the varnished surface. Like all skills, carpentry takes time and diligence to master. And the best way to learn is to get stuck in, instead of reading tips on the net.

If you want to give woodworking a go, start off with a very simple, tiny project and see how you feel about it. After all, it’s best to give a new activity a go and check if you actually enjoy it before buying all of those expensive power tools. Instead, get some cheap and simple tools and some sandpaper to start things off.

Better yet, check your garage to see if there are any leftover tools from previous generations (just remember to oil them before using them so you don’t hurt yourself)) or even pop over to your DIY expert neighbor’s home to borrow theirs for a spell. You never know, they might even give you some great advice or even agree to help you out with the fundamentals.

The ‘Woodworking’ subreddit will be celebrating its 13th birthday on August 27, so if you enjoyed these photos or you’re a woodworking enthusiast yourself, consider joining the subreddit or at least popping in and saying a quick ‘hello there.’

Earlier, my colleague Liucija had a chat with one of r/woodworking’s main moderators, Joseph aka Joelav. He told Bored Panda that the online group was created as a “place for woodworking redditors to get together and exchange ideas, techniques, advice, and projects.”

Back in February, the community had 2.7 million members and has gained an additional 300k in the months since then. It really has “grown from humble roots” and is now visited roughly a quarter of a million times each and every day. That’s the sort of popularity that you can’t get without quality content, so it goes to show that the subreddit is built on solid foundations.

The core rule that the entire r/woodworking community is built around is originality of content: people can only share the things and projects that they made themselves, they can’t just post random cool things they found while searching the net or saw IRL. “This keeps our content original and organic,” Joseph told Bored Panda earlier.