Originally Posted by
John Sanford
Well, maybe not. Here's my question for you Mike. Why did you start working with wood? Was it because one day you said to yourself "hey, I want to make something, ANYTHING, out of wood", or was it because you said to yourself "we need a bookcase, I'll build it, should be interesting." If it was the latter (or similar), then no, you probably didn't do it backwards. The need was for a bookcase, and given your skills and knowledge at the time, you satisfied the need as best you could. Sure, Paul Sellers could probably build two of those bookcases in a quarter of the time using a trained, but angry, beaver. Sellers also has a few years of experience to draw on.... In truth, the only thing that you don't "learn" nearly as much with powertools as you do with handtools is grain. Everything else is still relevant, and one can still learn it.
Had you gone the handtool route for that first project, or first few, the project complexity/effort vs skill gap may very well have been enough to put you off woodworking entirely. May. I don't know you, and who you are today is a different person than you were back when you first started butchering wood. But without the early successes, likely less impressive in hindsight than they may have seemed at the time, to encourage continuing, would you have done so? And would you have had the support to continue?
I don't know that there is a "right way" to get started. There are ways of learning that work better for most people, but certainly not for all, and that doesn't even begin to address the wildly differing resources and needs each potential woodworker brings. The most important thing, at least from the perspective of those who want to see the community of woodworkers grow, is that you DID get started, and continued. That you're having more fun with it now is great.