Three Rules to Avoid Regret

Here are my simple rules for myself when engaging in woodworking commerce. These have been honed over 30 years of success and bitter regret.

Rule No. 1: Buying Lumber

When you find amazing lumber and you can afford it, buy it. Wood doesn’t expire like meat. I have never regretted buying wood that enchanted me.

However, I’ve regretted buying wood for other reasons – mostly out of obligation. Here’s the pitch: “He’s at the end of his career and wants to sell the last of his amazing collection of lumber.” You get there and it’s a mishmash of a few great boards and a lot of board-shaped shit. They ask you to offer a price on the whole lot.

The right thing to do: Turn around and walk away.

The thing you do: Give them money out of sympathy. Then spend the next decade trying to use the shit wood. You try to give it away. You burn a lot of it. You try to figure out how to avoid this equation at the end of your career.

These days when people tell me about the “great haul of lumber from the retiring …