The Frugal Woodworker's Journal is a series of articles based on my personal experience using "trash" wood to build many items for utility use. Items that need not be made of wood materials of better quality. Actually, much of the wood that can be easily salvaged from the offerings of your neighborhood trash is of equal quality to that now available as commercial quality virgin lumber.

While the items made from it certainly function just as well as those made of purchased lumber, the trash wood user can also proudly claim that their projects have a very politically correct "green" character to them. They have actually rescued it from being wasted twice. First, by the original person who had no further use for it. Then, by the local trash disposal system that would otherwise deposit it in a local landfill or trash incinerator, often at extra cost. Meanwhile, you would have had to purchase some fresh and almost identical stock from the lumberyard.

Aside from the improved economy of using this material, the user can expect to enjoy the art of woodworking to a somewhat greater level because they need not have any concern about possibly wasting a piece of material. While this may seem like a very simple thing, the psychology involved helps assure that the woodworker has the best possible chance to enjoy every bit of their experience.

Very few tools are needed to make many items of great value to most households. Restricting your designs to simple rectangular shapes will allow them to be made quickly. While this may seem a bit restrictive, the trash wood user will soon appreciate that the vary simplicity of these designs will actually duplicate many of those made by our ancestors. Often, plain and simple genuine fake antiques. Leave a few nail holes in for effect.

So, read on, as we further explore this wonderful world of trash to treasure and perhaps I can entice you to join us in this recycle adventure of ours.

But, there is more! Some day very soon you will find a real prize in a trash pile near you. It will be in the form of an old piece of furniture that had been made of a piece of prime wood back when it was priced low enough for everyone to use it for even the more common items. You now will have the chance to give it a new life in your next important project that can best use it. Again, as for other trash wood, at a price you can really afford.

Jerry