Carpentry Kit; £44

Does the fact that I own this book make me a very sad person?
If not, owning this one certainly does!

We don't value our artisans much in the U.K. They're very skilled and necessary people though. My dad was good with his hands - epecially making little models and things - although his trade was as an electrician, preferring working on the Merchant Fleet's Cunard-line oil-tankers (pre-me) and on North Sea oil-rigs (post-me) to doing household stuff. He was excellent at the domestic stuff too though - however much it wasn't his favourite thing. He served his apprenticeship in the Clyde shipyards in their heyday and won an award for being the best of the apprentices in the dockyards.

Someone able to do all that sort of stuff should be valued more - the fact that they're not means that there are never enough skilled workers around, especially with apprenticeships and vocational training being seen as inferior or less desirable than academic bits of paper. Which impresses you more; a degree in 'Golf Course Management' or a fully trained tradesman's apprentice?
No contest.

I don't know that I've acquired my dad's skill at working with my hands - but making my first ever viola at Cambridge Violin Workshop has been such a fantastic experience. It still needs varnishing, but all the wooden bits are there and I strung it up 'in the white' to hear what it sounds like. It's not bad at all. Its maker's label inside contains a dedication to my dad.

Although I'm quite some eons away from being a star pupil, I've learned a huge amount during the making process - not least the sheer joy and satisfaction that comes from working wood with handtools (even when you're a total beginner doing it in a hamfisted (maybe even spamfisted) way. If you get me one of these for Christmas, I'll be giving not only the physical tools, but also the tools in terms of the skills needed for someone else to learn the useful trade of carpentry. It's rather different, I expect, to the fine woodworking used in lutherie - but it could give someone a job, dignity and the satisfaction of using his or her hands on tools to make wood do their bidding.

Name a famous carpenter (no, not them), anyone? Oh yes, Joseph of Nazareth and his son, Jesus...
...can't be a bad job then, can it? Not with Heavenly endorsement!

[ World Vision catalogue, www.greatgifts.org ]