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​I have become a hoarder, not really out of bad habits but more out of a need. It's those tiny little pieces from trimming and cutting, some being no larger then a quarter that are like gold to me.  Those little pieces always seem to save me when I make a mistake. Wait what ? Yes I said it, I make mistakes. But all joking aside good luck finding them without me pointing them out. It usually seems to happens in joinery and I think it's safe to say that ever one eventually ends up with a joint that just does not close up right, the separation between one person to the next is how they address that ugly gap that makes you want to scream.  The go to seems to be a squirt of glue, rub it with some saw dust then sand. It is also the ugliest thing you can do to what would other wise be a beautiful piece a furniture. This is where my scrap hoarding earns its keep, finding a piece that matches in gain and wood tone and shaping it to a wedge that will fit into that gap then gluing it in. Once the glue dries flush it up and ninety percent of the time no one will ever be able to pick it out.  As awesome as the modern wood glues are they are just that, glue and because of this when it dries it does not resemble anything that looks like wood. Not the tone, not the texture, and certainly not the way finish sets up on it. It's sort of like using a red marker on a white piece of paper, it has that ability to say look at me I'm right here. Not necessarily a look I personally want in a project I have spent months on.   

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Patience and attention to detail, these truly are the most important tools of woodworking and also the hardest of all skills to master. I remember as a child watching my father working on whatever project it was at the time, he would shave a little bit of wood off then fiddle with how that one piece fit for a few minutes then shave it a little more then fiddle with it a little more, a process that went on for what seemed like forever to me as I stood by watching failing to understand why not just measure it and cut it. This is a thought that seems to dominate now a days, even with the smallest of tasks such as crown molding for example. The idea of a coped cut joint is gone, everything is miter cuts covered in caulk then painted to hide any and all the errors for no other reason except the time it would take to create a coped ​cut.    

I often get asked the question of how long it will take me to build something and my answer is always the same, I don't know. For me woodworking is a labor of love, it's about loosing track of the hours diligently removing a little bit of material at a time as I carve the shell in that gallery door, or spending days to refine a joint to as close to perfection as I could possibly hope for.  It takes patience and paying attention to the little details as to not rush to a horrible finish.

Everybody has their own ideas and ways of doing things, but if I had one piece of advise it would simply be to slow down and not be in a rush and you will be pleasantly surprised with that end result. Take the time to slowly approach the way that joint fits together and don't try to get it the first time, after all no where does it say that a dovetailed joint should be done in a day, a week or even a month.