Winter Shop Survival: A Few Lessons Learned the Cold Way

Winter in an unheated shop is a special kind of character builder. It teaches patience, resilience, and exactly how long you can feel your fingers before things get concerning.

Over the years, I’ve picked up a few survival strategies — none of them revolutionary, all of them effective.

First: dress for the shop, not the driveway. Layers matter. Gloves with the fingertips cut off are a rite of passage. If you can still feel the tool and the wood, you’re winning.

Second: shorten your sessions. Winter shop time doesn’t have to be all-or-nothing. Even twenty minutes at the lathe counts. Sometimes that’s enough to make progress — or at least remind yourself why you enjoy turning in the first place.

Third (and maybe most important): lower expectations. Winter isn’t always the season for ambitious projects. It’s the season for practice pieces, experiments, and “let’s see what happens” turning. Not everything has to be gallery-worthy to be worthwhile.

And finally, remember this: if you came back inside with sawdust on your sleeves and a little more warmth in your bones than when you went out, the shop did its job.

Spring will come. Until then, keep the shavings flying — even if you can see your breath while you do it.