Hand-made has given me a new perspective on opulence. Maybe it’s just the Ikea effect on overdrive, but making the things you want is so satisfying in terms of the process, and the one-of-a-kind results can be really prideful.

For hand-tool woodworking specifically there are a number of youtube content creators that are good: James Wright, Paul Sellers, Rex Kreuger, etc. I pay James Wright a token sum each month via patreon, because his pedagogy is so good and comprehensive. I do the same for Rex Kreuger because his woodworking forum is extremely well run and full of people who'll take time to answer questions and offer support on projects.

One thing I wish I could have done was visit someone who already had tools. Getting started with hand-tools can be expensive, and I've both over- and under-spent on some of the bootstrapping gear. After getting some of the basic gear, a good first step is building a workbench, as it's impossible to do much of anything with handtools without.