A Passion for Fine Woodworking

Abid Ali: A passion for Fine Woodworking

There can be no telling which path destiny takes a person through. For Abid Ali (56), destiny took him first from a career in the hospitality industry to the world of sports as an ace tennis coach and finally to his passion: fine woodworking – first as a hobbyist, then as an instructor and now as a distributor of world class woodworking hand tools.

Born and brought up in Delhi, he spent most of his years as a tennis coach, which he remains. He moved to Gurgaon in 2003 where he bought a house after his marriage. This allowed him to develop his love for woodworking, something he had picked up from his uncle while very young but had found little opportunity to pursue. He made a dedicated work area for himself in the back balcony of his house. From then on there was no looking back.

“I started my woodworking journey with hand tools. Back then, it was not possible for me to buy power tools as most were very expensive or had to be imported - I am talking about 40 years back,” he recalls. “Since then, I fell in love with the entire experience of working by hand - it's a therapeutic process for me. I also like the quiet, slow process of making things. I am not in a terrible hurry to finish projects, so hand tools fit in my work flow very well.”

Asked whether he considers hand tools as an end in themselves or merely as a means to make things. Abid says he sees “them as an important part of the process of making.” He believes the use of hand tools are an essential skill that all woodworkers must learn. “While machines have their place too - I use them for heavy grunt work - if one is looking to do fine, heirloom quality work, hand tools are the way to go,” he points out. It was this focus on fine woodworking – as compared to run of the mill furniture making – that led to a growing interest in high quality hand tools. Unfortunately, in India most hand tools used tended to be crude and an impediment rather than an aid to first rate hand work. This led to his transition from being a hand tools enthusiast to a hand tools evangelist and finally to a niche supplier of quality hand tools, particularly Japanese hand tools which are considered the finest in the world.

As a woodworking instructor, Abid realised the need for good tools

“All this stemmed from my frustration over the lack of access to high quality Japanese tools here in India. There were a few companies selling Japanese hand saws, but beyond that, none of them had the knowledge or the inclination to increase their range of tools. Meanwhile, there was a steady increase in demand for Japanese tools from the Indian DIY community,” he says. One fine day, he decided to reach out to Kakuri Tools in Japan, because they had a wide range of quality tools at an affordable price point: “They decided to take a chance with me, to the extent that this was the first time that Kakuri offered a dealership to a new business. I now sell the largest range of Japanese tools in India.”

Abid serves a niche but growing market. “The big chunk of buyers are from different DIY communities and groups. I essentially cater to hobbyist woodworkers looking for high-quality tools, as well as small-scale artisanal woodworkers who are doing some interesting work with wood.”

Deciding on what tools to import and which to source locally is critical. He mostly imports traditional Japanese woodworking tools, which are not available anywhere in India, as well as European and Japanese style carving tools. “We have some really good machine tool makers in India, so I don't see the point of importing those,” he feels. “Instead, I source their export quality range to offer my customers. I also collaborate with small custom tool makers to bring hard-to-find tools, such as a range of high-quality wood turning chisels, to the community.”

Abid with Shinjini

One great help and motivating factor that prompted Abid to take the plunge into the business of importing and distributing hand tools was his wife, Shinjini (46), who decided to join hands with him. This changed everything, including their lives.

“My wife has been my biggest supporter in everything that I've done. Once I got my tool business off the ground with the help of friends, it was only a matter of time until I would have had to streamline everything. The thought of dealing with all the paperwork was daunting, given everything else I have on my plate. That's when my wife decided to come on board with me.”

His wife worked in the corporate sector for 25 plus years but remained an artist at heart. She is a mixed media artist, tarot reader, and writer. Her work can be viewed at her website (moderngypsy.in) which is beautiful summary of her journey as an artist. “Once she had saved enough money for herself, she quit and we formed a partnership firm, Beyond Boxes Enterprises,” he recalls. “She takes care of the billing and invoicing and some of the logistical details, while I focus on the parts of the business that I excel at. It's all working out pretty well for us!”

When Shinjini isn’t helping Abid with his business, she’s either in her studio, painting, filming videos for an online video course, which she generally runs in collaboration with international artists, or writing, or curled up in her favourite nook with her nose buried in a book. She also takes care of their two cats, Simba and Loki. In all, the couple isn't complaining!

Abid with tools and students

But hand tools is a very niche business and the going cannot but be pretty tough, especially if someone wishes to make a viable business of it in today's India. “I'm not in this business primarily for the money,” Abid points out. For him, “it's about building a community of like-minded people and providing solutions to anyone wanting to do the craft themselves. From a purely business point of view, I think we have a big and growing market for hand tools, but I don't think it will be a viable business for some time to come, if ever. To make it as a business, one would have to add on power tools as well.”

For Abid the business is secondary to his passion

But things are changing. When Abid started off, woodworking as a hobby was practically unheard of but over the years the DIY community has grown with more and more middle-class Indians are taking to woodworking. This is encouraging especially considering that it was never in the Indian tradition for better off people to use their own hands to make things. “I feel that there is a deliberate effort to break away from mundane pastimes like mall visits and shopping over the weekend. Youngsters these days are eager to try something new,” he argues. “With a lot of my students, I've noticed that while they are great at creating things digitally, or adept at working on the computer, they hardly make anything by hand. This hobby gives them a feeling for doing things by hand, and they appreciate the tactile nature of wood and its versatility as a material.”

Abid believes that this new found yearning to get beyond the mundane is widespread and growing rather quickly, especially down south. He says: “Bangalore has a lot of maker spaces and a few individual teachers who focus on the thriving DIY community there. In fact, my biggest client base for woodworking tools is from down south!”

Abid’s and Shinjini’s hand tools can be found at their website (https://beyondboxes.in) where he has his contact details. Anyone interested in reaching out to him to learn woodworking could write to him at abid@beyondboxes.in.

Let’s wish the couple all the best for venturing into the brave new world of high-quality tools for fine woodworking.

Indranil Banerjie 3 June 2025