Split your own wood, and it will warm you twice. – Old New England Saying

All wood is worth logs. – English proverb quoted by Cotgrave, 1611

[E]dged tools are dangerous things to handle, and not infrequently do much hurt. – Agnes Reppllier, “Wit and Humor,” 1892 [A bit of context here: “Wit is the salt

Ultimately, literature is nothing but carpentry…. Both are very hard work. Writing something is almost as hard as making a table. With both you are working with reality, a material just as hard as wood. Both are full of tricks and techniques. Basically very little magic and a lot of hard work… – Gabriel Garcia Marquez, interview, The Paris Review, 1981