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Snips... ;-)
Too Precious?...
This discussion seems to me to go to the heart of what the Porch
debates in so many ways. We ask a bunch of questions of each other
that all go to these points. What is the
best tool for this job? What is the best tool of it's type? How
much time should I spend on getting an edge -- should I be able to
shave my arm without even feeling it or can the skin feel just the
tiniest of pulls? How long should it take to make a _____? Why
favor handtools over electron burners?
For a production shop doing the same thing over and over in high
volume, I have little doubt that machines are the way to go for many
tasks -- especially if they can be computer controlled to produce
uniform dimensions. But that isn't the kind of work I ever want to
do, and more importantly, using those tools introduces safety issues
that cannot be ignored. (A personal experience with a screaming
demon drawing blood confirmed that, and I thought I was following
all the safety rules.) I had thought for close to a decade
that maybe I'd retire, set up a shop, and restore / refinish
furniture part-time and maybe occasionally make new stuff by
request. I like the work, and I'm reasonably good at it while I
readily admit I don't know nearly as much about it as I need to know
to be trusted with a stained, dirty, damaged piece that if properly
restored would be a $50,000 antique such as I irregularly see in
museums, shops and shows. I've made a living in a line of
work that has next to nothing to do with my current hobbies /
occasional paid furniture repair-refinish work.
Like many of us rockin' away here, I'm in a financial position
after 33 yrs of a professional life that is modestly comfortable,
and I can afford to have a few LN planes in my workshop. I bought
them because I thought I needed their finer qualities and hadn't
found examples of what inspired their creation at an affordable
price. That in no way makes my workshop better than anyone else's,
as I am certain that others here can make things that are more
awe-inspiring than what I have produced while using more "mundane"
tools. Some of my ancestors were also carpenters, wheelwrights,
blacksmiths, budding cabinetmakers, and toolmakers. I know much of
what they did would be considered 'serviceable' or 'meeting market
needs'. I contrast, I strive to do higher-end work out of
a desire to improve my skills and produce something worth keeping
around, not because I have a customer that is limited by what they
can afford.
The reality is that nearly all customers are limited by what they
can afford, because they are like us. Only a very few can hold out
for the finest work and afford the cost of having it done, just as
few of us on this list can afford a bespoke mahogany bedroom set and
custom fitted cabinetry in our closets (and no, I can't either, but
I do know a couple people who can and did). As a result, many of us
doing woodworking as a hobby explore producing things that are
probably 'better quality' with our old tools than what former
commercial owners of those tools would have produced. Worse, the
things I produce I could not part with for the going commercial
price of competing products because customers allocate what income
they have among many different competing needs, and that rarely
allows them to write blank checks. I'd go broke if I was in
business trying to find customers who want me to make the finest
furniture I could make, just as did Paul's acquaintence with "the
grandest shop". What I strive to do, and probably many of us strive
to do, is in between 'mundane' (NO termite barf) and exceptional,
and yet still borders on what 'gentlemen woodworkers' might have
done 100-200 yrs ago. I know I can't charge enough to provide me
with a reasonable income per hour of work expended making furniture,
just as I've determined that I can't sharpen saws for prices people
can justify and make enough to make it worthwhile. (At the prices
Tom Law charged me a few
years before he retired, I didn't see how he made enough to want to
keep doing -- and then he retired.) So it is unlikely I'll ever
try.
A few years ago, when we were exploring the prices charged and
time required for cabinetmakers and joiners to build various items
100-200 yrs ago, it was a confirmation. I
knew I was too slow -- but the time it took those guys to get things
done was nearly a ten-fold improvement over me.
And our shops are very often better equipped than what they had
to work with. Seeing the Dominy shops and what Winterthur displays
of that family's works, what is demonstrated at Williamsburg and
elsewhere, and inspecting fine old antiques repeatedly confirms to
me that the 'finest craftsmen' of old weren't 'finest' because of a
high-end collection of tools or a superbly gorgeous workbench or any
obsession with making furniture perfect in corners no one can see as
well as on the outside. They didn't do their work that way. More
of it was consistent with what St. Roy shows (the rare times I get
to see his
show) than many of us might admit. They may have had fine tools for
a few specific tasks, but because they knew how to use what they had
or make what tools they needed even when those tools were what we
might think second-rate, they were able to get the job done in fine
form and short order with tooling that is less impressive than what
many of us have already. That's highly respectable in my eyes. I
like the few luxuries I have in my shop, but I am much more
conscious at this point of just how large a gap remains between my
level of skill with my tools and the skills those folks displayed in
their work. So, I no longer delude myself into believing that I can
make some money at this work, and I instead focus upon learning more
about how our elders did their work, did it well, and produced
things that are worth preserving through generations. Using hand
tools, preserving hand tool methods, and preserving the tools while
still keeping them useful provides me an avenue for considerable
relaxation. That makes it worth it, and I can still select the
degree of fineness in my work to match the immediate need. I can
simultaneously be working on a quick-build project for a mundane use
right next to an attempt at something finely crafted. I don't need
to get tied up in an obsession over work quality that leaves me
unable to either finish anything or ever use a fine tool.
Life is too short, and I need to accomplish things to that I hope
will add to the things of value and worth preserving over the years
. That's how I use my tools, and thankfully
I don't have to worry about making a living from many of the tools I
have acquired from people who did use them to make their living.
This is my relaxation, my enjoyment, maybe part of my legacy, and
I'm thankful for it.
Charlie Driggs
December 04, 2005 |
