I’ve heard people say they have to put a piece of wood aside until the spirit hits them. That’s procrastination. Pick it up and work it – you’ll feel the spirit. No, I think it’s an advantage being self-taught.
Why we MAKE things. In a world where consumer goods have become cheap (in every sense) why bother creating something you could just go out and buy? I don’t know for sure, but it fills some need within myself to know that much of what I own or use was made by me or an actual craftsperson.
“But my own reasons for woodworking don’t have to do with the chance to work with quality tools, or even to produce quality work. I think what captures me is the opportunity to do something with my own hands.
When I see all the top of the line machines being put to use on some woodworking shows, I imagine that process taking me further away from feeling the wood being worked.”
Have a look at Wesley’s post and follow it over to Paul Sellers’ . They are both worth reading.
From Sellers’ blog:
“The quest for success was no longer how much I made but how I made and what I made and with what I made. Here I found peace as I sliced my handsaw down a long board and made rails for a clock. Here I found peace as I sharpened my chisels and carved wood until a tenon quietly emerged from chips on my benchtop. I understood the harmony of marriage when the tenon slid inside its mortise and the dovetails interlocked to marry for life. I began to understand what dedication meant. “
A very small and random selection of the simple little things I’ve made from the past decade. Nothing like Paul’s work but they are intimate to my soul as I know I made them.
I don’t know if he’d call it a manifesto, but that’s what I interpret it as.
I don’t consider this view to be my manifesto, either. What struck me while reading it was that all of us can choose to do woodworking for our own reasons. For me, the invasion of plastics doesn’t trouble me. The cheapness and inferiority of tools and things made with tools is what I don’t like.
My Veritas Carcass saws, with their “molded spine that incorporates stainless-steel powder for weight, glass fiber for stiffness, and an advanced polymer binder” backs, are great tools, in my opinion.
But my own reasons for woodworking don’t have to do with the chance to work with quality…
From my governor … I learned endurance of labour, and to want little, and to work with my own hands, and not to meddle with other people’s affairs, and not to be ready to listen to slander.
Marcus Aurelius: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, A.D 167
Wise and thoughtful words for Makers. It’s the thoughtfulness that a hand-craftsman puts into his project, not the speed or even cost that makes something worth making in the first place.
“If you remain insensitive to the individual characteristics of the material you are working with and cut regardless to a predetermined, exact measurement, then the finished piece will lack a certain wholeness and be little better than something you could have bought from a factory.” – Graham Blackburn
I have read two of his books and five of his edited volumes so far and am amazed by how his sentiments match my own. Learn more about this fascinating writer and editor at The Idler.
“Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations. Books, the oldest and the best, stand naturally and rightfully on the shelves of every cottage. They have no cause of their own to plead, but while they enlighten and sustain the reader his common sense will not refuse them. Their authors are a natural and irresistible aristocracy in every society, and, more than kings or emperors, exert an influence on mankind.”
I don’t know if he’d call it a manifesto, but that’s what I interpret it as.
I have read two of his books and five of his edited volumes so far and am amazed by how his sentiments match my own. Learn more about this fascinating writer and editor at The Idler.
“I have a great deal of company in my house; especially in the morning, when nobody calls.”
There is more to visiting than empty talk.
“Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations. Books, the oldest and the best, stand naturally and rightfully on the shelves of every cottage. They have no cause of their own to plead, but while they enlighten and sustain the reader his common sense will not refuse them. Their authors are a natural and irresistible aristocracy in every society, and, more than kings or emperors, exert an influence on mankind.”
Preindustrial Craftsmanship 