Life is short. Don’t take your best parts to the grave.
Tag: philosophy
Cobblers
A reblog from the Northwest Woodworking Studio.
Cobblers
This letter was sent to me by an old friend.
Hi, Gary!
May I give you a story, as promised?
The story is told that if you were a young person in medieval France embarking on a spiritual quest, if you were fortunate you might meet up with someone older, perhaps a teacher, who would say this to you: I think I understand what you are seeking. Let me give you the name of someone I know, a cobbler, in Dijon. I think that it might work out well if you were to become his apprentice. If that happens, let me give you one piece of advice. Don’t talk with him about spiritual matters; just let him teach you how to make shoes.
So, time passes, and you find yourself in Dijon, and you seek out the cobbler. Sure enough, as it works out, you become his apprentice.
Years…
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One Manifesto
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.
If you don’t already follow Peter Sellers blog, I invite you to go read his most recent post, Lifting Your Spirits – Working With Your Own Hands!.
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…
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Travel Essentials
This is part of an ongoing theme to document travel and camping gear that has served me over the years. These will be mirrored on the Traveler’s Gear page as I get them up.
As a traveler, primitive technologist, peaceful survivalist, affected provincial, long-time Idler, and sometime field scientist I find the necessity for a shoulder bag to carry essentials. I have two size shoulder bags as well as various backpacks, brief cases, and messenger bags that have served me well over the years walking thousands of miles on survey and in my travels.
I made this bag a few years ago based on an 18th century gentleman’s shooting bag. If you are interested to see it’s construction, it is documented HERE. Carried by naturalists, sportsmen, and explorers, this small compartmentalized bag keeps the essentials handy. Sturdy 10-12 oz vegetable tanned leather from Hermann Oak means that this bag will serve many decades without fear of damage from wear.
Since I was eleven, I have been infatuated with mountain man style wilderness survival. It was, by far, my favorite merit badge as a Boy Scout. The merit badge book taught about the old idea of a “possibles” bag carried by early explorers that we now think of as a survival kit. Although the above is far from a complete survival kit, this little bundle, with the addition of a water bottle, gets me through many long days of travel and field work. Additional items include: lighter, flashlight, bandanas, and some first-aid essentials. However, traversing the wilderness, or even through civilization, means more than having the right stuff handy, being dressed properly is probably even more important. After years of walking in the wilderness I have learned the same lessons that our forefathers did; the importance of being well shod and covered with a proper hat.
Those topics will be covered down the trail.
Butcher block counter top.
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
Possessions
“A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.”
Walden, Henry David Thoreau 1854.
The Idler
Freedom Manifesto
from Tom Hodgkinson
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
Books:
“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.”
Henry David Thoreau, Walden.
Simple Wisdom
“It is never too late to give up your prejudices.”
Henry David Thoreau, Walden 1854.
No, Thoreau Was Not a Hypocrite
A good read and observations about some shallow and poorly thought-out attacks on the philosopher of “taking it easy”.
I think, like many reactionary arguments, many have missed the point.
Your average English major of the past decade has decided to dismiss the body of Henry David Thoreau’s work with one scandalous factoid: Thoreau’s mother did his laundry. For some reason, even the well-read think that this is a relevant fact, as if his dependence on friends and family cancelled out his transcendental conclusions.
But you don’t have to be a die-hard Thoreauvian to see the problem with this mama’s-boy attack. Though my dog-eared Walden perpetually floats to the top of my bedside stack, it is not out of blind respect for the Father of Chill that I defend the guy. My only claim to allegiance is that I read his book.
One Richard Smith of the Thoreau Society has my back:
Richard Smith, a die-hard Thoreauvian.
It should be obvious to anyone who’s read Walden that Thoreau was not a hermit. Just the chapter called “Visitors” is…
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Preindustrial Craftsmanship 