The unedited John Brown
- Thread starter Cottonwood
- Start date
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RogerP
Established Member
Interesting and I admit to agreeing with some of what he says about not using machinery.
But I also note his workshop is stuffed to the gills with all manner of expensive tools - most made with machines.......?
But I also note his workshop is stuffed to the gills with all manner of expensive tools - most made with machines.......?
The problem is that in the UK the public want handmade furniture at IKEA prices and will not pay a decent rate. Take my avatar I tell people that it takes 100 to 120 hours to make. They are still shocked when I say I want £5k for such a chair made to suit them. Most say they will pay no more than £1k. We do not proceed to a sale. If I did it completely by hand with no machining at all I estimate it would take 150 or more hours. If I spent those extra hours no one would pay me for them so why make life harder than it needs to be.
Richard Findley
Established Member
Firstly, a plee to website makers, don't put white text on a black background. Having read that article half an hour ago I can still see stripes!!
It's quite an extreme view which I can only partly agree with. He seems to suggest that if you use machines you make ugly work. If you use hand tools you produce beauty. The fact is, if you are talented and skilled you use the machines to make the elegant designs you want. Machines make life easier but you need to make them work for you and not be restricted by their capabilities.
Machines make more waste. Really? Use a saw bench to rip the timber, it's a 3mm blade not a 1.5mm (double the waste!!) use a p/t instead of a jointer plane? The wood is either true or not. Router or moulding plane, the shape is cut or not. A tenon is the same size cut by hand or machine. I don't buy it.
In real life you need balance and, as much as I enjoyed reading the article, this is an extremist view and so lacks balance.
Just my thoughts
Thanks for the link
Richard
It's quite an extreme view which I can only partly agree with. He seems to suggest that if you use machines you make ugly work. If you use hand tools you produce beauty. The fact is, if you are talented and skilled you use the machines to make the elegant designs you want. Machines make life easier but you need to make them work for you and not be restricted by their capabilities.
Machines make more waste. Really? Use a saw bench to rip the timber, it's a 3mm blade not a 1.5mm (double the waste!!) use a p/t instead of a jointer plane? The wood is either true or not. Router or moulding plane, the shape is cut or not. A tenon is the same size cut by hand or machine. I don't buy it.
In real life you need balance and, as much as I enjoyed reading the article, this is an extremist view and so lacks balance.
Just my thoughts
Thanks for the link
Richard
Jacob
What goes around comes around.
Agree. I couldn't read it - had to copy and paste into BBedit. I'll post it in the next window.Richard Findley":1y5llgsz said:
I don't think it's extremist, more just rhetorical. It was written few years ago and there's a lot more hand tool use going on now. I do agree about the bloody router being a PITA - I hate them. I also think there's huge pressure to de-skill - we are constantly told that various hand processes (not just sharpening!) are really difficult and it's better to buy a gadget (or a DVD, course, etc). But there are a lot of tasks are done more efficiently (also more enjoyably) by hand (particularly freehand sharpening!) and many hand made things have a special quality which no machine can reproduce.
Jacob
What goes around comes around.
The text:
My grandmother used to tell me that most of life’s ills were caused by men chasing money. Even fifty years ago the poor old dear could not understand what all the rush was about. She had a theory that the heartbeat hadn’t altered since time began, and that the pace of life should be regulated by this fact. I didn’t take any notice of her at the time, but recently I’ve had cause to recall her words. The speed of life is out of synchronisation with the human body. If we could slow our lives down a little, think of quality before quantity, there would be more time to savour the pleasant things before we are forced to rush on to something else.
Woodworkers are not excused this malady, every bit of literature, every handbill or periodical to do with the craft is packed with advertisements for machines. A young man interested in making things out of wood can be excused for believing that machines are a fundamental necessity. Hand tools have been relegated to the small ads section, or second hand or antique dealers, as though they were relics of the past whose use went out with grandfather. I have been into woodwork shops where there was hardly a decent usable hand tool in the place. A screwdriver, some plastic handled chisels and spanners, all mixed up in the same box
The price of timber once seemed of little consequence. Now, with rain forest problems and a general scarcity, this has become a very expensive raw material. A return to the use of hand tools, apart from being less wasteful, would add more value to this precious material. I fully appreciate the average woodworker cannot render tree trunks into planks, and handsawing huge bulks is pure sweat, so the use of a power saw is necessary. That is all that is required to lead a full and satisfying woodworking life.
Power machines are unfriendly for they are very noisy and make a lot of unpleasant dust. Craft woodworking should be a creative activity, with the practioners as artists. Surrounded by ugly, noisy, dusty machines the woodworker does not have the environment in which to do good work.
There are two main health hazards from frequent use of machinery, that is apart from cutting off the fingers. Dust and noise. Neither of these is instantly apparent, as is an amputation, but nevertheless, they are just as dangerous. The most frightening is nasopharyngeal, or nasal cancer, closely associated with wood dust. Although a rare disease, the incidence can be as high as breast cancer. This, of course, applies to full time workers, but the residual chance is not insignificant amongst occasional users. Then, constant exposure to high levels of noise can damage the ears and lead to premature deafness.
Of course you can wear protective clothing and apparatus against these ills. But to mummify yourself in this way can only be to the detriment of careful work. I have seen a colour photograph in a magazine of a man using a bandsaw. Ha has on a rubber face mask, ear muffs and goggles, perhaps it is just a coincidence that he closely resembles a chimpanzee! Recent British magazines have a large advertisement featuring a bright faced youth, who looks entirely happy in the most ridiculous, all-encompassing headwear I have ever seen. Picture if you will a cabinet maker working on a fine piece of oak furniture, clad in a hard hat! I am sure the sense of control of the operator is impaired by wearing all this safety equipment. Dust accumulates on the goggles, giving poor vision, and it is often a subtle change of sound that tells you a blade is about to break. Some smocks I have seen must restrict the free movement of the arms, resembling a canvas straight jacket. To work thus on machinery takes courage, and the use of such bravery has a stress effect which is cumulative.
The reason for the introduction of machinery in the 19th century was to speed up production in the factories. The words of Adam Smith were burned large into brains of the industrialists. Water, then steam and finally electricity provided ample power, and in that great age of innovation machines were invented to cope with more and more processes. The owners cared not a jot for design or quality, unless it affected sales. Quantity was the main criteria. How can we make more profit? Unskilled people could be trained to work a single operation machine in days. The fact that these operators had no interest in their work, and did the job for what money they could get, interested no one, except people like Ruskin, C R Ashbee and William Morris.
Since the last great war, it seems that these same principles have been adopted by modern woodworkers. Yet the motivation is entirely different. I have never known a craft woodworker who does the job only for money, or at least admits to this. Woodworkers pursue the craft because they love it, they enjoy working with wood, and they get great satisfaction from seeing a well finished piece. To a man, or woman, they try their hardest to do fine work, and to produce an artifact of delight. If this is not true, how come there are so many well supported competitions? They all love to show their work, and are proud of it. I don’t suppose there has ever been a time when so much effort has gone in to producing good work.
Unfortunately a large part of the works on show are made by machines. And at what cost! Many thousands of dollars are spent on all these machines, saws and re-saws, lathes, planers, thicknessers, spindle moulders, mortising machines, dowelling machines and biscuit jointers, dovetail attachements, belt sanders and portable machines of all kinds. New ones every week. They come in a myriad of shapes and sizes. The daddy of them all is the router. This screaming monster, used for nearly everything, turns at so many revolutions that the poor wood doesn’t stand a chance.
Now, apart from he initial expense of this armoury, there are attachments to buy, numerous cutters for different profiles, saw blades to be bought, and few of these things can be satisfactorily sharpened by the user, they have to be sent away. The operator becomes a mechanic producing precision engineered works, This has little to do with woodworking.
What about the extra time it takes to do a piece by hand? Well, it can take a little longer, that’s true. You need to be well organised the workshop laid out properly, and above all you must have a first class bench. The “kitchen table” might do in a machine shop, but for hand work the bench is the very hub of success. It must be heavy, at the right height, and with good, accurate vices, positioned to cope with the kind of work you are doing. The hand too maker needs the best bench he can make – or afford! You must know your tools, what they are made of, fine adjustments and sharpening angles. Everything must be clean and sharp. Tools talk to the craftsman, and will let you know when they are right. What the machine does by noisy, brute force, you will be able to do with quiet cunning.
I doubt there’s much saving in machine work over hand work for the small one-off maker. If you’re an amateur it doesn’t matter. The quality will be so much better. The satistaction of the maker won’t compare, and this will show itself in the finished piece. A professional will have to charge a little more. People will pay it. With the saving in capital cost, bank interest, and the time consuming business of setting up machines, you could be better off.
It is difficult to know whether manchine mania was led by the woodworking press, or that the papers were merly following a craftsman led trend. I am inclined to the former opinion. It looks as though the machinery manufacturers have the technical press in a vicelike grip, leaving the humble hobbyist to believe taht unless he buys the machines he will be a second class woodworking citizen. I was always led to understand that machines were there to do the tedious work, and that the craftsman’s skills should actually do the making. Gradually the idea of what is tedious has been updated, for it is now possible to make complicated pieces entirely with machinery. The only handwork left to be done is to lift the wood to the machine. I am sure the manufacturers will cope with this in time!
I ask, where is the pride of the craftsman? Does he, or she, think that money is a short cut to skill? I have seen wonderful work done by amateurs, using hand tools. True it does take time to learn the skills required, and much practice. It’s a pity the apprenticeship system has gone, when young people were exposed for five years to good proctices, working alongside skilled men. Pride in work, pride in a fine set of tools, I know this is now unfashionable, but there is nothing wrong with being proud of one’s achievements. It is between a man and his God whether that pride is false or not. Some woodwork is quite tricky and needs lots of practice. The wonder and joy as each hurdle is leaped has to be experienced to be believed. The material you work with is not uniform it is moody, it can be deceptive, sometimes hiding faults until the very last moment of finishing, and you have to start all over again. Handwork breeds patience, and grannie’s words are recalled, about speed and the heartbeat.
The kind of accuracy you can achieve cannot be measured in “thous”. It’s not nececessary. An eighth or a sixtenth of and inch. Closer than that is a sixteenth “full” or “slack”, and for the perfectionist we are down to a “gnat’s whisker”. I have heard of micrometers being used on tenons. Frankly, I find this ridiculous.
I would not go so far as to say that there are no skills necessary to working machines. It is important to be able to read and interpret complicated instructions. What you end up with is engineering skills – precision engineering in wood.
I have spoken to many woodworkers on this subject, and I am heartened by their defensive attitude. “I have a few machines” means they have a lot, and “but I seldom use them” means they use them all the time.
As a substitute for apprenticeship these days we have training colleges. I believe in the United States it is possible to obtain a degree at universities (“I mastered in woodwork”). These young people, having been taught design and machine skills, feel they should come out of college and jump straight into the first division. One or two of the cheekier ones do just this. They ply their unsubtle wares, made with ersatz woodworking skills, often making wood look like plastic. Fortunately most of them are seven day wonders and soon disappear. I hold no regard for this type of work. The main skill required is in hiding the machine marks. I suspect these young people never feel that wonderful, solid confidence of the apprentice who has just finished his five years, and with his beautiful handmade tool-box, full of fine tools, is about to set out in the world to do good work.
Norman Potter, in his recent book, Models and Constructs, tells the story of a visit to his workshop of a Gimson trained cabinet maker called Rex. He told how Gimson would run his finger along the under edges of a newly finished piece, saying “kindly Rex, keep your edges kindly”. (I can find no specification called “kindly edges” in the standard textbooks!) I am reminded of that wonderful quotation in the front of Dr Schumacher’s “Small is Beautiful”. “We are remodelling the Alhambra with a steam-shovel, and are proud of our yardage.” Those are the words of Aldo Leopold.
Handmade work has soul, it has verve, a sparkle which a machine cannot reproduce. Eric Gill would never let an apprentice stonemason incorporate a mistake into the design of a carving. It must stay for all to see, or be scrapped. There is a lack of understanding to this kind of approach which inhibits the modern woodworker. The apparent “perfection” of some machined operations has trapped the craftsman into feeling that this is the way it should be. There is no excuse for lazy people or shoddy work, hand or machine, but it is nice to think that this table, or this chair, was made by a human being.
You often see people inspecting furniture minutely to see if all the joints are tight, or to see if there is any slackness in the dovetails, or perhaps they are looking for graving pieces to cover a mistake. This annoys me. Do these people do the same to a painting in an art gallery? A firm I know makes one-off pieces, things like Welsh dressers, and furniture in the Georgian style. The joinery is impeccable. This company has the very latest in machines. Yet it is possible to detect their work from a good distance, it is so ugly. They undoubtedly sell things, I believe they export occasional items. They will certainly never fall to pieces, which in a way is rather a pity. As one stands back to appreciate a painting, so it should be with a piece of furniture. Is it beautiful, well proportioned? Will it do the job it was designed to do? Is it strong enough for its purpose and will it last? Do I like it, can I live with it? When the customer has asked these questions only then does the price come up. If it is handmade and has live it will probably be sold.
Corporately the public taste is quite good. Individually we can criticise people for spending their money on badly designed goods, but there seems to be a balance that prevails. Successful cabinet makers and joiners have only become so because people like what they make. They rarely advertise so the old saying about building a better mousetrap must be true. The entrepreneurs that run substantial and elaborate galleries know what they can sell for they have usually built up a following who buy what they are told. This group must rank amongst the taste makers. However, by far the greater part of craftsman made woodwork is sold at the workshop door, then by word or mouth recommendations. This takes a long time to build up for there is a credibility gap. The main advantage of selling direct is that the large mark-ups for the showrooms are avoided. There is also a personal relationship with the customer.
“Wisdom demands a new orientation of science and technology towards the organic, the gentle, the non-violent, the elegant and beautiful.” These again are the words of Schumacher, an economist, a breed not normally associated with such sentiments. In a spiritual way I think there is a parallel with the organic farming movement. When they first started organic growers were ridiculed by the establishment as “mud and muck” freaks. Now, demand for their product far outstrips supply, and with framing problems as they are, I think they will have the last laugh. No one has grasped this particular nettle. The money man, and his pet poodle, the advertising man, have woodworkers in a vicelike grip. They have created the need for all this junk, and now they fulfil the need. If that’s what woodworkers want, good luck to them, but I hope they won’t have the gall to talk about skill. It reminds me of painting by numbers!
The Shaker style has had a great revival. I am certain this has nothing to do with celibacy!. It is the simple beauty of Shaker designs, the lack of fussy ornament. The shape of the furniture and it’s proportions are what attract. There is probably a residual idea that the Shakers were honest craftsmen, and the goods were well made. This is true, but unfortunately the get rich merchants have detected the mood and the cash registers hum in Shaker shops. Many of the products they sell are factory made at astronomical prices, for certain that’s true in London. I suspect there is a spiritual element firing this revival, owning a Shaker piece might bring them nearer to God. As the last Shaker Eldress said before she died in 1990, “I don’t want the Shaker religion to be remembered as a chair”. They were right though, it is a gift to be simple.
I often feel that the craftsman of today is recreating in his little heaven, the very hell that the industrialists of the last century were so soundly dubbed for.
Woodworkers should look anew at their hand tools. Take the meanest, rusty plane, clean it, grind the blade and sharpen it – like a razor – then set it up, cap iron, mouth opening, there are plenty of books to tell you how if you don’t know. Now, set very fine, run it over a scrap of oak. Hear the sound it makes (you can tell a sharp plane by the sound), and feel the perfect finish. Use a sharp chisel, what a thrill.
Craftsmen in wood who agree with the sentiments expressed here should make a self-denying ordinance, that after a certain date they will give up their machines. Then they should tell everyone what they are doing, broadcast the message, print it on their headed notepaper, make a statement. Perhaps there’s a need for an organisation like the Soil Association, with a “Good Work” symbol.
If you make your furniture by hand, news will soon spread, and people will travel to see your work, and they will buy it! I have worked with machines in other people’s employ. I have owned some machines myself. Years ago I examined what I was doing and went “organic”. I haven’t regretted it once. It was a renewal of my love affair with wood.
The saying that if it’s any good they don’t make it any more, becomes increasingly true. We must do our best best to turn things round. We must educate ourselves, and our customers to realise what quality really means, quality in making quality in design, and finally quality of life. Our children are educated to believe that success is making money, quickly if possible. The politics of recent times have encouraged us to turn greed into a religion.
What I have said here is about as fashionable as advising people to sell their car, and take a bus, or even walk. Real progress can only be spiritual progress. The calm and unhurried atmosphere in my workshop makes enough to pay the bills for a simple life, no more. God bless you, and remember, Good Work.”
John Brown, 1997
My grandmother used to tell me that most of life’s ills were caused by men chasing money. Even fifty years ago the poor old dear could not understand what all the rush was about. She had a theory that the heartbeat hadn’t altered since time began, and that the pace of life should be regulated by this fact. I didn’t take any notice of her at the time, but recently I’ve had cause to recall her words. The speed of life is out of synchronisation with the human body. If we could slow our lives down a little, think of quality before quantity, there would be more time to savour the pleasant things before we are forced to rush on to something else.
Woodworkers are not excused this malady, every bit of literature, every handbill or periodical to do with the craft is packed with advertisements for machines. A young man interested in making things out of wood can be excused for believing that machines are a fundamental necessity. Hand tools have been relegated to the small ads section, or second hand or antique dealers, as though they were relics of the past whose use went out with grandfather. I have been into woodwork shops where there was hardly a decent usable hand tool in the place. A screwdriver, some plastic handled chisels and spanners, all mixed up in the same box
The price of timber once seemed of little consequence. Now, with rain forest problems and a general scarcity, this has become a very expensive raw material. A return to the use of hand tools, apart from being less wasteful, would add more value to this precious material. I fully appreciate the average woodworker cannot render tree trunks into planks, and handsawing huge bulks is pure sweat, so the use of a power saw is necessary. That is all that is required to lead a full and satisfying woodworking life.
Power machines are unfriendly for they are very noisy and make a lot of unpleasant dust. Craft woodworking should be a creative activity, with the practioners as artists. Surrounded by ugly, noisy, dusty machines the woodworker does not have the environment in which to do good work.
There are two main health hazards from frequent use of machinery, that is apart from cutting off the fingers. Dust and noise. Neither of these is instantly apparent, as is an amputation, but nevertheless, they are just as dangerous. The most frightening is nasopharyngeal, or nasal cancer, closely associated with wood dust. Although a rare disease, the incidence can be as high as breast cancer. This, of course, applies to full time workers, but the residual chance is not insignificant amongst occasional users. Then, constant exposure to high levels of noise can damage the ears and lead to premature deafness.
Of course you can wear protective clothing and apparatus against these ills. But to mummify yourself in this way can only be to the detriment of careful work. I have seen a colour photograph in a magazine of a man using a bandsaw. Ha has on a rubber face mask, ear muffs and goggles, perhaps it is just a coincidence that he closely resembles a chimpanzee! Recent British magazines have a large advertisement featuring a bright faced youth, who looks entirely happy in the most ridiculous, all-encompassing headwear I have ever seen. Picture if you will a cabinet maker working on a fine piece of oak furniture, clad in a hard hat! I am sure the sense of control of the operator is impaired by wearing all this safety equipment. Dust accumulates on the goggles, giving poor vision, and it is often a subtle change of sound that tells you a blade is about to break. Some smocks I have seen must restrict the free movement of the arms, resembling a canvas straight jacket. To work thus on machinery takes courage, and the use of such bravery has a stress effect which is cumulative.
The reason for the introduction of machinery in the 19th century was to speed up production in the factories. The words of Adam Smith were burned large into brains of the industrialists. Water, then steam and finally electricity provided ample power, and in that great age of innovation machines were invented to cope with more and more processes. The owners cared not a jot for design or quality, unless it affected sales. Quantity was the main criteria. How can we make more profit? Unskilled people could be trained to work a single operation machine in days. The fact that these operators had no interest in their work, and did the job for what money they could get, interested no one, except people like Ruskin, C R Ashbee and William Morris.
Since the last great war, it seems that these same principles have been adopted by modern woodworkers. Yet the motivation is entirely different. I have never known a craft woodworker who does the job only for money, or at least admits to this. Woodworkers pursue the craft because they love it, they enjoy working with wood, and they get great satisfaction from seeing a well finished piece. To a man, or woman, they try their hardest to do fine work, and to produce an artifact of delight. If this is not true, how come there are so many well supported competitions? They all love to show their work, and are proud of it. I don’t suppose there has ever been a time when so much effort has gone in to producing good work.
Unfortunately a large part of the works on show are made by machines. And at what cost! Many thousands of dollars are spent on all these machines, saws and re-saws, lathes, planers, thicknessers, spindle moulders, mortising machines, dowelling machines and biscuit jointers, dovetail attachements, belt sanders and portable machines of all kinds. New ones every week. They come in a myriad of shapes and sizes. The daddy of them all is the router. This screaming monster, used for nearly everything, turns at so many revolutions that the poor wood doesn’t stand a chance.
Now, apart from he initial expense of this armoury, there are attachments to buy, numerous cutters for different profiles, saw blades to be bought, and few of these things can be satisfactorily sharpened by the user, they have to be sent away. The operator becomes a mechanic producing precision engineered works, This has little to do with woodworking.
What about the extra time it takes to do a piece by hand? Well, it can take a little longer, that’s true. You need to be well organised the workshop laid out properly, and above all you must have a first class bench. The “kitchen table” might do in a machine shop, but for hand work the bench is the very hub of success. It must be heavy, at the right height, and with good, accurate vices, positioned to cope with the kind of work you are doing. The hand too maker needs the best bench he can make – or afford! You must know your tools, what they are made of, fine adjustments and sharpening angles. Everything must be clean and sharp. Tools talk to the craftsman, and will let you know when they are right. What the machine does by noisy, brute force, you will be able to do with quiet cunning.
I doubt there’s much saving in machine work over hand work for the small one-off maker. If you’re an amateur it doesn’t matter. The quality will be so much better. The satistaction of the maker won’t compare, and this will show itself in the finished piece. A professional will have to charge a little more. People will pay it. With the saving in capital cost, bank interest, and the time consuming business of setting up machines, you could be better off.
It is difficult to know whether manchine mania was led by the woodworking press, or that the papers were merly following a craftsman led trend. I am inclined to the former opinion. It looks as though the machinery manufacturers have the technical press in a vicelike grip, leaving the humble hobbyist to believe taht unless he buys the machines he will be a second class woodworking citizen. I was always led to understand that machines were there to do the tedious work, and that the craftsman’s skills should actually do the making. Gradually the idea of what is tedious has been updated, for it is now possible to make complicated pieces entirely with machinery. The only handwork left to be done is to lift the wood to the machine. I am sure the manufacturers will cope with this in time!
I ask, where is the pride of the craftsman? Does he, or she, think that money is a short cut to skill? I have seen wonderful work done by amateurs, using hand tools. True it does take time to learn the skills required, and much practice. It’s a pity the apprenticeship system has gone, when young people were exposed for five years to good proctices, working alongside skilled men. Pride in work, pride in a fine set of tools, I know this is now unfashionable, but there is nothing wrong with being proud of one’s achievements. It is between a man and his God whether that pride is false or not. Some woodwork is quite tricky and needs lots of practice. The wonder and joy as each hurdle is leaped has to be experienced to be believed. The material you work with is not uniform it is moody, it can be deceptive, sometimes hiding faults until the very last moment of finishing, and you have to start all over again. Handwork breeds patience, and grannie’s words are recalled, about speed and the heartbeat.
The kind of accuracy you can achieve cannot be measured in “thous”. It’s not nececessary. An eighth or a sixtenth of and inch. Closer than that is a sixteenth “full” or “slack”, and for the perfectionist we are down to a “gnat’s whisker”. I have heard of micrometers being used on tenons. Frankly, I find this ridiculous.
I would not go so far as to say that there are no skills necessary to working machines. It is important to be able to read and interpret complicated instructions. What you end up with is engineering skills – precision engineering in wood.
I have spoken to many woodworkers on this subject, and I am heartened by their defensive attitude. “I have a few machines” means they have a lot, and “but I seldom use them” means they use them all the time.
As a substitute for apprenticeship these days we have training colleges. I believe in the United States it is possible to obtain a degree at universities (“I mastered in woodwork”). These young people, having been taught design and machine skills, feel they should come out of college and jump straight into the first division. One or two of the cheekier ones do just this. They ply their unsubtle wares, made with ersatz woodworking skills, often making wood look like plastic. Fortunately most of them are seven day wonders and soon disappear. I hold no regard for this type of work. The main skill required is in hiding the machine marks. I suspect these young people never feel that wonderful, solid confidence of the apprentice who has just finished his five years, and with his beautiful handmade tool-box, full of fine tools, is about to set out in the world to do good work.
Norman Potter, in his recent book, Models and Constructs, tells the story of a visit to his workshop of a Gimson trained cabinet maker called Rex. He told how Gimson would run his finger along the under edges of a newly finished piece, saying “kindly Rex, keep your edges kindly”. (I can find no specification called “kindly edges” in the standard textbooks!) I am reminded of that wonderful quotation in the front of Dr Schumacher’s “Small is Beautiful”. “We are remodelling the Alhambra with a steam-shovel, and are proud of our yardage.” Those are the words of Aldo Leopold.
Handmade work has soul, it has verve, a sparkle which a machine cannot reproduce. Eric Gill would never let an apprentice stonemason incorporate a mistake into the design of a carving. It must stay for all to see, or be scrapped. There is a lack of understanding to this kind of approach which inhibits the modern woodworker. The apparent “perfection” of some machined operations has trapped the craftsman into feeling that this is the way it should be. There is no excuse for lazy people or shoddy work, hand or machine, but it is nice to think that this table, or this chair, was made by a human being.
You often see people inspecting furniture minutely to see if all the joints are tight, or to see if there is any slackness in the dovetails, or perhaps they are looking for graving pieces to cover a mistake. This annoys me. Do these people do the same to a painting in an art gallery? A firm I know makes one-off pieces, things like Welsh dressers, and furniture in the Georgian style. The joinery is impeccable. This company has the very latest in machines. Yet it is possible to detect their work from a good distance, it is so ugly. They undoubtedly sell things, I believe they export occasional items. They will certainly never fall to pieces, which in a way is rather a pity. As one stands back to appreciate a painting, so it should be with a piece of furniture. Is it beautiful, well proportioned? Will it do the job it was designed to do? Is it strong enough for its purpose and will it last? Do I like it, can I live with it? When the customer has asked these questions only then does the price come up. If it is handmade and has live it will probably be sold.
Corporately the public taste is quite good. Individually we can criticise people for spending their money on badly designed goods, but there seems to be a balance that prevails. Successful cabinet makers and joiners have only become so because people like what they make. They rarely advertise so the old saying about building a better mousetrap must be true. The entrepreneurs that run substantial and elaborate galleries know what they can sell for they have usually built up a following who buy what they are told. This group must rank amongst the taste makers. However, by far the greater part of craftsman made woodwork is sold at the workshop door, then by word or mouth recommendations. This takes a long time to build up for there is a credibility gap. The main advantage of selling direct is that the large mark-ups for the showrooms are avoided. There is also a personal relationship with the customer.
“Wisdom demands a new orientation of science and technology towards the organic, the gentle, the non-violent, the elegant and beautiful.” These again are the words of Schumacher, an economist, a breed not normally associated with such sentiments. In a spiritual way I think there is a parallel with the organic farming movement. When they first started organic growers were ridiculed by the establishment as “mud and muck” freaks. Now, demand for their product far outstrips supply, and with framing problems as they are, I think they will have the last laugh. No one has grasped this particular nettle. The money man, and his pet poodle, the advertising man, have woodworkers in a vicelike grip. They have created the need for all this junk, and now they fulfil the need. If that’s what woodworkers want, good luck to them, but I hope they won’t have the gall to talk about skill. It reminds me of painting by numbers!
The Shaker style has had a great revival. I am certain this has nothing to do with celibacy!. It is the simple beauty of Shaker designs, the lack of fussy ornament. The shape of the furniture and it’s proportions are what attract. There is probably a residual idea that the Shakers were honest craftsmen, and the goods were well made. This is true, but unfortunately the get rich merchants have detected the mood and the cash registers hum in Shaker shops. Many of the products they sell are factory made at astronomical prices, for certain that’s true in London. I suspect there is a spiritual element firing this revival, owning a Shaker piece might bring them nearer to God. As the last Shaker Eldress said before she died in 1990, “I don’t want the Shaker religion to be remembered as a chair”. They were right though, it is a gift to be simple.
I often feel that the craftsman of today is recreating in his little heaven, the very hell that the industrialists of the last century were so soundly dubbed for.
Woodworkers should look anew at their hand tools. Take the meanest, rusty plane, clean it, grind the blade and sharpen it – like a razor – then set it up, cap iron, mouth opening, there are plenty of books to tell you how if you don’t know. Now, set very fine, run it over a scrap of oak. Hear the sound it makes (you can tell a sharp plane by the sound), and feel the perfect finish. Use a sharp chisel, what a thrill.
Craftsmen in wood who agree with the sentiments expressed here should make a self-denying ordinance, that after a certain date they will give up their machines. Then they should tell everyone what they are doing, broadcast the message, print it on their headed notepaper, make a statement. Perhaps there’s a need for an organisation like the Soil Association, with a “Good Work” symbol.
If you make your furniture by hand, news will soon spread, and people will travel to see your work, and they will buy it! I have worked with machines in other people’s employ. I have owned some machines myself. Years ago I examined what I was doing and went “organic”. I haven’t regretted it once. It was a renewal of my love affair with wood.
The saying that if it’s any good they don’t make it any more, becomes increasingly true. We must do our best best to turn things round. We must educate ourselves, and our customers to realise what quality really means, quality in making quality in design, and finally quality of life. Our children are educated to believe that success is making money, quickly if possible. The politics of recent times have encouraged us to turn greed into a religion.
What I have said here is about as fashionable as advising people to sell their car, and take a bus, or even walk. Real progress can only be spiritual progress. The calm and unhurried atmosphere in my workshop makes enough to pay the bills for a simple life, no more. God bless you, and remember, Good Work.”
John Brown, 1997
Richard Findley
Established Member
there's huge pressure to de-skill - we are constantly told that various hand processes (not just sharpening!) are really difficult and it's better to buy a gadget (or a DVD, course, etc). But there are a lot of tasks are done more efficiently (also more enjoyably) by hand (particularly freehand sharpening!)
I agree with this. Like I say, it's about balance. De-skill so far and you can only produce blocky and ugly furniture that he describes. In the world of turning there is a massive urge to de-skill, using carbide tools instead of proper turning tools. A step too far I feel. In the article he lists lathes as one of the dreadful machines he hates. A step too far in the other direction I feel.
I have worked in the no hand tool environment and it isn't much fun. In my workshop I have, I feel, a good balance between the two.
Each to their own though.
Richard
I agree with this. Like I say, it's about balance. De-skill so far and you can only produce blocky and ugly furniture that he describes. In the world of turning there is a massive urge to de-skill, using carbide tools instead of proper turning tools. A step too far I feel. In the article he lists lathes as one of the dreadful machines he hates. A step too far in the other direction I feel.
I have worked in the no hand tool environment and it isn't much fun. In my workshop I have, I feel, a good balance between the two.
Each to their own though.
Richard
Jacob
What goes around comes around.
Hey Richard you've got yellow text on a black background - just as unreadable as white! What's wrong with black text on white background? I don't bother reading texts on black backgrounds unless I'm desperate and I'm sure I'm not the only one. It's a very basic mistake. My eyesight is OK by the way.
PS just had another look it's dark green, black from some angles.
PS just had another look it's dark green, black from some angles.
Richard Findley
Established Member
Haha! Definitely ivory on dark green! I've spent hours on that site (although much less recently) and never had the eye reaction I have to black and white! 
Richard
Richard
Halo Jones
Established Member
5K for 120 hours work. I work 40 -50 hours a week, or 160 - 200 h a month and only get paid £3000 a month before tax, pension etc so have about 2K to spend on the mortgage, heating, food etc. I am probably at least as qualified as you but in a different discipline. I assume you still have business rates, rent etc on top of everything but it sounds to me like you are on to a winner if you are able to make 8 - 10k a month.
Where do I sign to re-train?
cambournepete
Established Member
I can see what he's getting at and I, like many others I guess, have fallen into the "I need that power tool to be able to make that thing" trap.
Having said that that I think for most makers a combination of power and hand tools is best. Why should I spend hours removing waste by hand when a machine can do it in minutes, for example?
Horses for courses
Having said that that I think for most makers a combination of power and hand tools is best. Why should I spend hours removing waste by hand when a machine can do it in minutes, for example?
Horses for courses
Harry 48
Established Member
I can remember John did articles for one of the woodworking magazines and very good they were but his continual rants about power tools made him unpopular with the tool advertisers. The question of hand or power tool in MHO is each to his own
Berncarpenter
Established Member
Thanks Jacob for normal text i had to give up reading the white on black about half the way through .
Cheers Bern.
Cheers Bern.
IMO the writer has fallen into the self indulgent and classic trap that many suffer of wishing to produce items to their agenda not the clients. I doubt many clients give a hoot about whether their table has been made largely by machine or by hand. Yes a few will care - but when it comes to earning a living you go with what the client wants and is happy with not how you want to work yourself unless of course you are fortunate to be insulated from the real world!
nathandavies
Established Member
woodworking snobbery at its most extreme.
in an ideal world I walk out of my workshop with an axe in the morning to fell my 300 yr old oak picked for its suitability for a job, and in 7 or 8 years after waiting for drying etc I will have produced that perfect piece of furniture for the very patient client who hopefully has not died in the waiting period.
I along with probably most people who come to this website day dream of working with handtools all day to make a living producing beautiful one off pieces of furniture. unfortunately I do not think that in 2013 that is a viable idea, for 99.9% of us. it sounds like he would like to go back to a time with a boy in the pit for 8 hrs with the slightly more senior worker up above sawing timber into more manageable lumps for him.
his notions of ppe making people into monkeys and unable to here the tools is ludicrous in so many ways. with my ear protection on (I love my hearing, I don't want to loose it) I can still tell what is happening with my tools, I can tell how sharp my panel saw blade is by the sound it makes moving air. ear protection deadens sound, it doesn't remove it completely. eye protection (I love my sight, I don't want to loose it) I wear glasses constantly so I tend to use them as my protection, and yes they get a little dust on them occasionally, but to the extent of not being able to see what I am doing! is he mentally deficient? if you get dust on your protection I think you clean it off before you get to the point of blindness or you are guessing measurments as you can no longer see the tape. breathing protection (I love breathing, I don't want to stop) I stupidly do not wear masks as much as I should but I have and continue to work on my air quality using extractors for any task that makes dust or shavings. him saying that people in ppe look like chimps, I would turn on its head, as I think I would look more like one if I was stumbling around blind, deaf, and bent over double trying to take a breath.
the router vs the "poor wood" seriously are you ok? it's a lump of wood. it would have been a lot happier if it was still growing in the forest amongst its friends. what are you on about, that it doesn't stand a chance, you make it sound like the router is the big bully against the weedy piece of wood, does he feel like him and his collection of 500 planes give the wood a fighting chance? ah mr oak you put up a good fight, and I have been defeated, now go run back to the woods.
I was going to go on, but it's 5.30 am and this ****** has done his job by winding me up, and I need more coffee and tobacco. I may come back to this and continue my rant, but in the meantime I need to walk 5 miles to town to pick up my sunday paper which I get hand written onto linen every week.
in an ideal world I walk out of my workshop with an axe in the morning to fell my 300 yr old oak picked for its suitability for a job, and in 7 or 8 years after waiting for drying etc I will have produced that perfect piece of furniture for the very patient client who hopefully has not died in the waiting period.
I along with probably most people who come to this website day dream of working with handtools all day to make a living producing beautiful one off pieces of furniture. unfortunately I do not think that in 2013 that is a viable idea, for 99.9% of us. it sounds like he would like to go back to a time with a boy in the pit for 8 hrs with the slightly more senior worker up above sawing timber into more manageable lumps for him.
his notions of ppe making people into monkeys and unable to here the tools is ludicrous in so many ways. with my ear protection on (I love my hearing, I don't want to loose it) I can still tell what is happening with my tools, I can tell how sharp my panel saw blade is by the sound it makes moving air. ear protection deadens sound, it doesn't remove it completely. eye protection (I love my sight, I don't want to loose it) I wear glasses constantly so I tend to use them as my protection, and yes they get a little dust on them occasionally, but to the extent of not being able to see what I am doing! is he mentally deficient? if you get dust on your protection I think you clean it off before you get to the point of blindness or you are guessing measurments as you can no longer see the tape. breathing protection (I love breathing, I don't want to stop) I stupidly do not wear masks as much as I should but I have and continue to work on my air quality using extractors for any task that makes dust or shavings. him saying that people in ppe look like chimps, I would turn on its head, as I think I would look more like one if I was stumbling around blind, deaf, and bent over double trying to take a breath.
the router vs the "poor wood" seriously are you ok? it's a lump of wood. it would have been a lot happier if it was still growing in the forest amongst its friends. what are you on about, that it doesn't stand a chance, you make it sound like the router is the big bully against the weedy piece of wood, does he feel like him and his collection of 500 planes give the wood a fighting chance? ah mr oak you put up a good fight, and I have been defeated, now go run back to the woods.
I was going to go on, but it's 5.30 am and this ****** has done his job by winding me up, and I need more coffee and tobacco. I may come back to this and continue my rant, but in the meantime I need to walk 5 miles to town to pick up my sunday paper which I get hand written onto linen every week.
Jacob
What goes around comes around.
I think we all do that, but it's not a trap.Matt@":29cypcqu said:
We decide what sort of work we want to do for ourselves and then try to make it viable. If the client has drain unblocking or painting and decorating on his agenda we don't just change trades. The classic trap is to allow the client to make all the decisions - you are supposed to be the expert telling him what he needs and how things should be done, not the other way around.
What a fantastic article. Fabulously written & illustrated. I could read stuff like this all day. (my son has just started Sports Journalism at Uni & I love his footy match reviews)
Long live the extension of the hand & eye
Long live the extension of the hand & eye
Having been a total hand-tool purist at one time I can relate to where he is coming from, but I would now agree with Richard that a bit more balance is not a bad thing.
I found that several years of working several hours a day by hand was taking a severe toll on my body, and it was clear that this was going to end very badly another ten or twenty years down the line. Dimensioning a lot of oak by hand is really punishing after a time if you're doing it day in, day out. I had machines in the workshop as well for the more commercial work I needed to do, and in the end the temptation became too great!
My reasons for working only by hand on high quality pieces was that —as he says— handmade things do (or rather can, sometimes) have a quality of life and a sparkle that industrial processes can't really reproduce. However I have since found that there are ways and approaches you can use with machines that help you make by hand, rather than dictating the process as they do in industrial production. The machine becomes an ally rather than a master. This allows you to produce work with character, with a human feel, while still saving some time and energy. And you are of course free to use hand methods where they make the most difference to the final look and feel of the piece, which is probably in only about 20% of the total work.
Also, as Krenov points out, getting some help from machines frees up energy to focus on the finer details, and can therefore make your work better. And we live in a world where machines are part of our life, and we couldn't now survive without them, so to come sort of accommodation with them seems a bit more honest. I guess it's about accepting the world we live in (at least up to a point) and that there is a necessity for some sort of compromise in life, ie growing up a bit. At least that's how it was for me. Though of course if it's a hobby only, and you enjoy the peace and quiet of hand tools, then that's a different thing entirely, and a very nice way to spend time.....
I found that several years of working several hours a day by hand was taking a severe toll on my body, and it was clear that this was going to end very badly another ten or twenty years down the line. Dimensioning a lot of oak by hand is really punishing after a time if you're doing it day in, day out. I had machines in the workshop as well for the more commercial work I needed to do, and in the end the temptation became too great!
My reasons for working only by hand on high quality pieces was that —as he says— handmade things do (or rather can, sometimes) have a quality of life and a sparkle that industrial processes can't really reproduce. However I have since found that there are ways and approaches you can use with machines that help you make by hand, rather than dictating the process as they do in industrial production. The machine becomes an ally rather than a master. This allows you to produce work with character, with a human feel, while still saving some time and energy. And you are of course free to use hand methods where they make the most difference to the final look and feel of the piece, which is probably in only about 20% of the total work.
Also, as Krenov points out, getting some help from machines frees up energy to focus on the finer details, and can therefore make your work better. And we live in a world where machines are part of our life, and we couldn't now survive without them, so to come sort of accommodation with them seems a bit more honest. I guess it's about accepting the world we live in (at least up to a point) and that there is a necessity for some sort of compromise in life, ie growing up a bit. At least that's how it was for me. Though of course if it's a hobby only, and you enjoy the peace and quiet of hand tools, then that's a different thing entirely, and a very nice way to spend time.....
John Brown
Freeloading Social media influenza
Very interesting. I wish I'd written all that, as I don't have the time to read it.
No relation.
No relation.
