It’s Get Woodworking week, and a great time for me to resume some blogging. It seems that each time I write a blog, it begins with an apology for not writing more frequently. I offer no excuses but to say I’m a furnituremaker and father first, not a blogger. Blogging offers a bit of a creative outlet when I’m not otherwise occupied.  Fortunately, I’ve been quite busy with work, for customers and for myself, and exercising my woodworking skills daily as a result. Which brings me to the subject of this post – something I’ve been reflecting on for years, but only forming coherent thoughts on recently.

Matt Kenney, Senior Editor at Fine Woodworking, and someone I consider a friend, posted about cheating in woodworking recently. Besides being a talented and accomplished woodworker (see some of his work at left), Matt holds a doctorate in philosophy, so I hesitate to disagree (my, albeit lesser, degree in philosophy gave me enough insight into the dangers of arguing with a Ph.D. in Philosophy), but I know he won’t take it personally. His point was that there is no such thing as cheating in woodworking, it’s just about the quality of the product. I encourage you to read the entire post, but here’s an excerpt:

“What matters when you’re making furniture is the furniture. When all the tools are put away and the finish is dry, have you made a beautiful piece of furniture that you and other folks find beautiful and useful? If so, then nothing else matters. So, do whatever it takes to make the furniture you love, even if that means using a router, tablesaw, or a chisel guide to cut dovetails.”

                                              – Matt Kenney, Senior Editor, Fine Woodworking

A key part of this thesis is that HOW it’s made is irrelevant, as long as it’s beautiful and nobody can tell the difference. This undercuts the value of creativity and craftsmanship which, like any skills, are developed with time, practice, and a little effort. This does not suggest that master craftsmen and artists, who have worked at their art for years and years, practicing and creating, don’t find efficient means to accomplish the same tasks. They do. But they have developed sufficient skills to know what is efficiency, and what is corner-cutting – ways of accomplishing things without developing your skills or learning the how’s and why’s of methods of art.

So on this point, I argue that whether it’s “cheating” depends on your goals: If you want the fastest way to an endpoint, it’s impossible to cheat, as Matt suggests. If your goal is to get better and better, hone your skills, craftsmanship, and creativity, then it’s entirely possible to cheat. I’d argue it better to learn well by trying and falling short of what you know to be possible, and to do it over and over if need be, to gain the unconscious competence that comes with mastery.

Wilbur Pan (of www.giantcypress.net), in the context of the importance of the “dovetail-a-day” idea, recently posted a link to the following video, created from a commentary by Ira Glass, contributor and host of This American Life, (a great, thought-provoking podcast/radio show for listening to in the workshop, incidentally) which makes this point as he discusses creative endeavors (in his case, the art of writing and storytelling):

If you just want a good-looking end-product done quickly without taking the time to learn how and why, a robot in a factory somewhere overseas can likely make one faster, cheaper, and more efficiently than you can, but that doesn’t sound much like creativity, art or craftsmanship to me.

No, there isn’t one “right” way, or, more accurately, there are many right ways, so try many, as Matt suggests, but don’t fall back on the fastest and easiest simply because some methods you know are “time-tested” seem too hard. You can be sure that the masters, who all have their own ways of doing things, have practiced ad nauseum, and mastered, many different methods before settling on the best way for them. You can also be sure the same masters had many years of disappointing results, which they pushed through, knowing they could achieve better. Cheating is not in the method, its in failing to try, to practice and to grow your skills.

This idea applies to learning to freehand sharpen, cutting without jigs, dovetailing without a router, etc., which I won’t get into here, but to point out that there are an abundance of things in woodworking (and I suppose in life as well) better to learn to do well by practice, than to just finish quickly. Developing the skills to make them unconscious habits will lead to doing it more quickly, and knowing when another method may be more appropriate.

My favorite comment from the rather lengthy comment stream in Matt’s post, from commenter “Pags”, a boatwright in Minnesota: “ I would hate to teach math to our children using only calculators instead of them learning how to do the math using their heads”. Amen. Having returned somewhat later in life to earn an engineering degree, I’m rather scared to know that 99% of my young classmates, now out in the world engineering our roads, products, robots, etc., stored the entirety of their understanding of fundamental engineering and the math skills needed in their Ti-85′s (calculators), not learning it and imprinting the knowledge in their minds.

So my parting thought is that for those who want to develop their creativity and skills, and particularly for those starting out: Don’t cheat. The results won’t be good at first. Simply try again. And again, and again. If it looks perfect for your first try (and this applies for almost anything creative), you probably cheated. Yes, the product looks great, but you probably took a shortcut to get there, and thus didn’t learn from it. You’ve cheated yourself. Rather, do a lot of work. Do it over and over (this is the basis of the dovetail daily exercises). It WILL be hard, but rewarding. You’ll soon find you’ve mastered techniques enough to know the most efficient way, but more importantly, you’ll understand why, and when to apply which techniques. This builds the creative foundation for being able to design and build your own works, and to do it well.

So go make, then make again…and again…and again. Years from now, you’ll reflect on how you’ve grown your skills, almost by accident, by constant practice.

PS.  Moments after drafting this post, my thinking was bolstered to a degree, when I read this post, by Shannon Rogers, who appears to have practiced ripping solid stock by hand enough that it’s become second nature.

PPS. A couple days post-drafting (yet pre-posting), and again, this topic popped up in a blog post, this time from just down the road from me from the shop of Rob Porcaro, a hugely talented woodworker, who agrees that there is cheating in woodworking, though for a slightly different reason than I’ve given. His conclusion is, however, the same…get back to work.

Sometimes, I get distracted.

I’ve been fairly silent in the blogosphere lately, with quite a lot going on. I put my commissions on pause in order to build a kitchen for my wife (I’ve been promising since we moved in in 1999, and it’s our 10th anniversary, so the kitchen is her gift). I endeavored to build the cabinetry myself, like any good woodworker would want to. My workshop is not ideally suited for “production” cabinetry; that is, it’s in the basement, it has low ceilings, there’s not enough space to store alot of pieces concurrently, and it certainly is not tooled like a production cabinetry shop might be. No, it’s better suited to unique one or two-off pieces of furniture. So needless to say, it’s been a challenge to establish a process to try and do it reasonably efficiently…but I digress.

This post isn’t about cabinetry.

This is about the diversions we take when working on something. Keep reading, there’s are some tasks for you at the end!

Perhaps the task is tedious, monotonous, or generally uninteresting. (Like a boatload of kitchen cabinetry?). I was tired last night, but not the kind of tired where you want to sleep – the kind of tired where you need to just unwind, do something different. So I grabbed a scrap of mahogany, don’t know what kind, or even where it came from, just a random off-cut. I pulled out the carving tools wanting simply to push them through some wood – just for something different then ripping at the tablesaw, planing every machined face, and sorting and labelling face-frame parts. I carved randomly for a couple minutes, without any design intent….and a tree grew from it.

But it was kinda…blah.  I decided I’d try to dye the whole thing, then try planing off the top surface after it dried. A while back I saw, and, without any immediate uses for it, picked up a product at Home Despot (yes, its intentionally spelled that way…) from Minwax: Express Color Water based stain and finish in ‘Onyx’. Who knows what kind of coloring and finish it contains, it’s the typical cryptic verbiage on most of their products to keep you guessing. I just squirted a bunch on the surface, then rubbed it in with a rag:

After a little while, I just planed off the surface. (not sure it was dry, but I was impatient…you know me):

For a 20 minute diversion, I kinda like it, and I’m going to use this method again in a product. So inspired, I sketched a half-dozen ideas this generated while lying in bed afterwards.

So here’s the message, and your tasks:

Get distracted, try something new, do something you always wanted to try, or something entirely unplanned.If it doesn’t work, oh well. Sometimes it’ll inspire you; Sometimes you’ll find something that works, and something you’ll want to do again…for real.

Your final task: Tell us what you do in the shop as a diversion? What have you tried? What worked? What didn’t?

(Note: if anyone knows what this Minwax product is all about, share that too, I’m curious what it really is)

The Modern Woodworkers Association Podcast #9, recorded July 11th, 2012, also available as audio only below (Note: You can always listen to past episodes and subscribe to the audio-only podcast here). In episode #9, we talk with some of our friends and organizers of The Furniture Project (formerly WoodExpo) about the 2013 show. I went to the 2012 WoodExpo and had a great experience, if you missed that post, you can read it here.

If you like the video version, subscribe on YouTube (ModernWoodworkers Channel)

Tune in LIVE when we broadcast each show (you can do that by adding MWA’s G+ page to your circles and watch for show announcements in your stream, watch Live on the YouTube Feed, Watch for announcements and links Tweeted by @MWA_National, and participate in real time by tweeting your questions to @MWA_National or @MWALive, or commenting in the G+ stream, or in the YouTube comments. phew…so many ways to participate!

THE AUDIO-ONLY PODCAST:
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The Modern Woodworkers Association Podcast #8, recorded June 20th, 2012, also available as audio only below (Note: You can always listen to past episodes and subscribe to the audio-only podcast here). In episode #8, we talk about our favorite hand tools, power tools and measuring tools.

If you like the video version, subscribe on YouTube (ModernWoodworkers Channel)

Tune in LIVE when we broadcast each show (you can do that by adding MWA’s G+ page to your circles and watch for show announcements in your stream, watch Live on the YouTube Feed, Watch for announcements and links Tweeted by @MWA_National, and participate in real time by tweeting your questions to @MWA_National or @MWALive, or commenting in the G+ stream, or in the YouTube comments. phew…so many ways to participate!

THE AUDIO-ONLY PODCAST:
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 The Modern Woodworkers Association Podcast #7, recorded a couple of weeks ago, and featuring our first foray into LIVE podcasting is finally available as audio only. In this episode, we discuss a new book from Storey Publishing: Woodworking FAQ, by Spike Carlsen. (Note: Listen to past episodes and Subscribe to the audio-only podcast here
 

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If you’re interested in the video version, you can subscribe on YouTube (ModernWoodworkers Channel), and even tune in when we broadcast live (you can do that by adding MWA’s G+ page to your circles and watch for announcements in your stream, watch Live on the YouTube Feed, Watch for announcements and links Tweeted by @MWA_National, and participate in real time by tweeting your questions to @MWA_National or @MWALive, or commenting in the G+ stream, or in the YouTube comments. phew…so many ways to participate!

Here’s the Video of Episode 7, if you’re interested in viewing it (and forgiving the quality of our first attempt with this technology!)
 
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A recent series of controversial remarks by Fine Woodworking editor ASA Christiana set off a tumultuous chain of commentary in the online woodworking world. Asa joins me and the rest of the MWA guys to talk about it, what he’s learned and the path forward.

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(Note: comments are disabled here. If you’d like to comment please do so on the episode 6 post on the MWA website )

From me and the guys at Modern Woodworkers, a bit about blogs and blogging in woodworking. For me it all started last summer; here’s my first post.  I talk a bit more about it in the podcast. And don’t forget to send us your feedback, questions, comments!!
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You now those projects you put off, and put off, and put off? They’re not fun, per se, few people will see them, just kinda blah. For me, it’s the cabinetry for the laundry room (where only my wife goes). She’s been asking for some cabinetry for years, and the time came to do it.

I have a boat-load of ash left from a tree I took down in 2007 (ish). I’ve used much of the ‘good’ stuff for projects in the past few years. There are treasures in what remains, but much of it is streaky with brownish heartwood. So here’s the laundry room sink base cabinet, for which I re-sawed, and book-matched the ugly wood to make, um… slightly less ugly raised panels.  It seems like a mirror-image of the “blemish” makes it seem more of a feature, than a deficiency.

Sink Base cabinet in Ash, inset doors, false drawer

The other ash I’m kicking around the shop these days is a small table, maybe destined for a coffee table. It was a 12″ wide by 2.5″ thick slab with some cool figure and a live edge that I re-sawed. The bandsaw was not cooperative that day, so the bookmatch was not perfect, but it’ll still make a cool tabletop: the figure and purple swirls are awesome.  When I get inspired about completing the base, it will be for sale. Contact me if you’re interested in this piece.

Bookmatched Figured Ash Table top, in progress

If you’re anything like me, you can’t get enough Roy Underhill, and stingy as PBS can be about making available releasing back episodes this news from Popular Woodworking is pretty exciting:  http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PopularWoodworking/~3/g84imHpQI28/get-ready-for-roy