For the past three decades or so, many men and women woke up on Saturday morning , turned on the TV, and ended up watching Norm Abrams on his show "The New Yankee Workshop". Norm is famous as the atypical American woodsmith and craftsman. He presented the projects he filmed with such ease and made the viewer utterly believe they could achieve anything in their own workshop. However, as most who watched show found out, Norm had an army of the best of the best woodworking powertools at his disposal. Almost every procedure he filmed were completed solely with machines. When Norm's fans would wander into their own little garage shop and start trying to replicate something they saw on his show, they would soon become disenfranchised by the knowledge that they were under-equipped to build what they wanted to build. This viewer then had two options: Go out and buy the very expensive machinery required to build their piece or give up and do something else.
TV woodworking shows like Norm Abram's were marketing heaven for tool companies in the 90's who desperately wanted to sell the latest and greatest machine, jig, or gadget to would be woodsmiths. You saw it on his show and how well it executed its purpose and wanted to be able to do it for yourself. So off to Sears or Lowes you went. That tablesaw looks super accurate and stable. Oh gosh it is $700.00! Well, I guess I'll just get the Sears credit card and buy it. I NEED IT TO WORK WOOD! Replace "table saw" with any other type of machine and we have what I call "Tool Hysteria". The mentality is that there is only one way to accomplish any given operation on a plank of wood. Tool Hysteria has caused many budding artisans to go into crushing retail debt to fund their little woodshop (which didn't have room for all these machines in the first place). Then, these same awesome marvels of woodworking engineering prove to be as time consuming to set up properly as it would be to just rip a board right down the middle with a ninety year old Disston hand saw! As if that was not enough, it is soon realized by the budding artisan that in order to get the most from the machine, any number of jigs (shop made devices to improve accuracy and functionality of the very expensive machine) are needed. Ultimately the would be woodworker becomes a machinist and ends up spending more time fettling the machine than turning wood into things that benefit everyday life.
Do not get me wrong. Machines are wonderful. They can perform things very quickly and with precision that can be hard to match by hand. But at what cost? I've found that my three year old daughter enjoys hanging out in the shop with me. She is captivated by the scent of pine essence in the room and thinks that plane shaving are soft and fun to play with like bracelets. We can have silly conversations and tell silly stories about the Paw Patrol while I soften a corner on a counter top with a hand plane. But if I feel impatient and decide to run the table saw, I have to send my daughter out of the room. It is just too dangerous and way too noisy for little ears and I have to concentrate so very hard to not mess up the piece. No. I value the sweet time I spend with her in our shop. I will not send her out. I will take the long road. Out comes my (and yours) grandpa's hand saw. With my daughter sitting criss cross apple sauce on my ragged workbench, I show her in a low voice how to set a marking gauge for width of cut with a combination square. Starry eyed, she watches as the gauge pin gouges a perfectly straight line down the edge. She watches intently as the saw kerf begins to form at the top and thinks daddy looks funny as I rake the saw in and out of the kerf all the way to the other end.
Times like these are precious. I can't help but to think that one of the reasons the hand tool woodworking craft is dying is because the work environments are too dangerous to allow our little ones to be close enough to learn and be intrigued themselves! My little girl knows the difference between a spokeshave, a saw, and plane. Why? Because I have confidence that she wont get hurt and I have her with me any time I can. She watches, asks questions, and she likes to feel the smoothness of the wood after a sharp Stanley Number 5 Jack Plane has flattened the surface or edge. This is how a craft is carried on to new generations. This is how close relationships are built. This is how children learn to persevere in complex and long situations.
But I HAVE and USE powertools. A hybrid woodshop. While I strive to perform every operation with handtools, there are times when a machine might be the only or best option for use. It hurts to ask my daughter to go play inside when I have to do this. When I'm in a time crunch though, it must be done. It doesn't occur very often, but often enough that I, at times, wish machinery were less available so the long road was the only road.
So the beginning of this blog serves the purpose for you to know my heart as it regards working wood and using wood as a key ingredient for building relationships. Every post will incorporate these items: A skill, a tool, and a relationship. Tune in for more. Woodworking is a vast craft with many options for completing many operations. I do hope you will return!