Happy labor day

People should read Mike Rose's book "The Mind at Work:Valuing the Intelligence of the American Worker." It was published in 2005 and I offer it as a classic. He was inspired by his mother (a waitress), his uncle Frank (a welder) and his own highs school experience to reevaluate the relative intellectual  content of various professions and trades and the social stratification that results from the colossal misunderstanding of intellect and how it evolves with the assistance of the hands. https://amzn.to/3I1sAQu

Make, fix and create... offset the growing impact of artificial intelligence by doing something real.

Sculpture

Sculpture has a higher perceived value than more practical things but allows you to express things that some folks might miss. For instance a crafted wood object may fail to convey the craftsman's relationship with wood. Though it might be there, it might be missed or misunderstood, as wood is seldom regarded with the reverence it deserves.

This piece of simply done "sculpture" may not be valued by some. There is the speed at which it's done, but the message is simple and easy to understand. We fail to value all the wonderful things wood does for us, and we fail to protect the forests from which it comes. It's twisted, it is torn.

I took a piece of ash, too wide to pass through the planer and used the bandsaw to cut it into two narrower parts before planing.

I then used the compound miter saw to trim the ends, allowing them to rest stably on a base. After a base is made, I will use a rotary chisel to texture the inside edges and ends. An oil finish will bring the wood to life.

My thanks to arborist Larry Lowman for the wood. The cherry base was added. A friend asked me what I would do today. It brought me joy to have done this. Follow your own bliss.

Make, fix and create...

tapered legs, gentle curved top

I've applied the first coat of Danish oil to protect and bring out the natural color of the wood. Gentile curving top, slender, tapered legs. Table is nearly complete,

Make, fix and create...

Danish oil comes next.

I will apply a coat of Danish oil and then a wipe on polyurethane top coat for long lasting protection.

Make, fix and create...
 

finger jointed drawer

I've made a finger jointed drawer using an interesting technique that begins indexing from both sides of the board and meeting in the middle, thus allowing a drawer guide to be added between fingers. A drawer facing will be added to hide the joints when the drawer is closed. As far as I know, this is a unique feature of my work.

I share this because it might be useful to others.

It is ironic that it has been so difficult for educators to understand the necessity of hands on learning and all the additional learning hours that students will apply when their passions are engaged. 

Essentially, folks learn for the fun of it, and schooling can deprive us of that learning by taking the fun out. 

Matthew Crawford wrote the book "Shop Class as SoulCraft" without ever having attended one. But he did use lines that I had shared through my blog as the epigraph of chapter one of his first book, and in the concluding chapter of his second. 

In Schools we create artificial learning environments for our children that they know to be contrived and undeserving of their full attention and engagement… Without the opportunity to learn through the hands, the world remains abstract, and distant, and the passions for learning will not be engaged. --Wisdom of the Hands blog post of October 16, 2006

Make, fix and create...

Partly assembled hall table

I've glued up the leg assembly for the hall table and will make the drawer next. Then I will finish routing the top and apply coats of Danish oil.

Make, fix and create...

As was common at the time...

As was common at the time, as I was registering for high school, the guidance counselor asked me and my mother whether or not it was intended that I would go to college. With my mother insisting Yes, I was placed on the college prep track and rarely saw some of my friends again, that were "destined" for the trades. They took one set of classes, those being wood shop and auto mechanics, while I and other college bound freshmen were placed on a completely different track. And so it went. While schooling might help bring us together, each seeing value in each other, it, instead set us apart.

We live in a divided nation in which children mature at various paces and some are sequestered from the use of their hands in the exploration of the world while being told that they are the best and  brightest, set apart for learning more advanced and abstract things, and while some erroneously are informed by their placement that they'll never measure up or be capable of more advanced thought. Little could be further from the truth.

I repeat. Not all mature to the same things at the same time. All need to be afforded the opportunity to grow at their own pace. And all schooling should be hands-on, and thereby enriched.

Make, fix and create...

Looking at things upside down and backwards

Looking at my upside down table reminds me of the technique that Gaudi used to visualize his unfinished Church of Colònia Güell and the Sagrada Família.

https://dataphys.org/list/gaudis-hanging-chain-models/

Make, fix and create...

Upside down

I am in the process of making a hall table with drawer and it is currently upside down to measure the final  length of the cross stretcher that will stabilize the legs. It is made of white oak harvested on our property and dried in the barn.

It is assembled with mortise and tenon joints. 

Make, fix and create...

Skilled trades

Skilled trades should be included in every person's educational opportunities: https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/where-the-future-of-stem-will-be-built-from-2025-onward-02b1fdb6abfa and would help us face changes from AI and other disruptions.

Make, fix and create...

Cherry...

I have a box nearly done, using a lid done many years ago, showing the difference between "new" cherry, freshly planed and old cherry allowed to age in the light. The difference is profound and noticeable here. Also shown is the simple design feature that allows the lid to open as though it is hinged. It simply falls into a groove at the back and sides, and then is held by that groove until deliberately closed. 

It is a technique I first used in my book, "Simply Beautiful Boxes" and available in digital reprint here: https://amzn.to/4morM7q

Do not worry about the color difference between old cherry and new cherry. Cherry is  a photo-reactive wood that will quickly age and catch up.

Make, fix and create... 

3 things

At our local cemetery they've cut a few trees, some of which will be sawn into lumber like this pine, over 30 inches in diameter. Good lumber. In my shop I've fitted a box to an inlaid lid, and created a lift tab for easy opening. Yesterday my wife and I attended demonstrations and a lecture on woodworking. 

Jerome Bias is a black craftsman who uses woodworking to bring his people's history into better focus. Held at the community of Canehill, AR, it was informative and entertaining. https://www.winterthur.org/jerome-bias/ 

There is a long tradition of black craftsmanship that should be better known.

Make, fix and create...

Mitered finger jointed box

As part of my ongoing effort to finish unfinished products in my shop, I am making a box to fit a lid crafted during the filming of my book,  The Taunton Complete Illustrated Guide to Box Making. https://amzn.to/4mJiHWm  It involves the use of shop made inlay. The box is made with a mitered finger joint, also illustrated in the book.

Make, fix and create...

Drying from second coat...

The second coat of Danish oil brings the jewelry box to a deeper sheen. It is drying, and I'll assess whether a third application is needed.

The side doors open to hold earrings and necklaces, and are held closed with rare earth magnets.  The complications of this box equal anything I've ever done.                

Make, fix and create...
 

Shaker Inspired Bench

Popular Woodworking this month features my article about making a shaker inspired bench.

Make, fix and create... 

Finished desk

I finished the white oak desk. Mortise and tenon joints, drawer made with hand cut dovetails. 

Make, fix and create...
 

Testing a Base Camp dust mask

Testing a Base Camp dust mask.

Make, fix and create...

a writer's desk

My writer's desk is nearly complete but for some sanding, routing, finish and a hundred years of life. It is made from white oak harvested on our own property from trees that I've watched grow for the last forty years and which were harvested standing dead at the end of a long life. 

It is visualized to fit in a large room as a place to write letters, and the drawer is a great place to store your laptop and writing utensils well into the next century.

The natural white oak will darken with the application of a clear Danish oil finish.

Make, fix and create...

Pestalozzi's observation of the poor:

"I had observed for a long time that behind their coarseness, shyness, and apparent incapacity are hidden the finest faculties, the most precious powers; and now, even amongst these poor creatures by whom I was surrounded at Stanz, marked natural abilities soon began to show themselves. I knew how useful the common needs of life are in teaching men the relations of things, in bringing out their natural intelligence, in forming their judgment, and in arousing faculties which, buried, as they were, beneath the coarser elements of their nature, cannot become active and useful till they are set free.

"It was my object then to arouse these faculties, and bring them to bear on the pure and simple circumstances of domestic life, for I was convinced that in this way I should be able to form the hearts and minds of children almost as I wished. I tried to connect study with manual labor, the school with the workshop and make one thing of them. But I was the less able to do this as staff, material, and tools were all wanting. A short time only before the close of the establishment a few children had begun to spin; and I saw clearly that, before any fusion could be effected, the two parts must be firmly established separately--study, that is, on the one hand, and labor on the other.

"But in the work of the children I as already inclined to care less for the immediate gain than for the physical training which, by developing their strength and skill, was bound to supply them later with a means of livelihood. In the same way I considered that what is generally called the instruction of children should be merely an exercise of the faculties, and I felt it important to exercise the attention, observation and memory first, so as to strengthen these faculties before calling into play the art of judging and reasoning; this, in my opinion, was the best way to avoid turning out that sort of superficial and presumptuous talker, whose false judgments are often more fatal to the happiness and progress of humanity than the ignorance of simple people of good sense, and I am more than ever convinced that as soon as we have educational establishments combined with workshops and conducted on a truly psychological basis, a generation will necessarily be formed which, on the one hand, will show us by experience that our present studies do not require one-tenth part of the time or trouble we now give to them."

Make, fix and create...

desk assembly

I have started to assemble the white oak writer's desk and now have the drawer made and leg assemblies at both ends glued. I've yet to make a stretcher that will run across the width to stiffen the legs.

A bit of epoxy filler improves the appearance of the half-blind dovetails cut in the drawer fronts. A trial assembly will allow final measurements for the stretcher to be made. 

There is a similarity between the Norwegian words tilgivelse meaning forgiveness and tillatelse meaning permission. Both offer a path forward.

Forgiveness for a woodworker gives one permission to move forward and discover new things. The pathway opens.

Make, fix and create...

Jeg vil ikke være perfekt, men tilgivende!

Looking at dovetails, forgiveness comes to mind. I've been cutting "through" dovetails and "half blind" dovetails for the first time since my stroke, and realizing I'm not quite as acute as I once was. Of  course I can blame it a bit on trying to make perfect dozuki cuts in white oak, and then chiseling tight to the marked line, when white oak is not the most cooperative wood. 

I can start afresh and get no better results, or I can remember the reasons for having done what I did in the first place. It has been a test, and the perfect craftsman I am not.

If the drawer was a utilitarian failure, not fitting as prescribed, I'd be unwilling to overlook its flaws and my own, and recut the joints but it fits as planned, and so I'll make do and forgive myself. And a bit of filler will help.

Forgiveness of self prepares one for the difficulty of forgiving others. And a bit of forgiveness is what it takes to build communities.  Forgiveness of self... something you learn from craftsmanship. 

Make, fix and create...