Should a project look perfect?

[David Larsen]

The question is: "Should a woodworking project look perfect?"

Look at antique furniture. It has its wear and tear blemishes that give it character, but even when it was new it wasn't flawless.

I like to strive for perfection in my work, but I don't try to make the piece look perfect. If that were the case, then I should perfect a mold and form it out of plastic so that it looks flawless. (look at your computer keyboard...it doesn't have any character because all the keys are the same or similar, the surfaces have consistent surfaces, and there is no color variation.)

I am not talking about building crap. I am talking about building it with character and maybe seeing a filled nail hole or molding covering an edge.

If every woodworker made perfect projects, then there would be little to differentiate between craftsmen other than design choices.

[Brian Kent]

I'm in no danger of perfection. I try to do everything right and beautiful, but wood is not even or consistent, so neither will woodworking pieces. I love pieces that look like they are done beautifully and artistically and with care and skill. If it shows a whole lot of character, then many imperfections are easily acceptable and at times even enjoyable.

[Mike Davis NC]

I have never seen a perfect piece of wood if by perfect you mean exactly the same all the way through in every respect. The prettiest piece of wood I ever saw was all gnarly and twisted. I have seen some nearly perfect craftsmanship in wood working. I think it is something to work toward but mental health and monetary constraints keep just out of reach.

[doug faist]

The question is: "Should a woodworking project look perfect?"


David - I guess I've got a different view on my projects. I have yet to build a "perfect" one; and I doubt very much that I ever will, but a goodly part of the enjoyment I get from woodworking is trying to improve and "perfect" my skills at different tasks. On one project it may be dovetails, on another it may be a "perfect" moritise and tenon joint. In any event, it's the sense of accomplishment at trying to make the perfect project, rather than the actual completion of the project that I find rewarding.

I doubt you will find any woodworker who has made a "perfect" project. They just don't exist. In every one there's a flaw, be it big or small, and often known only to the builder, but it's there. It's what keeps us humble.

Doug

[Larry Browning]

I agree completely. I always try to get everything perfect on my projects, yet I have never produced a "perfect" piece. There is always something that I can say I wish I had done better on. That's the way I like it. If I always produced perfect pieces, I think I would get bored with woodworking. I think what I love most about woodworking is the process of finding creative ways of overcoming problems that come up. When I see this or that little imperfection on the finished piece it reminds me of building process and what I did that caused it or how I fixed it.

[Rick Thom]

I strive for excellence not for perfection.

[John Coloccia]

The question is: "Should a woodworking project look perfect?"



God, I hope not!

If I look closely enough, I can see the imperfections in EVERYTHING. Good luck getting an aerospace machine shop to hold a tolerance of .001" without paying massively for it. I can see .001" gap from quite some distance away, so it's kind of hopeless I think. I'm with Rick. I strive for excellence and maybe one day I'll achieve it!

[Joe Angrisani]

I'm in no danger of perfection.....

:) That's funny.



I strive for excellence not for perfection.

I suppose Rick's words describe my attitude best.

One of the great parts about making things ourselves is that WE get to make the ruling on all aspects, from material to method to look. I think for most of us, the real draw is using quality materials in a quality way. Not some quest for perfection. Certainly not for me.

[David Larsen]

I don't have a sprayer and I don't have any immediate plans to buy one.

If I had some type of production shop, maybe it would be of value.

I can live with brush strokes in my work.

Spraying to me is trying to make it look perfect by eliminating brush marks.

[William Hamilton]

I don't think I'll ever be in danger of creating a perfect project. I think the fun part is accentuating the imperfections you want to be noticed (that great knot split by a butterfly key) and hiding those you don't (that glued piece of end grain that flew off when I was using the should plane). I think another great thing is looking at a finished piece and knowing every flaw, while those looking at it do not see them.

[glenn bradley]

I work a piece until I am happy with it. Even a pair of nightstands will have small variances, tool marks, etc. otherwise they may as well be Ikea. I am not sure I could achieve "perfect" in anyone's eyes and certainly not in mine. I gave that up in order to move on and make the next piece ;-)

[Cody Colston]

I'd love to build a perfect piece although I never will. I don't have to strive for "character" either. It happens on it's own all too frequently.

But, knowing I'll never achieve perfection does not keep me from trying. That's the only way to improve my skills and my work. So, I say to try and make your project look perfect. It won't, but if you strive for perfection, you just might achieve excellence.

[George Neill]

I look at so much of today's furniture and I just see Formica. Is Formica really what we consider the perfect 'wooden' surface to be? In the past, cabinetmakers didn't bother to fill pin holes in mouldings etc. The emphasis was on the moulding and that someone had hand wrought it and stuck it on a piece of furniture. That in itself was worth celebrating.

Veneers were often pinned onto groundwork and again, the cabinetmakers didn't fuss about some little pin holes, they rejoiced in the stunning overall effect of the veneer. Lay-out lines are frowned on now, but were badges of honour on early furniture, showing that they were constructed with dovetails and proper joinery techniques and not just nailed together.

Sawn ends on drawer linings are perfectly acceptable in my book, but these days everything must be planed to an ever-finer degree using tools with precision normally only found in machine shops. Utter madness!

I have asked the makers of some reproduction furniture why they don't follow through and replicate the aged finish too. The usual answer is that they want the look of a period piece when it was first made. Fair enough. But then why make it look like Formica?

I wish We would quit this obsession.

[Matt Winterowd]

My experience is that being far short of perfection, I am still much more critical of my work than anyone else. What looks like a big throbbing glitch to me is usually either invisible or completely ignored by everyone else (I'm sure that other sharp-eyed woodworkers would spot it, but politely hold their tongues).

It's also contextual of course. A big old dutchman in a rustic or natural form piece is a feature, a filled nail hole in the face of an apron on a federal console would be a bit rough for the style.

[Brent Ring]

+me to all who said striving for excellence - not perfection. I am finishing up a morris chair for a friend that he saw when it was about 95% complete. He told me he had originally planned to put it in his master bedroom but he loved it so much that he is thinking of putting it in the main living room downstairs. Made me feel very good. However, if he only could see what I was seeing..... My wife made me promise to NOT point out any of the defects to him.

[David Larsen]

I look at so much of today's furniture and I just see Formica. Is Formica really what we consider the perfect 'wooden' surface to be? In the past, cabinetmakers didn't bother to fill pin holes in mouldings etc. The emphasis was on the moulding and that someone had hand wrought it and stuck it on a piece of furniture. That in itself was worth celebrating.

Veneers were often pinned onto groundwork and again, the cabinetmakers didn't fuss about some little pin holes, they rejoiced in the stunning overall effect of the veneer. Lay-out lines are frowned on now, but were badges of honour on early furniture, showing that they were constructed with dovetails and proper joinery techniques and not just nailed together.

Sawn ends on drawer linings are perfectly acceptable in my book, but these days everything must be planed to an ever-finer degree using tools with precision normally only found in machine shops. Utter madness!

I have asked the makers of some reproduction furniture why they don't follow through and replicate the aged finish too. The usual answer is that they want the look of a period piece when it was first made. Fair enough. But then why make it look like Formica?

I wish We would quit this obsession.

I think you get my point 100%

[Steve Jenkins]

to continually improve I strive for perfection but must be willing to accept the best I can do on any given day.

[Dennis French]

In the traditional Japanese master-apprentice approach to training in the arts and crafts the word
kaizen was ingrained in the pupil. Kaizen means "strive for perfection". The serious craftsman is expected to constantly evaluate and be self-critical of their work. In doing so successive pieces will get better and better. Does one really ever obtain perfection in their work? And what IS perfection, anyway? I would say that to different people it means different things. That big knot hole and check in a table top might seem very imperfect to some people but to the craftsman who built it, it was an intentional imperfection - a design attribute as it were. One sees this very often in Japanese masterpieces in wood, ceramic and metal.

[Keith Westfall]

A friend of mine says, "If you can't make it perfect, make it obvious!"

I make a lot of obvious things... :o

[Andrew Hughes]

I aim for the bulls eye but happy to hit somewhere on the target.

[Pat Barry]

Just do the best you can with what you have to work with.

[paul cottingham]

I aim to make the piece functional, pleasing to look at, and have fun doing it. Becoming stressed over perfection is not a lot of fun for me, but I recognize it may be the only thing acceptable to some people. I think if we become preoccupied with how perfect our work is and how clean/organized our shop is, our hobby stops being a hobby, and becomes an obsession. At that point it is no longer fun for me.

But that's just me.....

[Jim Rimmer]

I'm a perfectionist; I'm just not very good at it. :D

[Steve Griffin]

Sometimes I introduce some imperfections on purpose. The idea is to show it was crafted with the human hand.

An example would be chamfering the corners of mission style square pegs. I could set up a jig of some sort and do these absolutely perfectly. Instead I eyeball 45 degrees at the horizontal sander and give each corner a kiss. Each peg is a tiny bit different.

Another example is hand sanding corners on something that has been routed. A little flat spot or inconsistency is ok on some pieces, as it shows a robot didn't do it.

And I despise spray applied paint. Besides being messy, the plastic look of perfection looks horrible to me. I prefer the fine marks of a good quality brush held by an actual human any day.

-Steve

[Mark ten Haaf]

I believe that perfection is totally subject to the purpose of the piece. For example, I'm working on a set of furniture for a kitchen / dining room, and all of the material is recycled barn lumber. Obviously, the level of "perfection" that I can achieve is at the mercy of the quality of the material. While there were many minor flaws in my execution of the pieces, the end result displayed every characteristic that the customers were hoping for. It was perfection in their eyes, because the furniture accomplished exactly what it was supposed to, despite any mistakes that I made while building it.
Perfection in execution is another story...it is on the horizon for me.........maybe someday:)

[shane lyall]

A client just picked up a set of bunk beds yesterday. He kept saying how perfect they looked. I KNOW the were not. There were a few gaps, though tiny, they were there. A buyer may not see them but a woodworker will if they look close enough.
I take pride in my work and strive for perfection but I have never made it. My projects are hand made. I'm not perfect and neither are the pieces but I try to be as close as I can.

[Greg Peterson]

Perfect is dependent on perspective. To the craftsman, perfect is an observable/measurable objective. To the client, perfect is subjective (performance and aesthetics).

Take pleasure in a task done well.

[Jeremy Greiner]

Everything I make is perfectly made to my plan.

That dent there, ya that was planned. That slightly uneven gap, yep planned that too.

If you plan for imperfection, then everything is perfectly planned ;)

-jeremy

[David Hostetler]

I think it all depends on the style that the project is intended to be. I have built a few pieces that were A&C, as well as tried my hand at G&G, and the attention to detail you have to put into them is painful compared to what I like building, which is more of a rustic style. And I am not talking junk either, I am talking about accepting some of the minor things the material is going to do and working with it instead of knocking my brains out trying to either "correct" or conceal it.

Example... LOML's heart shaped band saw box was made from curly maple, that was for the most part clear, but there was one, SMALL discoloration, not quite spalting, but close enough to call it that.... Instead of knocking my brains out trying to hide it, I sawed around it so that it is featured prominently in the piece as a visual interest... And I think it gives just that extra oomph that makes it special...

If you are looking for injection molded, mass produced error free perfection, then wood is NOT the medium for you to work in. The material itself poses a great number of challenges that just can't be planned for ahead of time.

[Adam Alloway]

Some projects I have look better with the oops I did and I tell people "Yeah nice nice doesn't it". costs more now that it has that pretty doo dad.

[Alan Wright]

I think "perfection" is a bit of a misnomer. There is no such thing. In life, I tend to be a bit lax, in that I just don't have that type "A" personality. I buy a new car that I'm tickled with and tell myself I'm gonna keep it clean and shiny. Invariably, there will be empty Pepsi cans on the passenger floor. It's just my personality!! However, I fight myself when I woodwork. I keep telling myself that I'm making heirloom furniture and that I have all the time in the world. I've spent hours making a part to a piece, just to throw it away and start over because it didn't come out right. Perhaps I could have used it anyway and "made it fit" with a few raps with dead blow.

Nothing I make will ever be perfect, but I try not to let it be an excuse to accept work that is less than I'm capable of. Again, in most parts of my life, good enough is good enough. With my woodworking I try to hold myself to a higher standard.

[Andrew Gibson]

If I am making something specifically for myself then It has to be perfect as I can possibly get it. I have learned that what looks sloppy to me looks amazing to everyone else... epically non woodworkers. In other words I have to remember that I can just work and not be to worried about every little detail.
I set out to make it perfect. and I do my best to cut to my line and measure twice and all but if I have a tiny little gap in a Dovetail or something like that I'm not going to trash the piece and start over.

You are always your biggest critic, if you can live with it, then most likely everyone else wont be able to live without it... at least that is what I hope happens with my work.

[Charles Wiggins]

David,

I think you've answered your own question. After all, it's wood, not steel or plastic.

My 2 cents,
Charles

[Jim Becker]

David, we are all our own worst critics. There's absolutely nothing wrong about striving to do the best, but we all need to learn where we can let ourselves "off the hook" when it comes to "perfection". And honestly, a lot of the time, little things that bother "us" wouldn't even be noticed by the average person on the street.

That said, I feel it's important to separate "style" from "perfection". Some of the things you describe are the result of time and use; some are because of methods or the limitation of technology of the time. While we may choose to "distress" a piece for effect, when we do that, we're emulating time and use. When we purposefully introduce imperfections in design/build, we're doing that for effect. And, alas...sometimes we just plain screw up. We can all agree that the true measurement of craftsmanship is the ability to recover from and remedy mistakes in the most invisible way, because even the best of the best will never achieve "perfection".

[Van Huskey]

If perfection were required I would have to stop...NOW! The one place I knowingly stop short of my "best" efforts is in carvings like ball and claw feet. I always leave tool marks to represent the fact they are hand carved.

Speaking of craft and perfection I once heard heard that Native Americans would often leave out or break a bead in their intricate beading work, if they didn't it might anger the gods who might see it as them attempting perfection and becoming godlike themselves... just something to ponder.

[Shawn Pixley]

I think Jim is on the right track. There are two separate issues in play here. First pusuit of excellence or perfection. Second, the particular aesthetic desired by the individual.

In terms of the first, my approach is to strive for excellence in every piece. I never achieve perfection. For the second, individual tastes vary. I have a mix of modern and antique furniture at home. I also spend years restoring/repairing antique furniture. Regarding the antique furniture many buyers want the "distressed aesthetic" look. I don't care for that aesthetic at all. Many of my my antique pieces (early victorian to art moderne with many periods in between) are relatively pristine and still yet were not refinished. Veneers and moldings are not "pinned" on. In my opinion, the builders of these pieces strived for the same kind of excellence that I see many of us strive to achieve.

If a finely crafted piece without easily apparent flaws appears "plasticy" to someone, they have the right to perfer a more rustic or hewn aesthetic. But our forebearers were as diveided in their skills, talents, preferences and aesthetics as we are today. You only need to make yourself happy.

[Joe Angrisani]

.....we are all our own worst critics.....

Oh Yeah. Gotta agree with that. With the big remodel I'm doing alone, I am constantly bitchin' to my wife and my friends about this flaw or that flaw that I need to touch up. And they invariably say, even when I point something out, "You're the only one who sees that, Joe."

Do it well, David, and it will be just fine.

[Neil Brooks]

In my work, I aspire to mediocrity, and ... still have a ways to go ;)

[Sean Nagle]

Speaking of craft and perfection I once heard heard that Native Americans would often leave out or break a bead in their intricate beading work, if they didn't it might anger the gods who might see it as them attempting perfection and becoming godlike themselves... just something to ponder.

I've heard the same about Persian rugs. Their makers always introduce a flaw, since perfection can only be achieved by god.

[Sean Nagle]

Speaking of antiques, I was recently repairing an antique walnut table. After finishing up the repair and waxing the table legs while upside down I noticed that one leg wasn't the same as the other three. The difference was very subtle, but I pondered whether the deviant leg was the first one turned and the craftsman slightly changed the turning profile on the other three. The difference wouldn't be obvious through casual observation.

[Larry Edgerton]

In this age of automated everything I try to make mine look a little human. Not mistakes, but added character.

When I started out I would search for perfect wood, make everthing as perfect as I was able. But now I will try to work in some defects in the wood to add that bit of realism, something the factories can not do because it takes too much time. I even go so far as to modify the color of the wood around a small knot for example with an air brush to give it an interesting variation.

I too have never done anything perfect in 35 years.......

[Rob Holcomb]

Every single woodworking piece I've ever made has been perfect.........In my mind before I begin to make it! When the piece is finished, Its not close to perfect nor will any piece I make be perfect but I do my best on every part of the project. My biggest problem isn't that there are little flaws that only woodworkers would see, its that I have a tendency to worry that my flaws will be noticed by the buyer. Deep down I know they likely never will notice them but I do think about it. Maybe a woodworker will be invited into their home, see the piece and point out the flaws. Maybe a flaw will become more noticeable in time. etc. I have to spend more time thinking about when I was approached to make the piece and was asked..."Can you make me one of those thing a ma jiggies that has one of those Number 9 widgets and can it be oh I don't know about this high and this wide?" I'm sure I would sleep better at night!