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Thread: Am I a woodworker?

  1. #46
    Quote Originally Posted by johnny means View Post
    I think the end product is all that matters. The vision and not the techniques or tools used define a craftsman. CNC machines, tool paths, laser cutters all are just additional arrows in the craftsman's quiver. Keep your hand tools and spend a year meeting a chair, I'll make a set of ten at a price that allows me to share them with the world.
    One of the things I like best about this hobby is that there are so many ways and paths. If the end product is what matters most for you, then your approach makes perfect sense. The people I know who share your approach are usually good at design and enjoy that part a lot.

    Myself? I like the task of shaping the wood, by machine or hand tool. Sometimes I cut dovetails (by hand) just to see if I can do it better this time than the last. My "designs" really aren't anything new or unique, but I enjoy the build nonetheless.

    I'd love to see some of your work if you get a chance to post it!

    Fred
    "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

    “If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”

  2. #47
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    Quote Originally Posted by johnny means View Post
    I think the end product is all that matters. The vision and not the techniques or tools used define a craftsman. CNC machines, tool paths, laser cutters all are just additional arrows in the craftsman's quiver. Keep your hand tools and spend a year meeting a chair, I'll make a set of ten at a price that allows me to share them with the world.
    Windsor chair making is a pretty efficient and almost entirely hand tools approach. Definetly a considerable generalization to assume it takes forever. Considering that even advanced makers are charging a competitive price.

    By comparison CNC is not always efficient in many circumstances and the pricing provided suggests that. When you start comparing to all available approaches CNC is a choice for certain parts that makes good sense, it's not an end-all-be-all capable of providing an everyday craftsman with true manufacturing capability until it's done at a true manufacturing level and then everything else has to be there as well; considerable scale, investment, etc.
    Last edited by Brian Holcombe; 03-08-2018 at 9:07 AM.

  3. #48
    Quote Originally Posted by John Sanford View Post
    Well, maybe not. Here's my question for you Mike. Why did you start working with wood? Was it because one day you said to yourself "hey, I want to make something, ANYTHING, out of wood", or was it because you said to yourself "we need a bookcase, I'll build it, should be interesting." If it was the latter (or similar), then no, you probably didn't do it backwards. The need was for a bookcase, and given your skills and knowledge at the time, you satisfied the need as best you could. Sure, Paul Sellers could probably build two of those bookcases in a quarter of the time using a trained, but angry, beaver. Sellers also has a few years of experience to draw on.... In truth, the only thing that you don't "learn" nearly as much with powertools as you do with handtools is grain. Everything else is still relevant, and one can still learn it.

    Had you gone the handtool route for that first project, or first few, the project complexity/effort vs skill gap may very well have been enough to put you off woodworking entirely. May. I don't know you, and who you are today is a different person than you were back when you first started butchering wood. But without the early successes, likely less impressive in hindsight than they may have seemed at the time, to encourage continuing, would you have done so? And would you have had the support to continue?

    I don't know that there is a "right way" to get started. There are ways of learning that work better for most people, but certainly not for all, and that doesn't even begin to address the wildly differing resources and needs each potential woodworker brings. The most important thing, at least from the perspective of those who want to see the community of woodworkers grow, is that you DID get started, and continued. That you're having more fun with it now is great.
    I start almost everything I take on for the challenge of it. I have been cursed with an intense curiosity. I try to master everything I do. I could care less about building a bookcase. If I need one I buy it. But a highboy, oh yeah, and I have no need for one of those.

  4. #49
    Quote Originally Posted by Mike Cary View Post
    But a highboy, oh yeah, and I have no need for one of those.
    Me too Mike. I'd like to build one for the sheer challenge. Definitely a bucket list project.
    Fred
    "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

    “If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”

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