It might be fun to post a question on his blog asking him to explain why he calls himself an amateur. If he answers, it would certainly provide another perspective.
"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.”
Last edited by Stewie Simpson; 11-15-2018 at 6:57 AM.
Hmmmm. That's definitely another perspective, isn't it? Thanks Stewie!
"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.”
Paul Sellers served his trade apprenticeship under George Mycock, a master joiner.
Last edited by Stewie Simpson; 11-15-2018 at 7:59 AM.
My first thought as I skimmed this thread, is it more due to his status with the joiners guild/union? I know in some countries if you are not in good standing you can’t use the title. (Realtor vs real estate agent in the US comes to mind)
No doubt about it on the first point, judging from the youtube following he has managed to create that no other hand-tool content creators before or after him have come close to achieving. I have no inside knowledge but the fact that he has moved to a new and much bigger studio suggests no other online classes are close to his in size.
His self promotion is as much business-driven as his conviction that he can energize a new generation of hand-tool woodworkers, as Norm Abram did with his TV show, something, in my take, not even Roy Underhill managed to do with his show. Chris Schwarz started the wave of interest in traditional woodworking in print, but it is Sellers through his blog and free youtube videos who actually made hand tool woodworking look totally doable and easy to learn for many.
As for his techniques, everyone is entitled to their assessments.
Simon
Last edited by Simon MacGowen; 11-15-2018 at 11:49 AM.
He also calls himself a lifestyle woodworker. Along a similar line, he explained that woodworking has always been part of his life, raising his family, and his lifestyle is that of woodworking. I know of no other woodworkers who use that kind of label to describe themselves. May be that is his way of saying what we call fanatic or die-hard woodworkers.
Simon
Like me...it can keep Paul out of the local Pubs ( because I'm too tired to go, and no money to buy..)
Seem to be splitting more hairs, than the people making Bamboo Whisks in Japan.....
If anyone describes the word Amateur...it would be a description of me.....
If he were employed in your small, professional furniture shop I imagine that you could hand Sellers drawings and specs for a reasonably complex furniture job that he'd never made before, along with a time budget, and he would deliver the piece on budget and without having to buy a new tool, read a book to remind himself how to cut a certain joint, research Moxon, Nicholson, and Wearing as sanity checks for technique, decide he's ditching oilstones in favor of waterstones and everything else is on hold until this is complete, so on and so forth.
Very little head or a$$ scratching. Zero reinvention of various wheels.
Last edited by Charles Guest; 11-15-2018 at 12:34 PM.
*** "I have gained insights from many sources... experts, tradesman & novices.... no one has a monopoly on good ideas." Jim Dailey, SMC, Feb. 19, 2007
*** "The best way to get better is to leave your ego in the parking lot."----Eddie Wood, 1994
*** We discovered that he had been educated beyond his intelligence........
*** Student of Rigonomics & Gizmology
Waste Knot Woods
Rice, VA
I made that suggestion (his influence IN PRINT) based on:
1) His PW blog, I believe, has produced the most number of posts on hand tools, and in those early days of blogging, I think few could match his output (and I presume, as part of PW, he had the largest audience among all hand-tool bloggers)
2) He single-handedly moved PW from a power-tool publication to a hybrid one, and produced Woodworking, a magazine that covered only traditional woodworking. Before him, no publications had focused on handtools. He started the trend, and other magazines followed suit to include the handwork content.
Anyone who thinks someone else in those days had influenced the interest in traditional woodworking (in the publishing world or social media) more than Chris is welcome to share their observations.
Simon