THE PETER PRINCIPLE
STRIKES AGAIN
I’m sure all of you are familiar with Peter Drucker’s Peter Principle which states that
everyone rises to his level of incompetence. If you aren’t familiar, dig it out with your
search engine and you’ll understand why service is so bad at your auto repair shop,
woodworking store, insurance agency, etc., etc.
Well, I guess I’ve risen to my level of incompetence. Now I’m appealing to my fellow
woodworkers to cover for me. I am trying to make a total of 10 (5 for now) Chippendale
chairs per Ron Clarkson’s book. I am changing the decoration to something like his chair
#3 which he sketched but never drew. Briefly, I want a shell decorations rather than
acanthus and other floral decorations. I did so because I like the shell motive, have carved
a number of them and was afraid to tackle the floral stuff.
Well, when I got to the crest rail I wanted to put a sun-ray pattern similar to what Norm
Vandal shows in his book Queen Anne Furniture. (see illustration # 6 & #8, explained
later). I wanted these in the two upper corners of the crest rail (#5) My attempts to do this
turned out like the examples in illustrations #1 and #2.
These illustrations can be found at www.eyman.org/backsplat You’ll find three lines of
thumbnails there. 1, 2, and 3 are left to right across the top, 4, 5, 6, and 7 are in the center
row, and 8, 9, and 10 in the bottom row.
What I want to arrive at is something similar to the patterns in the chair from the
Winterhur Museum shown in # 3, 8, and 10.
I have been in conversation with an expert in laser woodworking. We are trying to
determine if a laser can “set in” the important lines as a carver does with the appropriate
gouges before he starts carving. I am appealing to any and all for any help. I’ll be open to
any and all comments. Even those that start out as “ what in the world gave you the idea
you could ever do such a thing”.