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re are two types of people in the world: those who like to divide human behavior into one of two distinct groups, and those who don’t. This can help us decide right from wrong, pleasant from distasteful, or fun from drudgery, but it usually turns into a way to separate “Us” from “Them.” Naturally we are better than they are in some fashion. When it comes to woodworking, this sort of thinking appears all too often, and it does a lot of harm, both to individual woodworkers and to the craft as a whole.
For any given task there are different ways of doing things and each of us has a unique set of goals, experience and resources. For the most part, these are all practical matters, and I think it’s quite a stretch when anyone introduces any sort of moral or intellectual superiority into the equation. It may be human nature to justify why I do things the way I do, but it should be enough to say “that’s the way I like to do it, it doesn’t matter how you do it.” At the first Woodworking in America conference, Frank Klausz was asked why he used a pencil instead of a knife when he did his dovetail layout. Frank answered “I use a pencil” and moved on.
There are many ways to learn how to do things. You can read everything you can, you can spend time with people who have done what you want to learn for a long time, or you can experiment on your own. No matter what your initial approach is, the only one that really counts is the last. If you haven’t explored the possibilities, you don’t know what the difference really is between one or another. If you’ve settled on a method because someone else said so, or taught you that it was the one true way, you will never be sure that it is the right method for you. I once heard Brian Boggs begin a presentation by advising his audience not to take his word for anything, to try the techniques he suggested and see how they worked. Brian may seem to be coming at woodworking from the opposite direction than Frank does, but the message is essentially the same: Turn theory into experience and discover what works for you.
In the last couple of years I’ve seen a new phrase introduced in discussions of woodworking, “process oriented.” Phrases like that make my head spin and my nose twitch, especially when the statement “I’m into the process” is followed by “the results don’t really matter.” It immediately raises two questions for me. Who isn’t “process oriented?” And why exert the effort to make something if the results don’t matter? You can’t do anything, from building a rocket ship to sitting on the couch watching TV, without deciding on a process. You may prefer hiking to the top of a mountain rather than driving or riding a ski lift, but if you don’t want to get to the top, you’re just wandering around aimlessly. If that makes you happy, that’s OK. Each one of us gets to choose the course we take and how we get there. Along the way, we’ll meet folks who try to convince us that shoveling manure is enjoyable and rewarding if we get the right kind of shovel and stand just so. We’re all free to take that advice or not.
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I love shoveling… oh, wait – manure? Ahhh…
Maybe when someone says they are ‘process oriented’ they might mean they aren’t focused on the end product. The product is not their result, the process (or experience) is.
Also, I think there is a place for those who enjoy the pastime of reading/learning about woodworking. They may not be woodworkers in the end but as long as they don’t pretend to be, it’s ok with me.
I LOVE this!
I plan to share it, properly accredited, with all who will think about it.
Thanks, Robert. I like the way you think.
Great article. I started woodworking as a hobby several years back, and I agree, there really is no “right” and “wrong”. Everyone has different styles
Thank you Bob. Such a wonderful article that as a 71 year old retired manager in many disiplines I saw this admonition employed. Yes, there is no right or wrong way but for each person there is a more effective way to the end results. But, advising of SAFETY aspects can prevent hazardeous results.
When I first started down the path of woodworking, I spent a lot of time at a favorite store in Atlanta’s Virginia Highlands neighborhood. One of the sales people replied one day to my question of “what’s the right way to do this?”. He looked paternally at me, and said: “in woodworking, there is no right or wrong way – there are just different ways”.
With regard to the “us and them” mentality, I have found that when people claim you have no “vision”, it usually means that your “vision” is not the same as their “vision”.
This is an excellent blog on what I call “polarized prejudice.” There seems to be a common argument that tries to rationalize that there are only two distinctly opposite positions on a topic; i.e. either the right way or the wrong way. In fact the world is not tinted as either black or white, but as a brilliant rainbow of never ending colors. We are all free to choose among the many options that are available. The eclectic path that I have chosen for my art/craft is all mine, with no apologies for artistic license. I am me, and I shall remain me.
There are people with twenty years experience, and there are people who have been doing the same thing over and over again for twenty years.
For some “process oriented” means that the reason for working wood is the enjoyment received while working the wood rather than end product. It’s similar to going for a walk through the woods for enjoyment rather than to get somewhere such as the top of a mountain.
At the other end are those for whom the result is all that matters, and who don’t really care about getting enjoyment from the process of working wood. The reasons for this attitude appear to come from several different causes. One is that making a piece of furniture, a boat, etc is the only feasible way for them to acquire it. Another is the expectation of compliments received and status given as the maker of the object.
My guess is most woodworkers fall in between.
There are “knowers” and there are “learners”. A “knowner” doesn’t neccessarially know more than a “learner”; in fact they frequently know less. A “knower” is someone isn’t interested in learning because they believe they already know enough. A “learner” is someone who is always open to learning.
You suggest you know of people who claim to be process oriented, who also say the results are not important to them. Really? When I saw that my nose twitched. I smelled a straw man created by the jouster, who then has an easy time knocking his own artificially created opponent off the post. Of course the results matter. Who says otherwise? Among us hobby woodworkers there are many who, with what we invest in equipment and time, could afford to pay a custom furniture maker to deliver the desired result. Yet we invest funds, time, and mental energy in the process we hope will lead to the result. We derive some satisfaction from learning various skills, getting better at them by climbing up the learning curve over time, creating something with our own hands (using tools, with or without motors attached), that we can be proud of or at least happy with. It’s an artificial dichotomy. The process leads to the result. Both matter.
Everybody in furniture design or woodworking whatever you want to call it, is guilty in some “form” of doing what you scratch the surface on. The 2 behaviors you identify are human nature as you mention, it just seems more prevalent as todays internet community jockey’s for position. Krenov made his living preaching his behavior as the only way, most through time bought it (not me), and we haven’t looked back.
Magazines are guilty, I’m guilty, your guilty, bevel up vs bevel down is guilty, the metal in this chisel vs the metal in that chisel is guilty, 18th century southern furniture is nicer vs “over orchestrated” New England furniture is guilty, cutting at the lathe vs scraping is guilty, wood vs mdf is guilty, it’s no wonder anything got made in wood before 2006.
As you state it is harmful most importantly to the craft.
A previous poster writes of having his brain picked by “custom guys”, I believe he meant “mechanics”, (whoops did I cross the line there), by asking him questions. This leads me to the shop floor, whether a garage, a basement or a factory. They are QUIET!! Today, the hobbyist shop floor is way to noisy.
Woodworking is a solitary act. The entire idea of performing the act is to reach, search, and find an “objects form” in a safe and efficient manner. How one gets there is irrelevant to anybody else. It’s only the object that should get evaluated.
Yes, there are 2 groups of behavior and right now, the talking one dominates the building one. I want to believe that over time, this will change as the community gets more experienced in the craft and naturally will want to show what they have learned rather than reguritate want they have learned.
Thanks, Bob, for another great blog. As a neophyte trying to learn this craft in a woodworking desert, all I have to say is that there are two types of people: those that are smart enough to make every day a learning experience, and those that are too smart to realize they don’t know everything about everything. As long as you are learning, you are living.
Great post Bob!! I whole heartedly agree!
I like to tell my students that I am only giving them a starting point – then they can find out what works best for them. I will never say there is a right or wrong way to do anything – just the best way that works for me at this time.
I spent many years working in large custom shops. The guys who “knew it all” not only stifled creative ways of solving a problem but also did not learn much beyond their current knowledge.
An example of the other kind of woodworker – There were two guys I worked with in a large custom shop years ago – who I felt were the best / most knowledgeable custom guys I had ever encountered. When I first met them and they picked my brain for everything I knew – I was shocked – these guys were a lot better than me – why would they be asking me about this stuff. These two woodworkers were both very humble (never said they had a better way) and insatiably curious about what others knew – that’s how they became so good.
Two points:
first,to those who say there is “no wrong way”, I have always preferred the saying, “there are several good ways to accomplish something, but an infinite number of bad ways.” Particularly from the perspective of a novice/hobbyist slugging it out in the isolation of their basement/garage shop, the value of online woodworking advice is really in helping cut out the infinite, surface the few good ways, and perhaps even help someone figure out which of those good ways is most likely to work best for them.
Second, I think Mr. Lang went a bridge too far in his “proces oriented” paragraph. While I haven’t heard that exact industrial term in the context of woodworking, I suspect that for a lot of us hobbyists, just getting down to the shop for a bit to putter around, relax, and enjoy a different activity is valuable enough. I think that is what people mean when they talk about enjoying the process. I.e., the cabinet, jewlery box, or tool chest is a means to the objective rather than the objective itself. After all, can’t one just go on a hike without having to summit that mountain?
I know of what you speak, it has caused me to withdraw from woodworking groups.
A simple explanation turns into a competition, but if you don’t answer you are judged a snob. So I stay to my self and avoid other woodworkers.
1964. Tom Lehrer’s comedy album “That Was the Year That Was”. (Tom was a math prof at Harvard.) In his song “New Math”, he is doing a subtraction problem. (And base 8 problems are a breeze for careless woodworkers, don’t you know.) He explains to the audience that when using new math, it’s more important to understand what you are doing rather than get the right answer. 7-2=6. Well, 5 actually, but the idea’s the important thing. And it’s so simple that only a child can do it.
There are three types of woodworkers, those who divide people into two groups, and those who can’t count.
-Steve
Thanks Bob. I’ve watched and read everything I could for the past decade and could never figure out why there was such a debate. Give me power tools to mill my work and hand tools to refine it. There is definately a place for both.
Appreciate you guys
rae
Well spoken.
When people ask me e.g. why I like to make dovetails by hand? I normally don’t see it as a question that is aimed to divide me into one category or the other, but just out of normal curiosity. But then again, it usually comes from someone who don’t do any woodworking themselves, so they might as well ask why I don’t play soccer or go hunting.
Have a great time working with wood (and have a nice weekend as well)
Jonas
In this world there are those that get hair cuts and those that don’t…
Not only have I applied this philosophy to woodworking, I actually use it while teaching private music lessons.
True dat
Frank
Brian Boggs & Frank Klausz were both right. Only difference was that only one of them did not articulate the philosophy.
If you work with three “masters” you could learn at least three different ways to do any skill. It is up to you to try them all out.
All ways are right – none wrong – but the one that works for you is what allows you to grow. Your goal is your own growth, your own way of doing – be it pencil or knife.
I really like this post. I personally don’t care to stay in a category and I enjoy learning about different methods of doing the same thing, some with hand tools and some with power tools. I try to adopt the attitude, “Here is how I do it and what I think are its advantages and disadvantages. Some other ways of doing it that I am aware of are …” I suppose it is a challenge to do this in a magazine article with tight limitations on space.
As for process, it’s a valid point but you can take it too far. It’s not only about the result and it’s not only about the process; at least in the hobby world, it’s both.
A 100% Hell Yeah!
Thank you sir
I agree 100%. I started woodworking around 3 years ago with a mix of hand and power tools. I slowly gravitated towards hand tools. And now I’ve come to the conclusion that I like table saws and I don’t enjoy ripping boards by hand; I would rather be cutting dovetails. The same goes for my workbench. I made it with a solid top, no tool tray. Just a few weeks ago I got the chance to use a Lie Nielsen bench with a tool tray and absolutely loved it. Being able to lay my chisels in the tray along with any other tools on the bench kept the bench clutter free for assembly, as well as keeping the sharp edges away from my project. Do tool trays collect clutter? Of course, but I found that I would rather have the clutter in there than on the work surface. And it was no more difficult cleaning the tray than the floor.
My point being that I have changed in just 3 short years of woodworking and think that I will continue to change. If we stop trying to change then the work will no longer be fun, in my opinion.