I'm a process-oriented person. I'm not a product oriented person. I mean the product is important in the end, but what I love about this work is the process of getting it together? And that process involves making jigs and sharpening your tools and all of the all of the activities that go into the process along the way. I started learning everything on machine tools so, umm Just learning to use a table saw and a jointer you know there's a lot of there's a lot of hand skill goes into properly using a jointer. You don't just push a board across a jointer you apply a lot of English to the board to make it work properly And that took a while that took a while to master Of course it helps to have a jointer that's perfectly set up But even then you can you can put a crown or a cup in a board by how you Hold your hands as you push the board across the jointer The table saw does tend to be the center of the modern shop I'd say that I do 50% of my mortise or my Tenons on a table saw in 50% of my tenons With a handsaw.
It just depends on how many I'm doing and the nature of the work But I will say this regarding saws, I've said for years that if they wrote a law That said you could only have one kind of saw in your shop. I would have a good bandsaw Because a good bandsaw properly set up can do all the joinery that a table saw can do plus cut curves You might notice I've got two bandsaws, I've got This one here four with a quarter-inch blade in it for all kinds of finer work And I've got the one in back with an inch blade in it for the resawing and heavy-duty work and and Both of them are justified even in a small shop like this.
Istill rely on machines to make jobs go faster my ethic is That whenever a machine doesn't compromise the design the ultimate design Or the ultimate finish that you want I'll use a machine tool. It's just faster. It's just it just is I'm not a purist About any of these things whatever whatever works. My first piece of advice to Someone a novice would be to take the time to learn the hand tools And then then you know when you can Rely on a machine tool to speed the process up But you don't have to ever compromise your design According to what only a machine tool can accomplish There are so many situations where In the end the only the only real solution to a problem is The deft use of a hand tool My favorite thing to do is to use a spokeshave To shave a piece of wood with a spokeshave That's that's one of the most satisfying.
It's it's physically satisfying. It's it's sensual You get a physical you get physical pleasure out of it Sharpening it That's that's my favorite hand tool thing to do and then of course working on a lathe is is My favorite machine tool thing to do As you can see from looking around now, I've got a lot of Powermatic tools That's partly because I've had a relationship with paramedic over the over the past 7 or 10 years, I guess This lathe is better than any lathe I've ever had before I've had a couple of old lathes But this one is far superior It's almost a cliche at this point I let the wood tell me what it wants to be because I'll put something in the lathe and I may have a preconceived notion of what I what I'm going to turn out of it and frequently I Accomplished what I set out to do, but just as frequently the wood will take on a shape. I mean it's I'm not attributing some kind of mystical life to a piece of dead wood but But just in in cutting the wood and taking note of the features in the wood The wood will define a form that it wants to look that it looks best in that is not what you initially had in mind I was a while to come to carving I remember the first the first carving I ever did I was I was selling Chairs fairly simple Queen and chairs to a a couple of old German brothers up in Nashville that that had a showroom for traditional furniture and One day they said can you do any carving and I said well, I don't know let's give it a try They gave me a foot blank for a ball and claw foot and and said, and an example to copy and Said come back with this see what you can do and So I bought some carving tools.
I bought a set of carving tools and Started working on it, and I took it back to the one of the old German brothers, and he looked at and he said hmm not enough tools That's so that that was That was my introduction to to old-world mentorship If you can it all afford it Take as many of the classes that are available today that you can take Because a week's worth of instruction with a master can be worth up to a year's worth of trial and error there's Dozens and dozens of schools of woodworking and lots of opportunities to learn Making something that you designed yourself is a thrilling and very daunting process I mean when you're reproducing something that's acknowledged to be excellent You don't have to worry about whether your customer is ultimately gonna like what you've done But when you're making an original design piece you've got to you've got to have the confidence that that your vision is ultimately going to be appreciated and That's that's much more daunting to me It's easy to make a piece that's not everything it ought to be and Sometimes you only know when you're finished and you say to yourself.
I should have done this and that and it took me a while to learn not to point that out to my customers (laughing) They would they would say how pleased they were and I'd say yeah, But you know if if I'd only done this and that and they go oh Yeah The process of making an original design piece of furniture is often very Very involved And you have to dream up new ways of doing things which is Fantastic to come up with a solution to a problem It's great to go to bed Wondering how in the world You're going to do what you what you've envisioned and waking up in the morning and having solved the problem in your sleep Makes you want to get out to the shop right away.