RWS From the Chair - Nov 2021
Woodworking Toward Immortality
Have you ever found yourself wondering about how something was made or repaired and who did the work? Maybe it was the smoothing plane tool marks on the top of an old wood table that you can feel but not quite see, or the unique subtle design of the legs of a table, or some long-lasting beautiful hand joinery, or the sound of an old acoustic guitar. Those are things you might admire and lead you to admire the maker, whether or not you know who that maker was. On the other hand, there are those bad examples that left you wondering about the hack (or rookie) who left their not-so-handiwork along the way, especially in repairs. Maybe even more impressive for the size of the impact and beautiful functionality are the designs of new mass-produced items that had been 3D modeled on computers before anything physical happened - those designers are makers too, but not with the same kind of hands-on execution, so let me put this category of making aside for now. And I would also exclude most work done by the trades, because although there is a lot of handwork done by plumbers, electricians, masons and carpenters, there’s usually not a lot of individuality left behind. So obviously, it’s woodworking where we can see direct evidence of the maker’s hand. (Yes, potters leave behind more hand evidence than any other maker. And then there is welding and sewing and knitting and painting and such - this is an RWS article afterall!)
So where am I going with this? It’s the idea that I find myself constantly looking for the maker’s hand in old woodworking projects, and I often think of the hand evidence I am leaving behind and wondering if sometime in the future someone will notice and like it. I can’t say it’s the number one reason I like to make things, but I do like to hope that some of my things will last a long time after I’m gone. I certainly don’t expect anything I make to end up in a museum, but I do hope some of it endures, at least for a few generations, or maybe longer. And maybe someday someone will notice a detail and wonder who I was.
Al Kupchella
RWS Chairman