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8/12/2019 Logic Repairing Mistakes
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Logic
Te t m d-butcher is tossed around
amow us. I gneae we've all u d t rrw
and then. Probably the me ning of it v n r hdepnding on whether om in referring tooneself or to someone else. Nonetheless, awod-butcher. b a d c d y , is a fellow forwhom things go wrong. That s one way oflookins at it. A n o t h e ~ s that the wood
butcher is aimply a rough-cut outsider, go.iq his ownway, doing odd tMngs. and notmally giving a hoot abu t how one is sup-p o d to do It.
Sometimesour wood-butcher acemnpllsbearather startling results for batter or forworm. Often it is for worn . After all, theterm doen have a derogatory implication.
I wonder though-it means mistakes butmimtakee by what measure? According towhom? Are they miatakee only when com-pored ta a this-ia-how-om-d~~-~-itl e ?Or acethey misfakea made conuciously. oreven unconucidy because of some con-flict with om's own iniler sl w Them issomething deep inside most of ua that oftenwants to sort thlngn out before beginningthe doing. It wants to know tha w h y beforethe how.
U n d y , most of us are t w late askins thequeetions; they come inretrospect. and thenwlop the term wwd-butcher in a g d ayto sum up the situstion. But could it be hatthe thing tbst c a u d us to malre the mis-takes that diverted us from the this u
how, is the very k g thm might hava led
un to our own scrlution, our own mathods,and fml l y a result-however odd-thatsuited us better? I suppose if you re aneasygalng p emn living out in the muntry
snd about to build a house i n the woods,you can lust aort of let go. relax, and Iivethe whole experience.There will be a longperiod of time, and things will aimply hap-pen, rin the house will grow. Slowly, per-
haps disorderly, but it wlll take shsp~ .
With most (though not dl cabinetmekernit is diffeferent. In the making of furniture,d e t a k e . occur much more quickIyand are,in a senna, mow difficult to correct. Themis leas leeway in furniture I h nwi tb a rum-shackle house.Thera n got to be method in
the way you work, we nay. We like t o beemphatic a b u t thin. But as I think of it,subjectively now. method is onIy part ofwhat a good craftsmanneeds. ohonldcoma first at Imst to some of us. I mpmb-ably rather backward about them th-a,but for me logic in primary. And it Ian t the
logic of p s or m e t h d . The thing thatcomes first to ma Is a sort of fealing downh i d e , which suppose in the Logic of pur
.pow.At lesst at thu beginn , tbiu is so.
Later on nother branch of that logic meylead me into method; but first I have a needtodetermiaetbe meaning of what lamabout
to do, or attempt to do. I suppose that fk tlogic is connected to the place innide wherewe sort matters and tab a£irst dwpbreath.We have to feel good abnui what we amembarkingon; even if it s the start of n long,
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diffxult job of v ~ o u sefinite pmctlsmt~
we st i l l have t o fed good inside, therebas to be nomething ~antralbout the whole
thins tbat adds up for ua
For some of ue it's logic first and mtlsaftorward. Though n teaching itg apt to
be the other way amaad.'Lew themethodflret, wm nay Youll pee the l a c of I t latm
on. Bg and arge. thin approach worka, andI think one of the reanom that it works in
tbat it 1 not so very o f im q w s t i o d .
Sooner or later. however we encounter thestudent, a certain type of p r s o n reelly, forwhotn questioning corns naturally, a dthen things suddenly become more corn-
plnx. Logic and metbod am in n cMr.km-and-egg mlatimahip. And thou h we'vanever aorted out that conurtd~um,we must,in the cnna of logic aad method, get thingnfairly right,
tbhk that t you p t that wuy+insi&
thing W t e n e d out aod arrive at the
poiat where you want the experience. sensei t s meaning, nd feel tbat it w l be worththe d a r t , then you will not r e d y ba atodds with youroelf. You'll think more
dearly. You won't rajact methods simplybscauee they nre b a d on other people's
q a r i m c e s . M any of t m erpeciencea u eworth acquiring; we should accept themand be grateful. here in a certain kind ofparson who ia flexible even about this: Heucceptm the need for method, for certdn
way8 of doing certain things, and yet m&nhis own adaptations end interpretrtionu.
And he doaa it all wlthout be@ 3t odd.
with h 8 e I f .
So your way of going s h u t doing thingsd l a an Interpretation of nomd img ba-
sically sound. If won't be @t the lawsof wood or instance, or of em work orthe simple truth of gwd end bad oints, buti t will be a es iee of pewonel adoptatlous.It w i l I be youra with a flaxibiIityanda final
clurjty of your own. Even your m i s t a k ~ s
d l 1be
personal. And I thhk personal d a -tabs are, i I m y msy no, l w ainful andmow enriching than mistakas made throughother people'a methods or other people's
mnsures. One p m o n will say, I made al lt h ~ e iatakw this and that iswmog that'snot the way you're supposed to do t. An-other might say, lnde them mimtokea,tbat M t he way 1 d y anted to do it, I
dddt really mean to do this-it j u t h a p
penad* And maybe it juat hnppend b ecsuw
the sourceu
energy for the doingcame from outside tbat pemon'a inner eelf,outside that place whera t b g n are firstuartedout.
Crudm idea aketcbea f whine In Hnglloh br wn
wk. Puoels w m irat tntended lo bs in ash, sllghlly
anvex with tim C U N ~ of rhagrdn fwming m slitAftar four days' work on t ? m ~d i ~ a d dhem.
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I'm thinking again of our wo d - b u t c h e r .S o m m m o t s e llttle article on the sub-ject. It was very personal and fu l l of self-irony smslly charming l i t t le piece. and nnI FBC~IIt , the writer m i w d lot of mes-
amges tha t said. i n effect, Well, peak foryournelf. I hope you don t mean me.*Doesit really mnttur whm hemeant? I t s the ait-uation that ia interesttng, and we all recog-nixe i t wi th i t8 c i m i n e s s . haste enxiet~
and distractions, and lhat feding i n t he endabout what might bave been.
Cobinor in brown mL S6nmhlng for pmponlms
of d m 8 with the hs lp of m h u p hat includes
one rLdepisce.
1 aon t thmk tnere 18 any goon reason lur
denying the fact that mmt of us bave ex-
perienced that sort of disappointment. Nordo I look back on these instance. as beingespecially painful m tragic or aomethingnot t o be talked about Ithink that that kindof kxperience aimply be1cmgs to a way oflmrning t o r m h i n people. Maybethe earn-ing goes qainst some people's grain whichmuses thin mqueaking and uparks in their
work.
There ere different khdn of craftsmen j u ~ t
as there are different kind. of people. Ineswncu I suppose there re the practicaloms and tbe dreamers. And the diatancebetween them i s not only ambition, ut alaoe state of balng. One person calls himsalf awood-butcher because his methods m notefficient enough a n d be iu 10- time andtime fa money.Another peram admlts Mm-
elf to be a wood-butcher becauar some-how his fmlinga have become deral1k-d and
thinga have gone wrong. not in rehfion to
time and money, but in relation to some
thing t h a t is. for hlm ven more important.Maybe this outsider or dreamer craf tsmanis what we call too poor to be miserly: HeCBR afford io dnm
I t occurs to me that the center of all this, hedtfference between one wmv and another, i n
ganerodty kind of c . As long emwe have a feeling that comes from our core
and lends n bit of warmth to what we do
end ~ O B the people tbat our doingbrings as in contact with, then thorn 6f uswho at t imes can be called wood-butcharsare doing rethmr well really. Our frwtra-
t i m s are a s i p of afacerity and the fact thatwe want to d o bstter next time. We prob-ably wII. And there i s no doubt ths t a bitof humor fn the s i tuat ion of tba present
will help ue o do better in tbe future.
Cabinet of Engltsh rown oeA p n a h of
n p a i d mnple. HejSht ojFuseSTcm Iaalhaight 198cm dapll120nn. ow finlsh 1977.
F w m n ~ 8 a :he dmwers rnof Slvsddrh aah
wi ih a d d m a texturn For thn dwm the Jointswow mode wlth 11 riw msmbars the amhicknar.
toter tlw wrt~wl r u wera p l o d thinner msuh-i n s in a ahd ing that amnlcales the horlrontoll i n e af thu mblnet.
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W e & d o d w s l l r m t h s i k ' t f o r i qmiatakw.Tw. oma of Wsa mistahm-d t s l m p i y h m w t b p ~ f d m w L a c e ct Bb n r crrlbth. h t dl mis-trtksm. far awtbar kind of ~~p are
m u d by PW hv@ Pdhd b s 'dwp~ " f 4 f s & T h s r a I s a g r e a f ~ ~~ m t h a ~ d t ~ ~ ' f ~ t m t h a e aiaa diffmmmldwmn the-pplr n v o l v dM a y b e w e d d W d m ~ t h l e w h n w a~ a t m O w l ~ , ~ m t o P ~ e m .
wcea a a ~ t l &g ,wheh rwe ' v a
dono tt a W v w craamsonealwbakmd& p i e c a b a n q p &w lW& t mwant ta get d m oit, t b Q t h a
t4 omthing b4t t k m shm
A g d b ~ W ~ d D d t r n b a D m l ~ -~ d ~ l I f a e s , b R t d d O f & d ~pwtimts.We that aIl thh h he r s
sulto
away of-adbsina.t
h ah a a i d t h a t f i l l ~ ~ ~ t s n ' t d r m a .I t Is m e l t e d , or live& T m . he b e Mw m k ~ d n i ~ d ~ t h n m d t o f a t e t a lslrpcriwet t f b tbe WBy we m,wzth or
rvl lmut Ill&
erhthshapes re amul @away of workIngym sa a no td iv ~ rca ths shu~ sith theirdetuhjrom t l w ~ m f w o ~ k i i ~ t f h n di f t h a ~ s ~ b a e n a advwtw
lor th doer the. t in t cnthepi-l a personal em . tbe t&gs
we are muet k n o w ~ k .he dtfiemacef n o m w o f k ~ U I b e t h , ~ ~ m nw am mfmwa, Them ll ba a cm h
8 t W bwt a wock of thew w o rulymod a terns p e t e ~m i i a a d ~ : f i ~ ~ t r d e t h t a b l f f -n w s i n m m ~ o d ~ t u a I h l n r e u d twlm m hethoda t h aourawnhpmd-a a l h on IWgi al way. will lend w
t mr a d mom pmmml rssulEs,hever q-t. had t en t doem &Per w h tW l o L W ~ ~ ~ Y E ~ - ~ ~ U ~ ~F 8
tmldm.
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air Mistakes?
are s old saying: A good csblnet-maker c m epair bis own mlnlakes. l'dlike to put n them the words some of. Be-cause certainly there re mia tah that mnand should be repaired: it is-equally cer-tain that eome miatakas ore byond repair.Or should be.
It s a matter of honest judgmmnt. Althought h e d a no denying t k t it is also a rnatturof how we be 1mbout these things. Aa a rulathere are, balleve, primarily two Idride of
mistaken: tho of the hand and those of themind. Maybe we hsw gottan a ways into apiece we thought was gdnjg t o be very h aonly to discover that we ere on the wrongpath: hinge are not going an ws hadhoped.the pieca taking shape there before us, in-stead of hoking ktter and more promising,ie losing nomething along the way Thenmaybe we have to stop and admit that hare
i s a bad mistake. It i s not a technical miu-take. a fault in the work Itself. I t 10worse
than that: We are on the w r q rbad.
B e i q the sort of psmn and craftsman 1simply cannot contiplle once I rn hat
I am faltering nnd fumbling in the work.This i n not a mstter of aome high-~lamsprinciples: 11's juat that I do not h v e thse n q y to continue. Consequently, I have to
make a dacislom is there anythins that Ican save here parts of this piece can stillredo, or shouid I j u t forget it andbasin allover again? his s a situation with whichmany of us amateurs are faced now and
then. h e waywedecide[on n amateurbe-sin) win depend upon our own persondiffss.
I n a commercial situation I imeghe thetsome craftsmen simply must argue t h -
aeIve6p d a point of doubt. They may lookat something and realize inwardly that i t Isnot as gwd as theyh hoped. but then adebate takas plmu inside somewhere ande rationdidng vmce is h a d o say. UItcan
yet be made better. ou ean Ehanga th is or
that.People won't noiice these details. .Then comes a aaductive wblaper. Maybeit's going to be even better that weyl Andone continues with tth work.
I won t p u s judgment on such situationsmddecisiom. hey c m be a matter of sur-viva1 for a craftsmen who fs preauad sd n
commercial swirl and has to live with vari-o w wmpmmbm.
Not long ago eomeone wrote from far sway
to ask me, Should make compmmlsesP Ifso, whet sort of wmpromlses? I mad and
reread the letter reahzing thcw wasn tmuch I could nay to my ftlsnd. I ended up
by simply e u w s t i a g that he try to keepthis problem asccmdary, l e t the work heveprimsry impnrtqnce, let it answer the ques-tioa. Don t allow the matter of compmmlse-
to b o r n emore
important than the work.This means that the way you work, thethings y w do and how you do them. yourahop, the way you live are in eome wrt ofaccord wlthln yourself. You develop away
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of living, and if thnt conflicts with am
merchl interest. th m you must sort it out.f f h you adapt your work to umrmme
or you sol yourmmey probIoma anotherm y nd keep your work what it ahodd befor you Ar I've 8sid to m y d f many t h skfom: Try to l v m the way you am e the
peraon in your work that you are n the restofyour life.Eesy to aayt
To return to rep&@ miu&: Aside fromgatling on tht wrong road tham are thesmallmallveryday things tbat happen-Uttb
mccideirtu, such as a dent or a acratcb or afit that i8 not altopatbar what you want it
to be. For me, as for any other craftsman.there is a oartain satisfaction in befng abla
to saa cluurly and ju whuther or not oneof them Iesner miutalresl c n be repairedhm f them certainly c o n aad should be.All the same, don t believs inthisbwineseof mixing glue and eawdwt or us- stain.or the variow other rescue methods com-
monly advertised or recommended among
craftmen. who have b w n st it for f i f tyyears.
With repemng m i s t k - E B with almostanythingdue we do-there im a crude wayand a fine way of going about it By allow-ing ourselves to be cmdu in m~m~n t Bikethis-little mfnnmta of crisis-we jwtmight develop haMm that W pread t h tcrudeness inh other parts of our work.
Im m b m n incidenty e w ego at cabinat-m a h a ' school. There was a young fallow,
a g o d cabinetmaker-to-be. who waa marthe end of his education: be war doing a
very Important piece la m e w w d and wuafust a few daya from completh it. Wellthe fellow was tmdiq~he tap of the cab-inet,which was veneered when he sandedthrou& the veneer. The patch whew h b d
dona EU was bwdly noticsabk but i t wasthare when you turned the light on and
looked closely, thare it was. Naturally, the
failow was braken u p h e simply didn'tknow wbat to do.
At tbe shop we bad a reddent maftman,wbo, thou ot one of th tea~hers,wmthe w o n o whomwe turneda t A h e a likethie His nama wse Arthur. He Iwked atthat piece for a wbh, muttered. and thanwant h u t b l ~ther wark he was in thomiddls of mumthing.The y kept worry-
ing He went over toPuthur. and beytalkedArtburwent dorm into the ba8ementw h e ~we bad our supply of veneer, fromwhlChtbeboy bad takenthe cehussdintbeEab-ina Without o m much, ArtJ~ur licked-ugh the pack of vmeermd pieked out ap a r two comparing tba pattern be hodaelded with the wood ia tbe top of thembinet. He a m twk a canriDg chisel-om
of h e bieels wlth a Belf-mmn curve
and moved a portable lemp c h e r o the cab-inet w h ha boy was atending, shelea;o m cen im m his feelinge. w i n g Arthurwlth chisel poisad bove his work Arthur
made n W emugled cut at esch outer edgm
of the spot t k t had been mded t h uWe all w i n d Then he took the piece of
venesr be had aeleded, comparing i t m c emore with the cabinet tog. He placedtheveneer on hin bench, atop a small block.
clamped it and made t w o cute. And t h wwar a neat, sharp, oval pfece of rosewood
veneer. This our master craftsman curu
fully fittad to the cabinet top. He tested thefit-yea, i t was g o d . We knew that m heg l u d and pmseed thina h a d - s l p e d p l minto t b ~abipetop it would fit even mom
tisw
M h u r bad made wbat we call a lus, a
louse. And with it he saved a c&het . Therepair ha did ww so perfect thet when thepiece had been polshed and finiuhed even
we who had peen this wpalr wark donnecould hardly find the spot. Such is truew m b h i p .
Maybe far Arthur it was l in aday's work.H e had us inexperienced youngstwsaround
him and similar accidents happened now
and then. Was he proud? Perhepa: hasmlled.th in man of few w d . h o w that hadb m rthur, w d d have been very proud.although 1 would hardly have warn mypride as modestly as he did.