I’m a fairly good instructor, but there are some things I just cannot teach.
When I work with a student who keeps saying: “That’s good enough” as they put a project together, I despair. When they say: “This is just a classroom experience,” I freak out (inside).
The way I look at woodworking is that we get only one chance to get things right. Not close enough. Right. With most things in life I’m an “I’m OK, you’re OK” kind of person, but not with woodworking. Either it’s sharp or it’s dull. Either the joint is tight or it’s trash. Either the toolmarks are gone or they aren’t.
How can you teach that? I point out problems, gaps, toolmarks, but either they can see it or they cannot at that point in their lives. (Be assured that I think that sometimes people have to be ready to receive the message. And people change.)
So today, my daughter Katy and I started building a version of the Packing Box from “The Joiner and Cabinet Maker.” This was Katy’s idea. She volunteered to build a box for her third-grade class that would hold the class’s craft supplies. And she picked out the Packing Box as the ideal form (with hinges, a hasp and chains).
So today we trekked to my office to pick over the pine in the racks and get a good start.
I decided to introduce her to the machines today, including the jointer and planer. She wasn’t going to operate them, but she was going to understand how they worked. So we picked our wood, cut it to rough length and started milling it on the machines. I pushed. She caught.
Immediately chips started flying in my face. The dust collector was clogged.
So we stopped what we were doing and flushed the sucker out. I took the 55-gallon bin out to the dumpster. When I returned, Katy had swept up the entire area and deposited things in the garbage. It was at that moment I knew this was going to be a good day.
We milled all her stock, and she would settle for nothing less than correct. She adjusted the rip fence on the table saw to exactly 5″ (I did the ripping). When we milled the joints for the top and bottom panel, she could spy every gap and send me back to the jointer to fix the error.
When the panels went together, she adjusted all four boards in the glue-up. They were as flush as a veteran cabinetmaker’s. I didn’t even have to tell her what to do. She pushed the boards around until they were dead flush.
She pre-drilled, glued and nailed the entire carcase together by herself. I was only there to hold the boards. She became frustrated when one of the 16 cut nails split the end grain a bit.
“We have to start over,” she said.
“No, I’ll show you how to fix it,” I replied.
She wanted it done right. She didn’t want to cut corners. She wanted to do it herself. I can’t teach that. After four hours of hard work (she was drifting off to sleep over dinner), she asked: “Can we attach the bottom tonight?” I told her it would be better to wait 24 hours for the glue to cure. She replied: “I can clean the shop.”
I’m sorry to gloat here about my daughter, but this day was the best Christmas present I got.
— Christopher Schwarz
That’s a great present indeed! Thanks for all your stories and advice!
Hope the rest of 2010 continues in the same way you day went today!
Happy New Year!
Bruce
That’s a cool story. After more than 25 years, I am still trying to get those perfect joints. Your daughter has a good start at a young age – she could be a master at it someday – giving seminars and such.
A wonderful gift indeed, Chris – I cannot think of anything better. I hope that the remainder of 2010 will bring on more of the same, every day. Thanks for sharing this wonderful story (it makes me think of our second granddaughter…)
— Al Navas
Gloating completely allowed.
I settle for having my teenage girls enjoy what I build them. That’s still enough to keep me in the shop!
Chris,
It is always OK to brag about your kids. It sounds like a good day. If you check my blog you can see what my daughter gave me for christmas when I asked for a Froe
http://schoolofwood.com/node/45
Happy New year!
Mike
Great gloat.
Did fixing that split involve CA and two fingers stuck to the project? ( …from a thread on another wood working forum where most are too impatient to wait for the correct glue to set and use CA for everything … and then gloat about getting stuck — go figure! )
Good for Katy!!! (maybe a good teacher helps a little bit too?)
YUP, this points out the reality of whether one has personality to be a master at their trade (the trade is irrelevant), if one is a perfectionist you have a shot, if not, better to stay in school and learn something else.
you’ve got a winner there. nice job dad!
All that’s left (or not) is to teach her to blog! I’m all but positive she would be the youngest blogger on my list.
I’ve seen the same sort of thing with students who come to work in a lab, to get experience. A surprising number of people can’t fully grasp the importance of being careful. And if you’re not careful when you’re doing scientific research, you may as well just go home, because your results won’t be worth crap.
Chris
A very heartwarming story. With enough Katys out there perhaps western civilization would not collapse, as I fear. It speaks to an important lesson I have learned over the years, that teaching excellence (in either the doing or the thinking) is generally futile, and my time is better spent finding people who already possess it and helping them to hone their abilities.
You must have felt much like I did when being driven to school fifteen years ago, my own little Caitie looked out the window at a street hustler begging on the median and said, "Get a job!"
Brought tears of joy to my eyes.
Chris,
It’s wonderful hearing about the journey Katy is taking as told by her father, who also happens to be a woodworker, who also happens to be the editor of a woodworking magazine. The combination adds up to a well-written story with great detail and perspective.
You received a gift most woodworkers would probably trade their best hand plane for; I can only think of one better…
So… what’s the fix (for the nail splitting the end grain)?
Ethan,
With cut nails, a typical split is where a little wedge of end grain gets pushed out. I wick in some thinned PVA into the joint, let it soak in for about a minute, then knock the end grain back in against the nail, compressing it against the nail. Then I trim it flush.
Works. Usually.
Chris
Very nice Chris, very nice. Thank you for sharing this. Even if she never does any woodworking again, she has a great attitude, and she can accomplish most anything she chooses.
Think of this as your greatest project. Something you made yourself (with a helper), it took only nine months (although finishing is taking a long while), without having to purchase any materials, with tools you carry with you every day. Nice work.
Very cool story. I can’t wait until my kids are old enough to begin their training.
Sounds like you have a keeper there!! 🙂 Treasure every moment you get to share with her. Don’t try putting a hat on for few days. LOL Happy New Year. John
Very cool. Enjoy all these moments. They grow up way too fast.
Thank you for keeping this from becoming a lost art.
Chris,
Great story and you are a lucky Dad. Students are expressing their inability to understand how to fix their errors when they say "good enough". A good teacher makes clear that errors are inevitable and acceptable and that learning how to fix them is as important as acquiring the woodworking technique. Then students have the emotional freedom to learn from their mistakes. Thank you for all of the articles you write. Reading and re-reading them is a great way I learn more about my new passion.
Joab
Great story. I love stories of kids in the shop.
I have a slightly different view. When building software, there is a tendency among some engineers called "gold plating." This refers to addressing issues that simply don’t matter. I’m talking about the equivalent of making the bottom of your mortise perfectly clean. Nobody is going to see the bottom of a mortise. A clean bottom won’t impact the strength of the joint. Any effort spent there is wasted energy. When "time is money" (ie, not a hobby!) that wasted effort can spell disaster.
It seems to me that the challenge of a woodworking instructor is to teach what really matters and what doesn’t matter. Furthermore, you have to do that in a way that you don’t scare the students away when their first set of dovetails has gaps.
That said, I think we are agreeing. I’m coming to the view that hand tool woodworking is mostly attitude. Have the right attitude and the skills will come.
Chris,
I have just finished reading "The Joiner and Cabinetmaker". My two young daughters (8 and 10) have been intrigued by the pictures in your book of Katy working in the shop with you. From the looks on their faces as they study the pictures, I think Katie is making woodworking cool again for the younger crowd. Go Katy!
Regards.
Very Awesome!
I just had a daughter and really hope that in a few years we can share woodworking the way you and you daughter do.
Thank´´s for sharing this stoy with us
it´s wunderful when the kids want to spent time
with us that way
Dennis
beautiful! it only takes a handful of people like your daughter to carry on the traditions of hard work and the pursuit of perfection in craft and trade. kudos to you for raising her to appreciate these things.
Chris,
Great story. I have a 6th grader son and he and i have had several great days in the basement shop especially this past Christmas. Thanks for sharing this with everyone.
Todd