“But whenever we clutter up our houses with things we could quite well do without, buying them only because they please a passing fancy, or because our neighbours have them, or because they have become customary, then junk they are.
“For although the industrial world has by this time acquired some rudimentary ideas as to the fittingness of things, its output is continually increasing and its sales propaganda is increasingly directed towards representing non-essentials as necessary to our comfort and well-being.
“And these things can destroy beauty in its very essence by destroying the simplicity of our surroundings.”
— Charles Hayward, The Woodworker, January 1939
A great truth indeed. May we all learn this kind of simplicity and beauty.
Where can one aquire these old Charles Hayward, The Woodworker magazines? Have they been digitized?
Love the book , Keep up the good work.
I buy them from England at used book dealers. Nope. They have not been digitized.
thanks for the fast reply.
Your book confirmed for me, and I am sure others, to go traditional with only need tools and not a bunch of extra junk. I have a small work space and going with mostly all hand tools now makes my shop feel very large. My only power tools are my table saw and my future band saw.
Now I just need that chest to feel organized.
Is lost art press going to maybe put out a quarterly publication, maybe a true woodworking magazine? I could stand the high cost of it , and less adds to offset the content because of the high cost… I could easily consider spending 15 bucks or so an issue to not see build article after article about router jigs and entertainment centers….. sort of where Popular woodworking was going, but instead an emphasis soley on handtool woodworking and no to minimal power tool use. Articles about old tools, old ways of joinery, dissecting old furniture and building replicas in the traditional way… using only the tool chest set of tools… and maybe the bandsaw and jointer… Interviews with tool makers across the globe, in depth stories of the various wood working schools around the states… Tool collector swap meets….. It doesnt need the glossy covers and the 80 pages of color photos either…
I’d second the notion of #John. I’d love to see the presentation along the lines of Cook’s Illustrated (for lack of a more relevant example): hand-illustrated line art and black and white photos to help illuminate the techniques described. A color wrapper would be fine but it wouldn’t have to look like a glossy magazine.
So very true from mr Hayward, but so very difficult for a tool collector (and user thereof) to implement! What do you get rid of? It’s very difficult for me to draw the line. Now, what is the requirement in woodwork for three Buist levels as well as a Stratton #1? None! Oh, but I’m a handyman and they might be required to hang a picture level… What’s the requirement for 7 toffee coloured Boxwood handled screwdrivers, the one more beautiful than the other, if you rarely use more than two? And do you really need both a #18 as well as a #65 block plane? Etc, etc.
Maybe, instead of getting rid of these pieces of art, pass them on to my 9 year old son’s toolbox (the one he’s not aware of yet)? But then again, you’re not conveying the right message to him eventually?
Chris, I think there are quite a few of us (including you, it seems) sitting with this dilemma, will you please in future consider writing something tongue in cheek about this (or have you already discussed this psychological trauma in TATC)?
Well, if you don’t want to put the excess in the tool box, there’s always that wall of shadowboxes in your Mancave. Custom built shadowboxes, no less. 😉
I believe that Hayward’s comments follow very closely along the lines of William Morris’ statement in 1880:
“If you want a golden rule that will fit everything, this is it: Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”