“A society that can place no reliance on the men who underpin it, who design, build and maintain its houses, railroads, aircraft, bridges, its vast engineering projects, will become an unstable society, insecure and heading for disruption.
“And this is the danger of a purely materialistic world.”
— Charles Hayward, “Chips from the Chisel,” The Woodworker, June 1958
Prophetic is it not. Look around, what do we see?
yes, when we loose our worth as individuals and are considered part of the – for lack of a better phrase – collective, we loose our freedom and our humanity.
Have you heard about the Frankenfish genetically mutated salmon injected with hormones. Yes they are here now said to be enclosed in special pools not able to contaminate the wild species. ha.
But …thinking of carpentry I am slowly edging towards handtools ..despite the fact of having a room dedicated to power tools. I spent the day reading the workbench …Schwarz book of course. IF I could only find the yellow pine here. I planed the other day after spending a few days looking at my Charleswroth dvds on planing and sharpening. Now I know what sharp is and taking out the smoother a lovely Lie Nielsen number 4 to plane some oak … oh oh oh just to hear that sound and to feel that board i just want to pick up a number 7 next time round. What is going to happen to my Dewalt planer. The planes just feel so good in the hands.
Chris, ‘Chips from the Chisel’ ran from 1923 to 1967, and from pre-1935 to 1966 was written by a Miss Fenn. ref ‘THe Woodworker’ Vol 80, 1976, p 289. They are indeed a rich source.
Cheers
Peter
Peter,
I am aware of that piece. However, I also have an oral account that contradicts it. I probably should just remove Hayward’s name as it is unsigned. The words speak for themselves.
Chris,
As always, thanks for your blog updates. Enjoy your fresh and sometimes twisted approach to our profession. Interested in the legs shown in your last two posts. Did you turn them? Thanks, can wait for your next book!
Len,
Yup. I tuned them. They are part of an early 18thc table I’m building. More today.
Chris,
That is a beautiful quote. I would love to read the original article. Any idea where I can find it?
Thanks,
arya