When thinking of the modern wood-working establishment, with its finely-drawn divisions and subdivisions of all the different operations in the hands of experts and specialists, it is with a feeling of regret that we see the old-fashioned all-round mechanic being gradually crowded into the background, with the prospect that sooner or later his type will become extinct.
Not so many years ago the skilled workman was an indispensable factor in every wood-working shop. He was a combination of cabinetmaker, carpenter and machineman who could make a complete door or window or a piece of furniture from the raw material, with no other assistance but his own skill. He could lay out his work, match, joint and lay his own veneer, knew all about the properties of glue, the nature of the various kinds of wood and their adaptability for different purposes, besides a thousand other shop kinks, acquired by years of practical experience.
It used to be a source of real pleasure to watch such workman handle his tools when building up, piece by piece, some intricate design of artistic woodwork, and the evident satisfaction he derived from viewing the work of his own hands, showed the earmarks of the artist. On account of his ability and wide range of usefulness, he was looked up to by his shopmates, and his work called forth the admiration of everybody.
But notwithstanding all these rare qualities, the real craftsman is becoming less necessary, and therefore less appreciated from year to year. He is gradually being relegated to the small shop, or some remote corner of the big establishment, patching and repairing defective machine work or doing some occasional job beyond the range of the less skillful machine operator.
With the designing, detailing and laying out of work, which was formerly considered the duty of the thoroughly-skilled mechanic, now being done much better, and more economically, by specialists trained for each particular task, the versatile mechanic is no longer indispensable.
In addition to this, with the growing tendency to standardize designs and operations, combined with a multiplicity of ingenious devices to save time and cheapen construction, the time seems not far distant when the making of artistic woodwork will become a lost art, and the peculiar dexterity acquired by years of training the hands to use the tools, which we call skill, may be ultimately dispensed with in the wood-working shops.
D. M. C.
The Wood-Worker – (Indianapolis) February, 1921
– Jeff Burks
It takes years to build such a creature whereas an adept narrowly focused technician can be produced in weeks. With six billion people on the planet we have long since passed the time when expert workmen could fill the needs of the marketplace.
I’m sure the Pangea Times ran similar editorials when cave painters were supplanted by the move to thatched huts. Still, it is noble and necessary to have masters around.
Every neighborhood has its masters. You just have to seek them out. My good friend and next door neighbor worked in the electrical switchgear industry for his livelihood. But, his interests are varied, and he has his own very complete machine shop with lathes, mills, surface grinder, welders, blast cabinet, etc. You never know who will show up at his door for a project. One week there was a Ford model A, the next a Caterpillar loader. He has made parts to equip rocket launch pads, and a prototype for a medical device, believe it or not, to perform circumscisions. Another man I know here locally, re-created, from scratch, a flying, world war one German Fokker D7 biplane.
Mark Singleton
Santa Maria, Ca