Whenever I teach a class, I insist on building the project with the students. No shortcuts. No asking assistants to do my chopping. No afterhours CNC.
I do this for several reasons.
1. I want to demonstrate that the techniques I use are genuine. It would be easy for me to say: Do this. And then nitpick the students as they try to do my bidding. Screw that. If I can’t build it in the time allowed, how can they?
2. It makes me a faster joiner. When I build the project alongside the students I have to push myself to build it to a high standard. I have to be much faster than they are. And I have to float around the room and assist them as I work. I have to be able to produce tight joints while totally distracted. I have to do it while I’m talking. Honestly, I should be paying the students for the training this gives me.
3. It shows the students that anyone can do this. One of the frequent criticisms of my work is that I am “just a journalist.” That I don’t have “traditional training.” And I am not a “professional woodworker.”
All that is true. I don’t deny it. And I don’t care.
If I can build this stuff without some paper certificate, then you can, too. You can build stuff to a much higher level than many professional woodworkers, many of whom have to rely on pocket screws and biscuits to make a living (and there is NOTHING wrong with that).
It is the amateur class that can afford to make furniture to a crazy high standard. So bring it. Whether you are “just a programmer,” “just a firefighter” or “just an engineer,” you can build stuff that will last “just 200 years.”
— Christopher Schwarz
Is it wrong to not want to be a “pro”? Is that the primary goal woodworkers should aspire to? That paints us as one dimensional. Dentistry as a hobby while pro woodworking might be harder than the other way round. Many of us engineers can’t really turn it off, and it leaks out as making/woodworking. Then there are the artist types that sometimes choose wood for their medium. To say that we must want to be “pro” devalues the other aspects of our life that we also enjoy and are passionate about. Most interesting people are polymaths vs. one-trick-ponies. We are all striving for mastery of the craft, but that come from many angles.
Also bravo for “doing” while instructing. Teaching is one of those rare times where the service provider comes away with more than just pay. I know I’ve appreciated what I’ve learned from you over the years (not just about woodworking either), and hope somehow to repay the favor someday to Chris Schwarz the man, not some label.
Chris, when you tire of the USA, I’ll have a word to the Prime Minister and you can live here in Australia.
There is an absolute dearth of courses like yours here. You would be mobbed/swamped.
Credentialism is the bane of the modern world. Three cheers for all those who make things purely for the love of it…the true amateurs!
A professional – one who spends the lion’s share of their waking hours for a lifetime dedicated to a pursuit – tends to have a huge advantage over an amateur in that shear time devoted and experience gained will in all likelihood matter quite a lot depending upon what one is aiming to achieve. An amateur may produce a six board chest that is in all respects as stout and beautiful as a professional’s, but an amateur is less likely to be the next Nakishima, Morris, Krenov, Koph, or John Brown. One has to work at something longer and harder than most amateurs can afford in order to reach new heights in bodies of work. On the other hand, as Krenov noted in an interview I read long ago, amateurs, with the luxury of working for love and not money, may be free to follow their bliss in ways that create excellent and unique works (and I’ll add: but probably not many works in their lifetimes).
I want to make a joke about an online school or fake ID place printing off “Professional Woodworker” certificates but everyone will think I’m being serious or attacking Chris’s honor. But it would have been a funny joke, really.
Ah – but you’re not “just” a journalist; you’re a trained journalist. 😉
Old saw:
Doctor’s practice, lawyers practice. Tradesmen learn it the first time and then do it for the rest of their lives. 🙂
In my experience only Cobol programmers write code to survive 200 years. With the odd date patch thrown in here or there. 😉
Joseph Joubert has a great quote I often use: To teach is to learn twice.
Don’t forget:
The Titanic was built by a professional.
The Ark was built by an amateur.
Bravo sir for your attitude about being “just a journalist.” I am not a fan of this near constant need for “credentials.” I’ve worked with more than a few people who have many multiple “credentials” whom I find to not be particularly good at their job. Credentials, in my humble opinion, merely show that you spent a lot of time putting up with a lot of nonsense to learn an awful lot about an awful small topic.
Of course, that’s just my opinion….I could be wrong.
Number 3 reminded me of Chris Farley’s Air Quotes skit as I read it.
Bummed that I am not at this class when I am just a short Ferry ride away!
“Only a journalist?” I wonder what these same “critics” would say about pieces made by “only” an artist from the Vortox Manufacturing Company with no “traditional training” save a woodshop class in high school? Thank you, sir, for ignoring the haters and continuing to share your knowledge. I am very grateful to be able to say that I have benefited from it immensely.
If you’re finding a dearth of students willing to be paid for the instruction they provide for you, I’m sure there are one or two of us that could be convinced.
Frankly, you’re probably ready for advanced instruction. You need to find someone who likes to talk, is easily distracted, and isn’t handy in the least. I know that this caliber of instruction can be quite expensive, but you only rise to level you are challenged.