I try to work out all aspects of a design before I build it, but often I come to a fork in the road during construction. Should the chair’s spindles be spaced like this? Or like this?
If possible, I mock up each possibility to make my decision. But if the answer is not obvious and easy, I immediately halt work, walk away and work on something else (there’s always something else on fire here). That’s because when I force a design decision, I often regret it.
Sometimes the answer will come to me within minutes or an hour – bah, of course! Other times I have to let it stew overnight. But the answer always does come. And sometimes it’s a third or fourth path that I hadn’t considered before.
Yesterday was one of those days. I was working out the tapers on the gateleg of this little breakfast table and couldn’t decide if I wanted to taper two faces of the gateleg (like the other four legs of the table) or three (wouldn’t that look weird?). I mocked it up in pine and couldn’t make the call.
So instead I went upstairs and made chilaquiles for my family.
The next morning I walked into the shop and knew the answer. Of course, the gateleg should be tapered on three faces. You can only see two faces of the leg at any one time. So it wouldn’t look weird at all.
And I was right.
— Christopher Schwarz
If in doubt.. for me it normally comes after a nap, but I’m retired
Amen, and amen. That’s the way I have found that I work the best. And it was something that always frustrated my boss back when I worked for a big company. He wanted the answer right now or yesterday and I couldn’t ever get across that sometimes the best solution takes time to bubble up out of the swamp. From what I’ve read on creativity it makes sense. A person studies a problem sometimes researching information, sometimes mulling over different solutions. Then they go off and let the brain work on it offline. “All of a sudden” it seems like you know the answer when in fact it took time to assimilate all the ideas that went before that Aha moment.
When is the inability to decide a signal from the psyche to hold out for a better idea, and when is it simply indecision? Point being – it doesn’t matter. Sleep on it and let it come to you.
When is the inability to decide a message from the subconscious to wait for a better idea, and when is it simply indecision? Doesn’t matter. Sleep on it and it will come to you. A decision made under duress is, by it’s very nature, biased against your better judgment.
As a corollary, if I can’t find something, I stop looking for it. I usually find it in a few minutes.
Three is always the answer. Even when it’s not. Three is still the answer.
When the voice in the back of your head says Stop, listen to it.
But what was on the chilaquiles that brought the thought about? Pico? Healthy handful of cilantro? Smoked bird?
Tortillas and eggs will sort most problems.
Is that dado along the aprons near the top a track for tabletop buttons/fasteners? If so that’s a smart idea rather than only making mortises where you need them you can just run the whole piece through a table saw.
Yup. The groove is for the buttons that will secure the tabletop.
In “The Essential Woodworker”, Robert Wearing counsels against this technique: “The common commercial practice of cutting a groove along the entire length of the rail should not be followed, because the remaining wood tends to break away” (p. 77).
That said, judging from the photo the construction here looks more than strong enough for the short rails and small table top involved; I just thought the passage from Wearing’s book might be worth mentioning as something to be taken into consideration before opting for the approach.
On the main topic of the post, I wholeheartedly concur! For my part, I have found that the solution/answer will often pop into my head in the short space of time between turning off the light and bedding down, and falling sleep; this moment is also my favourite one for thinking about any ongoing or upcoming project. By, as it were, visualizing in my minds’ eye the various steps of a job and their order of execution, I often come up with new ideas on how to go about it, or come to think of potential snags or problems well beforehand.
I find that the same tactic works when things start going to shit out in the shop. One big screw-up: maybe, but if there’s another I shut things down, crack a beer, put my tools away and go find something else to do until tomorrow.
Sound advice. It goes hand-in-hand with its complementary opposite – once you made up your mind, just go at it. Don’t question yourself until the hands cease to move. So many wonky saw cuts and questionable shoulder lines were a direct result of insecurity / indecisiveness.
My wife never understood this when we would plan something out in our home re-hab.
“When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” Yogi Barra