Part 1 is here
Part 2 is here
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Part 5 is here
MACHINIST: Well, I assume that you generally make small things. If ever you decide, say, to panel one of your rooms, I trust that you will remain true to your principles and do all your ripping out, grooving, moulding, and jointing by hand!
(Editor’s note: This is the final entry in this series. No surprise – it ended with a troll. — CS)
Part 1 is here
Part 2 is here
Part 3 is here
Part 4 is here
HANDWORKER: Are we not approaching the matter from different angles? You regard the operation as nothing more than a means to an end. I do not agree. If we were speaking of the trade in which the production of so many pieces of furniture is all that matters there might be something in it. For the home woodworker the case is entirely different. My belief is that, although a man may need, say, a sideboard, this need is more or less incidental to the fact of his making it. The real reason which sets a man at work is the interest in the work itself, the expression he is able to give to his ideas, and the desire to construct something useful and beautiful. In using a machine he is robbing himself of half of his pleasure. He may make the job more quickly, but he will have lost a great deal of satisfaction. It is like a man in a motor car. He will glance at fifty times as many things as the man who is walking, but it is the latter who really sees more.
Maddy has sold out of her first run of stickers, and we have three new designs that we are offering to everyone worldwide.
These die-cut vinyl stickers are made in the United States and are strong enough that you can use them outdoors (not that we would suggest you put them on the backs of traffic signs or anything).
You can order the stickers one of two ways. For customers in the United States, you can send a $5 bill and a SASE (self-addressed stamped envelope) to Maddy at:
Stick it to the Man
P.O. Box 3284
Columbus, OH 43210
Maddy will take your SASE and put three high-quality vinyl stickers – one of each design – in your envelope and mail it to you immediately. (If you send $10, she’ll send two sets; $15 will get you three sets). She also has been throwing in some bonus stickers….
For customers outside the United States (or those who don’t want to use an SASE), you can order stickers through Maddy’s etsy store. Stickers there are $6 for domestic customers. Because of the international postage, sets are $10 for international (sorry, but there are fees and this and that).
This little sticker business has been a huge boon for Maddy and making ends meet at college. She also is delighted when people send photos, notes, stickers or what have you. Your kindness has impressed a college student.
— Christopher Schwarz
Part 1 is here
Part 2 is herePart 3 is here
MACHINIST: I often wonder why such a fetish is made of sheer hard work. After all, the operation is merely a means to an end. A man wants, say, a sideboard. He has the choice of doing the whole thing by hand, involving a lot of really hard work and taking possibly a hundred hours, or of lightening his labours by letting a machine do the donkey work and taking half the time, leaving him free to get on with something else. In both cases he is getting pleasure from the exercise of his craft. Possibly the purist has pleasure in ripping down his timber from the rough, but for my own part I prefer to do the lighter tasks which call for every bit as much, if not more, skill.
Consider how short a time a man has for his woodwork. All day he is attending to his normal duties, leaving possibly three hours in the evening for woodwork. This may be enough for one who goes in for small, light items only, but when it is proposed to make a bedroom suite it is hardly giving oneself a chance. It would take years to complete, and life is too short, it seems to me.
No, I think that the man who is going in seriously for woodwork will find a light machine an excellent investment. I would suggest a circular saw. I have known many cases of men who would like to make certain pieces of furniture, but who have been put off because they know it would take a tremendous time and would involve some really hard, strenuous work. If they would only take the initial step of buying a light power saw they could tackle the work without hesitation. Small saws do not cost much and they consume little power.
Now let me turn to your point about the danger of the saw completely ousting handwork. I do not think that this need be the case. Apart from straight-forward ripping out, I should certainly do my rebating and grooving on the machine, because it does it just as well as by hand without any disadvantage. But I still cut tenons by hand; also mouldings. When the machine saw will not produce so satisfactory a result as the handsaw the latter should be used. And the same thing applies to all other forms of machinery. For instance, a drilling machine is invaluable for the preliminary clearing out of the waste from mortises. The holes can be made to run one into the other so that subsequent chopping with the chisel is reduced to a minimum. On the other hand, to substitute dowelled joints for the mortise and tenon just because the machine is capable of making them rapidly is obviously a mistake.
The first urge I ever felt to be a manager was at my first newspaper job in South Carolina. My desk was in the center of the newsroom and faced the glass-fronted offices of three people: the managing editor, the business editor and the special projects editor.
When I wasn’t reporting on a trailer fire or some piece of small-town political skullduggery, I’d look up from my keyboard and watch them. These three white guys decided everything – what was on the front page, who got to to write about the murder trials, who had to write about the centenarians’ birthdays (sorry Reece!) and who sorted the newsroom mail (sorry again Reece!).
Holy crap I wanted one of their jobs. Not because I wanted to boss people around, but because I’d get to make decisions that involved thinking, ideas, reason and the wisdom I’d accumulated about the region (I had none of the time). And those decisions would make the newspaper and community better.
It took 12 years for me to claw my way into one of those positions. After about six months in my perch I realized that my job was all about enacting the ideas (good and bad) of the layer of managers above me. And before I got any more bright ideas about further advancement, I saw there were two more layers of managers above my managers.
I think that’s when I developed a problem with authority.
I left corporate America in 2011 for a variety of reasons, but the No. 1 reason was to get a couple new bosses: failure and starvation.
After more than five years of working under failure and starvation, I can honestly say they are the most predictable and fair-minded superiors I’ve ever had. If I don’t work efficiently, I fail. If I don’t work hard, I starve. It really is that simple.
I can blame the economy when I fail, but that usually means I’m spending too much money or am making things that people really don’t need. So I need to adjust. You can say it’s more complicated than that, but it’s not. It’s how people lived for thousands of years before capitalist economies took hold. And these rules still apply today, just like breathing air is still good and breathing water will still kill you.
To my wife and friends it looks like I’m both always working and never working. On Monday morning I’m lingering over the newspaper and planning a nice meal for my family. On Christmas Day I’m furiously editing chapters for a forthcoming book. At 4 a.m. I’m answering frantic emails from Europe. At 10 a.m. I sleep for a while to clear my head.
Starvation and failure are totally fine with my behavior. There is no annual review session where I “meet” or “exceed” corporate expectations. There is only the bank account and the pantry. And whether or not they are full or empty is my decision alone.
— Christopher Schwarz