Your innate intelligence, your achievements in the corporate world and the number of degrees you have earned at university won’t help you much at the bench when you start woodworking.
To be sure, some people have some natural dexterity (I didn’t) that helps them take the first steps in the craft. But after teaching a lot of beginners during the last 10 years, I have found there is only one way to get good at woodworking: Do a lot of woodworking.
As David Savage says: “You need to build a shed-load of furniture.”
This simple fact is sometimes hard to accept for people who are used to being a star pupil or an outstanding employee. I’ve had CEOs, attorneys, surgeons, PhDs and one high-ranking politician get quite frustrated when they cut dovetails and their results look no better (or even worse) than the elevator repairman at the bench next to theirs.
When anyone (regardless of their position in society) gets frustrated because they have failed in a class, I try to trace their steps to disaster. Did you do this? This? How about this?
Many of them lie, but their work tells the truth. Their chisel was dull and too wide. They didn’t mark the waste. They used a coping saw to remove the half pin. They used their own cockamamie marking system instead of the traditional “marriage mark” that I begged them to use.
How they respond to this failure determines if they will learn anything or not. You cannot buy a tool to get you out of these weeds. You cannot simply say, “But I’m a doctor,” and have the door opened for you. You have to admit: I stink, and I need to know the steps to become good.
Those steps aren’t usually found in books, I’m afraid. A book can tell you how to saw, but those instructions are meaningless until you are sawing. With some people I had to literally take them by the hands and guide their strokes so they could feel it. That’s humiliating for some, I know. But you cannot download this. It is uploaded through your fingers.
The way forward is, I’m afraid, to destroy your sense of self. Become a small child on the first day of school and do what exactly what you are told. Gradually, you will match the letters to sounds, the vibrations to results, the patterns into words and the wood into furniture.
Whether you like Arts & Crafts furniture is irrelevant if you are a woodworker. Even if you dislike expressed joinery, native materials and the color brown, the Arts & Crafts movements in England and the United States were a turning point for craftsmanship.
The ideas behind the movement came from John Ruskin, a 19th-century artist, author and art critic who was about 100 years ahead of his time with his speeches and articles on the dignity of labor, the preservation of old buildings and furniture, and even environmentalism.
David Savage attended this school starting in 1968, which led to his post-graduate studies at The Royal Academy.
Ruskin’s writings were hugely influential with William Morris, the founder of the British Arts & Crafts Movement and grandfather of the American movement. Morris’s teachings have influenced millions of people. But we’re concerned with Ernest Gimson and Edward Barnsley in particular, who adopted Morris’s radical ideas and were the backbone to the furniture side of the English Arts & Crafts Movement in the Cotswolds.
Barnsley trained Alan Peters, one of the greatest woodworkers of the 20th century. Peters taught and mentored David Savage, who continues to teach the high-level of craftsmanship that Peters worked to every day.
So if you look closely enough, you can still see two unbroken lines from John Ruskin to the hands of the woodworkers that Savage and his employees train every day in his Devon workshop.
You might think it’s a stretch, but I’m here to tell you that it’s not. The lifeblood of the Arts & Crafts movement passes through the workshop of Savage’s Rowden Atelier. They push students to do a high level of work that is rarely seen today. They prepare students for a lifetime of making with classes in handwork, machine work, drawing, design and business.
After working with the students at the school for two weeks, I’m quite impressed. The woodworkers enrolled in the school’s 50-week program were fast, devilishly accurate and serious about the craft, sucking up every bit of information offered. And then looking for more.
My only regret is that I didn’t have a school like this when I was 21 and crazy to make things with my hands. If you are looking to design and make furniture, it’s worth the trip. It’s worth the money. It’s worth your time.
— Christopher Schwarz
Take a tour of the Rowden workshop via this blog entry I wrote for Popular Woodworking Magazine.
Overview of the mosaic Construction scene, Khirbet Wadi Hamam.
This mosaic fragment was found during the 2007-2009 excavations of a synagogue in Khirbet Wadi Hamam, a Roman-era settlement in the Lower Galilee area of Israel. The mosaic floor is dated to the late 3rd century to the early decades of the 4th century. Large areas of the mosaic were damaged in antiquity, probably by an earthquake, and the destroyed portions were filled with plaster. With only about 6 percent of the mosaic remaining it is noteworthy in the archaeology record as it features fragments of three figural scenes (despite strictures against such depictions) of craftsmen at a construction site, a battle scene and a maritime scene.
The excavations are under the direction of Dr. Uzi Leibner. After analysis he and his team think it is possible the construction scene is of the Temple of Solomon. I contacted Dr. Leibner to request higher resolution photos of the craftsmen and he graciously provided the photos below. Next, I asked Chris for his commentary on the tools and techniques depicted in the mosaic.
Largest mosaic fragment of the Construction scene, Khirbet Wadi Hamam.
The largest fragment has a stand-alone tower in the foreground, carpenters at work at ground level and a scaffold in the background. The two levels of the scaffold are connected by a ladder. Two workers are carrying a stone block or other item on the scaffold; two others are on the ladder.
Chris’ comment: What strikes me as most interesting is how the tools bridge the gap between the Egyptian and Roman tool traditions. The craftsman with the adze is seated while using the tool, much like Egyptian woodworkers. To the right is a fellow holding a bowsaw over his head. The bowsaw, as best we know, is a Roman invention. Further to the right is a worker with a mallet and chisel, not sure what he is up to. (Dr. Leibner thinks they may be having a conversation or debate.) Below them is a very serious worker ripping a board with a bowsaw. He is using a Roman tool, but in a very Egyptian position, with the work straight upright. Unfortunately, we can’t see how he’s holding the board.
Second largest fragment of the Construction scene, Khirbet Wadi Hamam.
In the background a worker is mixing mortar; in the foreground a worker is dressing a stone block.
Chris’ comment: In this second fragment we see a woodworker with what is clearly a Roman-style hammer.
For comparison take a look at this carving from Ancient Egypt.
Carpenters, 1325 BC, Sakkara, Egypt.
Note: Photos from Khirbet Wadi Hamam are courtesy of Uzi Leibner, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Photos by Gabi Laron.
Chris asked me to write a couple blog posts to give you a little insight into what went in to compiling the DVD companion to Don Williams’s amazing book “Virtuoso.” In addition to that I’ve been given the unpleasant task of introducing myself and giving a little background while trying not to sound like a salesman with my resume.
I was a freelance recording engineer here in Nashville who opted for early retirement. I had a decent career for 12 years and got to work with a lot of great known and unknown artists and musicians. The music industry has changed drastically in recent years. My old job as recording engineer/producer is one that is especially being phased out so I hung up my microphones and (helped) produce a kid instead. I’m mostly a stay-at-home dad now and work part time at an old-school hardware store.
In the past few years I’ve done some audio work for Lost Art Press. I mastered “The Joiner and the Cabinet Maker” and did audio restoration on “The Naked Woodworker” DVD. I come from the audio world, and I was taken aback when Chris asked me to edit a DVD about the Studley tool cabinet. I thought that it would be a chance of a lifetime, and I also thought that someone else should do it. I warned Chris of my lack of experience, but he was adamant that a woodworker should edit this DVD. I like a challenge and couldn’t pass on the opportunity.
Once I started work I quickly figured out why Chris wanted a woodworker first and foremost. I was given more than eight hours of interviews and snippets, an hour of video of them unloading the cabinet and more than 60 gigabytes of pictures (an insane amount!). The DVD needed to be about an hour long. I had at least four hours of mesmerizing content that many woodworkers would love to see. Don’s passion and knowledge about Studley’s work is galvanizing. Narayan’s photographs show more intricacies and subtleties than I ever imagined. To put it mildly, given the raw materials I was handed, the blame would lie squarely on my shoulders if the end product was not entertaining and at least somewhat inspiring.
The first thing I did was watch all of the footage while taking notes on everything that was said, topics covered, tools discussed, even outtake conversations between Don, Narayan and Chris (I had hoped to decipher the location of the collection given this insider information… I still have no clue). After that I watched all of the footage again and began to pull my favorite bits, organizing them by subject. The hard part was there was no outline or script for what the finished video should be. Soon I realized that Don had been kind enough to write an entire book on the subject, and I decided to sort the clips into chapters that corresponded with the book. This “chapter concept” might seem obvious now but at the time it was revolutionary to me and the organization of the video quickly fell into place.
In the recording studio I used to pride myself for being able to assemble a vocal track or guitar solo encompassing all of the best parts of what the artist did into one “super recording” (we called them a “comp” or “composite track”). Editing this video used the same brain synapses. First, go over the multiple times someone discusses a particular subject. Whittle it down into one clip that simply states the point they were trying to make. Make sure there are no “umms” or stutters. On top of that, put mesmerizing pictures focusing on what they are talking about. The whole time keep a ukulele around to plunk out a melody or two that comes to your head… really.
Boom… now you too can edit a DVD about Studley’s tool cabinet and workbench.
In actuality it was a little more complicated than that. After the initial edit of each chapter I would come back the next night and re-edit and smooth things out a bit. Then I would add in the pictures and b-roll footage, followed by another smoothing edit, followed by the music, which I’ll discuss in another post.
As with any editing project be it video, music or a furniture design it’s nearly impossible to fit all of your favorite parts in because they just don’t work with the flow or the overall narrative. A few times I found myself watching a clip over and over again trying to figure out how I could make it work. As a woodworker I would be enthralled by a clip but as an editor I knew technically it’d flow better without it. My wife would remind me that if I was getting excited about something as a woodworker chances are that the Lost Art Press faithful would as well. Those side-notes are my favorite parts of the video. I say this to illustrate the fact that first and foremost (and with the encouragement of my wife) I tried to make a video that I’d want to watch.
I will always be a little bit heartbroken that I didn’t make the pilgrimage to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for the exhibit of the cabinet and workbench. I let day-to-day life get in the way of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I’m so glad that Chris offered me another once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be a part of the telling of an amazing story.
— Ben Strano
Editor’s note: We will begin taking pre-publication orders for this DVD quite soon. And we will be offering free domestic shipping during the introductory period.
