"Confidence Over Accuracy"

We’ll start with the tangent.

This week in targeted advertising; Purdue Global. At the moment, the most common radio ad played on my stations while streaming music is one advertising online classes, with the tag line “This is My Comeback.” I can’t help but think that Purdue is hinting that it’s time to try something else. Give this woodworking a rest and get into a new career. Somedays, at my weaker moments, I think they might be on to something.

But not yet, Purdue Global.

Anyway, onto woodworking.

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This post could be titled “Not everything needs to be perfectly precise.” There are times within chairmaking that absolute precision can be put aside (if only for a few operations).

First though, let me mention this. What follows is not in advocacy of shoddy work, of haphazard work, or of lazy effort. I would like to think that I am “pro-good work.”

Within chairmaking, freehand drilling can lead to inaccuracy. That’s usually viewed as a bad thing. There are a host of approaches that try to alleviate the errors of freehand drilling. Fixtures. Lasers. Mirrors. Specialty tools. The objective of each is to increase accuracy.

But…

There’s a bit of magic in a handmade chair. I can’t quantify it; I’ve tried and struggled to find a suitable definition. I am unable to craft one that doesn’t sound a little fluffy and ethereal.

If I were able to shape that definition, I’d find a way to include these aspects:

• Chairs with characteristics that are so good that they only look achievable by skilled hands. [I think of Dave Fisher’s bowls for this point. I know, a bowl is not a chair. But those incredible bowls are what comes to mind. They look like they could only be created with sharp tools, hand skills, and artistry. Need a chair example; check out George Sawyer’s work.]

• The second characteristic, which is at odds with the first, is that something feels slightly “off” with the chair. That “off-ness” may be unquantifiable. It probably should be unquantifiable. It’s more of a feeling than something easily spotted (which is how it relates to the first characteristic as well).

  • There are places where something (slightly) off can add to a chair:

    • Leg drill angles. Just a little off reads well.

    • Stretchers of different lengths. Again, only with minor differences. If the leg angles are off, there’s a good chance the stretchers are not identical.

    • Shaved sticks.

  • There are places where “slightly off” looks wrong:

    • The center spindle/stick between the seat and comb/crest is not vertical. That one should read perfectly upright from the seat. A lean is distracting.

    • Noticeable asymmetry when the objective is symmetry.

    • Parts that are intended to read parallel to the floor (the center stretcher, the front edge of the seat, and the comb/crest) that lean in one direction or the other.

The challenge of allowing some imprecision is that it takes experience to when to allow for it. We’re trained to always target absolute accuracy and anything else is a “mistake.”