Standard or Manual

How to share skills.

There were many unexpected surprises while traveling for Backwoods Chairmakers. I met makers, learned new methods, dodged grouchy dogs (and was dodged myself by a few chairmakers), and, thankfully only part of the time, was completely out-of-my-depth. What worked in my favor was that chairmaking was a common language that brought us together.

While I attempted to travel with an open mind, there were challenges. At a few shops, the chairmakers used methods I couldn’t photograph because I thought they were too dangerous to show in the book. And they were dangerous - freehand ripping boards and cross cutting on a table saw without a fence. I put the camera aside and watched with equal parts amazement and fear. Those makers succeed with such methods due to their abundance of skill. Still, I froze the first time I witnessed it.

[Later, upon reflection. These tablesaws may have been low powered, and troubles while ripping may have bound the blade instead of causing kickback. My first experiences on the table saw was as a carpenter’s helper (I believe the actual title was “gopher”…someone needed to go pick up materials, or go fetch a tool from the truck) on the jobsite. We would freehand rip sheet goods on a contractor saw with the fence removed. I got skilled at this and enjoyed making the cuts. The saw was underpowered and would bind whenever I didn’t follow the chalk line accurately. It’d start spinning again once the minor adjustment was made to unbind the piece. It was only later, once I went though training, that I learned the danger of this method.

Something like this would never fly with the higher horsepower of the cabinet saw. During my years in a cabinet shop at a design/build company, I had to chase away young carpenters who would stop by to freehand cut to a scribe line on the shop’s cabinet saw. They were angry that I’d interrupt the work (there’s an independence code that I violated by interrupting), and they thought less of me for the worrying/wimpy concerns. But I’ve experienced kickback. Best to avoid it.]

I really didn’t care how the chairmakers worked. I wasn’t there as safety police or to judge the methods (outside of what I could share in the book). In fact, I loved seeing how things were done. The wilder, the better. I loved seeing, just for a few moments, the homemade saws and cutters and the risk and the incredible skill required to make their chairs.