John Winter – time served woodworker

Another friend leaves my workshop this weeks after nine months of intensive training and friendship; but more than that, service.

In times past a man of 15 served his apprenticeship and at the end of 5-7 years, depending on the era, he was or became a time-served craftsman. But it wasn’t that he served time so much that he spent his time serving someone who trained him within a mentoring environment. Mentoring is the key to successful apprenticing. Apprenticing is effective mentoring in craft. Mentoring is what men no longer want to do. They neither want mentoring nor want to mentor because our culture promotes that rugged individualistic, independent, self-made man. The half shaven man riding out into the wildernesses of Manchester or Vancouver or Dallas not on their horse but the Mitsubishi or the Ford bronco. And it’s no wonder that half the population thinks that men are just big kids. Much of any apprentice’s time would be spent serving the one under whom he worked. The law has changed that relationship whereby a craftsman assumed his responsibility and made a young man responsible in his own right. It was unique, symbiotic relationship yet not one wrought by the letter of law but care and concern in a genuine relationship that grew from nothing, often into a lifetime relationship.

My friend John came to me in March this year and he will return to Argentina and his family in Patagonia in a few days. John lived with me and my family throughout his training and we have all grown close to this wonderful young man. He has made many things and learned alongside my bench. He can sharpen with the best and make perfect dovetails with his own hands. He has received my deposit and the seed will now grow as his gifts and ability are nurtured. Of all the people I have known, John Winter is amongst the nicest. I will miss his thoughtful and precise manner. He has served his intensive apprenticeship with me as a child serves his father.

We live in an age when we no longer see service as such. To be servant is frowned upon.  No one serves as such. I hope that I can always serve my fellow men and women in whatever capacity I can, as John has served me, with a whole heart.

John has never been a lackey. He is the man his parents raised him to be and he has grown to maturity by his willingness to take responsibility for his life. Maturity has nothing to do with age.