Today we made dovetailed corners to boxes. The process of establishing such specific order hitherto didn’t exist in the lives of the students to the degree that it did today. These are patterns rarely strayed from for decades and centuries because the process evolved by sequential necessities that laid down foundational steps in order. Nothing better replaced them so they became immutable. Once they have made their first box these tenets will be continuing as handed down from my generation of craftsmen to the next.
In establishing this order we used tools that in and of themselves represented absolute order; the saw teeth set and sharpened in rows, plane irons set perfectly parallel to the face of the plane’s sole are such things that give order to the work. Cleanness, flatness, straightness support the work and without these elements the work would be substandard and unacceptable.
Preparing stock is the first stage of establishing order. In this case I rough cut and surface plane the materials to final dimension. The process is quicker by machine, but the machine only gives me a partial preparation of the materials. From here the students learn patterns of layout.
Laying out takes humility, patience, exactness, self discipline, thought, adjustment and more. The precision in all areas ultimately depends on many things not the least of which is care. From shaping and sharpening a pencil point to using the square and sizing and laying out their dovetail joints, each student starts to respond to the order or sequence of work. The layout is quintessentially the order I am speaking of. In order to bring new levels of order, even down to sharpening and shaping the pencil, sharpness prefaces layout and so that to becomes a measure of order that must be mastered early on in the sequence of establishing skill.
If a joint has a gap it doesn’t mean that the student didn’t care. It actually might mean that he or she cared too much. Some times, often, I find there is a wall of unconsciousness caused by nervous anxiety that then prevents us from working fully functionally that require spatial awareness in this often new realm we call three-dimensions; in the beginning, when we focus intently on one line of say a dovetail, we forget the other line. Without a perfect unison on both plains we find a perfect result on one face and a gap on the other where we failed to follow the second line. Does that mean that we didn’t care? I don’t believe that is so. As yet, this spatial consciousness is undeveloped. By practice we gain confidence in the tool and our use of it. As we do, we become more aware, more confident and more capable. We think less of what we are doing and move confidently with care but without thinking. Most people, adults, no longer think about how they sign their names or hold their pen. That was not always so.
As the pencil lays out the lines on the board according to the craftsmen’s demand, we discover the preparation it takes to begin cuts into three-dimensional realms we may never have entered before. Empty spaces yield to the formation of joints and the tools and handwork it takes to make them. A box stands on the corner of the bench that hitherto did not exist. It speaks of order. Planework created roundovers and smooth surfaces. The plane must be in pristine condition to accomplish this work. Chisels too must be surgically sharp. In craft, the art of work, order is an absolute.
So you see, this workshop is more than making a box. Planes and chisels must be understood, as must saws and the sizes of teeth and their shape too. Order is absolute!
