Minor things, and major things, and knowing the difference
Back in the day, woodworkers learned their craft through apprenticeships, on the job training, or other combinations of in person instruction. Today, outside of specialized trade schools, the most likely instructor of aspiring woodworkers is… YouTube.
Not that I pine for a YouTube-less world. I like the many, many helpful videos there and the people who make them. I’ve learned a lot of woodworking from YouTube.
But you can’t ask a YouTube video a question. A YouTube video won’t walk up, inspect your work, and give you a confidence-boosting “good job!” More importantly, a YouTube video won’t smack that smug look off your face when you think you’ve done a good job but really haven’t.
I took a Shaker box class recently from Eric Pintar, who most anyone in the very small community of people who make these boxes will tell you knows this craft better than anyone. My biggest takeaway from the class was how Eric would obsess over details I hadn’t thought important, and minimize things I had been obsessing over. In other words, he majored on the majors and minored on the minors, and he knew the difference. Taking his class - rather than just learn online - helped me do the same.
For example, the picture accompanying this blog shows the underside of a #5 box I finished up just a couple hours ago. Eric’s approach to shaping box bottoms into their bands was extremely precise. At one point he explained that we should, after taking great pains to line up and add very slight compression to the band, trace the band on the box bottom blank with a 0.7mm mechanical pencil. After bandsawing the blank just outside that line, we were to then sand it back on a 2 degree bevel so that half - not all - the line was gone. In other words, sand the box bottom so that only 0.35mm of the line remains.
Impossible? Maybe. But I think it’s an “aim small, miss small” type of thing. Have great precision as your goal, and you’ll only make tiny mistakes. Whatever it is, the picture above is the result of me applying Eric’s methods - a perfect fit, with no gaps. And taking the time to do this is possible because of the time I save not obsessing over the things that aren’t important.
YouTube videos will tell you how to do a lot of things, but they won’t distinguish between the good things and the best things. Which is why acquiring the most refined skills will always require learning from a teacher, face to face.
