What Makes a Craftsman? Skill that Turns Labor into Craft
What does it really mean to labor? For anyone who hasn’t had the opportunity to work a manual labor job, I’ll share a story about a summer job I had in 2010.
My alarm goes off at 5:30. I start my routine by throwing on a pair of shorts and a dirty sweatshirt. It’s dirty because I wear the same one every day for the first 2 hours of work while the air is still crisp and I shed it as soon as the sun has burnt off the morning dew. The start time at the jobsite is 6:30. We start early because it’s going to get up to 90 degrees in the afternoon and this way we’ll be done by 3:00.
It’s mid-July and I’m working for the local school district. I’m new to the crew so I draw the short straw and have to transfer off the moving crew and onto playground upkeep. The moving crew was manual work, we cleared classrooms of desks and bookshelves to make way for painters and floor polishers, but that was a short stint to move out and then we sat in our trucks. So off to the hot, dusty playgrounds of Hillsboro in 90+ degree weather to spread bark chips.
The tool of choice for bark chips, a mulch scoop. Lightweight fiberglass and a short handle are a must for a lighter tool and more leverage to pick up bigger loads.
When it comes to bark chips there are three jobs to be done. Fill a wheelbarrow, transport chips via the wheelbarrow, or spread the bark chips. I opted for the most physically demanding job, shoveling bark chips into a wheelbarrow. We would have 2 people running wheelbarrows, 2 spreaders, and me shoveling. When I say shoveling, I really mean scooping. The scoop was similar to a snow shovel with it’s wide, deep well to hold 30 pounds of bark chips at once. I could fill a wheelbarrow in 4 scoops and send it off with a 15 second break while the next one to filled it’s spot to repeat the process until the 6-foot-tall pile of chips disappeared.
It was tiring and yet, fulfilling. At the time, those hot, sweaty days toiling in the sun made me long for a chair in an air conditioned office building where I would be cool and my back wouldn’t take quite the beating. Funny enough, after sitting in a desk chair for 8 hours, my back is just as worse for the wear.
But that’s beside the point. The point is I was a laborer. There was no skill involved, just labor. I scooped and dumped, over and over. Anyone off the street with no prior experience could have done my job.
Woodworking is not a labor job. Woodworking does require manual labor, but it is skilled. A craft person needs to be able to use their tools with skillful hands and mind. It’s more than a physical act, it’s a mental puzzle, a challenge to overcome, a problem to solve. Yes it requires physicality to lift an 80 pound sheet of plywood and run it through a saw, but it’s not the labor that makes the woodwork happen, nor is it the tool itself, it’s the skilled person working the wood with those tools.
Speaking of tools, they are an important part of woodworking, but that is not to say any able bodied person could use the tools in my shop without any experience or training. Sure, anyone could grab one of my hand planes and use it on the edge of a board. All my hand planes are set and ready to go so the plane will successfully cut into the wood but that tool will not do it’s job. Would that board come out straight and square? Not likely.
A design for a simple glass door display cabinet. What you don’t see is the work it takes to make each panel, to plan and cut grooves and dados in the exact right spots, and all the joinery required to ensure this cabinet will outlive me.
Woodworking is a craft, it requires practice and skill to become proficient. You have to want to learn. You have to make mistakes. But most of all, you have to want to improve. Unlike moving bark chips, labor alone won’t get the results you want. Each piece of furniture I design and build is complex. I have learned how design, to visualize my joinery, and modify my plans on the fly to overcome challenges and make it work.
A cabinet is a box, but screwing 5 boards together to make a box isn’t a cabinet. A cabinet needs to be strong enough to hold it’s contents and to look good. That means hiding fasteners and hardware, using the wood grain in a pleasing way, and overall caring about the aesthetics. It’s the small things that set apart a thought out, cared for custom piece of furniture from a particle board and laminate store bought piece. A craftsman had to make those decisions. Think through joinery. Plan out board layout for the best looking piece. The thing that sets an experienced woodworker apart from a beginner is the attention to detail spent on the wood itself. Does the grain flow together? Would it look better to book match or slip match? Do the natural grain lines follow the lines of the piece? When you see a piece of furniture and you really look at it you can see the detail that went into planning and layout when you know what to look for.
In short, woodworking requires your mind just as much as it requires your hands.
And that’s where it sets itself apart from labor, it’s a craft. And like all other crafts and trades, there is so much more than meets the eye. Don’t take my word for it. Next time you have a handyman, drywaller, plumber, electrician, carpenter, or any other trades person working on your house ask them what they are doing and why. I think you’ll find there’s a lot more to their job than hammering nails or turning a wrench. Understanding their craftsmanship will help you appreciate all the work that went into the making of your home.