Lessons in Good Design

This past week I had the privilege of being invited back to my high school shop class to share and demonstrate some of the vast knowledge I acquired while in college (ha!).  I sat and pondered what would be the best use of my short time.  I talked to my dad about what I was up to and he recommended I recall the things that I struggled with the most while in high school shop and try to help in those areas.

The dominate area of struggle for any aspiring high school woodworker has to be design.  On a basic component level nearly everything made in the school shop was a rectangle of some nature.  Nothing wrong with a well proportioned rectangular box, in fact the best piece in the shop was a lovely rectangular buffet that looked very elegant not only because it had great simple detail but it also had balance in it's size (really wished I had took a picture to show you.)  There are things wrong with a rectangle if it is a rectangle simply because that's the shape plywood comes in and the shape that table saws cut.

 So for all you struggling with design out there here is a brief lesson from a project I'm currently working on.

Original side view sketch

While designing I usually work through several sketches and then move to a scale model.  While working on a dining set for a client I made a terrific discovery when I moved from sketching to modeling the chairs.  Whenever one builds a chair, or any piece of furniture for that matter, visual balance is vital in order to subconsciously convince the potential sitter to sit.  Moreover, actual physical balance is far more important, or else that potential sitter will also be a potential ER patient.  So, when I made the scale model chair, on a whim I set the chair up without it's front legs attached, and it balanced on it's back legs!  It's amazing to witness accidents like this, I had visual balance on the drawing and now the chair was balancing physically on it's back legs.  Now no one would sit in the chair as is. It obviously would fall forward.  However it does direct me in regards to the nature of the front legs.  They should be visually light tapering in some way down to the floor, implying that they just barely touch the floor while at the same time feeling sturdy once the sitter has sat.

I never would have made this discovery had I moved from drawing to full scale prototype.  Modeling in three dimensions will reveal mysteries and give you invaluable information as you move forward in designing any 3D object.

Nothing says Bed and Breakfast Axe Murder Quite Like...

Good Morning!

So, it's monday morning and there's no need for anything heavy.  So here's a little humor.  While shooting photos for my profile I thought it would be sufficient for me to simply stand and hold my hewing axe while the sun rose, you know real poignant and stoic.  Nope.  The results instead were something that called to my mind a serial killer who preferred to do his work on sunny weekend mornings at the nearest B&B.  Happy monday morning, you survived the weekend!

It is good to grasp one and not let go of the other.

After my first blog post I went on Facebook to check out how the linked looked, and there was my face, filling the whole screen in an unflattering way.  I knew then the first improvement to this blog would be a more appropriate photo.  So now you will see me wielding a hewing axe silhouetted by the sunrise, a typical saturday morning.

Looking at this photo in context to my last post got me thinking about the woodworking process and it's ancient tradition.  It's technology has evolved from the dawn of creation from whittling a spear with a sharp piece of flint to modern day CNC machines that can mill wood to micro tolerances.  This vast variance in technology has created a lot of strict camps among craftsmen.  What do I mean by strict camps?  I mean there are those among us, traditionalist, who would never even think about letting a machine cut their joinery for them.  Then there are others who would say you're a fool for not embracing the convenience and efficiency of modern technology.  Feelings about the "right" way to go about woodworking run deep and cause many divisions in the craft world.  A basic battle of tradition vs. progression.

So, am I firmly rooted in tradition or do I move with the movers?  What to do...Well let me pull some wisdom from the book of Ecclesiastes (yes I spelled that wrong the first time) to clarify what I believe.  Chapter 7:14-18 abbrev. "Do not be overrighteous...Do not be overwicked...It is good to grasp the one and not let go of the other.  The man who fears God will avoid all extremes." Balance, that is the answer.  So you will see me using a hewing axe in one moment and then using a power tool in the next.  The question in life and in the wood studio then becomes; what tools do I use and which do I disregard?  This is the sticking point where a person ought to spend his lifetime soul searching to determine what is right.  If we cling to our traditions to tightly we will lose perspective and relevance in the world, but if we plunge head first into the tidal wave of modern technology we will forget the fundamentals that got us here in the first place.

A big thanks to my Uncle Kevin Gronli for
Supplying me with the Oak to build this
shaving horse

This is why I think Heritage Tree (see previous post to learn a bit more about Heritage Tree) is so important.  The latest and greatest thinking is often attractive and easy to move along with but it takes discipline to reflect and learn from the past.  I want to take both the tradition and technology of wood craft to help us be disciplined and look to our elders and learn from them.  This so that we can look to the future all the wiser and shape a better world with both the spokeshave and the power saw.

This shaving horse is almost ready to help me make some chairs