logic repairing mistakes

8/12/2019 Logic Repairing Mistakes

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Logic

Te t m d-butcher is tossed around

amow us. I gneae we've all u d t rrw

and then. Probably the me ning of it v n r hdepnding on whether om in referring tooneself or to someone else. Nonetheless, awod-butcher. b a d c d y , is a fellow forwhom things go wrong. That s one way oflookins at it. A n o t h e ~ s that the wood

butcher is aimply a rough-cut outsider, go.iq his ownway, doing odd tMngs. and notmally giving a hoot abu t how one is sup-p o d to do It.

Sometimesour wood-butcher acemnpllsbearather startling results for batter or forworm. Often it is for worn . After all, theterm doen have a derogatory implication.

I wonder though-it means mistakes butmimtakee by what measure? According towhom? Are they miatakee only when com-pored ta a this-ia-how-om-d~~-~-itl e ?Or acethey misfakea made conuciously. oreven unconucidy because of some con-flict with om's own iniler sl w Them issomething deep inside most of ua that oftenwants to sort thlngn out before beginningthe doing. It wants to know tha w h y beforethe how.

U n d y , most of us are t w late askins thequeetions; they come inretrospect. and thenwlop the term wwd-butcher in a g d ayto sum up the situstion. But could it be hatthe thing tbst c a u d us to malre the mis-takes that diverted us from the this u

how, is the very k g thm might hava led

un to our own scrlution, our own mathods,and fml l y a result-however odd-thatsuited us better? I suppose if you re aneasygalng p emn living out in the muntry

snd about to build a house i n the woods,you can lust aort of let go. relax, and Iivethe whole experience.There will be a longperiod of time, and things will aimply hap-pen, rin the house will grow. Slowly, per-

haps disorderly, but it wlll take shsp~ .

With most (though not dl cabinetmekernit is diffeferent. In the making of furniture,d e t a k e . occur much more quickIyand are,in a senna, mow difficult to correct. Themis leas leeway in furniture I h nwi tb a rum-shackle house.Thera n got to be method in

the way you work, we nay. We like t o beemphatic a b u t thin. But as I think of it,subjectively now. method is onIy part ofwhat a good craftsmanneeds. ohonldcoma first at Imst to some of us. I mpmb-ably rather backward about them th-a,but for me logic in primary. And it Ian t the

logic of p s or m e t h d . The thing thatcomes first to ma Is a sort of fealing downh i d e , which suppose in the Logic of pur

.pow.At lesst at thu beginn , tbiu is so.

Later on nother branch of that logic meylead me into method; but first I have a needtodetermiaetbe meaning of what lamabout

to do, or attempt to do. I suppose that fk tlogic is connected to the place innide wherewe sort matters and tab a£irst dwpbreath.We have to feel good abnui what we amembarkingon; even if it s the start of n long,



diffxult job of v ~ o u sefinite pmctlsmt~

we st i l l have t o fed good inside, therebas to be nomething ~antralbout the whole

thins tbat adds up for ua

For some of ue it's logic first and mtlsaftorward. Though n teaching itg apt to

be the other way amaad.'Lew themethodflret, wm nay Youll pee the l a c of I t latm

on. Bg and arge. thin approach worka, andI think one of the reanom that it works in

tbat it 1 not so very o f im q w s t i o d .

Sooner or later. however we encounter thestudent, a certain type of p r s o n reelly, forwhotn questioning corns naturally, a dthen things suddenly become more corn-

plnx. Logic and metbod am in n cMr.km-and-egg mlatimahip. And thou h we'vanever aorted out that conurtd~um,we must,in the cnna of logic aad method, get thingnfairly right,

tbhk that t you p t that wuy+insi&

thing W t e n e d out aod arrive at the

poiat where you want the experience. sensei t s meaning, nd feel tbat it w l be worththe d a r t , then you will not r e d y ba atodds with youroelf. You'll think more

dearly. You won't rajact methods simplybscauee they nre b a d on other people's

q a r i m c e s . M any of t m erpeciencea u eworth acquiring; we should accept themand be grateful. here in a certain kind ofparson who ia flexible even about this: Heucceptm the need for method, for certdn

way8 of doing certain things, and yet m&nhis own adaptations end interpretrtionu.

And he doaa it all wlthout be@ 3t odd.

with h 8 e I f .

So your way of going s h u t doing thingsd l a an Interpretation of nomd img ba-

sically sound. If won't be @t the lawsof wood or instance, or of em work orthe simple truth of gwd end bad oints, buti t will be a es iee of pewonel adoptatlous.It w i l I be youra with a flaxibiIityanda final

clurjty of your own. Even your m i s t a k ~ s

d l 1be

personal. And I thhk personal d a -tabs are, i I m y msy no, l w ainful andmow enriching than mistakas made throughother people'a methods or other people's

mnsures. One p m o n will say, I made al lt h ~ e iatakw this and that iswmog that'snot the way you're supposed to do t. An-other might say, lnde them mimtokea,tbat M t he way 1 d y anted to do it, I

dddt really mean to do this-it j u t h a p

penad* And maybe it juat hnppend b ecsuw

the sourceu

energy for the doingcame from outside tbat pemon'a inner eelf,outside that place whera t b g n are firstuartedout.

Crudm idea aketcbea f whine In Hnglloh br wn

wk. Puoels w m irat tntended lo bs in ash, sllghlly

anvex with tim C U N ~ of rhagrdn fwming m slitAftar four days' work on t ? m ~d i ~ a d dhem.



I'm thinking again of our wo d - b u t c h e r .S o m m m o t s e llttle article on the sub-ject. It was very personal and fu l l of self-irony smslly charming l i t t le piece. and nnI FBC~IIt , the writer m i w d lot of mes-

amges tha t said. i n effect, Well, peak foryournelf. I hope you don t mean me.*Doesit really mnttur whm hemeant? I t s the ait-uation that ia interesttng, and we all recog-nixe i t wi th i t8 c i m i n e s s . haste enxiet~

and distractions, and lhat feding i n t he endabout what might bave been.

Cobinor in brown mL S6nmhlng for pmponlms

of d m 8 with the hs lp of m h u p hat includes

one rLdepisce.

1 aon t thmk tnere 18 any goon reason lur

denying the fact that mmt of us bave ex-

perienced that sort of disappointment. Nordo I look back on these instance. as beingespecially painful m tragic or aomethingnot t o be talked about Ithink that that kindof kxperience aimply be1cmgs to a way oflmrning t o r m h i n people. Maybethe earn-ing goes qainst some people's grain whichmuses thin mqueaking and uparks in their

work.

There ere different khdn of craftsmen j u ~ t

as there are different kind. of people. Ineswncu I suppose there re the practicaloms and tbe dreamers. And the diatancebetween them i s not only ambition, ut alaoe state of balng. One person calls himsalf awood-butcher because his methods m notefficient enough a n d be iu 10- time andtime fa money.Another peram admlts Mm-

elf to be a wood-butcher becauar some-how his fmlinga have become deral1k-d and

thinga have gone wrong. not in rehfion to

time and money, but in relation to some

thing t h a t is. for hlm ven more important.Maybe this outsider or dreamer craf tsmanis what we call too poor to be miserly: HeCBR afford io dnm

I t occurs to me that the center of all this, hedtfference between one wmv and another, i n

ganerodty kind of c . As long emwe have a feeling that comes from our core

and lends n bit of warmth to what we do

end ~ O B the people tbat our doingbrings as in contact with, then thorn 6f uswho at t imes can be called wood-butcharsare doing rethmr well really. Our frwtra-

t i m s are a s i p of afacerity and the fact thatwe want to d o bstter next time. We prob-ably wII. And there i s no doubt ths t a bitof humor fn the s i tuat ion of tba present

will help ue o do better in tbe future.

Cabinet of Engltsh rown oeA p n a h of

n p a i d mnple. HejSht ojFuseSTcm Iaalhaight 198cm dapll120nn. ow finlsh 1977.

F w m n ~ 8 a :he dmwers rnof Slvsddrh aah

wi ih a d d m a texturn For thn dwm the Jointswow mode wlth 11 riw msmbars the amhicknar.

toter tlw wrt~wl r u wera p l o d thinner msuh-i n s in a ahd ing that amnlcales the horlrontoll i n e af thu mblnet.



W e & d o d w s l l r m t h s i k ' t f o r i qmiatakw.Tw. oma of Wsa mistahm-d t s l m p i y h m w t b p ~ f d m w L a c e ct Bb n r crrlbth. h t dl mis-trtksm. far awtbar kind of ~~p are

m u d by PW hv@ Pdhd b s 'dwp~ " f 4 f s & T h s r a I s a g r e a f ~ ~~ m t h a ~ d t ~ ~ ' f ~ t m t h a e aiaa diffmmmldwmn the-pplr n v o l v dM a y b e w e d d W d m ~ t h l e w h n w a~ a t m O w l ~ , ~ m t o P ~ e m .

wcea a a ~ t l &g ,wheh rwe ' v a

dono tt a W v w craamsonealwbakmd& p i e c a b a n q p &w lW& t mwant ta get d m oit, t b Q t h a

t4 omthing b4t t k m shm

A g d b ~ W ~ d D d t r n b a D m l ~ -~ d ~ l I f a e s , b R t d d O f & d ~pwtimts.We that aIl thh h he r s

sulto

away of-adbsina.t

h ah a a i d t h a t f i l l ~ ~ ~ t s n ' t d r m a .I t Is m e l t e d , or live& T m . he b e Mw m k ~ d n i ~ d ~ t h n m d t o f a t e t a lslrpcriwet t f b tbe WBy we m,wzth or

rvl lmut Ill&

erhthshapes re amul @away of workIngym sa a no td iv ~ rca ths shu~ sith theirdetuhjrom t l w ~ m f w o ~ k i i ~ t f h n di f t h a ~ s ~ b a e n a advwtw

lor th doer the. t in t cnthepi-l a personal em . tbe t&gs

we are muet k n o w ~ k .he dtfiemacef n o m w o f k ~ U I b e t h , ~ ~ m nw am mfmwa, Them ll ba a cm h

8 t W bwt a wock of thew w o rulymod a terns p e t e ~m i i a a d ~ : f i ~ ~ t r d e t h t a b l f f -n w s i n m m ~ o d ~ t u a I h l n r e u d twlm m hethoda t h aourawnhpmd-a a l h on IWgi al way. will lend w

t mr a d mom pmmml rssulEs,hever q-t. had t en t doem &Per w h tW l o L W ~ ~ ~ Y E ~ - ~ ~ U ~ ~F 8

tmldm.



air Mistakes?

are s old saying: A good csblnet-maker c m epair bis own mlnlakes. l'dlike to put n them the words some of. Be-cause certainly there re mia tah that mnand should be repaired: it is-equally cer-tain that eome miatakas ore byond repair.Or should be.

It s a matter of honest judgmmnt. Althought h e d a no denying t k t it is also a rnatturof how we be 1mbout these things. Aa a rulathere are, balleve, primarily two Idride of

mistaken: tho of the hand and those of themind. Maybe we hsw gottan a ways into apiece we thought was gdnjg t o be very h aonly to discover that we ere on the wrongpath: hinge are not going an ws hadhoped.the pieca taking shape there before us, in-stead of hoking ktter and more promising,ie losing nomething along the way Thenmaybe we have to stop and admit that hare

i s a bad mistake. It i s not a technical miu-take. a fault in the work Itself. I t 10worse

than that: We are on the w r q rbad.

B e i q the sort of psmn and craftsman 1simply cannot contiplle once I rn hat

I am faltering nnd fumbling in the work.This i n not a mstter of aome high-~lamsprinciples: 11's juat that I do not h v e thse n q y to continue. Consequently, I have to

make a dacislom is there anythins that Ican save here parts of this piece can stillredo, or shouid I j u t forget it andbasin allover again? his s a situation with whichmany of us amateurs are faced now and

then. h e waywedecide[on n amateurbe-sin) win depend upon our own persondiffss.

I n a commercial situation I imeghe thetsome craftsmen simply must argue t h -

aeIve6p d a point of doubt. They may lookat something and realize inwardly that i t Isnot as gwd as theyh hoped. but then adebate takas plmu inside somewhere ande rationdidng vmce is h a d o say. UItcan

yet be made better. ou ean Ehanga th is or

that.People won't noiice these details. .Then comes a aaductive wblaper. Maybeit's going to be even better that weyl Andone continues with tth work.

I won t p u s judgment on such situationsmddecisiom. hey c m be a matter of sur-viva1 for a craftsmen who fs preauad sd n

commercial swirl and has to live with vari-o w wmpmmbm.

Not long ago eomeone wrote from far sway

to ask me, Should make compmmlsesP Ifso, whet sort of wmpromlses? I mad and

reread the letter reahzing thcw wasn tmuch I could nay to my ftlsnd. I ended up

by simply e u w s t i a g that he try to keepthis problem asccmdary, l e t the work heveprimsry impnrtqnce, let it answer the ques-tioa. Don t allow the matter of compmmlse-

to b o r n emore

important than the work.This means that the way you work, thethings y w do and how you do them. yourahop, the way you live are in eome wrt ofaccord wlthln yourself. You develop away



of living, and if thnt conflicts with am

merchl interest. th m you must sort it out.f f h you adapt your work to umrmme

or you sol yourmmey probIoma anotherm y nd keep your work what it ahodd befor you Ar I've 8sid to m y d f many t h skfom: Try to l v m the way you am e the

peraon in your work that you are n the restofyour life.Eesy to aayt

To return to rep&@ miu&: Aside fromgatling on tht wrong road tham are thesmallmallveryday things tbat happen-Uttb

mccideirtu, such as a dent or a acratcb or afit that i8 not altopatbar what you want it

to be. For me, as for any other craftsman.there is a oartain satisfaction in befng abla

to saa cluurly and ju whuther or not oneof them Iesner miutalresl c n be repairedhm f them certainly c o n aad should be.All the same, don t believs inthisbwineseof mixing glue and eawdwt or us- stain.or the variow other rescue methods com-

monly advertised or recommended among

craftmen. who have b w n st it for f i f tyyears.

With repemng m i s t k - E B with almostanythingdue we do-there im a crude wayand a fine way of going about it By allow-ing ourselves to be cmdu in m~m~n t Bikethis-little mfnnmta of crisis-we jwtmight develop haMm that W pread t h tcrudeness inh other parts of our work.

Im m b m n incidenty e w ego at cabinat-m a h a ' school. There was a young fallow,

a g o d cabinetmaker-to-be. who waa marthe end of his education: be war doing a

very Important piece la m e w w d and wuafust a few daya from completh it. Wellthe fellow was tmdiq~he tap of the cab-inet,which was veneered when he sandedthrou& the veneer. The patch whew h b d

dona EU was bwdly noticsabk but i t wasthare when you turned the light on and

looked closely, thare it was. Naturally, the

failow was braken u p h e simply didn'tknow wbat to do.

At tbe shop we bad a reddent maftman,wbo, thou ot one of th tea~hers,wmthe w o n o whomwe turneda t A h e a likethie His nama wse Arthur. He Iwked atthat piece for a wbh, muttered. and thanwant h u t b l ~ther wark he was in thomiddls of mumthing.The y kept worry-

ing He went over toPuthur. and beytalkedArtburwent dorm into the ba8ementw h e ~we bad our supply of veneer, fromwhlChtbeboy bad takenthe cehussdintbeEab-ina Without o m much, ArtJ~ur licked-ugh the pack of vmeermd pieked out ap a r two comparing tba pattern be hodaelded with the wood ia tbe top of thembinet. He a m twk a canriDg chisel-om

of h e bieels wlth a Belf-mmn curve

and moved a portable lemp c h e r o the cab-inet w h ha boy was atending, shelea;o m cen im m his feelinge. w i n g Arthurwlth chisel poisad bove his work Arthur

made n W emugled cut at esch outer edgm

of the spot t k t had been mded t h uWe all w i n d Then he took the piece of

venesr be had aeleded, comparing i t m c emore with the cabinet tog. He placedtheveneer on hin bench, atop a small block.

clamped it and made t w o cute. And t h wwar a neat, sharp, oval pfece of rosewood

veneer. This our master craftsman curu

fully fittad to the cabinet top. He tested thefit-yea, i t was g o d . We knew that m heg l u d and pmseed thina h a d - s l p e d p l minto t b ~abipetop it would fit even mom

tisw

M h u r bad made wbat we call a lus, a

louse. And with it he saved a c&het . Therepair ha did ww so perfect thet when thepiece had been polshed and finiuhed even

we who had peen this wpalr wark donnecould hardly find the spot. Such is truew m b h i p .

Maybe far Arthur it was l in aday's work.H e had us inexperienced youngstwsaround

him and similar accidents happened now

and then. Was he proud? Perhepa: hasmlled.th in man of few w d . h o w that hadb m rthur, w d d have been very proud.although 1 would hardly have warn mypride as modestly as he did.

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