Popular Woodworking 2005-08 № 149, страница 10
Out on a Limb What is the Value of Woodworking? There is a book published by our company called "How to Make $40,000 a Year with Your Woodworking." Years ago I dubbed it our only offering in the fiction category. Sure, there are enterprising woodworkers who pocket this and more, but there are countless others who don't even get close. For years now I've returned to the same questions about the lack of prospects even talented woodworkers have. Why can't a wood craftsman earn what an independent electrician, plumber or garage mechanic earns ? Even the guy who ran a small crew that washed the windows at my house told me he earned close to six figures, and in Cincinnati, that's seasonal work. As a society we don't value well-made furniture and cabinets. Is that because we don't recognize good from bad? Why is there no status attached to a one-of-a-kind dining table, unlike those $50,000 luxury cars we see everywhere ? Why do we find "run-of-the-mill" furniture in all those half-million-dollar McMansions? Are the manufacturers of inexpensive furniture that good at making poorly crafted work look good? Do we not value objects of lasting value? In our disposable world, we'll take a big loss on one of those expensive cars after just a few years. We'll spend a thousand dollars on some electronic device and replace it every two years, leaving the old one at the curb once new technology makes it worthless. By all measures, woodworking as a hobby enjoys great popularity, on par with golf. Millions of people are captivated by the sight of Norm Abram building a project on television and they tune to "Antiques Roadshow" to learn about the value of objects that have endured. Good antique furniture, now worth a small fortune, was built by individual joiners before the start of the Industrial Revolution. Today, most furniture is fabricated in a factory. We've had a century and a half to lose sight of the value of custom-built woodwork. Most commercial shops busy themselves doing the occasional custom kitchen, bath vanity or fast food restaurant interior. Better shops working the "carriage" trade find more upscale projects. But even among these, the bidding wars to win contracts hold back wages and benefits while signaling to buyers a willingness to value their work less and less. Perhaps all woodworkers, hobbyists included, need to think more about the value of the work they produce and promote nicely crafted work as having value far beyond the purchase price. Perhaps we need to find ways to produce better work at less cost, making it affordable to those who aren't the wealthiest among us. Hobby woodworkers who "don't need the money" shouldn't sell their work below market value because it undermines commercial craftsmen who are trying to run a business, feed a family, and pay living wages and offer decent benefits to their employees. Many more questions remain than there are answers. PW jt Steve Shanesy Editor & Publisher CONTRIBUTORS NORM ABRAM Norm Abram, host of "The New Yankee Workshop," is more than a woodworker with an affinity for power tools. He's an avid ocean boater, too. While Abram says his best days of work are those that are spent in his shop, he's quick to note that when he's not working, he's happiest on the water. Abram recently purchased a Sabreline 42 motor yacht. "It's my therapy," Abram says. "And it's where you get to throw a lot of money away, too," he adds, laughing. Abram says he hopes to someday study old coastal navigation methods and use them while boating. For more details about Abram and his workshop, turn to page 34. To build his Adirondack chair, turn to page 38. BOB FLEXNER Bob Flexner's landmark book, "Understanding Wood Finishing" (Reader's Digest Association), has made sense of the complex art of finishing for countless woodworkers. Since it first hit the bookstores in 1994, Flexner has continued his finishing research and experiments (he owns almost every finishing product on the market today). Recently, the second, fully revised edition of this book was released. Also check out Popular Woodworking's Finishing & Refinish-ing special issue on newsstands now. In it we've included Flexner's 28 best "Flexner on Finishing" columns. This issue Flexner continues to share his expertise with "Fixing Finished Surfaces" (page 86). Our Privacy Promise to You We make portions of our customer list available to carefully screened companies that offer products and services we believe you may enjoy. If you do not want to receive offers and/or information, please let us know by contacting us at: List Manager, F+W Publications 4700 E. Galbraith Road, Cincinnati, OH 45236 8 Popular Woodworking August 2005 |
