Popular Woodworking 2009-12 № 180, страница 6

Out on a Limb

BY CHRISTOPHER SCHWARZ,

EDITOR

TIT POPULAR 1 •

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The Felling Of 3 Giant Oaks

ith

ith 2009 at a close, I'm trying to take stock of all my gains and losses for the year - not the financial ones, but the more important personal ones.

This year we lost three men who changed the way I work wood: Sam Maloof, James Krenov and Jack Hill.

Of the three, I'd only met Sam Maloof, who died on May 21. In 2002, Maloof opened his home and shop to us, even though there was nothing that we could do to possibly make him more famous.

He introduced us to his shop workers and we examined one of Maloof's earliest pieces - a cabinet - that a customer had brought in for minor repairs. Maloof pointed out all the little mistakes he had made in the piece, both structurally and stylistically. (In other words, he acted just like any other woodworker.)

After a few hours, I became worried that we were taking up his whole day, so we kept trying to excuse ourselves.

"Nonsense," he said. "Let's go to lunch."

So we all piled into our cars and headed to a Mexican hole-in-the-wall.

"Get the chicken tacos," he advised. I obeyed. Over lunch we peppered him with questions about the craft, his work, his legacy and fellow woodworkers. He answered every question with a direct answer (a rarity in journalism) - especially the last question: "Can we pick up the check?"

"No," he replied. And sadly, I never got to return the favor.

In August, British chairmaker and

10 ■ Popular Woodworking December 2009

author Jack Hill died. Though American readers might not be familiar with Hill, his book "Jack Hill's Country Chair Making" (David & Charles) was an enormous influence on me when I began making chairs. I've always been fascinated by the vernacular chairs of the British Isles, and Hill was one of the teachers who showed me that chairmaking is different than cabinet making. The rules of accuracy, for example, are completely different. And I struggled with that until Hill's book made it obvious.

And finally, on Sept. 9 we lost James Krenov, one of the most influential woodworking writers ofthis generation. His five books, including "A Cabinetmaker's Notebook," ch ange d the way that woo dworkers think about the craft.

Few woodworking writers have ever managed to capture, bottle and distribute that impossibly compelling but difficult-to-explain relationship that all artisans have with their raw material. That was his gift to us all. So I'd like to end this entry with my favorite quote from Krenov:

"The understanding eye sees the maker's fingerprints. They are evident in every detail ... Leave Fingerprints."

Look carefully. Though we lost these three giants this year, we gained their fingerprints on our work, our tools and our lives. PW

PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER SCHWARZ

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