Woodworker's Journal 2001-25-1, страница 44

Marking Up for Success: Prepare the Stock

By Ian Kirby

Put the Arts and Crafts legacy to work in your shop.

hen writers, lecturers and academies talk about the legacy of the Arts and Crafts movement, they refer to the simplicity of the design, the lightness of the materials and the tightness of the construction. These three aspects were the canons at the heart of the movement. Unlike other furniture periods (Queen Anne, William and Mary, Chippendale, et. al), which were about style, the Arts and Crafts movement was about a philosophy.

But for the guy in the shop, there is a legacy which, unless you are a woodworker, you could hardly comprehend. This is a logical method of working wood. It evolved and was adopted so woodworkers could all be on the same page: so there was a common vocabulary, a common understanding, and common methods of work. It was

Marking up lumber before you start, author Ian Kirby maintains, is critical to your success. Here he's using a try square, winding strips and a straightedge, key tools in the process.

adopted to take advantage of the best of communal thinking. It evolved around 100 years ago, and it goes beyond simple design and right materials.

Among woodworkers, we know all the ways, good bad and indifferent, to get any woodworking task done. In order to achieve a logical approach to each specific task or skill, we look at all the different ways it could be done. What we do then is decide on the method which gives the best quality or the best result in the shortest time. When we've found it. we adopt that method as our common practice. When someone devises a method which gives the same quality result in less lime, or a belter quality result in the same lime, then we will all adopt that method. In a nutshell, what you arrive al is the best of an awesome array of woodworking thinking which is flexible enough for anyone to improve upon at any time. These methods belong to the woodworking community at large and not to any one person in particular. The adoption of this thoughtful process around 1900 gave the makers of Arts and Crafts furniture their tool skills, their working systems and their methods of work.