I sand, Rosie chews sticks.
One of the woodworking tasks considered odious by some is sanding. And yet, if you go carefully through the progression of grits, coarse to fine, without skipping too widely between, it goes more quickly and yields better results. Also, if you've done it for long enough to gauge customer response, you see how important it is. When you watch peoples hands carefully caress the things you've made, you begin to take satisfaction in knowing how others will respond to your work. That anticipatory satisfaction can lead you to invest caring in your work, that is then witnessed in the hands of others whether you are present or not, even into subsequent generations. Knowing that touch is not the only sense through which your work will be viewed, you work also toward the satisfaction of a more sophisticated audience—not those who are rich and easily deceived, but those who do it themselves and will not be deceived by inattentive work.
April was proclaimed National Woodworking Month. I don't know by whom, but it has been celebrated by some each year since 1990. For me, every month is woodworking month. I teach it, I do it, and I write about it. It's a good life. And even dogs can do it.
I'm currently working on some toddler sized walnut rocking chairs, and there are some jobs that are best done by hand. The back edges of the back legs where they bend back, can be done hack job with machine sanders but if you want the lines to be straight, a series of sanding blocks works best to smooth lines left by the band saw. That the lines not be straight may not bother some, but knowing more sophisticated eyes might follow the lines I've created, inspires me to do better work.
Finding a balance between machine work and hand work, gives a deeper level of satisfaction on both ends.
Booker T. Washington, explaining to parents and supporters of the Tuskegee Institute, why it placed a focus on agriculture and industrial arts in addition to academic studies, noted that there's a difference between "being worked" as they were as slaves, and "working to learn" as they did at his school.
Being worked stiffles the human spirit. Working to learn opens pathways toward advancement both for the individual and the race. (and for humankind overall.) As a friend of mine explained to me about 50 years ago, you can look at something as "I have to do this." or "I get to do this!" and attitude makes all the difference in the world. Sanding comes to mind.
In his essay, Industrial Education for the Negro, 1903, Washington quoted industrialist C.P. Huntington as follows:
"Let me say to you that all honest work is honorable work. If the labor is manual, and seems common, you will have all the more chance to be thinking of other things, or of work that is higher and brings better pay, and to work out in your minds better and higher duties and responsibilities for yourselves, and for thinking of ways by which you can help others as well as yourselves, and bring them up to your own higher level.”
Sanding is regarded by some as a mindless activity. Let me assure you it needs not be. It is a thing from which the mind can wander toward the ideals mentioned. It is a thing in which both the hands and eyes can assess steady progress. Remember to move carefully from coarse to fine. Pause on occasion to look closely at what you've done. Go with the grain, not across, and use your fingers to feel progress.
It is best to have a dog at your feet. While I sand, Rosie chews sticks, a thing she only does when I'm sitting with her on the porch.
The wood is walnut as is the dust (of course). The sanding block is 180 grit self-adhesive sand paper on a block of scrap plywood. If you are bored or depressed, do something.
Make, fix and create...
You can find my work at dougstowe.com or my blog at wisdomofhands.blogspot.com
