“Nobody Does This Anymore”

We have all heard it before. We may have said it before. A general lament on the sad state of affairs brought about by something broken or wrong. Then as we try to find someone to fix it, just after we are told it is disposable, we will utter something that relates to the dearth of craftspeople that can fix things. Fix them with their hands and tools, not Amazon.

On the rare occasion you do find a capable person, joy and wonder ensue.

Or that is how I have always heard it said. Being the type that can and does fix almost anything (no electronics, please), I enjoy the gratitude and small achievement whenever I get the chance. Job satisfaction is worthwhile no matter if it is a faucet washer or a Space Shuttle.

Why is it that we have all these things we are supposed to buy and buy continually as new models arrive daily, weekly, monthly or annually? All those resources that go into a cell phone are rendered worthless once the new model comes out, and that one in your pocket is 'sunsetted'. One moment it is important and crucial. Minutes later, it is a candidate for the trash/recycling.

Perhaps it is a few generations of the thought that working with one's hands is somehow dirty or degrading that has relegated trade craft to the last resort arena. Skilled labor is just not what Mom and Pop had in mind. Somehow, banking and insurance have become more important than building good housing and knowing how to make a chimney draw. “Important” would equal money as that seems to be what we are talking about. The ability of a skilled tradesman to receive equal pay as the middle managers at a bank.

I have long reasoned that the middle of the 20th Century, the tradesman is too involved in his or her work to look up and realize that other whiter collar jobs surpassed their career in pay rate, as well as prestige. John Prine sings a song about a disappointed father – his kids turned out to be insurance salesmen. I have to agree.

As one that produces things of functional good design, I just can't see how a contract spit out by a high speed Xerox is more useful than good architectural design and execution. Yes, the contractor will bind someone, and can even be used to make their life miserable. It does nothing to elevate the soul. Can a mid range clerk influence others for generations or even centuries with his or her work? Great music has not been created as a response to a contract or business proposal. So why the compensation differences?

Great music was just one part of the response of building the Great Cathedrals. The Church survived all those centuries in large part because the peasants were so awed by the Cathedral that is was easy to believe god lived there. Those cathedrals floors were not covered with animal droppings as seen everywhere else. Incense filled the air, truly exotic to those more accustomed the earthy scents. Light of many colors filtered in thru impossibly large windows to light the shadowy spaces. The Choir gave voice to the lifted spirit as an ethereal experience. All senses were addressed when the Common Man was to be brought to god.

And the show could not go on were it not for the skilled trades that created the buildings and even created the way they would be built. Even the tradesmen themselves were persuaded by the greatness they were a part of. The buildings required generations of tradespeople – an ongoing supply of masons, carpenters, quarrymen, sawyers, and more.

Apprenticeship programs were developed to pass the skills on to the next generation. To insure the skills would be protected form random disbursement, trade unions were formed to formalize the trades and to restrict access to the knowledge they had developed.

This arrangement served the trades swell as they flourished in the early part of the 20th Century. Tradesmen helped make the emerging middle class. They lived in modest but well crafted dwellings that reflected their ability to make things.

What changed? Was it Bruno Hauptman and his clumsy ladder that started the turn away from tradespeople? Was it the building boom of the 50's that sought to replace the craftsmen with products (New! Improved!!) that did not require the prior level of craft?

The wood industry has always been parochial and restrained itself from politics and national policy, even while it enjoyed its status as a primary building material at any time in our 200 year long history. Diffuse and diverse, the industry never got itself together as one union, one voice. Divergent voices soon made unions political weapons. No longer could they teach and make wonderful things. Their work would become more mundane and repetitive. Skilled application was eliminated a a variable that might not be under control, and certainly had a cost that could be measured and eliminated.

So the tradesmen and their industries watched as the skilled part was pulled out from their work life. No one tried to prevent the loss of the skills until it was too late. Itv was a slow process, one that required care to not extract too much knowledge. I will assume public relations and the one sided communications also left tradesmen with the idea there was nothing they could do. Nothing anyone could do. All praise to the white collar.

We are left with a few people like myself that have been stewards of the craft their entire life. There are maybe 150,000 woodworkers in the US, with perhaps a third of them with skill levels that would qualify as a skilled craftsmen. That is along way from the days when shop class (often both wood and metal) was an introduction to the respected careers any high school male could move into upon graduation.

The future? I do not see the wood industry alter their position of just keeping on, with no change afoot. Stone masons also have a decentralized industry that appears unsustainable. Schools are opening with classes in the skilled trades, as career choices, not hobbies. I can only hope I have done my part, taught all I can, kept a straight eye on my work and my colleagues.

The rewards are real. I have spent a lifetime working the finest woods in the world. I have made many, many wonderful things of great utility and durability. I have advanced some process and technique when and where I saw fit. I have worked with fine people and enjoyed seeing their passion ignite as I showed photos or a shop tour. I have no regrets worth regretting.