This first paragraph is being written after I have completed the rest of this article. This is a typical ramble from me. A simple subject that seems to jump around in a confused manner. I've tried to keep this article short and to not wander down the many paths that I could have wandered down. If I had done so this thing would turn into a book. Maybe I should have gone down those rabbit holes. Hell, nobody reads this stuff as it is. Whatever.
In a conversation with a new coworker our hobbies, outside of work, were discussed. Long story short he said "Oh, so you're a maker!" My eye twitched, steam just started coming out of my ears but, thankfully, my brain was moving faster than my mouth. "Maker? Not really but it's similar."
Is the "maker" moniker really so bad? No, but I think of "maker" as a title for someone who hasn't earned their stripes. The kind of person who, a year ago, didn't know how to sharpen the iron of a jack plane (or even knew what a jack plane was) but has a nine month old YouTube channel with 500,000 subscribers and is looked on as an "expert" in something. I can see that they're complete noobs, which isn't a bad thing, but what about those viewers who don't know anything at all? Are the blind leading the blind?
I wouldn't, or couldn't, expect these freshly-minted "makers" to be preaching the book of Schwarz right from the start, but I do expect them to do some research before making videos and before begging for money "to keep the shop going" from the newbies. It could be a simple statement along the lines of "Here's how dovetail joints were made in the old days and here is how I'm going to do it." Letting the newbies know that there are many ways to complete a task is enough. Maybe they'll do their own research or maybe they won't. But they should have that option.
I see makers as being more "all around" people. Us old folk might scoff at "the damned CNC button pushers" but fail to see that the "maker" we're shaming built that CNC router and the computer that runs it. If us older people could learn to shut up and listen we might just have a nice conversation with a young person. A polite conversation leads to people asking questions and learning new things. I'm getting better with this skill.
Speaking of woodworking specifically, I started learning about it at a very young age (there are previous posts that cover this topic) and learned most of my skills the old fashioned way. Reading and experience. I didn't have the luxury of YouTube but when YouTube was available I was able to put a nice polish to the skills I already had. In some cases I learned that I had been doing certain things the hard way. Always learning.
Funny story. Years ago (six?) I watched a video from Jimmy DiResta. I saw that he had a lot of subscribers but I had no clue who he was. I watched more of his videos and saw a lot of familiar things which prompted me to send him a message (when you could still send PMs on YouTube). I mentioned that he and I seemed to have similar skills and asked him if he learned them from shop class at school. He replied stating that, yes, he learned a lot of what he knew from shop class and also his Dad. I learned later who Jimmy DiResta was. Imagine bumping into some guy you recognized "from that one movie", chatted about it and then found out it was Al Pacino. Back to the topic at hand.
This whole post was brought about because I was curious about the demise of Popular Woodworking Magazine. I bought my first issue in '99, right about the time Schwarz started at the magazine, and kept on reading. That magazine steered me down a different path from the "New Yankee Workshop" path I had been on. It led to books I had never heard of. I learned about proper workbenches, what a jack plane is capable of, what a sharp tool can do and how to sharpen tools properly. I chose to go down the path of "hand tool woodworker" and have enjoyed every minute of it. But that's my choice and my own personal standard. Your mileage may vary.
Sanding. Lots and lots of sanding. That's how you can differentiate between "maker" and "Woodworker". Until I had jumped head-first into hand tool woodworking I didn't know how much I hated sanding. I hadn't known better. I thought I had to have pad sanders, random-orbit sanders, sanding blocks, the reams of sandpaper to go on those power tools and a dust collector (never had that part) to suck up all the dust. I thought I had to work through the grits from coarse to fine. It was clouds of dust that clogged my sinuses, penetrated my clothing and got all over everything in the garage despite the shop vac hookups on those power sanders. Then I got some hand planes, made some card scrapers and learned that I hated sanding. Curly shavings from hand planes don't clog your sinuses and provide a much better finish. Hand planes also don't round over ever corner and edge the way sanders do. I learned what a proper hand saw was, how to sharpen them and how to use them. I also learned that a proper kit of hand tools can be had for the price of one "Ultra-Trac Festung Super Corner Joint-O-Matic" power tool. Old hand tools were made when quality mattered. They don't require expensive batteries. Hand tools are also quiet. I'm prone to scold a young person with something like "You took a 3/4" thick board down to 1/2" with a fucking belt sander? Are you stupid?!?" That's what I'm saying in my head but what comes out of my mouth is "Well, you got it done. May I show you another way of doing that job?"
Take it all with a grain of salt. Just because my way of doing things is "right" to me doesn't make it "right" for you. Just be warned that the more you learn about woodworking, the more you'll be like me. Walking through the local farmers' market, scoffing at the "primitive" or "rustic" "furniture" and how the "craftsman" couldn't be bothered to actually mortise the hinges and went the "maker" route and just slapped those hinges on the cabinet face. If you're a young person and you bump into an old codger like me, who's griping about dark stain being put onto pine, how about you hold off with the "Ok, boomer..." comments. How about asking the old coot why stain over pine is a bad idea and the mark of a noob? You might learn something. You might also teach that old bastid something. If everyone can learn from one another without the restrictions of "right" or "wrong", "new" or "old", we'll all be better off.
