What is the mind-set of a craftsman?
What goes on in the head of the person who has developed and exercises great skill?
This is a substantial question, which all who aspire to acquiring skill address at some time or another. It is a question that should be examined at the very start of any quest for skill; since it is obvious that such knowledge must be a great asset.
Take a moment and think about your best definition of what skill is before reading on.
Now imagine a workshop with two people who have an identical education, who are starting on identical pieces of work, with identical materials and resources available. Everything about these two people is the same, however, one of the two completes the work ahead of the other. How come?
The answer is that the one who finished first did less work than the other, nothing else. Or to be more precise, the one who finished first was more efficient than the other.
There are innumerable ways in which this efficiency can manifest itself, and these ways are not the important factor here, not in themselves. What is important to understand is that the ways to achieve a greater degree of efficiency are already built into the oral tradition of the apprenticeship system, in a very personal way that can really only be talked around, not talked about directly.
To overcome the limitations of trying to discuss the requirements for success, the oral tradition I am talking about uses the concept of “The Approach”. This vital concept, that is all about “doing” rather than thinking, is a cornerstone of the apprenticeship system. This concept was hammered into to me relentlessly by my father in the early days of my apprenticeship. He would say, “The way you approach anything in life will determine the outcome”. Or, “The outcome of anything you aspire to in life will be determined by the way you go about it”.
Statements like these still resonate in my head, for as I go through life I discover, more and more, that this is an undeniable truth.
The Approach is a meta concept, a container for a myriad of nuances of behavior, most of which come down to common sense. For example: “Always make things easy for yourself” is one of the golden rules. A terrific idea that sounds easy, but more often than not is the exception rather than the rule, especially if there is a deadline looming, or you give in to the excitement that builds as a piece nears completion and become impatient. Impatience wipes out this golden rule. Why? because it means you are giving your attention to what is on the way rather than what is in front of you now and you hurry and end up having to do more work than you would otherwise need to. “The more hurry, the less speed” is something my father said to me countless times.
Awareness is, of course, essential to our existence. There is nothing we can do without it, except sleep, and the greater our awareness the greater our potential. So it’s no surprise that the oral apprenticeship tradition (as it came down to me) is primarily concerned with our state of mind, all the tools and techniques in the world are secondary to the individuals state of awareness.
So how does the craftsman tune his awareness?
I was taught only one technique;
“Stop talking to yourself when it’s not required. Focus your awareness, your attention, on now, on what you are doing right now and nothing else”.
Well this is not such an easy thing as it may seem at first glance, however and thankfully, the practice of hand woodworking itself contains the requirements for success. Here’s an example.
Hand woodworking is a physical occupation and thus correct breathing can be learned quite quickly with just a little instruction from the teacher. Most folks don’t breath properly, it’s just something they forgot to do at some time. Attention to breathing, or controlled breathing, is one of the most powerful meditation techniques there is and training yourself to stop talking to yourself is the purpose of meditation.
When you are focused on your breath the internal dialog stops, usually not for very long when you first start. But that’s ok, with perseverance it gets easier. When using hand tools, particularly the plane type of tools, your attention is saturated very quickly. When your attention is saturated your internal dialog stops. When working the plane you are moving in a controlled rhythmic series of strokes that maximise your muscle power with the back-up of your body weight, thus you are aware of your co-ordination, your strength and your balance. At the same time you’re paying attention to the sound of the plane and watching the shaving being produced and registering the nature of the grain of the wood being worked, both physically through increase or lessening of resistance to the tool as well as visually, and you are breathing correctly with the rhythm of your strokes. This is happening all at once, in the now , and you are doing this or something similar all day long and to some degree you are doing it every working day. In this state of awareness it is almost impossible to talk to yourself. In this highly aware state whole days can pass in what seems a matter of hours and work becomes a true joy to experience.
A change can be noticed quite soon in an apprentice when he clicks with all these elements, and this change is the only way of knowing for sure that the apprentice is following instructions to the letter.
Notice that this apparently straight forward task of planing a piece of wood is engaging all but one of your senses at the same time (taste), with some senses being double tasked.
Spending days and weeks in similar tasks (ie hand woodworking) has a truly wonderful effect on your whole being. And you have a bonus at the end; you also made a piece of fine furniture, more good feelings.
To Be Continued…….
Happy shavings.
Dougal Charteris