OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

174466 DAClark <manworkingwood@m...> 2007‑11‑20 Biography
Good morning, gentlemen...
I am greatly encouraged by the content of your Old Tools network.  I
would like to add my name to your roster, and herewith submit the
following biography for your perusal.  I have more than forty years
vested at working wood...so, I realize I know nothing...apprenticeship
is a lifelong pursuit for knowledge and understanding.
I began as an architectural designer for a third-generation store
fixture manufacturer, employing union cabinetmakers in a fully modern
facility of its' day.  The router was an experimental tool, and I was
there the day they dropped the first bunk of particle board.  The
carpenters hated the intrusion of these modern technologies, but being
young, I adapted easily and readily.  Fixtures needed to be glitzy,
shiny and modern.  Our clients wanted the newest technologies.  Plastic
laminates only came in a dozen colors or patterns, and had to be clamped
to the substrate with conventional glue...it was the beginning of an era.
Being a young pup, the union men would not suffer any transgression in
the proper design and structure of the fixtures they would build.  I had
to learn to build correctly on paper first.  We fixtured banks and
jewelry stores, the movie theaters, the airport, the courthouse, grocery
stores...and then became involved in a new concept...the shopping
mall.   But after time, and the stubbornness of the men, I tired of
listening to their criticisms and picked up the hammer for myself.  Once
I had bridged the gap between men who used tools and those who do not, I
burned the bridge without regret.
There are a lot of ways to work wood.  I have built 12,000 square foot
houses and commercial buildings to 120,000 square feet.  My kitchens and
stairways have been on the covers of national magazines.  I have been
involved in historical preservations.  I hand-carved an eighteen foot
wide reredos, the high alter wall for a chapel.  I have employed
hundreds of carpenters and cabinetmakers in shop and field, and have
found no two men have the same knowledge and understanding of working
wood.  The material remains infinite as each man must find his own way...
Yet, regardless of technology, the first principles of working wood...to
cut, to shape, to fasten...are the same as they have always been.  And,
today, the finest detail in wood, still, may only be accomplished by
hand with a single edge of steel.  I am here to discuss the philosophy
of working wood, because I believe the gap that exists today is not
between man and tool, but between man and his material.  And, I believe
the future of working wood is in the past.
My objective is to establish apprenticeship in an academic
environment...I am going to talk about that, and I hope that you will
allow me to pick your collective brains on that subject.  Together, we
can discover the principles of living trade...by the tools that men have
used...and the projects they have made.
------------------------------------------------------------------------


Recent Bios FAQ