Re: Mentoring
Dave Mount
>Hi Bill--
I'd put this under the broad category of "mentoring," recognizing that mentoring doesn't always take the form of someone physically standing there looking over your shoulder. I think it's critical.
About 20 years ago I was at a stage where I had built a few projects (with power tools), but had never made a dovetail joint, and had set my sights on doing that. I had a friend that made furniture professionally, so I decided to milk him for some opinions on what router-based dovetail jig I should buy. He just shrugged and said he didn't have one, he just cut them by hand -- "it's faster anyhow, unless you've got a whole kitchen full of drawers to do," he said. This really set me on my heels -- he could just as well have suggested that I just walk to the moon, it was so far out of my self-perceived realm. In my mind or the time, it was only woodworking savants that cut dovetails by hand. I stewed about that for quite a while, then one night I was between projects and did what most of us here probably did, just took a couple pieces of scrap birch, laid out some dovetails, grabbed a saw, and cut them. Not exactly pretty, but surprisingly serviceable and not actually that difficult (a significant rush). Things got rapidly better with practice, but the point is, the idea that I wasn't (and probably wouldn't ever be) skilled enough to hand cut dovetails was utter nonsense and a completely self imposed limitation.
Those were the days before the Internet explosion, which has been a huge boon in terms of finding out what other folks are doing. I've since moved to northern Minnesota, and I don't know anyone up here that's much into topics like those discussed on this board. As I became interested in hand tool techniques, this and other internet resources were a primary source of the guidance (and inspiration) I needed to get my feet wet (and more). Although I also learned some important things from some books, even the selection of those books as high quality resources came primarily from recommendations from discussion boards.
Another thing that the boards provide is access to some of the more arcane details, things that not enough people do or are interested in to warrant a publisher releasing a book. The idea that I could make a plane, or a marking knife, or a handsaw was not even something I had ever considered until I became aware of what others were doing. And one of the really cool things about the boards is that you not only have access to people who really know what they're talking about, but you also read about the experiences of people who are just learning about something. Relative to your (Bill's) original thesis, I think these posts are incredibly enabling, because it's direct evidence that someone like you can do those things. You can not only get friendly expert advice, but also input from someone that perhaps just learned what you are learning -- and those people sometimes have a different perspective than experts that may have partially forgotten what it was like when they didn't have all the experience they now have. In fact, I'm always concerned that posts of the exquisite work done by some here will discourage others from posting pics and stories from wherever they are on the learning curve. The thing you have to teach may not be the ultimate "how-to" as much as just convincing someone that they should give something a try.
And, of course, the boards give you a chance to show what you're doing to someone less likely to think you're nuts.
I could go on, but the bottom line is that being something of an island up here, the internet is like a lifeline to the larger world of woodworking; I can hardly imagine how much more limited my experience and skills would be if I didn't have it as a source of "mentoring."
Best,
Dave
