A blast from the past

a question

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

Thanks for posting. An enjoyable read. I have visited the school 3 times and enjoyed and learned each time.

What does this text in the beginning of the interview mean ?

"our tools and materials--and our work itself--will respond to our sensitivities."

I have pondered the word sensitivities and I must be lacking what ever they are because I cannot fathom the meaning.

Your loss turned out to be our gain......

I count my blessings too

Dick Coers

Talked my editor at Woodworker's Journal into letting me arrive in California a week+ early for the AWFS Show in Anaheim. I flew into San Francisco and drove up north for a Saturday design lecture with Krenov. A trip of a lifetime driving through the coastal redwoods to then pop out in Mendocino and then up the coast to Fort Bragg. It made a deep impression on this farm boy from Central IL. Listening to Krenov was grand, but then he popped up on the seat of a chair to point out details on one of his cabinets. He was not a young man in 1998. That sure was a grand time to be in the woodworking magazine business!

Sensitivities

Ellis Walentine

Bill, my take on this is that Jim is referring to the entirety of our apprehension of what we're doing. Visual, tactual, intellectual -- every sensitivity that comes to bear on our craftsmanship. Krenov's teaching style was oblique like this. He wanted you to figure out what it meant to you and then to put it into practice in your designs and workmanship.

Ellis

Re: A blast from the past

John K Jordan

I can't open the file.

Mysteries

Ellis Walentine

Here's the same document in PDF format.

Re: Sensitivities

Clementine

I think I grasp what Krenov means on sensitivities. He mentions one's need for "curiosity and an open mind." That's a pretty creative combination, especially when one adds patience to keep the goal in mind.

I once worked for a house mover where we used winch trucks to raise and lower houses and large buildings. Often the height we needed was a quarter inch or so - difficult to manage with such large equipment. But the boss would say time and again, "You need an educated foot." I think Mr. Krenov would agree that this is another way to say that sensitivities matter to what one is trying to achieve.

Thank you!

Tony - Memphis

Wow, how neat. So sorry about your car, but thanks very much for sharing this.

Re: Mysteries

John K Jordan

Ah, I can open that - thanks!

Hope your car wasn't significantly damaged. Someone once broke the driver's window of my old truck and pried out the radio. One small consolation was the amount of blood.

On the plus side I learned how to replace window glass inexpensively. That came in handy years later when an alpaca jumped through the rear window glass of my wife's car. Ha!

No alpacas, thank heavens

Ellis Walentine

We made the mistake of not locking the car on a night when this marauder dropped by. All he took was a twenty-dollar bill and some loose change. Didn't want the beach chairs or dog biscuits. Made a mess though. Finding this article was almost worth the hassle.

Glad the PDF worked.

Cheers,

Ellis

Re: No alpacas, thank heavens

GolfSteve in Calgary

Sorry to hear about the break in. I'm amazed the detectives investigated and took fingerprints. Around here the police don't even pretend to investigate "minor" crimes like car thefts.

A Ram in my case

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

We were hauling a large but gentle Suffolk ram in the van. Didn't bother tying him as he rode to visit new girlfriends without prior incident. When we arrived at destination the back door of the van was suddenly opened. He spooked and drove his head into the windshield, smashing it.

The autoglass shop noted all the hair embedded into the shattered glass and asked how seriously the passenger was injured. Not at all, we replied. (rams have heads built for crashing)

I guess it's because ...

Michael Farinella

it's classified as petty theft. We've lived a lot of different places, and it's as you described everywhere.

investigating petty theft

John K Jordan

When the guy broke into my old truck (and left blood everywhere), the local police investigated, looked for clues, and tried to get fingerprints. (They didn't offer to run a DNA check on the blood!)

Maybe it depends on the policy of the department and the disposition of the individual officer and how busy he is that day, and maybe even the area you live in. Perhaps they are more willing to check in areas where break-ins are rare.

I've been told the theft control policy out here in the country is to dig a new hole in the woods. I wonder what that means...

JKJ

Re: investigating petty theft

AZ in Colorado Springs

Perhaps in Ellis's case there is some trend occurring, which Ellis may or may not be aware of, motivating the police to investigate more fully.

Re: A blast from the past

Svante Nilsson

Thanks for sharing.

Some thirty years ago when I started woodworking I found Krenovs book at the local library here in Gothenburg, Sweden. As many others I was overwhelmed by both his furnitures and approach to woodworking. To my surprise I saw that he lived outside Stockholm. I looked up his address in the telephone book and wrote a long letter. Years later I found out that he has moved to California....

Now, thirty years later, I still try to work with Krenovs intensions....