All right, I am going to be brave and I am going to talk about failure. We all fail sometimes, failure is a part of learning. Failure is also an essential part of creativity for if one is working on the creative edge one should be constantly risking failure. Yet there is another failure which we less readily admit to. That is technical failure, something that has gone wrong, a monumental cock— up. If these articles are to be useful then I think it is important that experienced practitioners, such as myself, should share a monumental cock— up as readily as the creative triumphs. Perhaps I am being unnecessarily cynical but it seems that too much of a designer makers time is spent on public relations and maintaining the image and there is less willingness to share the things learned from technical and creative nightmares.

So in this merry mood of self flagellation I shall tell you the story of one monumental cock—up that taught me two very important lessons. The first important lesson was about sub—contract work. I have learned never to do this again, and the second concerns the use of a lacquer as a finish for fine furniture which I hope never to use again.

The story is that of a table that went wrong. Way back at the start of this year I planned into the workshop schedule an exhibition piece. This was to be a dining table in Burr American Walnut. I decided to make a development of a circular pedestal table that we made for a client last year. The table was to compliment a new chair that was being prototyped in the workshop at the same time. It would serve us as an exhibition piece in our own gallery and in exhibitions for the coming year or two. I brought some very beautiful Burr American Walnut veneer, four enormous leaves for the top and another four for the underside, which was extravagance beyond words, for this was to be an exhibition piece. We knew how to make this table. Graeme Scott had sorted out all the jigs much earlier in the year. In fact we have made three other variations on the theme before we came to making this piece so there is really no excuse for getting it wrong, but we did. The problem was it wasn't made in my workshop, it was made somewhere else. What happened was that a big boardroom job that was quietly occupying us and running nicely to schedule suddenly went critical when our friendly architect informed us that the Secretary of State was opening the building four weeks earlier than scheduled and it would be very nice to have the furniture there. The answer to such situations is to always say "Yes, sir, of course we can do it" and then put the telephone down, swear loudly and sit down and work how you are going to do it. The how in this case necessitated sub—contracting the exhibition table. The idea of sub—contracting an exhibition piece now fills me with abject horror. At the time it didn't seem such a problem. I intended to sub—contract it to one of my former students, a very, very skilful young man who had been with us on a fee paying course for one year and then gone off and worked in a local workshop for another eighteen months. The table itself wasn't that complicated and well within the technical capacities of the person concerned. But it just didn't go right. I don't think it helped working in a freezing cold workshop which is what was happening. In retrospect it seems obvious to say that the laying of burr veneers onto any substrate is temperature sensitive but that is being wise after the event. The poor guy who made it did everything right except get those burr veneers properly adhered to the ground. When you have got blisters that only show after the finish is applied it really is a nightmare. We didn't just have one or two but several, all over the place. They used to pop up in the morning when it was a bit cooler and damper and then flatten out in the afternoon when the temperature got up. He cut into some, re—laid them and refinished only for others to appear after that. The only solution I had was to pay the guy, bring the piece into my own workshop and re—do the top completely. This was an expensive learning experience but one I gladly share with you.

 Craft of Cabinetmaking Article 8

by David Savage

First published in Woodworker magazine

on to part two, go now