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Please tell about their skills and personality.
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Me, personally? I picked up FHB and FWW from a roommate/landlord,an ex-California framer, and was awe and dumbstruck by the work challenge and the evident job satisfaction and potential pride of workmanship of it all.
I had been in the sawmill/pulpmill engineering industry for six years where a good day meant getting rid of a stack of workpapers and drawings with....NOTHING left on the table at the end of the day!
After being inspired by the likes of Sam Maloof, Larry Haun,the Jersey Devil company, Brad Sills (of the FHB cover trestle house, whom I later worked with in Whistler,B.C.),and the rest of the true craftsmen and others in these discussions (Stan Foster, stairmeister et al), I am motivated to adapt, adopt and learn and improve and aspire to better things to come.
I started out doing really accurate drywall cutting and hanging( a fairly forgiving medium), and moved along to framing,finishing, cabinetry, boatbuilding, aircraft interiors, and now, really enjoyable timberframing and soon(the same house) some 120 plus stair treads. Spiral stair, timber, Craftsman style/Greene and Greene types and some conventional hardwood floor staircases.
Onwards and upwards (stair humor intended),and thanks to all those who have inspired!
*I simply have the curse of wanting to work with my hands. I tried the other thing but no satisfaction there.Other than my Mom's Dad, just the nameless craftsmen of that era and their stories. The ability to intergrate art to architecture and then make it so is what truly is my inspiration.
*Terry, Further to our earlier discussion. Although my grandfather died when I was eleven, the two things I remember about him was his patience as he worked and his ability to create something wonderful from nothing. One other person that inspired me was a retired sheet metal worker. He was my helper to install a curved drywalled wall in a commerical building. The top of the wall was fastened to a heavy corrogated roof deck. Since this was a firewall, the drywall had to follow the roof deck profile. During lunch my helper was scribling on some cardboard. After lunch he handed me a strip of the cardboard with the correct profile to fit the curved intersection perfectly. After that day, I had a greater interest in math and geometry and realised how much I still had to learn .
*My biggest motivator was the December 1987 issue of Fine Homebuilding. There is an excellent article in there about custom stairbuilders. One of them was David Mulder out of Michigan. After reading that article, I have never been the same. I just plain became obsessed with stairbuilding. I am still being motivated by the work that Armin and others post here.
*I was born wanting to do things with my hands.And I can never leave things alone - need to make them better. and beter. and better.One of the most inspiring things I have ever read was a story about a stone carver (sculpter?) working as a mason on some Greek temple a couple of thousand years ago. He was working on some detail at the top of a thirty foot column and fussing to get it just right. His helper asked him why he was being so particular since no one would ever see it up there.He replied, "The Gods will always see it, my young friend"So I have often wondered about the quality and dynamics of tradesmen in different epochs and cultures. Whether they do better when motivated by love of the Gods or by fear of their taskmasters.I know my own motivation - I love what I do. But givre me a crappy customer and he'll get a crappy job out of me causemy heart ain't in it.
*...oh yeah, and Tage Frid. He looked like my grandfather and when looking through his books I had bought for dad and others, I always thought....hmmmm, I'd like to be able to do that....
*My Dad and brother. I've passed them in skill.....but not knowledge......and only because they both were part-timers....and I practice full-time at it......at least 40 hrs a week. Personality......alot like mine, for some reason.....Jeff
*I come from a family of tradesmen. dad was a steel worker, my brother is a automechanic, I was a marine machinery mechanic if it moved on naval ships I worked on it. I got old and beat up, the joints really take a beating as well as the lungs from breathing all the dust ect. I quit and got into inspecting for government contracts (acting as the customer for the fed govt). I bought my own house and started taking and interest in repairing it. I missed working with my hands. i also started taking construction classes at the local college and have a wood shop in my garage. I have a lot of friends who are contractors and I help them and they help me as well as some pt work . I recently sold my townhome which I fixed up, rebuilt kitchen/bath i built cabs/drawers myself and sold that puppy for 16K over the comps. So i think I must do pretty good work. Now im fixing up my new home a 1950s ranch Im replacing the interior doors now and I figure in about 6-7years Ill sell it and move out of calif. retire and buy another house to fix up some where else. I love this stuff.
*Ron,When you leave Calif. you should find Florida inspiring. There's lots of shorts there!
*i Now im fixing up my new home a 1950s ranch Im replacing the interior doors now and I figure in about 6-7years Ill sell it and move out of calif.If he can find a buyer who is really into doors being smaller than their frames.; )
*My Grandpa and my Great Grandpa (indirectly). Even though my Great Grandpa passed away before I was born I grew up hearing how he taught construction at the local community college and was a founding member of a union construction local. Since going on my own, the family elders always tell how I'm just like him. Interesting side note, recently my Uncle and I were rebuilding my Grandma's porch, while I was laying out the stringers with a framing square we got into a discussion about all the unique attributes of a square. He told me my Great Grandpa figured pay roll with a carpenters square, a true predecessor of the electric calculator.Now my Grandpa huge inspiration, I can still show you the scars I received as a tiny lad playing with the tools on his workbench. I would spend several weeks with him and my Grandma during the summers and he always let me help with his projects. Many times I watched him make mistakes, and try to figure out problems, never getting upset when things didn't work as they should. If it weren't for him I would probably be doing something else for a living.Thanks Grandpa!Scott
*Well, not to be contrary, but my initial inspiration really came from negative examples. I was the inspector for the local Housing Authority. While inspecting Section 8's I frequently encountered situations where good money was paid for work that was so shabby I knew that even I could do it better. When the working conditions at the Housing Authority became untenable, I declared myself a handy man.Since then, lots of inspiration from FHB and this board. Thanks to all of you!Rich Beckman
*piffin, im thinking about the northwest back up in washington state the kitsap penninusla. hey they got wet shorts up there :)
*Stan Mateki, Bob Scraper, Arnold Friske, Wayne McNutt, Perman Coffer, James Long, Bill Zackery, Helmut Hentchel, some who's faces I can see, but who's names I can't remember.Some of these men are still with us and some are not. They were the old guard and I am blessed to have worked along side of them.What did they teach me? They taught me how to be a craftsman. They taught me how to deal with life. They taught me more than I really know.I try to pass it on everyday with what I do and the way I react. Hopefully, someone else is watching like I was. I guess to the greenhorns, I am their old guard. I hope I live can up to that. Ed.
*My dear old Dad. He was a builder for over 40 years before he retired and then passed away. He started by working as a carpenter for someone else and realized that once he learned the basics, he could do it on his own. He built his first houses start to finish by himself so that he knew every aspect of the trade. And everyone that ever worked for him said he was the worst to work for because he was so demanding.....and the best. I remember being a kid "working" 7 days a week along side him. I hated most of it. It wasn't until I was older that I understood that he was teaching us. Working usually meant riding around in the truck checking jobs.After high school he wanted me to go to work full time, but I wanted to go to college. Halfway through my senior year at college he called me and asked me what I was going to do after graduation. I informed him that he'd better buy me a truck so I could go to work for him. Had an old truck waiting for me after graduation.I went to work the monday after graduation and never looked back. Whenever I had a question I'd "ask the expert". I only wished now that I'd asked more questions.Still trying to fill some pretty big shoes,John
*I've really enjoyed these post. Thanks Thought it was time I share mine. I, like some others here, was born to a construction family and always felt best with tools in my hand. I have similar experiences being inspired daily by people I have and do work with and talk to, but for me one man stands above the rest. Not because I knew him, but because of what he did in his lifetime. His name was Korczak Ziolkowski. He's the man who was commissioned by the Native American Indians to carve Crazy Horse Monument. Check out this site. http://www.crazyhorse.org/ Before I visited this monument in 1980 I didn't realize that great men still lived in our times. I'd grown up hearing about the "masters" but here was proof they still existed. I know this is an odd concept for some to grasp, that I could have been so naive, but it truly changed my life and how I viewed my work. He valued what he could accomplish in his short time here, but put greater value on what he could leave behind. Take a minute to read about him and the history of his mountain and see if you feel the same.Thanks for your timeTerry
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Please tell about their skills and personality.