Earlywood: Master of Nothing

Publisher’s note: Welcome to Earlywood (something you’ve likely mastered for a while now), a free excerpt published every Saturday from one of the thousands of pieces I’ve written since 1996. Sometimes, it’s from a magazine article. Or a book. Or (in this case) a blog post from 2017. Each entry has been updated or annotated with some modern context or point of view. We hope you enjoy it.

One of the common criticisms I hear of North American woodworkers is that we try to do so many things – casework, carving, veneering, chairmaking, turning – that we never become good at any one of those things.

There’s truth to the criticism. When I work side-by-side with traditionally trained European woodworkers, they beat the pants off me (speed-wise). Traditionally trained German, British and Swiss joiners can cut dovetails and assemble casework much faster th…