by Steven D. Johnson
Racine, Wisconsin

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Sins Of Commission, Sins Of Omission

Click on any picture to see a larger version.

Spending time (not money) in a furniture store can be educational. In one place it is usually possible to see the best and worst of designs, what is popular and what is not, gauge fashion trends and more. We can be befuddled by price/value analyses and astounded at what excites other customers around us.

It was during one of my trips to a local mid-price furniture store that I thought about an article I wrote over four years ago titled A Disturbing Psychological Phenomenon (click the title and scroll down a bit if you would like to read it). The article is as pertinent today as it was then.

Readers and video viewers often send me photos of their projects, and I love receiving them. It is rewarding to see one of my designs built by someone else, even more so when they improve upon the design or build it better. But more often than not that "Disturbing Psychological Phenomenon" of pointing out one's own mistakes rears its head. The emails I get usually start something like this… "Here are some photos of my [fill in the blank] project. The big mistake I made was [fill in the blank]."

Woodworkers are an honest lot, and as I wandered the furniture store I wondered what it would be like if furniture manufacturers and peddlers were equally as upfront. A sign on a bedroom suite might say…

Figure 6 - Would you point out this glue drip to someone looking at your furniture?

"We know size impresses, so this bed is huge… way too big for most houses. Please measure carefully."

Or…

"We know people mistake thickness for quality, so the top of this table is an ungainly four inches thick."

Or…

"People think dovetails are synonymous with quality, so we used a machine that can crank out a hundred thousand dovetail joints a day. They're loose and ill-fitting, but they are dovetails!"

Or…

"Our factory in [pick a third world country] uses questionable wood and even more questionable joinery techniques manufactured under questionable working conditions, all so that we can bring this shabby piece of furniture to you at an attractive price."

Having built several benches this year, I discreetly watched as a family looked over a wood bench with under-seat storage. They seemed impressed with it, and at $899, it seemed fairly priced… at least at my discreet distance. However, when I got a little closer I noticed a flaw that any woodworker would be quick to point out. A dribble of glue from a loose joint ran down under the arm of the bench and dried there. No attempt was made to clean that drip or even cover it in the third world factory. Nor had the store. So I looked more closely. The hinged seat of the bench was crooked. The interior floor of the bench, ostensibly there for storage, was unfinished, so the overspray from the hastily applied exterior finish was quite evident. Every joint was a simple butt joint with screws and glue liberally applied, but there were obvious future stress failure points throughout. No part of the construction was designed to accommodate wood movement.

The family bought the bench and they seemed very happy. Perhaps that is the current state of the price/value relationship. There is really no profound lesson here. But perhaps while we are quick to point out our own flaws to another woodworker (who might actually know or see the difference), we might consider instead pointing out what we did well to non-woodworkers. I'm certainly not advocating dishonesty… perhaps just a little "discretion by non-disclosure." I'm just saying…

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