I can't say you're wrong but what do you base that statement on? Granted you
get some ranting and raving about which technique may be good/better/best
but saying everyone here has an accidental success is akin to calling
everyone here a lucky idiot.

Take a look at some of the web sites a lot of the contributors (past and
present) have that show their work and I think you'll find that
individualism prevails. I have nothing against the masters such as Mr.
Kresnov but I also don't think they have the all-knowing wisdom to speak for
everyone that works with wood - or any material. His words during the
interview were aimed at students he had over the years - not a general
statement about everyone.

I also think more people "take chances" than you may think - hence the
newsgroup format of mentors, and contributors of varying levels of expertise
and the student seeking advice and maybe even a thought provoking idea or
two. If you read about some of the masters and how they learned, it was by
imitating what others had done prior to them and then eventually gaining
enough experience to add their own style to the work. But first, they had
to learn what worked and more importantly - why, so the envelope could be
pushed - so to speak.

While you may think that the feedback from others is bad when you try to
make them aware of certain principals, I think of it as questioning the
value of the advice. If someone makes a statement about how to do
something - which may seem dubious to others - it's going to be questioned,
as it should be. If it can't be explained - then it may have little value.
Better it be questioned than followed blindly.

Accidental success certainly is not the way I would express a person's way
of working and not expect to hear about it.....

Bob S.

"George" George@least wrote in message
...

"charlie b" wrote in message
...
. "Some instructors demand
that you work the way they work, and so there
becomes just many little followers of this person
or that person."

OTOH, try and make people aware of the principles upon which their
particular method is based, especially in groups like this, and you'd
think you'd violated their mothers.

Trial and accidental success is effective, though it's still accidental.
Seems once some know how to do something they're less willing to risk
doing it another way. If they understood that both ways were based on
the same operating principle, they might take the chance.

Lost wax is about vents and centrifuges, isn't it? Did some back in HS.