The future of woodworking is in the past.
I'm just telling you what I know. I was the architectural designer
for a union store fixture manufacturer in 1967. I saw the first bunk
of particle board arrive. The men in the shop were outraged, and a
rebellion nearly resulted in closing the shop.
Plastic laminate only came in a few colors. The year before they were
still sticking it down with wood glue and clamping it until it had
dried. There were only a half-dozen bits for the router, made of
brittle carbon steel; and they didn't put roller bearings on the bits
until five years later. I was living on the threshold of technology.
I've seen a lot of change. And as a manufacturer, I have been
responsible for advocating the use of new methods and new materials,
and not just to give the customers what they wanted. Even today, I
advocate for new technology...but when the price of value-added
products exceeds the cost of the real thing, I can see the writing on
the wall.
Value-added products are a bill of goods, and industry has become
persuaded to accept materials and hardware that are untrue, even
undesirable. Why would I want to pay $35 for a pair of drawer slides,
when a two-dollar webframe will do? Why would I buy a sheet of plywood
with a veneer so thin it cannot hide the substrate? And, why should I
ruin my health working in a cloud of poly-resins when I can work real
wood?
Look at it from the bottom line. Two good men can produce $500,000
worth of product in a single year. With the cost of technology and the
price of value-added materials, can they expect to clear twenty
percent? But the same two men working with standard machines and a
pile of sticks can produce $500,000 worth of boxes and clear up to
fifty percent. I'm just telling you what I know.
You never have to edge-band a piece of oak. Modern machines require
modern materials, but the first principles of working wood-to cut, to
shape, to fasten-are the same as they have always been...
daclark