[Woodcarver] mechanical copies of carvings / CHEATING ??

[Phill Pittman]

> I had no idea they could do that, reproduce copies by machine.  I really 
> think that is CHEATING!
>
> Thank you for the information.
> Cynda


CHEATING?

For those that may wonder, I just fielded a question offline from Cynda 
about cnc and what it is. I have had these offline emails from more than a 
dozen list members and never really had this particular response before. I 
have rarely had a couple of negative emails off-line. So if anyone else has 
ill feelings about how I make my living (and help many others in the 
process), here is a short (and my last), very personal rant.

IF this group is solely for hobbyists and non-commercial woodcarvers, I 
offer my express apologies for transgressing these limits with my presence. 
I carve and design carvings for a living as I have for 30 years. It is not a 
hobby, a contest, ego trip or anything other than a vocation for which I 
have been genuinely thankful all my life.

The oldest carving machine I have personally seen run  is a pantogram 
produced in 1892.It was still in service (since new) in a shop in London I 
that was consulting with that had been doing Grinling Gibbons reproductions 
for the Victoria and Albert Museum. If a carved product is produced with a 
machine, it is a product, not a carving,(IMHO) although they are marketed 
continually as the latter. But, not by me.

I cannot think of a single Famous Master Carver or even furniture builder 
(and I have read the biographies of every one of interest I have ever heard 
of)  that did all of his own rough-in once he attained the income and 
following that allowed him to hire apprentices to do the rough in and grunt 
work for him. It wasn't that many of them really were that devoted to 
teaching, they just wanted to increase production to increase throughput, 
hence income.

I am not sure what would be CHEATING about making a product the best way you 
can, selling it as nothing other than that. This life is not some big game 
of monopoly. The score kept in life is nothing less than sheer survival, and 
with luck, some retained sanity and at least a modicum of integrity. If 
carving and going to competitions is the drive for your carving, certainly 
there should be some code of honor that would keep it truly carving and fair 
competition.
SOOO...?  Do we eliminate power carving and use only hand tools? Do we favor 
gouges over knives? At what point between the live tree and the finished 
product do we say "hand tools only from this point".  After the chainsaw 
that cuts the tree to save the loggers back from the crosscut saw? The big 
saw at the mill? The table saw in the shop? The thickness planer that keeps 
our jackplanes on the shelf? the band saw that takes a lot of the tedium out 
of roughing in? The power carving tool that makes us carve with much 
disregard for grain and splitting? I don't really worry about how something 
came to be. If someone has created something that brings me pleasure to look 
at, I am grateful for their effort.

My son ask me once when he was studying the great masters, if Michelangelo 
or DaVinci had access to a bandsaws, modern tools and power carvers to carve 
with, would they have used them? I can only guess, but I cannot imagine that 
anyone with that much creativity would allow methodology to inhibit 
accomplishment.

If a carving was produced by machine and sold as hand carved, it would be 
purely dishonest, misleading and unethical. If a carving was roughed to some 
point of partial completion mechanically, then you start splitting hairs at 
what to call it. I regularly see products that I took to 95% finished being 
sold by my customer to the public as hand done by themselves. NO, I don't 
appreciate this, but then I simply do what my clients require. What they do 
after that is a matter for their conscience. I avoid participation If I have 
the luxury of turning down the work and I know  I am not abandoning a 
commitment. There are many more folks than myself dependant upon the 
continued success of my business.

My first ten years of carving, I did not allow power tools, wood-filler or 
sandpaper in my shop. To me, that was not carving, that was grinding and 
fixing. I made my own scrapers from shop melted glass (often starting with 
raw silica that I gathered from a local lakeshore ), used only gouges to 
make the wood form and held nothing but admiration for others that also 
danced to their own music with other methods. I did not compare myself or my 
methods to them, I held my standards for myself alone. Fate decided ( a wee 
neck injury) that I was not to use my hands any more. My perspective changed 
radically.
Most folks that do cnc carving do not have the blessing of having been a 
purist hand carver for a couple of decades to learn both the subtractive 
sculpting and understanding the wood grain demands. I have since made many 
new friends in my new role and am thankful for every one. I have helped 
several overcome physical limitations and enhanced their ability to provide 
income and security for their family.

I'll crawl down now before I hyperventilate and fall off my soapbox.

Digest new knowledge slowly or...it might not serve you well.

I have been called many things, but never a cheater. Not by anyone that 
knows me.
I am really just too tired to play anymore.

Good health and grace,

Phill Pittman
digicarve at verizon.net
www.masterwerkes.com


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