[Woodcarver] mechanical copies of carvings / CHEATING ??

[cynda douglas]

Phill,  I am so sorry.  I didn't realize it wasn't in the list.  I wasn't 
talking about you, at all.  NOT AT ALL.   It was about what is sometimes 
asked of you.
I just keep getting in trouble,

Cynda






At 06:50 PM 9/12/04, you wrote:
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>>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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