Artist, Artisan, and Craftsperson

In my English class last semester, one of the major projects was to write an extended definition essay that focuses on the deeper meanings and implications of the word(s) chosen.  For my definition essay, I decided to research and discuss the differences in the terms: “artist,” “artisan,” and “craftsperson.” To top it all off, we had to write the essay, the edit it and add more to it. During the revision process, my essay was published in the Lost Art Press blog. Here is the link to the entry, my first version, and the comments that followed:

http://blog.lostartpress.com/2013/04/25/artist-artisan-craftsperson/

The whole blog is a blast to read and packed full of useful knowledge.

In the essay I refer to interviews I had the people like Roy Underhill, Chris Schwarz, and Peter Ross; as well as references to David Pye and even Plato (the second version becomes quite a trip down the rabbit hole).

You can read the essay here.

 artist artisan craftsperson 2

I would love to hear any feedback you have. I hope you enjoy!

-Matt Pelto

The Pursuit of Perfection

“Having ground your Iron, you mu∫t ∫moothen the edge finer with a good Whet-∫tone. Thus, hold the edge of your Iron upwards in your left Hand, and your Whet-∫tone in your right, and having first ∫pit upon your Stone to wet it, apply it to the Ba∫il of your Iron, in ∫uch a Po∫ition, that it may bear upon the whole breadth of the Ba∫il; and ∫o working the Stone over the Ba∫il, you will quickly wear the cour∫er grating of the Grind-∫tone off the edge on that ∫ide: Then turn the flat ∫ide of the Iron, and apply the Stone flat to it till you have worn off the cour∫e grating of the Grind- ∫tone, on that ∫ide too.”

-Joseph Moxon, “Mechanick Exercises”

This week I have begun sharpening all the tools I used on the cradle project. I have a lot of tools. Regardless of the expanse of my kit, or your kit for that matter, all sharpening comes down to one thing. As Ron Hock put it in his book, The Perfect Edge, a sharp edge is the zero radius intersection of two surfaces. Sharp is not defined by how polished the edge is or how you got there, it is purely the zero radius intersection of two planes. a radius occurs either when the edge is deformed (you plane into a nail) or the edge is worn away through use.

How I get back to the zero radius intersection is with Arkansas stones; soft and hard black. However, instead of spitting on them, I just use olive oil.

There are people out there that find joy in sharpening. I am not one of those people. My philosophy is get it done and get back to work. Dulling the tools is much more fun than sharpening them.

That being said, I do have to make the tools sharp. I sharpen freehand with all my tools. It’s just easier for me.

With chisels and just about anything narrower than my stone, I lay the bevel down flat on the stone, angle it a hair more, then rub it back and forth along the length of the stone. I just keep going until a bur is formed on the back. Then I flip it over and sharpen off the bur. I repeat the steps until the bur is completely gone. Then I move to the hard stone and after that I’m done.

With bench plane irons I sharpen the bevel a little differently. I lay the bevel flat with its length along the length of the stone. Then I tilt it a hair further and sharpen in a figure eight motion. I find this gives me a slight camber on by smoothing and jointer planes, and I can put more motion in the equation to get the radius in my jack plane iron. Then I follow the same procedure to sharpen off the bur.

One thing I found interesting from the Moxon passage at the beginning of this post, is Moxon says the Joyners grind the back of their plane irons. I find that odd because I cannot find an occasion to grind the back of my iron except for if it was rough forged by the smith. That is something I will have to ponder.

-Matt Pelto

The Work I Do

As a continuation of my little bio, I think it would be apt to explain the kind of work and the kind of craft I do.

At this time, I am a traditional woodworker. I only use hand tools. I have a couple reasons for this choice (I will explain in more detail in a later post):

1) I feel more connected to the work and the wood through the hand tools as compared to power tools. Wood is a dynamic and (once) living material; the hand tools offer the feedback representative of the material being worked. It helps the wood communicate with me and me with the wood.

2) I don’t care for the dust and noise. I’m usually a pretty quiet person, and I get a bunch of noise at work, so i like to be able to come home and work in a quiet and clean (aired) environment.

3) I’m a poor college kid! While a good set of hand tools is expensive, the investment needed to do the kind of work that I want to do would require quite a chunk of change.

4) I also like the challenge, discipline, and reward of working with hand tools. I like to be able to say (not brag) that I was able to create something with my hands and a few basic tools.

These reasons don’t mean I don’t like machine work or don’t respect the people who work with them (I work next to my dad’s full set of power tools). The reasons I work this way are purely for me.

I also like hand tools because I like to make reproduction-esque furniture, and building it with hand tools just feels right. It’s like classical music played on the original instruments.

I have aspirations to, in addition to exploring various forms of woodcraft such as chairmaking, green woodworking, and turnery; pursue blacksmithing as well. But, that will have to wait until I can find some time and space.

I hope you enjoy the blog, I look forward to hearing your thoughts on my posts, my work, or the crafts in general!

Thank you for reading!

Matt Pelto

Welcome

Hello all,

Welcome to my new blog. My name is Matt Pelto.

Despite what you may think, this is not a “teaching” blog. It is my sincerest hope that you will learn something from my adventures in craft, but any skill or technique I demonstrate or discuss, is solely for that purpose: discussion. I am writing this blog to 1) document my experiences for both others and as a reference for my future self, 2) engage in creative and positive discussion with others who are passionate about the crafts, and 3) to forge new relationships and interests through the impassioned people met through this blog.

I am currently an engineering student and a part time machinist, so this blog will reflect the work i am able to do around my busy schedule, so please keep that in mind if you try to contact me and I am slow about responding.

If you want to reach me, my email is pelto93@att.net

I appreciate all forms of input, comments and criticism, so I would love to hear whatever it is you have to say.

Thank you for reading and i hope you enjoy!

Matt Pelto