Acquiescence

I’ve found Woodworking to be a great teacher in my life. One of the biggest and earliest lessons anyone faces when starting woodworking is Wood movement. It can be down right maddening and until one finds a way to deal with it, it can be the ruin of many projects. Ask any woodworker if they’ve ever experienced a time when they left a board or a glue up or even a finished piece overnight and came back the next day to see it curved, cupped, bowed, split, or twisted and they’ll likely tell you of their own experiences with it.

So here’s the thing; wood moves. There’s really not alot you can do about it other than create a stable environment and wait. Let your wood acclimate to your shop’s temp and humidity. You can try to force it straight or flat but the more one forces the more the wood resists. Then once acclimated you can begin the process of milling; First flattening a face and edge with a jointer then making the opposite face and edge straight with a planer and table saw. I personally like to face joint a board and leave it overnight then the next day rejoint that face and leave it again. Day after that check for flat and rejoint if necessary. It’s a slower process than some utilize but it’s proven to work well for me in making doors.

The lesson here is Acceptance. I accept that I can’t control the wood like I may wish to and it will do what it wants and needs to do despite my involvement. I respect the wood’s natural tendency to do what it needs to. The Japanese have a word for this; Wu-Wei. Which says in short; Don’t force anything, let things happen. So one can choose to take this approach to their own life and in regards to other people especially. Let them be who they are, Let them move how they need and want to. Do not force your ways onto them. Why would a cat act like a bird? Or a child act like an adult?

Not the easiest thing to practice because it would seem our psyche wants the world to reflect our own self and beliefs. If we impose on them we may be met with resistance or resentment. But allowing those around us to be who they are despite how we may feel we need them to be is one of the greatest acts of love and tolerance.

So I try to always remind myself of this when starting a new project. I may have a timeline in my head for how long it should take but thats not entirely up to me. “If I impose things get twisted” has been sorta a mantra i like to remind myself during the milling phase as well as when I encounter someone doing or saying something that I may not like or goes against my beliefs. Let them be.