When I started out as a furniture manufacturer, one of the people I turned to for advice and mentorship was a furniture manufacturer named Alan Peters. Alan had a wonderful workshop in Kentisbeare less than an hour from where I live and work now. When I met Alan, I was in London trying to figure out how to do this, and he had what I wanted. He had a workshop in the field, he had two exceptional manufacturers, he had a market for his work, and he had a reputation as a manufacturer of contemporary furniture of quality and integrity. And all this I wanted.
When I met Alan, I went there on a week-long course that he was running over the summer. He invited four or five of us to his workshop during the summer months when his staff were on vacation. He prepared the materials for us and we made some small closet doors and a drawer. First of all, I was amazed at how much we accomplished in such a relatively short time. I think that was later explained by the fact that it was a professional workshop, not really a teaching workshop. Allan was used to speed and efficiency in his creation, he did it himself and expected it from others.
I remember being a real pain in the butt during that week. I was the first to scratch the door of Alan’s workshop at seven o’clock in the morning and the last to leave at closing time. I saw the tiredness in his eyes but kept pumping. I had someone in front of me who knew everything that I didn’t know and wanted to get to every syllable of that knowledge.
I could tell Alan was patient and kind, which was especially to someone who felt it was worth the effort. But to be honest, he could be rough and short-tempered. He had little time for incompetence and more than once he told me “stop fooling around, cut it once and leave it.” But his speed and proficiency with hand tools made a great impression on me. This man knew how to get things done and get them done fast. He didn’t need machines to cut straight, like I did, and he could work in the silence of the shop with no screaming machines and no dust-laden air to ruin his day. He hated the scream of a router in the bank store, it visibly annoyed him.
Alan Peters taught me during that week and the times after that I worked with him most of the really important things that I now know about woodworking. But the only thing I really didn’t hear was his advice on wood. Alan Peters had piles and piles of different species of hardwood. He invested money, time and energy in that resource because, like me, he did not know if he would next make a cathedral door or a jewelry box. I saw this investment of time and money and thought I wouldn’t. I’ll be smart and buy oven-dried stuff when I need it. When I know I need 12 foot ash boards for the cathedral door, I’ll go buy them.
Big mistake Alan. Due to its resource of stacks of air-dried material, you always had oak hand that cuts like hard cheese and ash that is brushed to finish from the sheet. My mistake has been to condemn my creators to work with material that has died in the drying process. Kiln dried stuff that you have to fight with, you get there in the end, but it’s a fight. It doesn’t give you the results the way air dried things will if you just approach it correctly with cutting edge knowledge and in a respectful manner.