Rosie The Riveter

I began work on the drawers to my tool cabinet yesterday; you can see the parts awaiting assembly, they've been waiting for almost three years:


I've been a real slacker these past three years, not devoting as much time to woodworking as I say I should. Other things like bike commuting, yoga, and this blog keep me tied up.

Years ago I told myself that I could retire early from my engineering career if I built high quality custom furniture, augmenting my retirement income. To that end, I endeavored to build up a collection of hand tools that would allow me to do just that. I figured I'd spend my engineering years using them to build my own furniture, to build up the necessary skills to be able to sell my work. Things didn't progress quite like I envisioned; I don't spend enough time doing it to feel proud about the quality of my work. It requires tremendous skill, patience and time.

I mention all this in the context of our current recession slowdown. I always believed woodworking to be a secondary skill I could use in the event I got fired or laid off in my engineering field. As a doomer I wanted a backup plan. I take note of my unemployed cousin, the cabinet shop worker and I wonder (if he weren't alcoholic), could he better survive this recession if he had built up a set of tools over his life and worked out of his garage until he could find another cabinet shop job? Where was his backup plan? I ask this same question of us all, and I have to say that I am not impressed with the growing number of Americans and their collective unwillingness to prepare when things are booming and an unwillingness to work even harder when things are busting.

I figured that as our nation moves towards wider wealth distributions I'd market my work to those at the top, to those appreciative of fine woodworking and those willing to pay for it. This is also because the remaining 98.3% of America has decided that cheap shit from Asia is all they could ever want. Drive the SUV to Big Lots, buy that cheap melamine veneered bookcase with hardwoods harvested in Thailand, frames assembled in Taiwan, and driven home in a box to be final assembled by the owner with cross dowels and connector bolts. The buyer has now become a cog in the production cycle -- not only is Rosie a mortgage service auditor by day, she's a highly skilled furniture parts assembler by night. She's as highly skilled with the enclosed 5mm allen wrench as her grandmother was with a pneumatic riveter.

Cheaply produced shit using low-quality materials. This is what we wanted and this is what we got -- a deteriorating manufacturing base while living in a world full of bad stuff built with unsuitable materials predestined for the nearest landfill. This is the same regarding our houses and cities as it is of our furniture.