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It's in Lu Ji's Wen Fu, fourth century
A.D. "Essay on Literature" - in the
Preface: "In making the handle of an axe
By cutting wood with an axe
The model is indeed near at hand. -
My teacher Shih-hsiang Chen
Translated that and taught it years ago
And I see: Pound was an axe,
Chen was an axe, I am an axe
And my son a handle, soon
To be shaping again, model
And tool
Gary Snyder, Axe Handles
Myself was formed - a Carpenter -
An unpretending time
My Plane - and I, together wrought
Before a Builder came
Emily Dickinson, Myself Was Formed - A Carpenter
He that sees a Sail first, shall have the best Pistol or Small Arm aboard of her.
The pirate code of Captain Edward Low, Article VIII
When you're a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you're not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You'll know it's there, so you're going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.
Steve Jobs, interview in Playboy, 1985
A saw seems like a simple tool. But there are a lot of complicated questions. What is the best angle for the rake of the teeth? How many teeth should there be? How much should the teeth splay out to the sides? That's called the kerf. Is the sawdust removed efficiently? There is a whole specialized technical vocabulary. That's like the martial arts.
A little while ago I had to cut down a tree in my garden. We only had a handy folding saw so I bought a sturdy new saw for the job. It's a Japanese saw. Japanese saws are different from western saws. They take opposite approaches to the problem of designing a tool for cutting wood.
In western saws the hand position is almost at a complete right angle to the saw cut. But the main difference is that western saws cut with a pushing action. That means that even inexperienced carpenters can cut with power by using their body weight to thrust.
In Japanese saws the handle is in a straight line with the blade. Or curved slightly down like a pirate's pistol. So you hold it almost like a kitchen knife. Japanese saws cut with a pulling action. It is difficult for beginners to generate power but expert carpenters can cut effortlessly. The saw is connected through the arm to the centre of the body. So Japanese carpenters cut with their centre. That's like the martial arts too. Everything is done with your centre.
Some people say that the differences symbolize the different philosophies of east and west. Pulling in. Pushing out. One day an engineering genius might design a combination saw that cuts on the pull stroke and also cuts on the push stroke. East meeting west. The perfect tool.
I have an essay in a charity e-book put together by some writers and photographers to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku on 11 March 2011. It costs $9.99.
02-17-2012 10:31 AM 
