- The creative person wants to be a know-it-all. He wants to know about all kinds of things – ancient history, nineteenth century mathematics, current manufacturing techniques, hog futures. Because he never knows when these ideas might come together to form a new idea. It may happen six minutes later, or six months, or six years. But he has faith that it will happen. – Carl Ally
- To do easily what is difficult for others is the mark of talent. To do what is impossible for talent is the mark of genius. – Henri Amiel
- Years teach us more than books. – Berthold Auerbach
- PRICE, n. Value, plus a reasonable sum for the wear and tear of conscience in demanding it. - ”The Devil’s Dictionary” by Ambrose Bierce
- I like this plane more than I like most people. If you think I’m joking, you’re one of those people. – Bud
- If you remain insensitive to the individual characteristics of the material you are working with and cut regardless to a predetermined, exact measurement, then the finished piece will lack a certain wholeness and be little better than something you could have bought from a factory. – Graham Blackburn
- If it bothers you that the chair [you are building] is askew, just go to you local furniture store and look at chairs until you feel better. – Brian Boggs
- We made whatever was requested, whether or not we had ever made anything like it before. Customer requests became the basis of our education. – Art Carpenter
- It must be useful, it must work dependably, it must be beautiful, it must last, it must be the best of it’s kind. – Dunhill’s maxim
- A fine woodworker makes what he believes in. He makes what he sees in his mind’s eye. – Jonathan L. Fairbanks
- I don’t care how it is made – he [the craftsman] can make it with his teeth or a machine – it is still the final product that counts. – Tage Frid
- My philosophy of life, really, is to be able to do exactly what you want to when you want to. – Ron Fuller
- There are two types of fools: one says, “This is old, therefore it is good”; the other says, “This is new, therefore it is better.” – William Ralph Inge
- I use a pencil. – Frank Klausz, in reply to why he uses a pencil instead of a marking knife
- Skill is doing things so well they seem simple. – James Krenov
- Truthfully – you all should be modifying all of your tool handles to suit your own handle preferences in the first place. Any single design will only suit a part or the population in the first place. – Rob Lee
- The craftsman of the future must be an artist. – Charles Rennie Mackintosh
- Those who are strong enough to detour around what they have been taught in school are the ones who grow. – Sam Maloof
- Art is whatever you can get away with. – Marhsall McLuhan
- As soon as you realize that cutting dovetails is nothing very exciting or difficult, you get over the “romance” of dovetailing, and you can focus instead on “making fine furniture”. – Mel
- When I was a child, my mother said to me, “If you become a soldier, you’ll be a general. If you become a monk, you’ll end up as the Pope.” Instead, I became a painter and wound up as Picasso. – Pablo Picasso
- Successful artists have been so because they have shown people something they hadn’t imagined. If buyers all knew what they wanted before it had been made, they could have made it themselves, or at least commissioned it. – Polly Morgan
- When something happens on the lathe, it happens fast. – Greg Purcell
- The highest reward for a man’s toil is not what he gets for it, but what he becomes by it. – John Ruskin
- As I work, each new curve or valley carved from the wood reveals what the next step will be. Each wandering crack is a new challenging clue. – Conrad Sarzynick
- Perfection is a terrible taskmanager. – David Savage
- Of course, everyone buys things for reasons beyond immediate function – to help us say who we are, to identify our values, and to set ourselves apart from others… The people who buy remarkable pieces do so because they need objects about them that can express their own individuality. - David Savage
- Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. – Albert Schweitzer
- Most people are too busy searching for something in the drawer, to pay attention to the detail we’re obsessing about. – PSeverin
- Wax finish? That’s an oxymoron! – Paul-Marcel St-Onge
- … form ever follows function. – Louis Sullivan
- [In craft] design, function and technique come first; in art, form and content come first. – Stephen Whittlesey
- Unless you have a foundry, you can’t turn a jack plane into a scrub plane. If you camber the iron and set a jack plane up for initial roughing of stock you have, voilà, a freaking jack plane–set up exactly as it was traditionally used. – Larry Williams
- Without sharpening, there’s no point. – Chris Wong
- Woodworking is 3% talent and 97% not paying attention to the internet. – Zazzle.com
Flair Woodworks
Sculptural Woodwork made by Chris Wong in Port Moody, BC
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