First Rate

People starting out in carving sometimes ask me for advice. I think they expect me to come up with some impressive Koan of karmic wisdom—follow the wood, trust in the wood, or thank the wood—but I’m just not that much of a Zen sort of guy.
Instead of mystical wisdom, I offer straightforward and practical advice: Learn how to sharpen your tools well and correctly, and most other things will be easier to master. It’s not about complex techniques or secret formulas; it’s about mastering basic skills and concepts. Forget about special conditions and circumstances until you have mastered the underlying skills.
I’ve always suspected that it’s the same in other trades, crafts, skills, and professions. It may be the reason so many areas have core curriculum’s. They understand that the foundation that gets laid is as important as what you build on it.

I’ve talked about this for years: the actual secrets of the masters. People refuse to accept that the secrets to mastery are often simple and basic. But remember that it does not imply that they are easy. If sharpening was a easy skill workers in wood would never need to spend so much money on gizmos that promise to create a perfect edge everytime. Also, tool catalogs would not have seven pages full of these devices. So simple and basic does not necessarily mean easy.

The other piece of advice I give for free is that you shouldn’t seek to reproduce what someone else has done. Find your unique voice or approach to whatever skill you try to master.

As Judy Garland said, “Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.”