I made my first dovetail joint nearly fifteen years ago. It was not cut with a hand saw or even a router.
My first dovetail joint was cut with a CNC machine.
I was twenty and working at my first professional woodworking job. At the time I was amazed that a machine could do this with such ease. All I had to do was punch in some numbers and push the wood in place.
I quickly got excited about the new technology that computer operated woodworking machines could offer. A shop full of them I imagined. They could do everything with ease. Why, I would hardly need to be there at all!
My excitement was quickly replaced with boredom after I had mastered the tasks of number punching and wood pushing. As a young woodworker my attention quickly went elsewhere. I began to question whether I wanted to do this craft at all. If you call what I was doing craft. I suppose if I had to answer I would not.
So, I struggled with the dreaded noose of blue collar work for years. I looked to the technology fields. After all that was the future. At least that is what I kept hearing.
I quickly learned that that was not much different than number punching or wood pushing.
Eventually I found a more balanced approach.
I can certainly appreciate technological advances, I have just chosen to not push the button just because there is one to be pushed.
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