After paper routes, wood was key to my early work experience. I moved from construction labor on a horse ranch to stints in the woods with surveyors and loggers. As a carpenter's helper, I worked with notable journeymen: one, Swedish, with boxes of planes and chisels, produced window sashes on the jobsite; another, just as exacting, was a retired Pullman car craftsman.
Nights and weekends I began to make softwood (redwood and fir) pieces in a garage shop. In 1975, at a showing of a house I'd helped build, I saw and felt a handmade walnut table. It was a revelation.
I've been exploring hardwoods' capacity to be neatly joined and smartly finished ever since.
