Saw this posted on another site, my eyes! my eyes!

 

Take this board, throw it on the edge gluer, and this one and then this one, there we go.

One difference between an artisan and some schmuck in a factory is to select adjoining boards that look good together and have some grain flow between them.  At least they put the two drawers side by side in the right way.

I took a tour of Gerstner a couple years ago and was likewise surprised at their random drawer grain arrangement.   I don't even think it was all, say, quartersawn/riftsawn stuff.   Though one of the world's largest processors of QSWO is about an hour away from their factory.

 

I have some friends who at their prior house, their kitchen cabinets looked almost this bad across every door panel.

 

Thanks for adding the illustration.

 

Here's a dresser I made a couple of years ago.   Can you tell where the glue lines are?  Do you see all the grain flow left to right?

grain across multiple drawers?

 

can you spot the glue lines on the stool top?

Hmm...

Will have to wait until a bit of stain goes on....

Then we'll see....Ash is a bit funny....as stain will change the way the grain looks....

1 hour ago, DAB said:

grain across multiple drawers?

 

can you spot the glue lines on the stool top?

WOW!!!!

OTOH, supposedly "eclectic" is a design choice.  So is "chaos" I guess.  Maybe this explains my dizziness when entering the living room?

My designs rely on happenstance and/or available material. Occasionally, I get lucky.

14 hours ago, steven newman said:

Hmm...

Will have to wait until a bit of stain goes on....

Then we'll see....Ash is a bit funny....as stain will change the way the grain looks....

That already looks 1000% better than that piece above.

1 hour ago, Gene Howe said:

Occasionally, I get lucky.

What does THAT have to do with woodworking?

John

This look a bit better?

Not much I could have done with those drawers....

Well done, Steven

I understand the general aesthetic, but I still think it depends no what you want to achieve.

Some people like the fact the grain doesn't all flow the same, and find it adds something to break up a "boring" piece.

I don't mind either way, and my personal tendency is to make it look right, but for example that first low bedside doesn't cause me offence, as it adds some interest to the patterned look.

I have friend in Canada who builds boats. He says that if you want perfect, use plastic. But, God doesn't make plastic trees. 

On 8/9/2020 at 7:56 AM, Gene Howe said:

I have friend in Canada who builds boats. He says that if you want perfect, use plastic. But, God doesn't make plastic trees. 

Perfect is a myth IMO. Show me something that is perfect and I will show you something that isn't. I have never done anything perfect in my life but in chasing it I have occasionally achieved excellence. Not all that often but occasionally. Every jig, fixture, machine or automated assembly system I have ever designed I have seen issues that I could have done better. But in the life of mechanical and systems design, as well as in my woodworking, there always comes a time when you have to "shoot the engineer" and build something. 

Edited August 17, 20205 yr by junglejohn

Perfect is the enemy of good

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Perfect is the enemy of good, or more literally the best is the enemy of the good, is an aphorism which is commonly attributed to Voltaire, who quoted an Italian proverb in his Dictionnaire philosophique in 1770: "Il meglio è l'inimico del bene". It subsequently appeared in his moral poem La Bégueule, which starts

Dans ses écrits, un sage Italien
Dit que le mieux est l'ennemi du bien.

(In his writings, a wise Italian
says that the best is the enemy of the good)

Aristotle, Confucius, and other classical philosophers propounded the principle of the golden mean, which counsels against extremism in general.

 

The Pareto principle or 80–20 rule explains this numerically. For example, it commonly takes 20% of the full time to complete 80% of a task while to complete the last 20% of a task takes 80% of the effort. Achieving absolute perfection may be impossible and so, as increasing effort results in diminishing returns, further activity becomes increasingly inefficient.

 

Robert Watson-Watt, who developed early warning radar in Britain to counter the rapid growth of the Luftwaffe, propounded a "cult of the imperfect", which he stated as "Give them the third best to go on with; the second best comes too late, the best never comes."