Why measure?

In my shop I continue to discover new tricks so long as I don’t work on automatic pilot. After thirty years of cutting tenons with haunches for grooved frame-and-panelling it suddenly occurred to me I don’t need to measure the cutback, only the depth of the haunch, since whatever the tenon measures can be copied exactly onto the mortise site—duh!

It’s not that I do everything by hand if there’s a faster machine method, but it’s surprising how machines tend to exert the ‘tyranny of exact measurement’ whereas hand methods can be a far quicker method of simple eye-estimates. After all, who can tell how wide a tenon is when once assembled? So where is the advantage of having taken extra time to measure it exactly?

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Simpler may be better.

My Ultimatum brace competes with my Bosch cordless drill in a complexity that ultimately undoes their usefulness. The Ultimatum is beautiful and fancy, and its ebony and ivory inserts and brass frame gleam but I frequently pass it over in favor of a simple Scotch iron brace that has a bit already in it, rather than unpack the drill roll from the bottom of my toolchest. My Bosch is similarly a masterpiece of modern design and technical complexity, but I frequently pass it over in favor of my old Milwaukee corded drill rather than wait for the batteries to recharge because it hasn’t been used for a while.

Pleasure fights with utility when push comes to shove, don’t you think?