Adrian, Season 2: guest blog from student Jeffrey Korbman, New Jersey
Adrian – Season 2: Episode 1
Season 1 Recap
Last year I traveled to Adrian, Michigan, home of the Sam Beauford Woodworking Institute, to build a Mid-Century chair.
On day two, I lost a fight with a belt sander and ended up in Adrian Urgent Care. I neglected to mention this to my wife.
After five straight days in the shop, I came home with an exquisite cherry chair and ottoman. We use them regularly.
Three weeks later, my wife received a notice from our insurance company regarding my Urgent Care visit.
She texted me three words:
"You're in trouble."
Welcome to Season 2
Today I returned to Adrian for another week, this time to attempt a classic Windsor rocking chair—or, as my son Sam so encouragingly described it:
"A piece of furniture, Pops, that no one will want."
Thank goodness for grandchildren.
I'm a little nervous about this build. Unlike the chair I made last year, this one requires a host of hand tools I've never used before. According to the syllabus, we'll be using:
Round spokeshave
Flat spokeshave
Scorp
6-degree reamer
Large gouge
A scorp sounds like something you catch while hiking.
A reamer sounds vaguely medical.
And a gouge? Has anything good in history ever begun with, "Hand me the gouge"?
When I was eight years old, my brother Barry gouged my eye with a pretzel rod.
It was small. It hurt.
I have since forgiven him. Recently.
Class begins promptly at 8:00 tomorrow morning. There are eight students, and I'm hoping all eight of us leave with a rocking chair—and the same number of fingers we arrived with.
On my way to Adrian today, I stopped in Ann Arbor.
Go Blue.
Season 2: Day 3
An old Yiddish proverb reads: “When we are born, our fists are clenched. When we pass on, our palms lie open.”
Life is about moving from clenched fists—being only for ourselves—to opening our palms to greet and connect with others. Maybe that is why Abraham Joshua Heschel once remarked, “When I was younger, I was impressed by people who were smart. Now that I am older, I am impressed by people who are kind.”
The Sam Beauford Woodworking Institute is a bastion of kindness.
Our assistant instructor is Russ. Russ is from Missouri. He graduated high school and went straight into pouring concrete foundations. Russ has forearms like 2x4 lumber. He has a beard, a Southern drawl, and is as strong as an ox—maybe two. He's the kind of guy who looks like, if he were angry, you'd head in the other direction.
I've never met a kinder man.
Today, after I nicked myself with a pull saw, Russ ran to get me a Band-Aid. (Dena—it was just a little cut. Nothing serious.) Then he carefully put it over my wound. He stopped just short, thankfully, of kissing the boo-boo.
That kindness is everywhere in this woodshop.
Doug loudly cheers my name whenever I'm doing something everyone is watching.
Mike walks by several times a day and simply says, "Man, that looks great."
Luke wanders over with helpful suggestions before I even know I need them.
And Dan? Dan is a graduate of the Institute's nine-month program. He helps me, corrects me, and quietly watches out for my many potential goofs simply because he cares. He is also an amazing woodworker.
Today we all but finished shaping our seats and cut out the rockers that will eventually rest beneath the chair. But the most important thing built today wasn't made of white oak.
Beginning with Russ, I watched a small community of people become enthusiastic fans of one another.
I came away with a few nicks, plenty of sawdust, and a full heart.
Kindness, it turns out, is every bit as contagious as sawdust.
Season 2: Day 5
I made a tenon today with a chisel.
I was quietly ecstatic.
I didn't mess it up. Thank God.
No one will ever see my tenon. Ever. It will disappear inside a mortise... with a little glue.
You may not know what a tenon or mortise is, but you'll understand why this mattered to me.
Last Monday, if you had asked, "Could you make a large tenon using only a chisel?" I would have answered "No" before you finished the question.
This morning, I did.
Not because I suddenly became talented, but because I put myself in an environment where I was expected to learn something I didn't think I could do.
I'll never be a master woodworker.
But if I keep pushing beyond what feels comfortable, I might someday become... not bad.
And sometimes "not bad" is farther than we ever imagined we'd get.
Shabbat Shalom.
Season 2: Day 6-7
My grandfather, whom I called "Zaide," was a butcher in Newark in the 1950s and ’60s. He slaughtered cows. Everyone in the family knew Zaide was a butcher.
But until this moment, no one ever realized: so am I.
In a private text on Friday, Dana asked, “Will you be able to finish the spindles at home?”
I didn’t respond.
I didn’t respond because Friday afternoon, when we started working on the spindles, I butchered them dead. If those spindles could talk, they would have said two words: “Please stop.”
Nearby toothpicks were blushing.
As proud as I was of my tenons, I was crushed over my dead spindles.
Then came Shabbat.
Part 2
Over Shabbat, Russ made my spindles for me.
Thank goodness.
This morning was dedicated to the final steps, namely the bottom of the chair called…wait for it…wait for it…the rockers.
Mortise here, mortise there, mortise everywhere, and just like that, we were done.
Sort of.
Luke helped me put the 13-degree bevel on the bottom of the rockers before we packed up.
On the drive to the airport, I thought about a teaching in Judaism: “Be a tail to lions rather than a head to foxes.” (Pirkei Avot 4:15)
It sounds good. What I learned this week is how hard that can be.
We are raised to be independent, self-sufficient, able. Asking for help can sometimes feel like defeat.
But this week I learned something different.
I learned that asking for help can actually give someone else the pleasure of helping. I learned that it’s okay not to be able to do everything yourself. And I learned that when people share a love for something, people you just met can show extraordinary patience, kindness, and genuine interest in your success.
That was my experience making a Windsor rocking chair.
I came to Adrian to learn how to build a chair.
I think I learned a little bit about how to sit comfortably at the tail of the lion.
Thank you for joining me.
- Jeff
Check out Jeffrey’s blog from last year: Greetings from the Middle of Nowhere