Full Chisel Blog

The very word can bring fear into both apprentice and journeyman.  The Master of Shop, usually the owner of the business was in charge.  What does it take to be a ‘Master’?  It takes a shop of your own.  If you have your own business and run your own shop you are considered a ‘Master’.

Of course one needs to first be an apprentice, serve the time and learn the trade, then you need to be a journeyman, who knows the trade and when you have your own shop you are Master.  Do you have to build a ‘master-piece’ to qualify as a master?  Does one have to ‘master’ the trade before being considered a Master?

Much of this is a holdover from the strict Trade Guilds established in Europe with some of those traditions coming to America and the distinction, apprentice, journeyman and master, continued.  However a young man starting at 9 years of age could be a journeyman when they are 13 or 14 years old.  And quite possibly have his own shop at that age and would therefore considered a ‘Master’ of his own shop.

I however feel differently and it is my opinion that a ‘Master’ of a trade or craft has had sufficient experience (and I am not sure what that completely entails) to have mastered his trade or craft.  He is proficient at all he does, knows the best methods to get a job done and has learned to reduce movements to a minimum.  He is aware of his materials and knows their properties and characteristics and he has intimate knowledge of his tools, how they work and how to keep them sharp.  He can answer all questions from the journeyman or apprentice and has a business acumen to successfuly operate an enterprise.

He needs to be able to relate to the people that work for him and the customers that buy his product and are the end users of his products.  His reputation depends on the quality of work that is produced from his shop and he must see to it that all work is done in a neat and proper manner and with the greatest dispatch.

These strict distinctions were probably much more common in urban areas where there are large number of shops and the competition was not only for customers but also skilled craftsmen.  Newspaper advertisement for the businesses are common as are ads for skilled craftsmen for those Cabinet & Chair Shops and other woodworking trades.  Not to lessen the other trades, blacksmiths, tinsmiths, coopers, wheelwrights, wagon makers, potters, carpenters and many I have missed also advertised and were always looking for skilled workmen.

But a lone cabinetmaker in a rural or frontier community may be the apprentice, jorneyman and master in the shop and did all the work.  But as things progressed, workers were added and business flourished.  It was not until the late industrial revolution that these distinctions seemed to fade.  And machines took work away from the workers and the traditions and the trades performed in small shops was surplanted.

I have been an Apprentice, a Journeyman and I have had my own shop so I am a Master.  I feel a little funny saying that as it seems self serving and sounds like personal aggrandizement.  I have been doing this for 36 years, but I am still learning so I consider myself more of a Journeyman than a Master.  And while I have been a Master of a Shop, I am not yet a Master of the trade.

Stephen

(Not than anyone is counting but this is my 100th post)