Age Of Specialization

[cabinetman]

My father was a dentist from the 30's to the late 60's. It seems that when I was a kid most dentists were general practitioners, but they did any dentistry. He did anything from fillings to crowns. I guess there were some specialists, but not like today. In the last 8 years I've had a lot of medical problems that took me to the "specialists". I remember asking my cardiologist a simple question about a sore wrist and right away he wrote down the number of a specialist. I mean really, this guy did go to medical school. I asked him if he missed class on the day they covered "sore wrists". I wonder if any of my doctors actually talk to each other about my health?

Anyway, this thread has to do with the possibility of the woodworking trades becoming very specialized like the medical profession. Actually it is to a certain degree. There are sawmills that only do cutting. There are shops that only do kitchen cabinets. There are shops that don't do any woodwork, only cabinetry. There are woodworkers that only do staircases. Some shops specialize in just commercial work. The type of craftsmanship involved in furniture making, like chairs, could include special joinery, carving, and finishing. Those skills may one day be so specialized, that the chair may have to go to four or five shops in order to get completed. The degree of specialization has already taken a foothold on our industry. For the shops that don't do carving, or the ones that never learned staining and finishing, or the ones that can't afford a legal spray booth or don't know how to finish, they do send out the work to a specialized shop, or don't take the whole job in the first place.

In my start in the industry, I had to do anything that would turn a buck. I had to portray the confidence that it would be ready on time and exactly as ordered. There were times that I wished I could say, "I only make 12" boxes". My Yellow Pages advertising consisted of listings under about 18 headings. I'm sure that a majority of my work was because very few shops would or could just build "anything". I really didn't have much choice in my selection of work. The rent comes due the same time each month.

As for a medical problem there may be some consolation in knowing that your caregiver is a "specialist" with the problem. As for the woodworking industry maybe one day there will be a 12" box specialist.

[Pappy]

I would think that most commercial shops, except those that do custom cabinets only, would have to be somewhat flexible to survive. Saying you only do shadow boxes or wall mount shelves would put too much limitation on the client base unless you have outlets, such as a trophy shops, that take your items either as direct buy or consignment.

I have/had several small 1-2 man shops on my route and all of them had a specialty that was their prefered line but all took other jobs for the income.

The exception would be the small shop that sells over the internet or at craft shows isn't the sole source of income, i.e., retired and working as a hobby/supplemental income.

[scorrpio]

On the medical: Dunno about your dentist, but mine still pretty much does it all - fillings, crowns, inlays, root canals etc etc etc. The fabrication of a crown from a cast is usually done by a special lab, but it is the dentists who makes the cast, and then installs the crown. Some more involved things might involve going to a dental surgeon instead, but that is usually a question of maintaining proper surgical facilities.

As to sore wrists, human hands are an extremely complex area, and usually you will have hand surgeons specializing exclusively here - simply due to the complexity. There is also a great deal of liability involved, and hand surgeons are generally more prepared to deal. For most people, full hand dexterity is critical, and anything leading to permanent disability can carry immense legal claims. If your cardiologist gives you an advice that turns out to be wrong and leads to loss of hand dexterity, he might be facing some VERY serious trouble.

Specialization in industrial process is driven by cost efficiency. And the fact is that different parts of the process tend to move at different pace. It was not much of an issue when it was a handsaw, a carving gouge, or a finishing brush sitting idle on the shelf awaiting its turn as the craftsman moved through the process of creating an item. But when you have high-cost, high-volume specialized machinery that excels at performing a given part of the process, taking advantage of said machinery means specializing. But if your shop does not have enough volume to keep such a machine sufficiently busy, the initial cost and subsequent maintenance cannot be justified. Consider carved accents. A computer-controlled carver might produce enough accents to supply 20 furnituremaking shops. A high-end finishing installation may take 2-3 seconds to spray coat a piece that would take an hour with an HVLP gun, and then can instantly bake that finish on with UV. A large finisher servicing many places can do batches if different shops request similar finishes. And hardware? Some time ago, every furniture shop had a smithy for making hinges, knobs, etc. Do you think you could run a Blumotion drawer slide production line right in your shop?

And machinery is constantly improving. The days when machines would churm out basic stock stuff, could not be easily reset, and for custom things, it was back to hand work, are coming to an end.

Sure, there will always be a sector where a renowned artisan will be creating work completely by hand from start to finish for those with the means to pay. This will be treated more like art than furniture.