Industry Fashion

Do you want to know one of my biggest struggles, being a female finish carpenter?  Well, as vain as it may sound, one disappointing difference between comfy job and current job: I used to look pretty cute and put-together at work.  Now I look…well, like a carpenter.  It’s one thing that really bums me out about my current profession – it’s hard to feel like you even look clean, let alone presentable.  Going out to happy hour after work with friends becomes an exercise in self-affirmation.  I tell myself that I’m just as smart as all those professional women with their attaché cases and adorable hairdos, I’m just as beautiful as those women wearing skirts and make-up, *sigh* but you’d probably never think any of that by the way I look after work: unkempt, covered in dust, and just plain worn out.

Here’s my self-imposed uniform: a pair of double front brown carhartts (I’ve learned that the normal carpenter pants and jeans wear through too quickly and other colors fade too soon), a small and sturdy t-shirt (bonus points if it doesn’t have a stain or paint on it), and sensible dark leather slip on shoes with steel toes (easy to take on and off when entering/exiting a client’s home).  I usually also have zippered hoodie or something of that nature--though I usually take that off if I’m working with rotating blades.  Aside from the shoes (I am 100% excited about those because I just discovered the brand and style), my work wear is completely uninspired.  Practical and plain, just like my hair – it’s short, and there’s no sense in putting any effort into styling it when it’s likely to get messy within thirty minutes of arriving at the jobsite. 

I love these shoes (thanks Catherine!). They are slip on, waterproof, steel toed, and have big luggy soles.

So, you may be able to tell I have a dilemma.  It's impossible to feel pretty when I'm so dirty and messy.  I consider myself to be a reasonably attractive woman, generally speaking. But I never feel sexy or pretty at work or in my work clothes.  I suppose I’m partly to blame.  I rarely wear any make-up at work because I don’t want men at the jobsite to get the wrong idea. I have a boyfriend and I’m not trying to attract any unwanted attention.  My carhartts are expensive and when a hole wears through the first layer, I just ignore it until it wears through the next -- why did I pay for the double front? That’s why.  I only recently went through my t-shirts and threw out the ones that were truly beyond repair, but most of them were originally purchased at a thrift store -- it’s hard to feel compelled to spend money on new shirts when you know they’ll be trashed in a matter of months.

Juliette Caron was a female carpenter born in 1882 -- amazing.

I found this great old photo of a female carpenter named Juliette Caron wearing what’s called a “largeot” in the early 1900s.  Even though I think she looks fantastic, I bet her attire (which is about as impractical as it gets) was the least of her troubles on the job.  So all this got me thinking…if feeling grubby is one of the worst things I can think of about being a female finish carpenter, we sure have come a long way!  I mean, I know Seattle is particularly progressive, but I rarely encounter rampant sexism.  There are so many things I have the propensity to dwell on, and in the end I delight in reminding myself that it is indeed a luxury to worry about anything as mundane as fashion.

Mis-shapes, Mistakes, Misfits*

One thing I particularly appreciate about finish carpentry and woodworking is that there is always more to learn.  No matter how long you've been a woodworker, there is always another technique to learn or master, there will forever more be an abundance of those "tricks of the trade" to file away in your woodworking arsenal. (I use the word "arsenal" because sometimes it does feel like a battle.)  Don't get me wrong – it's not that there aren't true masters out there.  It's just that even if you take the most educated, gifted, experienced woodworker of all time, there is something left to teach him.  After all, the industry itself is constantly changing and evolving – with new tools, new materials, new standards, and new people.  And I'm happy to be part of that evolution.

I remember on my first day at the cabinet shop, my boss took me aside and explained, "so, it's possible that I will teach you how to do something one way and then the next day, someone else will explain how to do it another way.  It's not that one way is better than the other.  We both have our reasons for liking our way best."  Then he explained that he preferred that I default to his way.  After all, he was the owner and he was trying to develop a consistent system for producing a consistent product.  I understood and respected that.  But it took me a while to be comfortable with this type of learning environment.  I am usually the type of person who just wants someone to tell me the best way to do something.  The idea that there is no best way is a little disturbing.  Since then, I've realized that knowing multiple techniques for accomplishing the same task is what separates the masters from the apprentices, the pros from the newbies. 

This brings us to perhaps the most important part of a finish carpenter's job description: how to fix mistakes.  These aren't necessarily mistakes that you yourself have made.  They are, in fact, mostly mistakes that others have made.  And it's why finish carpentry exists.  Think about your house, the room you're sitting in right now...the finish carpentry includes the doors, windows, trim, and cabinetry among other various things (mantel, stairs, etc.).   Back before a finish carpenter came in to do their job, there may have been an exterior window installed and a big hole where the door should go.  We come into these rooms with uneven floors, walls that are anything but flat, ceilings that drop to one side, and we make everything look nice and square, level, plumb, parallel – pleasing to the eye.  The door should swing easily, but not pull itself open or closed.  The trim should look even around the doors and windows, and it should hide the gaps that exist between the wall and the floor, between the casing and the wall, between the window and the framing, etc.  The cabinets should be level even if the floor isn't.  At best, you wouldn't notice any of these "mistakes" of the room.  As finish carpenters, these are the mistakes we solve every day.  And yes, it's quite satisfying.  Also, I am pretty content with the fact that my job cannot be done by a robot.

Then there are the mistakes we make ourselves.  After all, nobody's perfect.  Sometimes I have a really dumb moment and am faced with the super frustrating decision of how to fix my own mistake.  At best, no one will notice.  Luckily, I am my own worst critic.  This comes in handy when you are fine-tuning a fix to correct something you messed up -- once I'm satisfied, the client most certainly is.  And going back to this "arsenal" of multiple techniques, you now have something to work with.  You start asking questions to hone in on the best solution:  What tools do I have?  What type of material am I working with?  How visible is this boo-boo?  Etc.  If you only have one method to work with, it limits your ability to fix things well.  Different materials jive with different tools.  For instance, laminates don't always get along well with a power plane but they are usually all right with a belt sander.  You can't cut a perfect plug in pre-finished wood, but if you have a little stain pen and some spray lacquer in your van, you might be able to make everything look golden.  And that's the idea.

On a recent stair, I cut this riser a little short.  Argh!

The best solution was to trim a fill strip (grain matched) and glue it in place with a tiny removable shim.

The finished stair looked fantastic (and a little less fuzzy in person...)

There's something about this job...you get to go in and make slightly messed up rooms look amazing.  That's the measure of a good finish carpenter.  You're not necessarily judged by whether you make a mistake, but rather by how you fix it.   You're not judged by whether you have a skill set, but how you use it.  The more you learn (about methods, techniques, tools, materials, etc.), the better equipped you are to make an informed choice about how to do just that, to choose your own best way.

* yes, for those who recognize the title of this post, it's borrowed directly from a Pulp song.