It was Monday morning (I left a 70-degree California to get to 10-degree Missouri, but who’s complaining) and the first day of the Master Craftsman school at the NWFA headquarters in Chesterfield, Mo. I opened the classroom door and looked around; I saw 10 guys who had signed up for the challenge. Some drove, some flew from other states and some flew from other countries. Brett Miller, Wayne Lee and myself were there to instruct—talk about a triangle from hell!—and these guys didn’t see us coming. After a short introduction, we asked the students to tell us, the instructors, what they were interested in doing at the school. That, to me, is the greatest thing about this school. The students could have come up with any layout, any design, any pattern and challenge, and the answer would have been, “Yes, sure, no problem, we can show you how to do that.” Where else in the world could a flooring craftsman have this experience? So after we asked the question, this is what they wanted to do:
- marquetry
- medallions
- starburst
- radius work
- bent lamination
- free-form inlays
- bending wood
- carving
- stringing
- sand-shading
- rhombs pattern
- circle jig work
- ovals
- … and I think I might be missing something.
So we sent them to the drawing table to come up with a parquet pattern and layout for the two panels we had set up. What looked in the beginning like a simple parquet tile design turned into a much more time-consuming process than the students had anticipated. After back-and-forth cutting and adjusting, they finally had about 1,200 pieces of wood cut. Now it was time to assemble the tiles. We were almost done with the assembly by the end of the first day before they noticed the tiles were not assembled in the right order … the level of frustration and “we didn’t get much done” feeling was felt all around. As the instructor, I couldn’t have been happier: They planned their layout, they adjusted accordingly and made crucial mistakes. That is the best way to learn—at the school. I guarantee they will never make those mistakes on their job sites, ever.
They planned their layout, they adjusted accordingly and made crucial mistakes.
In the following three days the students installed all the parquet, wrapped it with a soldier border, and wrapped it around a curved stair with bent lamination and custom corner blocks. They also made a diamond inlay jig and inserted dowels and diamond-shaped inlays into the parquet floor. On the other panel, they created a medallion made of flooring material, starting with a starburst, making a tapered jig, working with a circle jig, inlaying and bending wood, and then scraping the panel. By then we had Randy Harris join us in instructing, and he set up a scroll station for making a NWFA oval medallion.
I’d like to thank all the students who put up with me (among other things, I was giving them time deadlines for every task) for a week. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen such a talented group of guys who put their egos aside and worked together, all in the name of becoming a better craftsman. They were:
- Allen Townsell
- Ben Totta
- David Watson
- Jason Vivash
- Marcos Proti
- Mike Totta
- Ted McGloin
- Tom D
- Toby Merrill
- Warren Wilson
Thank you, guys, for learning, sharing, working hard and being part of this great association. (Some more photos of the class are below, and the Tottas posted lots of photos from the class on their company Facebook page here.)
P.S.: Evidently, Wayne Lee really likes the song “All About That Bass,” which was the theme song for the class.
