Hasta La Ideas

To some, four years of design school sounds like a long time. But in the story of “The Accidental Designer,” we learned that Tom Sullivan became a successful designer/builder after spending eight years as a shipbuilder’s apprentice.

Shipbuilding is something like woodworking or furniture design on a massive scale. The art and science of shaping enormous timbers into structures that are both attractive and seaworthy requires an understanding of wood and tools—from handheld analog to massive machines—that most furniture designers will never have to grapple with. And while a furniture designer may learn the porosities of various woods to understand how each of them will accept stain and finishing, the shipbuilder must learn these things because if they get it wrong, their creations will sink. The eight years versus four starts to make a lot of sense.

So some of you may be interested to see Tips from a Shipwright, a YouTube channel that shows what these salty saw-wielding builders do and know. Filmmaker Halsey Fulton of Fish Hawk Films lenses Master Shipwright Louis Sauzedde, giving you a taste of what goes on in his shop. Like performing a bentwood lamination with oak, rather than steamed plywood:

Some of you work in shops with 14-inch or maybe 18-inch bandsaws, and maybe you’ve got a 3/4-inch, three-tooth-per-inch blade in there for resawing. Sauzedde’s monster Ship Saw has freaking 42-inch wheels pulling a 1-1/4-inch, 1 t.p.i. blade—that he sharpens himself, on the machine:

When shopping for wood, Sauzedde is wary of woods labeled as White Oak that actually might be Red Oak. What’s the difference, and how can he tell? Check out this surprising demo where he illustrates the two breeds’ very different properties:

That’s just a taste of what’s on offer. Everything from tool usage to finishing to restoring to the actual woodworking techniques are covered, with new videos popping up all the time. Next time it’s slow at work, or you’re just keen to learn something new and maybe find a new skill to master, check out the channel.