Noah B Woodworks

This weekend, as I was working in my woodshop happily carving my next tobacco pipe, I made a grave mistake. I got lost in the sauce and carved too deeply into the stem. I carved a hole into it and rendered the thing firewood. Or did I? My first thought wasn’t “I have to start all over” or “It’s destined for the waste bin” No. It was “How do I save it?”

If you haven’t already, I’d recommend adopting this attitude. Mistakes are bound to happen; it’s in our nature as humans. The question then becomes: how do I handle them? If you do something long enough, a mistake is guaranteed, so it is wise to be prepared for the inevitable. It starts with “How do I save it?” or “How can I hide this?”

Obviously there are moments that require you start completely from scratch but often the mistakes made are trivial. On a recent table project, the Maple and Brass Bar table found in My Collection of Work, I accidentally used a woodscrew that was compromised and it snapped off three quarters of the way into drilling. This is hard maple we’re talking about so I knew there was no way I was getting it out. So I plugged the hole above the broken screw with more maple, and drilled a new pilot hole very close to the original screw, through the plug. It looked terrible up close but added the fastening strength I needed to secure the board in place. Plus it was on the back of the table, which is where I was hiding a few other mistakes.

When I carved through the cherry stem of my most recent tobacco pipe I was devastated. I carved so far was because I was enjoying the shape so much. Foolishly attempting to emphasize the details only to make a fatal mistake at the last minute. I immediately thought “how can I save this?” The answer came to me quickly. Cut the mistake off. So I fashioned my hand saw, fastened the work in the vise and got to cutting. Once the bit with the hole was removed, I cut an angled chunk of black walnut and glued it to the stem. After work today, I am planning to shape the walnut and finalize the pipe.

By the time I’m done with the pipe it will look completely different than the one I first imagined. Originally one piece of cherry wood, now with a walnut accent. It is curious how such a terrible mistake could actually benefit the piece, making it more visually interesting than what I had originally set out to make.