Picky Woodworkers
So I'm wondering if anyone else does this. Do you ever go into someplace, perhaps with your wife/girlfriend where there are products made by other woodworkers, and examine their work, pointing out all the flaws?
This last week my girlfriend and I made a trip to a new craft shop to show some of my products. Was a great trip, sold over $400 worth of product with the promise of more in the future. On the way back we stopped at a large store called "Kansas Originals" which has only products made in Kansas. There were lots of various products and I found myself looking at some of the stuff and making comments like "that is a terrible job of finishing" or "They should have sanded that better". I spotted a small shelf that was made from a beautifully figured piece of maple, which is a shame in itself. That board should have become something more elegant. Anyway, the builder had not sanded it enough to take out some of the "planer rash" (tear-out), and it looked like they had only sprayed on one light coat of finish so there were dull spots. And there were exposed fasteners that looked like decking screws. For shame!!! In addition I found cutting boards and rolling pins made with oak?? Big no no! My girlfriend bless her heart tells me that the fact that I'm so picky is what makes my products a step above. I feel that if I am going to put my name on something it better be as good as it can. I don't want my stuff showing up at Antiques Roadshow in 100 years and them saying it's worthless because I was just an average craftsman LOL.
On another note, there were countless violations of the college logo copyright laws. I know a couple of schools for sure that require a sticker fixed to every product, and there were all sorts of products with no sticker in sight. Makes me wonder why I worry about getting licenses when nobody else does and they get away with it. Also makes me feel that I should make mention of it to the company that administers those licenses. Anyway... who else does stuff like this? Or is this my own brand of crazy? HEHE
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Originally Posted by dehrlich
I understand your thoughts on this, especially being in an area where college sports is basically big business. I surely didn't mean to infer any harshness towards you and I hope it wasn't taken that way. I know that it is difficult to do the right thing and pay all the fees/taxes and then to have to compete against prices that don't have those expenses factored in. In a sense I sometimes feel the blame falls on the licensing expenses being too high as to be seen as acceptable to the woodworker. As an example, like I mentioned, I've built cabinets for people that wanted a college logo or professional team logo across the front. These are one-time purchases and I only build the one ordered. If I was to go through with getting a license that required me to pay $200+, then send a sample and 10% then I just don't see anyway to make that work. It's impossible to make those costs up unless I mass produce an item. Looking at this through my point of view, I want to do the right thing but it just doesn't compute. Am I taking a chance, I suppose I am and when I sit and compare my outlook to yours, mine does feel hard to justify to you. Legally, there probably is no justification for my view but morally, I feel like the big business practices of imposing such high fees across the board, regardless of volume output from the woodworker, are wrong. They hurt the very small business that is commissioned to build one-off projects for an individual and basically tell me they don't want me to be able to exist unless I scale my business up to a level that I can't, or don't want to be at. Regulations like this should have some sort of sliding scale that starts at near zero and only climbs after you are producing a certain number of product.
