Rough Carpentry



     Sometime in the late 1970's I had the privilege of working with Claude Avery in and around McCall, Idaho.  Claude had spent years as a Forest Service packer, wrangling a string of mules to carry fingerling fish into high country lakes. After retirement he turned to finish carpentry as a supplement to his Social Security. He was a careful worker, a private person who had worked alone for most of his life, was older than the rest of us on the crew and didn’t much participate in lunchtime chit-chat. This story was told by a fellow carpenter one day when Claude elected to go fishing instead of trimming windows.

     “A few years ago, just after Claude retired, they decided to build a new state forestry headquarters and the low bidder was an outfit from down in the flatlands. The jobsite manager was young fellow with a lot of book learning and not much actual experience. The rest of us on the job called him Dolittle because that is what he did.

     “They advertised for carpenters in the Star News and Claude showed up on the job to apply. I was cutting rafters for the framing crew about twenty feet from his interview with Dolittle so I saw the whole deal go down.

     “Claude said that had seen in the paper that they were hiring, that he wanted to hire on as a finish carpenter and asked how much they were paying. Dolittle kinda puffed out his chest and said that they were only hiring rough carpenters, didn’t need any finish carpenters. 

     “Claude looked at the kid for a long time and then said that, well, he could probably be a rough carpenter. What would he be doing? Dolittle said that he would be cutting two by sixes into stud lengths and blocking on the big old radial arm saw that was set up by a bunk of lumber and would welcome Claude showing him what he could do. 

     “Claude said he would like to try it, walked over to the lumber, pulled out a ten foot stick of two by six, marked off ninety one and a half inches for a double plate, set it up on the saw, cut it half way through, picked it off the saw table, swung it over his head and broke it over a sawhorse. He smiled at the kid and asked, “Rough enough for you?” and walked off the job.”

 

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