No Room For Squares
Ryan Kutter
One of the technical challenges in crafting large round tables is making a perfect circumference with no wavering from the center point. The best tool for this in our shop is a table saw, a blade most often identified with right angles and straight, parallel lines that will never meet. The circular blade is well known for making squares and rectangles but is remarkably adaptable.
For this project our craftsmen begin with a large square plank anchored to a pivot point in the center, carefully leveled on the table. The saw blade is plunged through the plank from beneath while several pairs of hands carefully begin turning the plank. The blade remains stationary but begins a long journey of return to its origin. The wood is solid and dense, and usually requires several orbits, raising the blade each time, before the circle is released from the square.
Our work is generally guided by utilitarian principles of service and durability, but hours of sanding and finishing also leave time for us to consider more broadly how these objects will serve in the homes and communities that receive them. Tables particularly spark big ideas, as places where people gather for circles of return and reunion over food, celebration and ritual, if even the simple ritual of a daily meal.
Circles give us some assurance that despite our departures and our distance from each other, particularly during the past year, that there will be a return. Our homes, churches, restaurants, theaters and (I hope) furniture are places and objects that nurture our connections to each other. They provide a focal point for relationships between people, which is where so much of our spiritual joy and struggle takes place.
Looking into the flowing grain of a freshly sanded tabletop I imagine the circumference, cut by that single blade guided by many hands, as the perimeter of a reflecting pool. It has a depth like water that holds stories (the said and unsaid points in our relationships and histories), which we can only partially make out through reflections and ripples.
These objects gain life through use and wear. I look forward to these next seasons of spilling drinks on tabletops and scratching the surface, all of which can be repaired, but is evidence of our gathering and returns to each other.
About the Author:
Ryan Kutter joined Abbey Woodworking this November as the Lead Woodworker. While new to the shop, he is no stranger to Saint John’s as he graduated from the University in 2003 and has worked on campus ever since. Before accepting this new post, Ryan was the Studio Manager at Saint John’s Pottery for ten years. Besides woodworking Ryan enjoys writing, keeps gardens through summer and winter, and takes instruction from his two small children when not in the wood shop. We are excited to welcome Ryan and look forward to the creativity and dedication that he brings to our Shop.