Interview: Rick Hale ? American Clockmaker
Inside a woodworking studio in Michigan, 27-year-old Rick Hale is working on another handmade clock. He carefully shaves away layers of wood. He takes his time. One slip of the wrist or a dig too deep with a chisel can ruin a clock. He has to be completely focused. And he has to stay focused like this for up to 800 hours over several months in order to complete his latest work of horological art.
Hale said that while working long hours on a piece, he can get into a ?flow state.? He?s neither happy nor sad. He?s not concentrating too hard, and he?s not completely relaxed.
?You?re not feeling any emotion, necessarily. You?re 100 percent in the moment,? Hale says. ?Whether you know it cognitively or not, you?re doing exactly what you’re supposed to be doing at that moment. That?s what I strive for.? Rick Hale in his workshop (as Ron Swanson looks on).
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Hale is a self-taught clockmaker, learning the craft through old books and information he found on the Internet. He?s always been handy and interested in how things worked, a trait his father passed on to him.
Hale has been building clocks for six years. Two years ago he opened Clockwright, where he builds beautifully crafted clocks almost entirely out of wood. The once-abandoned machine shop is located north of Kalamazoo, Michigan. He shares the space with three other woodworkers.
“The simpler you keep the mechanism, the fewer parts there are and the fewer things that could go wrong...
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