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Heard a client call my finish 'factory perfect' and it got me thinking
I was picking up a dresser I'd restored for a customer in Tacoma, and she told her friend it looked like it came straight from the factory. I know she meant it as a compliment, but it made me pause. I spent 15 hours on that piece, hand-sanding and building up layers of oil. A factory would have just sprayed it. Made me wonder if we're sometimes aiming for the wrong kind of 'perfect'. Do you guys ever get comments that make you rethink what a good finish really is?
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kellyt236mo ago
That "factory perfect" comment would really get under my skin too.
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elliot6076mo ago
My uncle's old workbench has these little dings and stains that tell its whole story. A factory finish just wipes all that away. The good kind of perfect shows the hours you put in, not how well you can hide them. That client probably has no idea what her dresser looked like before you started.
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coleman.avery5mo ago
Wait, the client said "factory perfect" about a restored piece? That's actually kind of wild. I mean, @elliot607 is totally right, she probably has zero clue what it looked like before. To call it factory perfect just misses the whole point of the work. It's like saying a handmade quilt looks just like one from a big box store. Idk, maybe it's just me but that comment would make me feel like my effort was totally invisible.
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