09/29/2025
Whenever I talk about the craftspeople that came before us, I find myself waxing poetic about the "fingerprints" of the craftsmen. By this, I mean the evidence of intention, process, and tooling. Marks such as scribe lines, plane tracks, and file strokes, which are earnestly removed by a diligent maker. The craftsman's regrettable imperfections are treasures for us to find.
On this rare occasion, the fingerprints that I am enamored by are both literal and metaphorical. On the underside of these roof decking boards, we see the marks left by the roofers during the initial construction. The oils from their hands soaked into the boards while they fixed them in place. As the years of dust and grime settled on the boards, the oil acted as a binder and captured the dust as a pigment.
It's one thing to know that a real person lived and worked on this house 130 years ago. It is another thing to see their hand prints still on the job.
