When is good enough actually good enough?

[MarkC]

I never leave something "good enough" if there is time available to fix it. It's always worth just starting over and getting it RIGHT. My work is made by MY hands, and is a direct reflection of MY craftmanship, attention to detail, and my PRIDE of workmanship. The only time I leave something "good enough" is when there is ABSOLUTELY no time to re-do it, and then I make the best of it and work the "good enough" piece until it's the best "good enough" I can possibly get.

I would always eat the time and cost to get something right. When I say "no time" I mean that the final deadline is closing, and there is literally no time.

attention to detail is all the difference

[Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver]

MarkC: Well then, when you shipped it, it was "good enough" for you, right? That's really what we're running into here is how different people define "good enough". As I said before (I think I did) many say "good enough" when what they really mean is "not quite good enough, but I'm done with it anyway".

[Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver]

Henry Ford knew what "good enough" was. He never made excellent cars, but they were "good enough". "Good" sells, "Excellent" sells to a much smaller audience. Come to that, it's a waste to make something better than it needs to be. But it is fun, sometimes. I'll give you that.

[JeremyP]

For me "good enough" is when the object I'm creating ends up in its finished form able to perform its function reliably and it looks proffessionally built. "Great" is when I've built that item to the best of my ability. "Perfect" is what I try to achieve but always come up short.

[ironstein]

since i'm just starting out, NOTHING is good enough! I know this thread is aimed more at the pro-smiths out there, but i couldn't resist.

[ironstein]

by the way Grant, i am always drawn to your posts. some thing in your humor that cracks me up. Best of all, you always throw down some serious knowledge!

[Nakedanvil - Grant Sarver]

Well if nothing is good enough, then that's what we should give them..........nothing!

Q: Which has more legs, "a horse" or "no horse"?

A: No horse, cause "a horse" has four legs, but "no horse" has eight legs!

[forgemaster]

I'll ask my blokes, "if you were buying this would you pay the money for it", if their answer is "No", my reply is 'well back to the furnace with it and fix it, if it can't be fixed you need to make another"

Quality of workmanship is like buying oats, if you want good oats, you have to pay for them, if you are satisfied with oats that have already been through the horse, well the price is a little cheaper.

[dablacksmith]

interesting thread ... i usually ask first if it functions as what it is supposed to be ..if its a spoon does it work as a spoon? on a art piece does it look good?(thats its function)then i look at it and can i make this piece better?and how much time versus how much better ? and the big one will it sell???thats the GOOD ENUF for me .. if it sells it was good enuf if it dosent maybee i need to rework or scrap ..

[irontwister]

i often say that to myself, but the truth is that i should always do it better. i need to make money and a name for myself. if i say that im not doing the best i can do. i want to make it perfect which is not possible but it is what i strive for. i want people to start showing the product that i made for them to their relatives as their pride and joy of their living room. every time i say that its "good Enough" i take a step farther away.

[thingmaker3]

From a visual stanpoint, the thing does not have to be perfect. But it does have to have the illusion of perfection. It is not good enough until it looks good enough.

From a perfomrance standpoint, the thing does have to be within specs. "Good enough" has measurable parameters for performance.

[olcarguy]

Some times we have to take a step back and make a decision. Is plus or minus .5 of an inch good enough or is .005in good enough. Depending on the job some times .0005 is not good enough it depends on the job. Must remember we are Blacksmiths not Machinists......

[Larzz]

:rolleyes: I quess when they take it out of one hand and put money in the other hand it was good enough!

My hands are still empty....I quess it wasn't good enough!

[Jayson]

A short story about what good enough has come to mean to me.

A while back, I was in a band. I played bass.....well I still play bass but anyway. We recorded 5 of our songs. After we finished recording, the guy producing the demo for us gave us our CD. I listened to it, which is the only recording of our songs that we ever did, and HATED it. All I could hear was places where my notes didn't fall exactly on top of the kick drum or where I had popped my strings but didn't get the metallic sound of the strings bouncing off the fret board like I should have. I still can't listen to it, to this day (over 5 years later) and enjoy it for what it is, a demo. The guys in my band couldn't hear the flaws i heard. Nobody that heard it could hear what I was talking about, but I knew it wasn't as good as I could do. It will forever be flawed to me. It will never be good enough to me. And now I have to live with it.

So, with that lesson learned, "Good Enough" to me is when I can live with it for the rest of my life.

Edited October 31, 2009 by Jayson

[arftist]

The first old machinist I aprenticed under use to say "it's good enough for who it's for" if it was a customer he didn't like. I find my self muttering that same phrase ocasionaly, but not in the same context. I once said it in front of a customer. I think that like any phrase, there are different meanings for different people. When I say it, what I am saying is that the job is done to my satifaction.

[Johnnie C.]

My experience is that what I see and what the customer sees is completely different. The inperfection that I beat myself over, 9 times out of 10 nobody will even notice.

[JeremyP]

My experience is that what I see and what the customer sees is completely different. The inperfection that I beat myself over, 9 times out of 10 nobody will even notice.

That true, just the other day I had to fix an aluminum hand railing that a customer had damaged on one of those portable platforms they use to unload passenger jets and such. When I got the new peice welded up I noticed that the one end wasn't completely lining up with rest of the railing. As I was just about to cut it all apart, the customer arrived early and thought it was done.
When I mentioned that something wasn't perfect with it, he couldnt tell at all what I was talking about. The flaw was blaring in my face, yet he couldn't see anything wrong with it.
Sometimes we are too hard on ourselves I think.
For me though, if I let something go thats under par, I do not feel good about that job, and often times it wrecks the rest of my day. I literally can't sleep at night lol

[J W Bennett]

As someone said earlier in this thread. As my abilities progress and improve so does "Good enough". I try not to work a piece to ruination. There is a point when you have to accept it or scrap it. But if you scrap it you need to figure out what was wrong with your methods and techniques. If you do that then it wasn't scrap it was part of the learning process. I have had a lot of pieces go into the scrap bin but I have learned from them also.
Everyone's concept of "Good Enough" is different, But the quality of the finished product shows where you have set bar and if the bar is high enough or not.
Just my 2 cents worth.

John

[reclaimed]

First of all I would like to say hi as I am new to the forum.
As for the thread. As we are all craftsmen and women, we tend to be our own worst critics. Part of it stems from wanting to be better at our craft and trying to make some sort of money so we can continue. There is a fine line, in which we must judge the project and it final appearence. As it has already been stated, most cutomers will never see minor flaws we can see. All they see is the project in its whole state. Yes there are some extreme critics but they are far and few between.
So with this said it's up to us to take these known flaws and correct them on the next project and proceed on with the blacksmithing.

[gadetoz]

Good enough is when you are happy with the outcome.

From my perspective this thread has a lot of interesting comments or ideals. In my mind's eye I rationalise these as:

1. All trades (including blacksmithing) where skill of hand and co-ordination for bespoke products benefit from years of practice remain a life long journey towards perfection and therefore have some element of an ever-increasing raising of the bar of "good enough" versus the current skill/time and money questions.

2. Blacksmithing is a skill based on hand/eye co-ordination (when banging away on hot metal), coupled with project planning (drawings/mathematics/concepts/problem solving/customer requirements/form and function) and therefore remains primarily a skill of the person and not a machine - that is if a job is perfect and repeatable it was probably run off using computer aided design (CAD) and a machine.

Trevor

[metalmangeler]

I hear those saying that if I get paid it is good enough, but only if the customer remains happy with the purchase for the long haul. When a customer is not happy they are likely to tell anyone who will listen.
I also believe that we see things that our customer don't really see but they will usually chose the right one if it is sitting beside one that is not as nice. They see more than they reallize.
That said I recently desided to make some hinges without going over the edges with a flatter to take out the drawing die marks, I have never done this before as it seems undone to me but I think that to some the hammer marks may be an improvment. If they sell well then I will either have a new additional style or good enough will move in a direction that seems less good to me, but maybe better to the customer.

[Ten Hammers]

Bill Printy told me 20 years ago "you've got to know when to stop Steve". This is just before I wreck something with the next blow of the hammer.

[beth]

someone earlier said something about rustic vigour - you got to be so careful not to hammer all the life and energy out of the work - good enough doesnt have to mean visually "perfect". good enough to me is beautiful, functional, or ideally both.

[Glenn]

This thread went dormant for 4 years but is still just as valuable today.

 

 

When is good enough actually good enough?

 

To those reading for the first time, we need your thoughts.

For those that have commented before, we need to know if your thoughts have changed with time.

[CaptainBruno]

Speaking as a beginner, I am constantly surrounded by craftsmen that have years and decades of experience above me. And as a result of this, everything I do, I compare to their work. It is always a hard goal to meet, but I won't be happy until I meet the standards they have set. How can I consider my work good enough if it pales in comparison to the standard?

 

So good enough for me is when I can do the same or better than the masters and my teacher. Sometimes that's not possible, but then that's just not good enough is it?