In the northeast of the intersection of Linwei District 108 National Highway and G30 Lianhuo Expressway, a humble small courtyard, ordinary brick and tile houses, tin doors are a bit dilapidated, and only to find that there is a carpentry workshop inside.
Cao Kui is the owner of this place, and it is known from the informed population that he is an amateur carpenter who has always adhered to the traditional technique of tenoning, insisted on slow work and fine work, and insisted on letting wood speak. This traditional technique attracted the attention of video shooting enthusiasts and caught fire on the Internet for a time.
Pushing the door in, you will be greeted by neatly arranged wood, the cold air is filled with a faint fragrance of pure solid wood, and a yellow dog called Wood is running around happily with its tail wagging.
Entering the carpentry workshop from the small courtyard, various types of chisels, planers, shovels and other tools are neatly stacked on the shelves against the wall, and the solid wood tea tables, dining tables, stools that have been completed... Completely using the tenon technique, 100% reproduction is the carpentry craft handed down from generation to generation.
Cao Kui was born in 1981 in Zhonglei Village, Fang Town, Heyang County. When he was a child, there was no toy shop in his village, and when he saw the toy cars bought by other children from the city, he and his brother cried and asked their father to buy them one, and later, his skillful father made one for them. It was a model car made of wood. Plus four wooden wheels, a rope was tied to the front of the car, and they proudly pulled around all day to show off, attracting the envious eyes of the friends around them. At that time, wood brought him joy.
At that time, my father was working as a carpenter at a construction site in Xi'an. One summer vacation, he went to his father's place of work, and they temporarily lived in the carpentry shed on the site. For him, the carpentry shed was their home, and at that time, the wood brought him warmth.
Although he has been away from his hometown in Heyang for more than ten years in Weinan, during which he has done a lot of business, the memory of wood always appears in his mind, especially in the kitchen compartment of his hometown, there is a mysterious wooden box, which contains many woodworking tools and semi-finished wood utensils, which contains his father's unfulfilled dream.
When the mysterious box was mentioned, Cao Kui's enthusiasm for carpentry burned, and he shouted to move the box out with his father. As if he had found a treasure, he poured all the tools in the box into the courtyard, sorted it out, and then packed it up and moved it back to the city.
Whenever I saw those tools, I thought of my father with dreams. Although he did not study with a special teacher, with his love for wood, he carried out the reproduction and restoration of the carpentry tenon technique.
He swam on the woodworking forum, as if enchanted, immersed in the ocean of wood all day, even dreaming of installing mortise and mortise. In his spare time, he often consulted a carpenter to exchange skills.
One day in June 2019, he found an abandoned old courtyard in Weinan High-tech Zone, felt quiet, and wanted to use wood to surround a small courtyard here, build a carpentry workshop of his own in the middle of the courtyard, smell the faint fragrance of flowers in the spring, and sit in the courtyard doing fine carpentry work. So he took matters into his own hands, built the house brick by brick, and struggled with his poetry and far away places bit by bit.
Time is the best craftsman. Wood, is the craftsman's friend.
Starting with his mother's old dowry stool, he wanted to make all the traditional wooden utensils in the life of guanzhong people. With gratitude, he made a set of old-fashioned tables and chairs for the uncle next door, immersed himself in creating a small wooden horse that children liked, and he carved the warmth of wood in his memory with the eyes of discovery...
When working in the carpentry workshop, Cao Kui's impetuous heart can always calm down, for him, every piece of wood is his friend, every process is a dialogue in the heart, and every polishing is an emotional resonance. Looking at the push and fold, the beautiful log pattern immediately came into view. Through the wood grain that resembled a landscape painting, he seemed to see the original tenacious life of the wood, and it bloomed again. The mortise and mortise in his hand, turning and closing, every connection, is the original intention buried in the heart of the wood.
It is also this simple original intention that makes everyone feel the happy carpentry life of a Guanzhong craftsman, and at the same time, it has also received the attention and love of thousands of netizens. In order to make the most of the wood, even the last wood slag particles must burn and bloom the last wonderful. He also pondered improving the stove, but he did not expect that this unintentional move was on fire on the Internet, netizens have placed orders, and even dealers have asked him to cooperate in the production of stoves.
At the beginning of the new year, Vientiane is renewed. Cao Kui plans for the future days, the carpentry workshop not only has the simple wooden home in Weibei, but also has the Qin feng and Qin flavor in the memory; not only the vitality of the trees, but also the ordinary days with unique Guanzhong characteristics...
I always think that if the tree does not germinate, it will come to the end of life. However, in Cao Kui's hands, wood is like encountering another warm spring in life. The man who made the wood speak must have a huge spring in his body. (Reporters Liu Congmei and Shi Wangping)
Source: Weinan Daily
Editor: Ma Hangjuan
Proofreader: Chu Tingting
Review: Dong Zhiyong
Issued: Xu Lei