Woodworkers are knotty. – Author unknown

For a craftsman like my father, nothing is more exasperating than to witness tool abuse. In particular, I remember a steel tape measure he gave me after I had somehow managed to lose the first twelve inches of it. – Richard Menzies, “If I Were A Carpenter,” RDMenzies.com, 2011

Are the tools without, which the carpenter puts forth his hands to, or are they and all the carpentry within himself; and would he not smile at the notion that chest or house is more than he? – C.A. Bartol, The Rising Faith, Chapter XI: Personality, 1873

A knotty piece of timber must have smooth wedges. – English proverb quoted by John Ray, 1670