By Sara Orlos Fernandes
BZ reporter Sara Orlos Fernandes tries one last time in a trade. The self-experiment in a carpentry shop in Neukölln ends with paint spots on the shirt and burnt wooden edges.
The floor is full of shavings and there is a smell of varnish in the air. In the backyard on Lahnstrasse, the Laurisch joinery has been making carpentry since 1954. Wolf-Manuel Senger (54) has been running the business with four employees for almost ten years. Whether table tops, wardrobes, shoe cabinets or recording studio tables – everything from the top to the assembly is made in-house.
I am allowed to approach the sanding and oiling of shelving elements first. I quickly notice: Here you look with your hands!
The bumps are often not visible to the naked eye, but the palm of your hand feels every rough sawn surface. “That’s the nicest thing about the job, that you can see your hands more clearly than through your eyes,” says Senger.
Carpenter Wolf-Manuel Senger (54) from the Laurisch carpentry workshop: “I believe in the future of the carpentry profession. More and more people are interested in it and no robot will be able to replace what we create with our hands.” Photo: Christian Lohse
Then it’s on to the saw for me. The task: cut a wooden panel to size. With a cold sweat on my back, I let the wood slide through the machine.
In the end, the dimensions are correct, but the cut surfaces are burned. “Too much pressure creates more friction and the wood discolours,” explains the boss, which is why he only gives it a three.
Screwed up: The dark spots on the cut surface are caused by too much pressure on the sawing machine. Photo: Christian Lohse
On the other hand, window restoration requires less finesse.
An old window from a Neukölln house needs to be sanded, filled and primed. I quickly realize that the brushwork is my passion here.
Old building windows are primed with a brush in the joinery. Then it is sanded and painted again. Photo: Christian Lohse
They let me relax from the turbulent everyday life of a reporter and in the end also make me a bit proud: after all, a piece of my handiwork will be hanging on a Berlin facade in the future.