I sometimes think about what it means to be a master of wheel building.
I try to define what "mastery" means to me
and consider how far I myself measure up to that definition,
so here are my thoughts on that definition.
Part 1
An interpretation based on Michelangelo's David
Michelangelo's David in the museum in Florence—
according to Michelangelo, the form of the statue was already inherent in the stone block before carving,
and he merely brought it out.
In reality, though, the form wasn't inherent in the stone itself
but rather Michelangelo had a strong image of the finished piece in his mind,
and he expressed this as "the statue was already within the stone."
Work that reaches completion with as few steps as possible
gives the impression of practiced skill, and it's satisfying to watch.
When building a wheel, imagining the finished form from the materials,
the waste that should be eliminated in executing that vision is "loosening nipples."
If you could build a wheel only by tightening nipples,
it would mean you had perfectly envisioned the result beforehand.
If we think of the relationship between chisel and stone, "tightening nipples" becomes "carving stone,"
so wheel building is allowed something sculpture isn't—regression (loosening nipples).
Imagine carefully disassembling a finished wheel with a nipple wrench.
Once you place the nipple wrench on one nipple, you turn it until it's completely loose.
On a 32-hole wheel, that's 32 times you place the nipple wrench on a nipple.
If you filmed that process and played it backwards,
you'd get "a video where a wheel comes together with the tool applied to each nipple just once,"
in effect.
（In reality, you have to do things like stress-relief, so you can't build it with just tightening）
The average number of times the tool is applied to each nipple is one time, which is theoretically the minimum.
The fewer times this happens, the closer you are to mastery, in my view.
How fast the work itself goes isn't that important.
First there's high finishing quality, and if you can achieve that with even fewer hand motions,
that's even better—that's my philosophy.
Part 2
An interpretation based on Atsushi Nakajima's "The Master Archer"
There's a short story by Atsushi Nakajima called "The Master Archer."
It's about a man named Ki Shou who wants to become the greatest archer in the land.
Ki Shou first studies under the best archer in the capital,
and then, at that master's suggestion, studies under a hermit living in the mountains.
That hermit tells him, "As long as you use a bow, it's still 'shooting with a bow'—
until you understand 'shooting without a bow,' you still have far to go,"
or something to that effect. After training, Ki Shou masters "shooting without a bow" and returns to the capital.
The people of the capital are puzzled at first that Ki Shou is known as a master archer
but doesn't have a bow (having lost it somewhere),
but after several episodes, they come to recognize him as a true master archer.
Late in life, Ki Shou sees a tool he doesn't recognize in a shop window,
so he asks the shop owner, "What is this for?"
The owner thinks Ki Shou is joking and doesn't answer,
but realizing he's serious, says something like:
"What? You, the peerless master archer of all time, have forgotten about bows?
Forgotten even the very name of the bow and what it's used for!"
After that, for a while, painters in the capital would hide their brushes, musicians would break their strings,
and carpenters were ashamed to touch compasses and rulers—or so the story goes.
By this logic, as long as you're building wheels using a truing stand, nipple wrench,
centering gauge, tension meter and so on, you still have far to go.
Of course, I need all these tools,
so I'm far from the realm of mastery.
As for the tension meter among these tools,
there are some shops that claim they don't need it (for their work),
but lately we've been getting a lot of wheel rebuilds from wheels built at those shops.
It's certainly true that a master is not something one claims for oneself.
I try to define what "mastery" means to me
and consider how far I myself measure up to that definition,
so here are my thoughts on that definition.
Part 1
An interpretation based on Michelangelo's David
Michelangelo's David in the museum in Florence—
according to Michelangelo, the form of the statue was already inherent in the stone block before carving,
and he merely brought it out.
In reality, though, the form wasn't inherent in the stone itself
but rather Michelangelo had a strong image of the finished piece in his mind,
and he expressed this as "the statue was already within the stone."
Work that reaches completion with as few steps as possible
gives the impression of practiced skill, and it's satisfying to watch.
When building a wheel, imagining the finished form from the materials,
the waste that should be eliminated in executing that vision is "loosening nipples."
If you could build a wheel only by tightening nipples,
it would mean you had perfectly envisioned the result beforehand.
If we think of the relationship between chisel and stone, "tightening nipples" becomes "carving stone,"
so wheel building is allowed something sculpture isn't—regression (loosening nipples).
Imagine carefully disassembling a finished wheel with a nipple wrench.
Once you place the nipple wrench on one nipple, you turn it until it's completely loose.
On a 32-hole wheel, that's 32 times you place the nipple wrench on a nipple.
If you filmed that process and played it backwards,
you'd get "a video where a wheel comes together with the tool applied to each nipple just once,"
in effect.
（In reality, you have to do things like stress-relief, so you can't build it with just tightening）
The average number of times the tool is applied to each nipple is one time, which is theoretically the minimum.
The fewer times this happens, the closer you are to mastery, in my view.
How fast the work itself goes isn't that important.
First there's high finishing quality, and if you can achieve that with even fewer hand motions,
that's even better—that's my philosophy.
Part 2
An interpretation based on Atsushi Nakajima's "The Master Archer"
There's a short story by Atsushi Nakajima called "The Master Archer."
It's about a man named Ki Shou who wants to become the greatest archer in the land.
Ki Shou first studies under the best archer in the capital,
and then, at that master's suggestion, studies under a hermit living in the mountains.
That hermit tells him, "As long as you use a bow, it's still 'shooting with a bow'—
until you understand 'shooting without a bow,' you still have far to go,"
or something to that effect. After training, Ki Shou masters "shooting without a bow" and returns to the capital.
The people of the capital are puzzled at first that Ki Shou is known as a master archer
but doesn't have a bow (having lost it somewhere),
but after several episodes, they come to recognize him as a true master archer.
Late in life, Ki Shou sees a tool he doesn't recognize in a shop window,
so he asks the shop owner, "What is this for?"
The owner thinks Ki Shou is joking and doesn't answer,
but realizing he's serious, says something like:
"What? You, the peerless master archer of all time, have forgotten about bows?
Forgotten even the very name of the bow and what it's used for!"
After that, for a while, painters in the capital would hide their brushes, musicians would break their strings,
and carpenters were ashamed to touch compasses and rulers—or so the story goes.
By this logic, as long as you're building wheels using a truing stand, nipple wrench,
centering gauge, tension meter and so on, you still have far to go.
Of course, I need all these tools,
so I'm far from the realm of mastery.
As for the tension meter among these tools,
there are some shops that claim they don't need it (for their work),
but lately we've been getting a lot of wheel rebuilds from wheels built at those shops.
It's certainly true that a master is not something one claims for oneself.