The Technique of FURNITURE MAKING

Introduction to the first edition

Any textbook concerned with the techniques of furniture-making must deal primarily with the basic handcrafts for it is upon this groundwork that machine production is built, and in fact all the machine can ever do is to translate the essential hand operations into rotary movements of the cutting tool. In effect, therefore, mechanised production is no more than a speeding up of hand production, simplifying wherever possible but not radically interfering with methods which have taken over 4000 years to perfect, for wood is a natural material and imposes its own strict limitations. Where other forms of material are concerned techniques can of course differ, and not doubt in the future both plastics and metal will usurp much of the importance of wood, but it is hardly likely that it will be altogether supplanted, at least in the foreseeable future, for quite apart from aesthetic values it is still the cheapest medium; it can be worked with the simplest hand tools and is always easily repairable. To those pundits, therefore, who may claim that the teaching of hand skills is no longer relevant in this day and age it can be pointed out that anyone who has only been shown how to force a piece of wood against a mechanised saw will have learnt very little, but if he has had to saw - that piece of wood by hand he will be more likely to know that much more about it, he will have greater respect for it and will understand in greater depth the problems that will have to be faced in its manipulation.

Additional to this need for all machine operators to know their material and how best it can be shaped are questions of quality, not only in the artefact, but also of the artificer himself. Actuating a lever all day long is soul destroying, and modern civilisation must eventually deal with the inherent problems the machine imposes. Handwork allows a man to express his own individuality; it is creative, it is definitely therapeutic. The ideal of more handwork, more individual fulfilment, less automation of both man and machine may be economically impracticable, but it should not be dismissed out of hand for sooner or later we shall be forced to come to terms with the leisure automation will increasingly thrust upon us. Handwork, whether it be sawing a piece of wood or shaping a lump of clay, is one answer, and no apologia is needed.

Scope of the work

Terms in daily use often stretch their meanings and the expression 'handmade" can no longer be accepted as signifying only that work which is produced exclusively by hand-methods without recourse to the machine. Instead, it must now be taken as more descriptive of the approach than the means adopted, and a fair interpretation would include pure hand methods and those other methods which enlist the help of the machine without allowing it to dictate in any way. The inherent danger of mass production is that costly and complex machinery is always greedy for output in order to justify its existence, and it will tend to impose limitations on the designer and actively influence his work. In the so-called 'handwork' no such limitation is permissible and man continues to be the master, using the machine as an extension of his hands only and not as an independent entity liable at any time to question his decisions. It is with this 'handwork' and with this 'machine-assisted work' that the book is chiefly concerned and not with the mechanics of quantity production which belong more properly to the theory of wood machining, a subject which calls for a high degree of engineering skill. Having made the point, the term "handmade' is retained failing a more comprehensive description.

The general term 'cabinet-maker' is also outdated, for so-called "cabinet-work' is no longer confined to straight carcase furniture, with chair-making and other special activities as separate trades. Moreover, the Furniture Industry increasingly uses plastics, plastic laminates, metal sections, and many other new materials, all of which the cabinet-maker should know about, and he should be prepared to undertake any work within the general context of 'Furniture', with the possible exception of deep upholstery and hand and spray polishing, both of which require other aptitudes and training. The tendency, therefore, is to replace the term 'cabinet-maker' with the more comprehensive 'furniture-maker', but custom dies hard and both terms must be regarded as synonymous.

It remains to define what precisely is meant by furniture as distinct from joiners' work. The traditional sharp division between the two types of craftsmen has to some extent disappeared and is now more a matter of approach than anything, for each follows the same principles of construction and both have the same basic skills. Joiners' work which is normally considered to be part of the fabric of a building is usually strong, sturdy and not so intimately concerned with appearance, whereas the cabinet-maker's approach is towards compactness, lightness and delicacy of treatment. In self-contained, free-standing furniture there is no doubt as to the more suitable type of craftsman, but a good deal of fixed church-work, panelled work and particularly built-in fitments could be done equally well by either and it is difficult to draw sharp demarcations. In substance, however, the book is concerned with furniture only, which includes chair-work and those types of built-in fitments which are designed to replace free­standing furniture. It excludes such things as shop fitting, museum - and ship-work, etc., as specialist trades outside its province.

Ernest Joyce 1970