This is where the rubber hits the road. My shop is a fully equipped facility with both wood and metal working capabilities. If I can’t handle a process in house I’ve got an extensive network of local artisans I can call on to assist with virtually any material imaginable.

I use a combination of very traditional methods, and also some very modern ones to get a piece built. It is, after all, a business and we don’t get paid to show up – we have to produce. Sometimes it’s sensible to make a part using old school methods & sometimes it’s best to draw on modern technology. The point is that many paths will get you there – it’s up to me to choose the best, fastest and most efficient one.

I am a stickler for traditional joinery. There has never been a better way to put to pieces of wood together than with a mortise and tenon or dovetail joint. There is a very good reason that 200 year old furniture in museums is still holding together. It’s important to remember that the science of adhesives has come a long way in the last 75 years. I can remember as a kid having only a couple of choices, one being Elmers. Before modern glues, builders had to incorporate mechanical strength into their work or it simply would not stay together. Some forms of traditional Asian joinery use no adhesives at all, but are held together with pins, wedges or keys. The entire structural integrity is in the joint itself. For these reasons you will very seldom to never find dowels used in my furniture. They are structurally inferior to mortise and tenon construction. In my furniture repair experience the main cause of failure is by far doweled joints.

Veneer work is also a big interest of mine. The finest woods are usually snapped up by the veneer manufacturers and cut into veneer. To some it has gotten a bad rap – plywood furniture… but in reality some of the finest examples of heirloom furniture found in museums are veneered. Using veneer is the only way a maker can have a repeating grain pattern, be it book matched, slip matched or butt matched. Absolutely stunning patterns can be achieved with marquetry and inlay methods. Historically all the specialties had a separate guild that handled their part of the production process. A veneer specialist was referred to as an Ébéniste in 17th century France. It comes from the root of Ebony, or a person who works with Ebony, which was the favored species of veneer for the top quality furniture being made.

Much of my work is multi-media. I enjoy metalworking and when appropriate I incorporate it into my work. The forged steel hardware and bases I make in house. I’ve got some youtube videos of me making bent forged handles if you’re interested. I’m an above average TIG welder as well. I built a number of executive office desks, which always had to go up or down in elevators to install. I found that building a steel structure underneath the wood was the most rigid way to have furniture that can be dis assembled and re- assembled on site in a busy office. As Mid-Century styles have once again become popular the metal structures have come out of the shadows and been given top billing again, as in my cabinet on a stand.

One thing I do not have in my shop is a CNC, or computer controlled router. However, I have designed and drafted on a computer for well over 20 years which gets me half way there on computer generated parts. I do subcontract work to a couple of different shops for cutting on their CNC router or laser cutting machines. Sometimes they’re patterns and sometimes they’re finished parts.  Hopefully I won’t sound like a crusty old school woodworker, but I believe that a maker that has skipped learning the fundamentals of working with hand and conventional power tools will be limited if they jump straight to computer manufacturing. You will simply never have a proper tactile response or intimacy with a material if your only interaction with it is to push a button and the machine spits out a part.