Fine furniture?

[Alan Bienlein]

What is fine furniture exactly?

I scour the net everyday to get my fix for new methods and techniques to use in my woodworking projects. I don't believe in there is only one way to do something. Never have and never will!

It seems that alot of people believe that if you use metal drawer slides your fine furniture piece isn't fine furniture and that it's not quality work.

That if you use nails or screws in your joinery that it's not fine furniture.

That if you use pocket holes or biscuits it's not fine furniture.

That if you use god forbid a belt sander your not building fine furniture.

Why?

Last I checked this is the 21st century and we have all these items available to use in the making of our woodworking projects. Why not use them.

Now people will start to say thats not how they traditionally built fine furniture but I say they didn't have these items available to them and if they were they were cost prohibitive.

Why is it that alot of woodworkers only consider it fine furniture if you only used hand tools?

I understand that some people enjoy using only hand tools and more power to them but how does that make a piece of furniture any more "fine" than one built with power tools?

[Jerry Thompson]

I've never considered fine furniture requiring hand tools only/mostly. It seems FF would be a mix of what you had. I would find it hard to believe that 18th cen. craftsmen would not use power tools if they had been available.

[Paul Murphy]

In the end, fine furniture is whatever you think it is as long as you are building for yourself. If you are building for someone else, then their opinion will matter also.
In a hundred years, if you were right, your furniture will still be in use, will still function well, and there will be widespread agreement that you indeed built fine furniture .

I have used pocket hole construction in face-frames for kitchen cabinets, but not in what I intend to be "fine furniture" where I instead used mortise and tenon construction. Am I right? I think so, but I could be making lots of extra work for myself. I do know none of my fine furniture has needed repair.

I embraced the better undermount drawer slides, and use them in my fine furniture. If someone paying money wants traditional drawers, that is what they will have. Either way I will try my best to build a nice piece, because that is what drew me to woodworking in the first place.

I use a lot of power tools, but am finding hand tools more useful as time goes on. I have come to love hand tools such as the scraper, and the low-angle block plane and can't really think of a power tool that can do the same job. In my opinion the results are what count, not the tool used. I use a router to make sliding dovetails, but some folks hate the noise and use hand tools. I don't see either as "better", but the job gets done, and the person doing it is satisfied with the process.

[Mike Henderson]

To me, fine furniture is a good design, well executed.

Remember Deming's definition of quality - "Quality is what the customer says it is."

Mike

[Tom Fischer]

I think the term "Fine Furniture" is a throw back to very old construction methods (Churches and barns) of mortise and tenon joinery.
Back then, they had no glues for those joints, swaying in the wind.
Had to rely on some crude engineering, and hand tools.
It was a work ethic, lasted a long time. Still there.
I usually try to use M&T joints.
When I am not in a hurry, it just "feels" right.

[david brum]

I'll bet if you could see into the shops of most professional fine woodworkers (who live by producing work as efficiently as possible), you'd see lots of biscuits, loose tenons, pocket screws and lots of sand paper. If you're producing exact reproduction pieces, that might be a different story. Even then, I doubt if many people are making their own veneer without power tools.

I say use whatever method that gives you reliable results and appropriate appearance.

[Jay Rasmussen]

To me “fine” is the end result.

Not how you got there.

[Bobby O'Neal]

I think fine furniture is furniture built with care and detail. Regardless of process, I think "fine" is up to the results but that depends on what you are looking at. A fine mortise and tenon fits tightly and lasts a lifetime. That can be created in many ways. A fine dovetail joint, in my opinion, has thin pins and a unique layout and that won't be done with a router.

[George Gyulatyan]

To me fine furniture is something that once built, others try to imitate. It does not just consist of fine craftsmanship, but is of great artistic value as well. The use or lack of certain materials or joinery doesn't automatically make or break "fine furniture".

[Rick Fisher]

I have always felt it a quality comment. I use pocket screws to hold table tops to apron's because its so strong. Never occurred to me that it would not be considered " fine " .. lol

IMO Fine furniture is furniture that can be " lived with " for a generation and not fall apart .. Its quality due to technique, not just mass..

[HANK METZ]

I've never considered fine furniture requiring hand tools only/mostly. It seems FF would be a mix of what you had. I would find it hard to believe that 18th cen. craftsmen would not use power tools if they had been available.

A most reasonable and lucid description of reality. Indeed, craftsmen of any era would gladly embrace any motive means that would make their work faster, easier, cheaper. The rest is just romantic nonsense.

- Beachside Hank
Improvise, adapt, overcome; the essence of true craftsmanship.

[Jeff Duncan]

To me.....I know it when I see it

It's no so much about what tools were or were not used. Or what type of specific joints or fasteners, or any of the things in the OP's list....with the single exception of metal slides. Metal slides IMHO are production slides and as such I generally don't want to see them on furniture. It's the finished piece that says everything. I don't care if there are biscuits used or screws used, or whether it's veneer or solid. What I care is that the craftsman knew where to use the biscuits and/or screws, that he/she knew where to use veneer and where to use solid wood. That it's a good design with good proportions and quality construction. And I really don't care what specific kind of tools were used, anyone who thinks it should be all hand tools is IMHO slightly delusional, and while certainly entitled to their opinion, I would not personally give it much merit

JeffD

[William Adams]

A man who works with his hands is a laborer.
A man who works with his hands and his mind is a craftsman.
A man who works with his hands, his mind and his heart is an artist.

Fine furniture I think would begin somewhere in between the latter two --- something like:

A man who works with his hands and his mind and produces work which people will love and cherish is a craftsman making fine furniture or other heirlooms.

Or the Biblical:

Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will stand before kings; He will not stand before lesser men.
--- Proverbs 22:29

[glenn bradley]

As usual, Mike brings it to ground with a few intelligent words. To me, fine furniture is quality furniture. The meaning of quality varies with the person.

[Andrew Joiner]

As usual, Mike brings it to ground with a few intelligent words. To me, fine furniture is quality furniture. The meaning of quality varies with the person.

Yes, I agree. Did Sam Maloof make fine furniture? He used screws in his work when it was best in his experience.