Your opinions please.

Re: Your opinions please.

Richard Gillespie

>Until May of last year I worked at a local semi custom cabinet/furniture making shop. They sell about 5 mil. in furniture a year. Their price list falls on the high end of furniture prices. Production runs were in the neighborhood of 5 to 40 pieces of a given type.

They take great care to ensure that each and every piece is correctly assembled and finished.

One of the primary reasons I left was the extremely dusty working conditions the power tool shop generated. On top of an allergy to cherry dust, I would go home at night feeling that I had reverted to smoking 3 packs of cigarettes a day, a habit I quit 33 years ago.

Now I'm trying to learn hand tool processes in my own shop to achieve what I was taught to do with power tools. So far the process has been a great deal of fun if not very profitable. Though I haven't been able to completely eliminate power sanding, hand plaining and scraping have reduced the amount of dust generated.

Hand tools in many ways are more forgiving than power tools in that you usually can correct the mistakes easier.

In summation working with hand tools has brought back the joy of woodworking that I lost in production woodworking. As I've said in the past, the breadth of knowledge shard on these woodworking forums is amazing. I thank each and every contributor. I learn something new every day.

Re: Your opinions please.

Robert Tarr

>I find this to be a very interesting question. One, that I think that many cottage industries have answered very well. I am not really sure it matters what the end product is (furniture or otherwise), but it matters greatly what the perception of the consumer is (this means marketing and sticking to your stated objective (I hate to used the phrase "company values".))

For me, I am willing to pay extra for what I consider an heirloom piece...something that is finely crafted and that I can pass down to someone else....this includes my Lie-Nielsen tools and Thos. Moser buffet, among other things. When I look at these things, I see the beauty of the object at face value, the function that it provides, and the faces of the craftsmen and women that put a piece of themselves into the finished product.....I don't get that feeling at IKEA.

In furniture making, I think the consumer should have a part in knowing what went into making the item and what to expect from it over the next xxx years, including, how to care for it. If not, it is hard to argue with cheaper, "faceless" and more available options.

Getting down off of the box now.

Have a great weekend.

Robert

Re: Your opinions please.

joel

>Ikea makes it's furniture in factories.

Stickley makes it's furniture in factories too.

There is a big big difference.

Most of the custom furniture makers in the US (but not all) use power tools and in some cases very fancy speciallized factory type machinery such as wide belt sanders and CNC routers. but they certainly aren't a factory.

In China and Asia - a lot of the furniture is made in large quanitites - some with carving, some basic, and in many cases it is made entirely but skilled at semi-skilled labor working for very very low wages. Machines can be at an absolute minimum. yet while the work in in fact largey "handmade" we call it a factory.