For purposes of the commentary over the last few days, the humor in differences in the languages, especially for those of us who don't speak French, can be amusing. I'm sure, after a few laughs, most everyone on this side of the Channel, and this side of the Pond (except maybe a few people in Quebec) will go back to calling them by the traditional English names. When you get your copy of Roubo's volume on marquetry, published by LAP, translated into English, and interpreted in light of modern American woodworking techniques by Don, there will be one revelation that will be a bit less disturbing.
BTW, the guy in the vid is chief furniture conservator for the Smithsonian. If someone were to break the Jefferson Lap Desk, for example, he would be the guy who would fix it.
After almost forty years of reading the Roubo text and looking at the plates, I am really looking forward to the new translation. The parts I have read were extremely well done, really in the spirit and style of 18th century writers.
I do hope the 21st century editorial commentary can be kept to a minimum. Stuff like that can be distracting and annoying.
My wife cross stitched a piece on some fancy linen, I forget the name, and used silk thread which she does mostly nowadays. They were diluted hues, almost like a water color. I framed it in hickory and when I looked at it I didn't want anything to brighten the wooden because it would look terrible next to the piece. So to this day it has zero finish on it.
I doubt we'll be spared a heavy editorial hand with regard to the commentary and "interpretation."
The thing, and I mean the thing, in my opinion to remember about Roubo is that he was documenting the professional practice of woodworking, not hobbyist woodworking where guys can hone edges and haunt EBay for months on end and still come away with a feeling of accomplishment. In other words, a whole swath of people will be totally out of touch with the context and will attempt to impute it to their dinking around a few hours a week. The processes, procedures, tools, what was being built, etc. have to be considered as an organic whole I think. We'll get slice and dice commentary until none of the thing, or very little of it, makes any sense whatsoever.
Witness the "Roubo" bench craze as Plaintiff's Exhibit No. 1.
While I agree with all you say, limiting one's finishing skills to oil also limits one's choice of furniture style. More formal furniture demands a more formal finish. While in individual cases this limitation is irrelevant, it should be recognized by persons learning to build furniture that finishing is not an afterthought, or something where skill and experience can be short cut. I see in some cases that minimalist finishing is attractive because the person doing it won't or hasn't learned to do anything that requires more skill and experience.
You can't separate finish from the furniture style
Bill Tindall
This comment is directed to those learning. Just as one must learn construction techniques appropriate to some style, finishing techniques appropriate to that style must also be learned. French polish complimented the style it was applied to. One needs to learn to finish appropriate to what is being finished. French polish would look strange on a Krenov cabinet made from pear. Wax wouldn't do much to enhance the beauty of a mahogany high boy. Hence, in evaluating a finishing technique ease of application and short term looks are only two of many factors that need to be evaluated to make the best choice.
When in doubt, choose a finish that was traditionally used for the style being build.
I think you make good arguments there, Bill. But they apply equally to the minimalist finishing methods you describe. I've seen a lot of furniture that was shot with lacquer that looked great initially. But because it dries so fast, it doesn't penetrate the wood enough to hold up. Plates of hot food, or boxes of pizza raise rings where the wood lets off some water vapor and the finish loses the optical connection with the wood. Scratches remove the finish completely and couldn't be more obvious.
My grandfather finished everything he made with nothing more complicated than linseed oil. After 3 kids and 6 grand kids, the coffee table in the living room, which got the most traffic, still looked the same.
Your argument about people who won't or haven't learned anything that requires more skill and experience applies just as much to the lacquer shooters and the urethane smearing crowd.
My 3 preferred finishes are oil and wax, shellac, and Waterlox oil varnish. The varnish is great and penetrates well. But so does oil, and so does shellac, when I use it.
But I prefer the simpler finishes over varnish simply because I don't believe in Excalibur. There is no magical, bulletproof, idiot proof anything. Every time someone comes up with something that's idiot proof, someone else comes up with a better idiot. And the same holds true for bullet proof and bullets. Everything breaks, scratches, and gets worn down. Shellac, oil, wax, are all finishes that are incredibly easy to repair. While I see the logic in applying urethane to the pie crust table, I think shellac is easier to repair, once you know how to work with it. And I'll take easily maintained over bulletproof any day.
I'd be happy to own a good translation of the thing, but no more. Here's the book, here's the translation. Here are the qualifications of the translator(s) (hope like hell there's more than one).
That said, somewhere in la France profonde, in a few small workshops, are a few 80 year old guys who have been doing this since they were eight years old who learned it from their fathers who did it since they were eight years old, who may have learned it from their fathers who did it since they were eight years old.
Wouldn't you just love to know how they do it?
There are some bloody great French cooking videos on YouTube and my culinary French is good enough to be able to follow along for the most part. I sure wish there was more woodworking stuff coming out of France and available to us in any form.
It's a nice thought, but the odds are against you (you already know that, there's no reason to torture yourself getting bothered about it). Anyone good enough to translate it will probably be egotistical enough to leave their figurative smudgy fingerprints all over the text.
Re: You can't separate finish from the furniture s
TomD
"French polish would look strange on a Krenov cabinet made from pear."
Which one? The Shellac, or the wax french polish, I am so confused. His finishing is a bit of a mystery to me. He seems to have promoted shellac of a kind most modern experts would find dubious, and Renaissance wax. I would like to actually have seen one of his pieces not too long after it left him.
