Lost Art Press

It’s the Fashion

Posted on by fitz
Humidors seem to come around in style every 25 years or so.

The current cover of Popular Woodworking features a humidor; when I saw it, I had to chuckle. At around the time I started at F&W Publications (which owned PW at the time), humidors were all the rage. In July 1997, PW published a how-to on John F. Kennedy’s humidor (the coverline: $574,000 Humidor (Your Price: $300)). Fine Woodworking published “Building a Humidor” in its Nov./Dec. 1997 issue. And although I’m too lazy to find out for sure, I’d bet a tin of homemade cookies the other U.S. woodworking magazines also published humidor plans at around the same time. (And again when cigar bars were a fashionable thing in the aughts.)

And that got me thinking about woodworking trends, though perhaps the better term is fashion. Woodworking styles are not unlike clothing – the “in” styles come and go. (The possible exceptions are Shaker and Arts & Crafts furniture – but perhaps they just have longer legs, so to speak.)

Sometimes it’s specific to one group of makers (California roundover as a sterling example…or the cup holders on seemingly every project at PW for a few years as a perhaps unfortunate example). Sometimes its due to world events (The Woodworker Magazine articles throughout WWII on making projects with as few supplies as possible spring to mind). Sometimes it’s regional (Black Forest carvings on pieces from that eponymous region). Sometimes it’s a time-period renaissance (Queen Anne dining sets in the 1950s, mid-century modern right now).

“Dart Board Case,” by David Thiel, from PW May 1998. (“Step 8: Make the cup holders from 1″ thick material, resawn to leave a 1/4″ thick bottom piece. Cut 3″ diameter holes in the top piece[s]. Glue the pieces back together. Cut the two cup holders to finished size.”)

I suspect I have implicit bias, but it seems to me we’re in the midst of a multiplicity of overly long-lived woodworking trends…and because I’m old and want all the kids to get off my lawn, I don’t like too many of them (not that my approval matters one whit). Barn wood? It belongs on barns. Epoxy? It’s the perfect adhesive in some situations. Hairpin legs? Hairpins are for updos. Live edge anything? Well, at least when that trend dies, a rip cut will take care of it.

But I needn’t have a positive aesthetic response to a thing to be happy that people are in the shop making stuff; whatever floats your boat down that (epoxy) river (table) is fine by me. And anyway, I’m for sure casting stones in a glass house. At this moment, there’s an “anarchist’s tool chest” on my bench, and a Kentucky (via Wales) stick chair on Chris’ bench. My email and LAP Facebook page comments let me know on the regular that plenty of folks retch at both; my feeling is not hurt.

I know there are many more 20th- and 21st-century woodworking fads, some that keep trucking along and some that were but a flash in the pan (such as waterfall tables – or are they still a big thing and I just don’t know it?) – but I need to stop thinking about it and get back to my chest build, so help me out. In addition to the above, I have cribbage boards, Adirondack chairs, charcuterie boards, turned pens, fancy cutting boards…

— Fitz

61 thoughts on “It’s the Fashion”

  1. As I believe Chris says in the ATC about 14° (1:4) dovetails: fashion! Albeit one that he (at least then) was rather enamoured of …

    For my part I can’t say that I mind woodworking fashions much, because none of them are exclusive in the sense that nothing else is available simultaneously. If you happen to be smitten with flavour-of-the-season, go for it; if you’re not, everything else is still out there. OK, if you subscribe to a woodworking magazine, you might find it of less interest to you for a while, and may have to consider your personal bang-for-buck equation on’t, but then again you’re never more than a few clicks from your favourite type rabbit hole, are you?!

    Fashion in clothes, however. Grrrr! Says the chap who has worn identical (not the same, I hasten to add) pairs of socks since 1991: same brand, model, size and colour, and who dreads the day when those are no longer made …

    Cheers,

    Mattias

      1. I wasn’t saying I have anything against them – in fact, I own two dovetail markers: a 1:4 and a 1:5. So I don’t have to dig all that deep to come up with a liking for 14° (although the 1:5 is probably my favourite). I was just referring to p. 391 of the ATC, where Chris writes: “I like bold 14° dovetails. But I think my choice is dictated a bit by fashion.” (In fairness to Chris, the gist of the whole passage out of which was plucked this quote is that most any angle goes, from 7° to 20°, and that one should go with one’s druthers, same as he does.)

        As for genuine deep-soul mining, I think you’ll find the quintessential result of any such operation to be that deep down, everyone wants to play the banjo.

    2. @mattias on his socks: Same… That is, until I got married and my wife insisted on buying me clothes. Good bye pure comfort. It did mean I no longer had to go clothes shopping. I think I came out ahead on that deal.

  2. As soon as I get out of bed I’m going to pour through my copy of The Stick Chair book to find where Chris describes how to make the integrated cup holder!

  3. I’m just hoping to be around long enough to buy up all the live edge coffee tables at Goodwill for pennies per board feet in a few years.

    1. That’s never a trend. It’s a solemn honor. If a friend ever needs one. I’ll make it for free.

  7. Like you said, epoxy river tables and live edge do seem to be getting a lot of people interested in woodworking. That’s definitely a positive of them.

  8. Miss Fitz, you are an excellent writer. But I think this is the best thing you’ve written:

    “I suspect I have implicit bias, but it seems to me we’re in the midst of a multiplicity of overly long-lived woodworking trends…and because I’m old and want all the kids to get off my lawn, I don’t like too many of them (not that my approval matters one whit). Barn wood? It belongs on barns. Epoxy? It’s the perfect adhesive in some situations. Hairpin legs? Hairpins are for updos. Live edge anything? Well, at least when that trend dies, a rip cut will take care of it.”

  10. I have an archive of my grandfather’s subscription to The Woodworker’s Journal and Wood magazine that go (not 100% contiguous) from the late seventies when he retired, to the early 90’s when he died. The common thread I noticed throughout those publications was children’s toys. So many toy projects. I figured it wasn’t so much fashion, as it was catering to retiree hobbyists with grandchildren – like him.

  11. I still remember the magazine projects that were all the rage when I started woodworking. Roll top desks. Coffee tables of all kinds, but especially butler’s tray tables and cobbler’s benches. Clocks were on magazine covers more often than anything else. Squirrel in a tree puzzles.

    Homemade stationary tools were everywhere. Wooden bandsaws, jointers made with butcher block in and outfeed tables and mdf base. Lots of handmade drum sanders.

    1. Dude. Squirrels in trees puzzles are THE BEST! (Same issue as the dart board case, in fact.)

      1. I prefer to think of it as the same issue as the Alien Swing.

        I didn’t recall the dartboard though. I have to admit, resawing, boring, and gluing the cup holders was pure genius.

  12. My interior designer suggested a barnwood wall. I reminded her that my grandparents worked very hard so I wouldn’t have to live in a barn

  13. “Fashion is what is offered to you four times a year by designers. And style is what you choose.” -Lauren Hutton

  14. I’ve noticed that woodworking magazines recycle projects over the years. I’ve seen a sewing cabinet I made years ago be morphed into another sewing cabinet, an arts and crafts cabinet, and a shop cabinet. They were all recognized immediately as bastard spawns of the original. This is one of the main reasons I’ve stopped subscribing to the magazines.

  15. A personal favorite is when I see people selling “live edge charcuterie boards.” So, like, just a board you sanded and put mineral oil on?

  17. Thank you for expressing so well my feelings as I peruse (ever so briefly) the current crop of woodworking publications.

  18. Hopping onto Fashion trends is fine so long as you don’t add to the land fill every time they change. I had an uncle who hated anything and everything to do with adolescent trends. He had a pair of black plastic rimmed glasses he’d worn since the 1950s. One day (late 90s) while sitting at a bench waiting for his wife who had dragged him to the mall, a teenager complimented his glasses which had just come back into style. The very next day, my uncle went out and bought a new pair of glasses.

  19. This reminds me of the story of an acquaintance who brought home a nice weathered barn timber, then stepped out for the day, leaving it in the house with her Swiss carpenter/handyman father.

    When she returned, she asked “where’s that grey weathered barn board?”

    “Oh, that?” Dad points to fresh-looking timber dressed in four sides. “I took care of it for you.”

  20. Oh my that’s a good article! I bought my first tablesaw (sears Craftsman) that year. I thought myself a budding sophisticate and I thought owning a humidor would be part of that transformation. I never picked up the habit of smoking cigars and drinking bourbon but I did make some boxes inspired by Rich Allyn’s article in FWW #127. They were enough to get me hooked on woodworking ever since. I had in mind at time to build Adirondack chairs also but never got there (maybe it’s not too late). So, as some others have commented, these little fads can draw newbies into the craft, perhaps for a lifelong love of building and craftsmanship. And yes, I’ll get in line for the cheap thick planks of walnut when they come. BTW, does anyone need a colorful “handmade” fountain pen? I’ve got loads of them.

    1. ~20+ years ago there was a several year fad for “eyelash” (type of yarn) knit scarves. I made one for a niece and hated it, skinny yarn on giant needles and nasty to work with BUT it got a generation of young women into knitting which had been a dying art; based on the difficulty of finding decent yarn. Those mostly women went on to make socks that were more art project than keep your feet warm but a generation later fiber arts are alive and very well. I think spoons starting around 10 years ago have had a similar effect in the woodworking community.

  21. Dare I mention ” Dutch Tool Chests ” as a LAP inspired fad ? And yes , I will buy the book ..

    1. Feels like it fits the “huge surge in popularity” requirement of a fad… and also the “great introduction to the craft” quality. I think there are a lot of budding woodworkers building DTCs, but probably not a lot of non-woodworkers thinking “I just have to have a Dutch Tool Chest!!”

  22. The older I get the more I see these trends, and not just wood magazines, but ft ess magazines and other stuff. Movies and TV shows and music. My kids are always listening to “new music” and I tell them that this is actually a song from the 70s or 80s remade. I then force them to listen to the original song, and I can tell that they love it by the eye rolls.

    1. @ Steve P: That’s right, the original from the 1680s–“The Taco Bell Cannon”– can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvNQLJ1_HQ0

      Don’t believe me? Check out this explanation:

      Or this one here (following the ~4 min long overture):

      And finally a bonus–the definitive remix:

      Warning: You will never be able to listen to the radio the same.

  24. We must think alike. I am waiting for the Restoration Hardware rustic to just end up in the trash in a couple more years and be replaced by the current trend..

  25. I bought into the Humidor craze in the late 1990’s. At the time, I was heavily into making and marketing high end jewelry boxes and soon began to offer humidors as well. Realized the case would be the same between the 2 offerings and only the interior would need to be customized to either a jewelry box (model w/o drawer) or humidor. The humidors were lined with Spanish cedar and had the humidifier add-on with hygrometer. A partition also inserted. Did well but as with most fads, it died off in 2001 or so. It was fun while it lasted!

  26. I have an attraction to infilled planes and handmade wooden planes made with some of the more colorful (exotic?) hardwoods, and an admiration for some of the engraved metal ones I have seen on LAP. It doesn’t hurt my feelings if those things are distasteful to others. I also own about 75 antique planes.

    Live edge, when it is used on atypical design (freeform furniture that is not hidebound to straight-edge traditions and fashions that are centuries old), makes perfect sense and is akin in woodworking to what artists have done since the Impressionists. Call it fashion or trend if you like, but departure from the norm has its place in recent human endeavors of all kinds.

    I have my serious doubts that much of handmade woodworking trends contribute to the landfills in anything like the degree that cheap, factory-made furniture does. If someone goes to the trouble of making an item (such as those listed above) that they could otherwise pick up at Walmart for less than the wood it takes to make it, why scoff? If they turn up at Goodwill or flea markets, it is likely that they do not suit the tastes of the makers’ survivors, so by all means snap them up and reuse the material for your own projects.

    We all have our idiosyncrasies and biases. It is what makes us interesting. I am a lifelong “people watcher” and am only amused by what separates me and others in matters of taste. Whatever makes you happy in this short life. If you prefer paintings of Elvis painted on velvet and sold on the side of the road to the paintings in museums (that you can only own in reproductions or coffee table books, by the way), or you buy your art at the furniture store to match the colors in your current decor, that too is a legitimate reflection of our culture. If I chuckle, as I regularly do, I won’t scoff.

  27. I’ve curated my social media feeds to eliminate them. But as soon as I venture outside my comfy bubble – OMG the epoxy tables. Ick. Those will take two rip cuts to fix.

    1. I actually appreciate the beauty in them and the techniques required to make them. Even though I would never make one myself(unless my wife told me to) or put one in my house. I guess its like other art. I have been to the Louvre in Paris, among many other art museums, and I wouldn’t really put anything there up on my walls But I appreciated just about everything I saw(I have to say the Mona Lisa to me seems to only be famous because its famous, but it was probably my least favorite thing at the Louvre. I think people feel shamed into liking it because “you are supposed to”)

  28. “Shaker and Arts & Crafts furniture” is that an example of the adage that fashions go out of style but style is always in fashion? (Asks the bloke who was surprised when his nephews told him his tee-shirt and Carhart look was very on trend.)

  29. Hairpin legs! OMG – Kill me now! Even worse is hairpin legs coupled to rustic, split-log-type furniture. WHAT were they ingesting for criminy sakes?

  31. My all time favorite in every magazine isn’t the project, it’s the guy with a 30,000 soft shop with every power tool known to mankind and the projects shown are some 8-12” square boxes he made. What the hell is that about?????

  32. My favorite “river table” is the one Matt Estlea recently did a video on. There was talk about replacing the water with beer but that might foul the circulating pump

  35. “Live edge anything? Well, at least when that trend dies, a rip cut will take care of it.”

    As it happens, I just sharpened up my rip (hand) saw today. If the revolution begins tomorrow, my saw and I will be ready. 🙂

    1. The rip cut will be done with a Festool tracksaw, because, you know, nothing else can do it as well.

  36. If I get one more tuned pen as a gift, I swear I’ll… (censored to protect my alibi)

  38. I agree that barnwood belongs on barns. The one exception I make is when I find and old chesnut floor in one and take it out of there. But maybe it shoud the be used as a workshop floor that I will grant.

  39. I don’t know, I think calling out woodworking fashions is pointless. Everything one of us loves is hated by someone else, but so what? I think too often it comes across as smug, as though there’s “real” woodworking and then there’s…whatever “that” is. But there are skills that can be learned by building these fashionable things that wouldn’t be learned otherwise. I’m building a stereo console for a friend right now and it’s mid-century modern in design. Not my personal favorite but I’m learning an awful lot about working at angles other than 90 and 45 that I wouldn’t have otherwise. To me that makes it a valuable experience regardless of my personal likes. I say let people like what they like and let’s just try to be better woodworkers. It’s makes us better people.

    1. Of course! As I said, my opinion doesn’t matter. I’m just glad folks are making things.

  40. Fads are what woodworking suppliers and internet woodworkers live on. Would you snatch the morsels of food from their hands?

  41. I’m sheepishly thinking to myself I might make that dart board case 😉

  42. Charcuterie! The mention of the word slams my vertebrae together in anguish.
    It’s not just the small projects either. How about kitchen cabinetry? What we build that’s gorgeous today will likely be dispatched to the landfill by the next generation occupying former living space.

  43. I feel like very decade or so the projects will repeat with some regularity being: generic Shaker nightstand, quilt rack, fold up work bench, kitchen table bench, bird house, hidden drawer, ugly sink vanity, medicine cabinet, outfeed table, table saw sled etc 🙂

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