One of the most famous furniture makers and designers in the Midwest is someone you don’t hear much about in woodworking circles: David T. Smith. With this blog entry, I hope to change that – at least a little.
Smith is a long-time furniture maker in Morrow, Ohio, who specializes in early and vernacular American styles. Plus many woodworkers I know have worked for him during the last 40 years or been inspired by his designs.
My old boss at Popular Woodworking Magazine worked for The Workshops at David T. Smith, as did associate editor Jim Stuard and some of the other staffers who passed through the magazine. Troy Sexton, one of my favorite woodworkers, was a long-time subcontractor for Smith.
So during my 15 years on staff (1996-2011) I heard a couple hundred stories about Smith and his influence on the furniture market.
More important, however, is his book: “American Country Furniture: Projects from the Workshops of David T. Smith.” The book was originally published by Rodale Press in 1990. A newer version is available from Fox Chapel. The Fox Chapel version is printed on better paper, but they removed about 100 pages of furniture history stuff from the book, plus I think the photos are a little muddier in the Fox Chapel version.
It’s hard for me to overstate how important this book was to amateur and professional furniture makers in this area during the 1990s. Everyone had this book. Everyone except me.
So when Jim and Steve at Popular Woodworking decided to do a porringer table, I was astonished at how they came up with such a great design in short order. It turns out it was from Smith’s book (page 62 of the original edition).
I got wise. And I got my own copy of the book.
It is crammed with fantastic projects and techniques. Once I was shooting an article with Glen Huey and he built his divided-light doors in an astonishingly easy way.
“Wait,” I said. “We have to do an article on this technique you are showing me. It’s amazing.”
Glen quickly fessed up that it was from Smith’s book.
So get the book. Look past the 1990s-era printing and production values. The book was ghost-written by Nick Engler and Mary Jane Favorite at Bookworks Inc. in West Milton, Ohio. I worked with both of them for more than a decade (I was Nick’s editor). The information is fried gold.
Over the weekend, Megan Fitzpatrick and I drove to the Workshops of David T. Smith to attend its annual Festival of American Crafts. It’s been going on for 45 years now and is when Smith opens up the shops to the public. There he has a redware pottery facility, a blacksmith shop, a farm store and – of course – the furniture and finishing operations.
Plus there were a bunch of vendors selling antiques and new furniture. Plus alpacas to pet. Food trucks. And a band to entertain visitors. Smith himself was there, too, talking it up with customers and chatting about kitchens and furniture.
As Megan and I left the festival on Saturday, it struck me that I rarely hear many people mention his name or his book. And as I paged through the book this morning, I also have to admit that this book was a huge influence on me and stoked my love for vernacular pieces. And the designs have aged well during the last 35 years.
So let the record show: David T. Smith is someone I think you should get to know.
— Christopher Schwarz
Oddly enough, a few minutes ago, I was at his web site. A friend is working on one of his pieces. David’s shop is just about six minutes from me now. Oh, and I have had that book for a long time.
And just like that, I had to have this book.
Thanks for the recommendation Chris. Just snagged the Rodale version for six bucks off Thriftbooks!
Similar price as well. Thanks Chris.
Got a hardcover Rodale version off amazon at under 7 bucks as well. Thanks, Chris.
Actually, this had me thinking more in general about used books. Amazing how many good used woodworking books are out there for under $10. I get the annual SAPFM magazine. Many articles start with “20 years ago, I got this book and drooled over this piece but was too busy w the day job to make it. Now I’m retired and have the time ….” Most of those books when I search for them were under $10 and I’ve built a nice library of books with period furniture.
He has a big booth in the back of The Heart of Ohio Antique Mall in Springfield, OH. He does great work
When I was going to college at UC in the late ’90’s, my Wood Technolgy professor asked me what I was planning on doing after I graduated. I told him I was really sure as I was going to graduate with a degree in Marketing. He told me I should go work for David T Smith. Obviously, I never did, but I should have looked into it.
The profile of the shelves in the last picture remind me of the Melencolia Square. As an Ohioan I’m pleased to add this book to my library. Thanks!
If you can’t get a copy of the Rodale edition, you can see it on the Internet Archive at https://archive.org/details/americancountryf00engl/
Huh. Shouldn’t be there, given it’s protected by copyright.
Perhaps, it is log-in restricted to see anything more than the first few pages and presumably limited a set of viewers at a time with auto-return enabled (I’ve seen that before with other books that are obviously not in the public domain, so like a library ebook with a fixed number of copies). Whether or not that is legal/breaking-copyright is I think is actually actively in-court right now, so presumably it may go away (or not) depending on how things shake out there. FWIW I’m accessing from Canada, so behaviour may be different for US-based IP addresses.
I had to buy the hardcover as my paperback version fell apart after years of use. Not a month goes by that I don’t pick this book up and flip through it.