“Helped by the increasing use of machinery, which made short work of complicated curves and serpentines, (Edward Barnsley’s) work became the last word in cabinetmaking skills, surpassing that of any previous century, and it found a ready appreciation amongst a growing clientele and an interested public.
“Only time will tell if this switch in emphasis in mid-stream was a step forwards or backwards.”
— Alan Peters, “Cabinetmaking: The Professional Approach, 2nd Edition” (Linden, 2009)
The Woodworkers Institute has just published a short and sweet review of “Campaign Furniture.” You can read the full review here. We’re now shipping the second printing of this book, which has a few corrections here and there.
I really would love to write a follow-up book; my research into the style didn’t stop when the book came out in winter 2014. First I have to finish my current book project (the end is in sight) and edit about six books from other authors before I can even consider hitting the campaign trail again.
— Christopher Schwarz
You can now place your order for our DVD documentary on the H.O. Studley tool cabinet and workbench, which is entitled “Virtuoso.”
The DVD will ship in late September. Domestic customers who order before Sept. 25, 2015, will receive free shipping on the DVD, which is $20. Visit our store here for details.
When the DVD begins shipping, we then will offer the documentary as a streaming video for $18 that you will be able to watch from any computer or mobile device. Because of a contractual obligation, we cannot sell the streaming video until the DVD is released.
Also, we will not be bundling the DVD, streaming video or book into any bundles with discounts. The price you see now is price everything will still be in a month or year. We do this for two reasons: So that we don’t punish loyal customers who buy books and DVDs as soon as they are released. And so we treat everyone the same, one of our guiding ethics.
The footage for the DVD was shot during the four-year study of Studley’s iconic tool cabinet for the book ‘Virtuoso: The Tool Cabinet & Workbench of H.O. Studley,’ and interviewed the book’s author and photographer. Here is a short trailer.
The result is a 1 hour 13 minute documentary on the cabinet, the man who built it and the intense four-year journey to document the cabinet, its contents and the recently discovered workbench.
In addition to interviews, the DVD includes footage of author Don Williams unloading every tool from the cabinet, which is set to an original musical score so you can experience how every tool fits into the hinged panels of this mahogany and ebony masterpiece.
You can read more on the making of this DVD in this blog entry from its editor, Ben Strano.
— Christopher Schwarz
Your innate intelligence, your achievements in the corporate world and the number of degrees you have earned at university won’t help you much at the bench when you start woodworking.
To be sure, some people have some natural dexterity (I didn’t) that helps them take the first steps in the craft. But after teaching a lot of beginners during the last 10 years, I have found there is only one way to get good at woodworking: Do a lot of woodworking.
As David Savage says: “You need to build a shed-load of furniture.”
This simple fact is sometimes hard to accept for people who are used to being a star pupil or an outstanding employee. I’ve had CEOs, attorneys, surgeons, PhDs and one high-ranking politician get quite frustrated when they cut dovetails and their results look no better (or even worse) than the elevator repairman at the bench next to theirs.
When anyone (regardless of their position in society) gets frustrated because they have failed in a class, I try to trace their steps to disaster. Did you do this? This? How about this?
Many of them lie, but their work tells the truth. Their chisel was dull and too wide. They didn’t mark the waste. They used a coping saw to remove the half pin. They used their own cockamamie marking system instead of the traditional “marriage mark” that I begged them to use.
How they respond to this failure determines if they will learn anything or not. You cannot buy a tool to get you out of these weeds. You cannot simply say, “But I’m a doctor,” and have the door opened for you. You have to admit: I stink, and I need to know the steps to become good.
Those steps aren’t usually found in books, I’m afraid. A book can tell you how to saw, but those instructions are meaningless until you are sawing. With some people I had to literally take them by the hands and guide their strokes so they could feel it. That’s humiliating for some, I know. But you cannot download this. It is uploaded through your fingers.
The way forward is, I’m afraid, to destroy your sense of self. Become a small child on the first day of school and do what exactly what you are told. Gradually, you will match the letters to sounds, the vibrations to results, the patterns into words and the wood into furniture.
— Christopher Schwarz
Whether you like Arts & Crafts furniture is irrelevant if you are a woodworker. Even if you dislike expressed joinery, native materials and the color brown, the Arts & Crafts movements in England and the United States were a turning point for craftsmanship.
The ideas behind the movement came from John Ruskin, a 19th-century artist, author and art critic who was about 100 years ahead of his time with his speeches and articles on the dignity of labor, the preservation of old buildings and furniture, and even environmentalism.
Ruskin founded the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine art in 1871 at the University of Oxford, which still educates artists today.
David Savage attended this school starting in 1968, which led to his post-graduate studies at The Royal Academy.
Ruskin’s writings were hugely influential with William Morris, the founder of the British Arts & Crafts Movement and grandfather of the American movement. Morris’s teachings have influenced millions of people. But we’re concerned with Ernest Gimson and Edward Barnsley in particular, who adopted Morris’s radical ideas and were the backbone to the furniture side of the English Arts & Crafts Movement in the Cotswolds.
Barnsley trained Alan Peters, one of the greatest woodworkers of the 20th century. Peters taught and mentored David Savage, who continues to teach the high-level of craftsmanship that Peters worked to every day.
So if you look closely enough, you can still see two unbroken lines from John Ruskin to the hands of the woodworkers that Savage and his employees train every day in his Devon workshop.
You might think it’s a stretch, but I’m here to tell you that it’s not. The lifeblood of the Arts & Crafts movement passes through the workshop of Savage’s Rowden Atelier. They push students to do a high level of work that is rarely seen today. They prepare students for a lifetime of making with classes in handwork, machine work, drawing, design and business.
After working with the students at the school for two weeks, I’m quite impressed. The woodworkers enrolled in the school’s 50-week program were fast, devilishly accurate and serious about the craft, sucking up every bit of information offered. And then looking for more.
My only regret is that I didn’t have a school like this when I was 21 and crazy to make things with my hands. If you are looking to design and make furniture, it’s worth the trip. It’s worth the money. It’s worth your time.
— Christopher Schwarz