Handmade furniture and how to make it

There is probably no home in which the comfort, convenience or artistic appearance could not be improved by the addition or replacing of some pieces of furniture. The reason is simple. They are furnished with store furniture, and store furniture is made to sell; the designs limited by the capabilities of the machines which make it; made of the cheapest materials; put together in the quickest, rather than the best way and then finished up with the crudest varnish and stain to make a fine appearance. It is a depressing sight to see this furniture on moving day, piled on the sidewalk, scratched, broken, dingy, all its fine pretense of beauty gone forever. On the other hand, the chairs, tables, sideboards and other pieces that have come down to us through generations were all made by hand, put together by hand and finished by hand in the days when there was no machinery and the workman was an artist. The result is that instead of finding its way to the scrap heap this old furniture is as good today as ever, after two or three hundred years of wear and tear and removal from place to place half round the world. Hampered by no limitations of machinery these designers set the standard for the world for all times. Such furniture is worth while, and is an everlasting inspiration to the home-maker and worker.

Our new style, variously known as "Arts and Crafts," "Mission." "Craftsman," etc., is especially adapted to hand work, and while differing from the rich old oak and mahogany of our fathers' in form and finish, is like them in all the qualities of beauty and durability and is far more comfortable. A home furnished in this style not only expresses the artistic taste of its inmates but also exerts an influence of sturdy honesty of purpose, simplicity and absence of all gaudy pretense, which both its frank, straight lines and freedom from anything to hide or mar the natural beauty of the wood so forcibly express. It is a style of which we can never tire and of which no other can take the place. It will last for generations, forever part is as strong as the wood of which it is made. You can make it and make it better than you can buy in any store, for it is made in the most natural way, after the most natural design, of the most natural material.

Of course, it cannot be hoped that the mere reading of any book can make an expert cabinet maker of an inexperienced workman, but the instructions contained in this book will enable any one to make furniture. Handsome, comfortable, durable furniture. The length of time required on each of the exercises will, of course, vary with the individual workman and his aptitude for the work. All that can he said as to the number of times the exercises should he performed is simply to keep at each one until you are satisfied with the results. You can judge as well as any one when your work is good. Time spent in practice is time well spent, for you are learning to make something which will be with you for years to come.

We have included in this book a few designs for pieces of furniture in order to show the method of assembling the parts and the most convenient way of laying out and beginning a piece of work. In this connection we wish to impress upon you the importance of laying out the whole of a piece of work before you begin to cut it at all. You will appreciate this as you proceed.

In our cuts we have made no attempt at fine drawing but have used the fewest possible lines for the sake of plainness and only so much shading as is necessary. Single lines usually designate the outline of solid parts. Dotted lines show the outlines of parts lying beneath the surface, or in other words, as if seen through the object, and are used merely to show the location of parts which would really be invisible. Wavy lines are generally used where only a part of a piece is shown and designate that the piece is really longer than drawn but the part beyond the wavy line is not necessary in the illustration. We have used shading to show end grain in some cases but more often to show where a part is cut away, as in the side of a tenon, etc. Dimensions are shown by arrow pointed lines. Where these lines point in opposite directions with the figures between them, or point toward each other with the figures at the end of one arrow, they give the distance in both cases between the arrow points.