Popular Woodworking 2005-12 № 152, страница 44

tenons by the Shaker craftsman who built the piece.

I say this for several reasons. First, there is the evident age of the nails. They have been in place so long that the iron in the nails

VISIT PLEASANT HILL

Tucked into the rolling hills of the bluegrass region of Kentucky, the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill is an inspiring place for woodworkers and their families to experience Shaker life. Here you can stay in their buildings (updated with air conditioning and private baths), eat Shaker meals in the Trustee's Office dining room, and explore all the details and trappings of Shaker life at your leisure.

Pleasant Hill includes 34 restored buildings from the community, which existed in the area from 1805 until 1923, when the last remaining resident of the community died. The 2,800 acres includes hiking and horse trails, and a steamwheeler excursion on the Dixie Belle from the village's dock on the Kentucky River.

The Centre Family Dwelling is home to a large collection of Shaker furniture pieces, includ-

has leached into the surrounding wood, darkening its color. Second, this piece, and some others like it in the Pleasant Hill collection, made such widespread use of nails in similar contexts that this form

ing most of those in this article (some are in the Meeting House, and can be viewed on daily tours). The other buildings are also loaded with the details of Shaker craftsmanship you've seen in the many books about Shaker work. Plus, you can experience demonstrations of Shaker singing and craftsmanship ongoing at the village.

For those seeking a complete woodworking vacation, Berea, Ky., is a short drive away, which is home to many of the regions best woodworkers (Brian Boggs, Kelly Mehler, Warren May, David Wright and Don Weber to name just a few).

For more information on Pleasant Hill, call 800-734-5611 or visit shakervillageky.org. For more information on Berea, visit berea.com

- Christopher Schwarz

of joinery appears to have been an accepted method of assembly in the Pleasant Hill workshops under the direction of at least some Shaker craftsmen. And third, this is a technique I have seen not only in the work of this Shaker community, but also in the work of other Shaker communities (as well as in the work of many country furniture makers of the period in the outside world).

In the Pleasant Hill furniture I examined, nails showed up in other contexts as well. Although cabinet tops were typically fastened in place with pocket screws, this method of attachment seems to have been routinely reinforced by nails driven down through the top into the end grain of a table or chest's posts.

When used to peg tenons or to hold down a top, this use of nails is not just a matter of joinery; it

The East Family Dwelling is one of several buildings on the grounds of the restored Shaker community at Pleasant Hill, Ky., in which visitors can stay in comfortable rooms with air conditioning and private baths while enjoying the community's 19th-century ambience.

is also a part of the Pleasant Hill aesthetic. These metal fasteners are visible to the casual viewer, sometimes glinting reflected light into the eye, drawing our attention to something our modern perceptions of joinery tells us should not be there.

It is in this context that the nails used in Pleasant Hill furniture are most problematic for me. If you drive a nail through a mortise-and-tenon joint some would argue that you have created a powerful joint, particularly after the wood has shrunk down around that nail, but I am, nevertheless, troubled by the fact that the nail head is visible in the finished piece.

The Mystery of the Half-blind Dovetail

When you're cutting dovetails by hand (the only way I know how to

Pocket screws, like these crudely formed examples, were often used by Shaker craftsmen to hold tops in place.

This nail is driven through the top of a chest of drawers into the chest's end panel.

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Popular Woodworking December 2005