Popular Woodworking 2005-12 № 152, страница 46
this. That is, you'll see a fairly small number of fairly wide tails. This is more than enough joinery to keep these sides together. But if you look at the corners of the full-size blanket che st on page 43, you'll see a much different situation. The maker of this chest packed that corner with a huge number of pins and tails. This significantly increased the amount of time and effort required to cut the joinery, an increase that probably can't be explained simply by considering the amount of abuse the chest was likely to receive. Then why? Why go through the trouble to cut all those pins and tails? Why not lighten the workload with a distribution more like that found on the miniature blanket chest? Before I offer my best guess at an answer, I'd like to draw your attention to one other feature of the full-sized blanket chest. Look closely at the joinery with which the base of the chest is assembled. When I first examined this piece, I didn't really see the many complications presented by this union of post and rail. But later - after I'd gotten out a pencil and piece of paper, after I'd taken the time to articulate the cutting of this little flourish of skill - I had what I think is an insight into the mind of the craftsman who made this chest. He was, I believe, a man who loved joinery, a man who loved the process of carefully fitting one part to another. Maybe that precision was an act of worship, an offering to God, but maybe it was something else as well, something that all of us - regardless of our religious persuasion - can understand. Maybe it was nothing more than an exuberant expression of the sheer joy he found in craftsmanship. What They Knew I think we study the furniture of our woodworking ancestors for two reasons. First, we want to grow as furniture makers. We want to know what they knew, and the record of what they knew is written in the work that survives them. But there is another motivation that is, to me, even more important. It is the same motivation that pushed me out of bed at dawn onto the lawn behind the East Family Dwelling. To the extent that is possible when separated from them by a 150-year chasm of time, I want to know what it felt like to be one of the 19th-century Shakers who produced the marvelous furniture now on display at Pleasant Hill. I want to climb inside their woodworking skin, to feel the heft of their tools in my hands, to experience vicariously the joy they found in the simple act of creating beautiful objects in wood. PW COMING NEXT: MORE GROUNDBREAKING STORIES ABOUT SHAKER WORK Kerry Pierce's investigation into Shaker life and work has shed new light on the craftsmanship from the woodworkers at the Pleasant Hill, Ky., community. For our February 2006 issue, Kerry has written a companion piece to this article that examines the decorative details found on Shaker furniture from this community. These details will help make your next Shaker-inspired project more authentic. Following that article, we will publish measured drawings of several pieces of Shaker furniture from the community of Pleasant Hill that have never appeared anywhere, including plans for the hanging cabinet shown in this article. — CS Coming in February 2006: Kerry examines the stylistic furniture details found on Shaker pieces at the Pleasant Hill community. Coming later in 2006: Measured drawings and construction information for building this unusual octagonal-leg table (far right) from the Pleasant Hill community.
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