Woodworker's Journal 2001-25-2, страница 24

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Chippendale style chairs are one of the period furniture reproductions Ben Hobbs' students make while staying at his bed and breakfast.

Ben Hobbs, lar right, prefers small classes tor his instruction in pre-Ctvil War furniture construction.

When enough of the B&B guests had asked hint if he taught classes, he decided he should. For the last three years. Hen has offered week long furniture-making classes. Hiree to six students of all skill levels build and finish such typical 18th century items as a Chippendale chair. Queen Anne bench, bedside table or pencil post bed.

Although Ben himself did take a class from a cabinetmaker at a community college, he says he learned almost everything about furniture making "the hard way." Hie furniture making techniques he teaches his students, he likes to think, are done in the most logical and efficient way. "We teach it like we build it." he says in his Carolina drawl. "Everybody has a different way of doing things, but we have the best way." The "we" encompasses his son Matthew, who has studied decorative arts at the Winterthur Museum and is now helping his father.

Ben uses primarily hand tools, although he employs a few power tools, such as the mortising machine and the band saw. He takes care of stock preparation, so that students can concentrate on the hand work.

In ihe bedside table class, for example, students use hand tools to practice basic joints: half laps, dovetails, and mortise and tenons.

In the pencil post bed class, Ben teaches students to lay out, mortise, tenon and fit the rails, make the headboard, shape the posts and sand and finish the bed.

Ben says students with a little experience under their belts are often the ones who gain the most from the classes. "They know enough to have a lot of questions." he says. But most students — of any level — do fine. Most lake a completed piece of furniture home, although pieces that take longer may have to be stained later.

Class offerings this year will expand, with students able to choose among 21 classes offering 13 pieces, from a Queen Anne tea table to a sideboard. Some people want to come back to make additional pieces, Ben says. "The tools are here; the materials ;ire here. It's

easy to build a piece here, but you don't need five bedside tables."

Reproduction classes at the Beechtree Inn focus on furniture from American Colonial times to a a couple decades before the Civil War — Ben calls 1820 his cutoff date. He thinks history needs to be a living part of our lives for people to see and value it. That's why, in addition to working with period furniture, he carts pre Civil War buildings to the inn's property and restores them. He's up to 14, including a jail, which he will reconfigure into cottages as pari of the inn.

"I like |the buildings] that are completely in shambles." he says, "so no one can accuse me of ruining their historical value when 1 rebuild them." He furnishes them with |>eriod reproduction pieces he turns out. as well as such amenities as air conditioning and modern plumbing.

More information about furniture-making classes at the Beechtree Inn can be found online at www.hobbsfumiture.eom or bv calling 252-426-7815.

— Lois M. Baron

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April 2001 Woodworker's Journal