These photos are of a new England secretary desk that I am just getting started on, actually, it has been eating up hours. It is a cloudy cold winters day in MN. Whenever I do a period reproduction piece such as this I am always humbled and awed by the original builders. It is easy to get nostalgic for the good old days maybe even to wax poetic over a simpler time. I know I do!
They labored by hand in small shops, dimly lit by candles, heated with a wood stove. When they went home, they walked, they maybe got to milk a cow in the back yard, carry some wood into the house. Let’s not forget candlelight in every room.
My wife loves the romance of candlelight, I kind of like to see what’s on my plate. The shop I have does have a wood stove, it also has electric heat. I love hand tool woodworking, I still use many of my great grandfather’s tools on a daily basis. Why? I feel they produce a better fit and finish! Their pleasurable and satisfying to use!
When you go into the machine room, I have planers, saws, and jointers. They simply enable me to take away some of the
Right now because I like to eat regularly, I will use both, hand and machine. Maybe when I retire I will just use hand tools. I will still use electric lights, no matter how much I admire our forefathers.
