Shortly after Welsh chairmaker John Brown died on June 1, 2008 Scott Gibson, a former editor of FWW, wrote a remembrance that began:

“I don’t think I’d ever heard of John Brown before that day early in 1997 when his neatly bound manuscript arrived at Fine Woodworking magazine. His manuscript went on for pages about the joys of working wood by hand. He was disheartened, even disgusted, by the mindless adulation of power tools he saw in so many contemporary furniture makers. The craft was sinking, it was all going to hell.

“Brown was well known in the U.K. His lament was an old complaint, but his manuscript was as elegantly sparse as his Welsh stick chairs. I knew instantly we were going to publish it.” It went on to become what one FWW subscriber has described as “something of a cult classic.”

The full remembrance is currently unavailable. Apologies for the inconvenience.

To read Brown’s original article, click here.

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