How Much Figure is Too Much in A Piece of Shaker Furniture?
This coming Jan, I will be enrolling in a “Intro to Woodworking Part 2″ class near by me. The focus is to make a standard Shaker Table (top 16″x20”, four tapered legs, one drawer). I’m looking forward to the class and want to purchase the wood soon so that in can acclimatize.
The plan is either to make it completely out of cherry (my favorite wood) or a mixture of cherry and maple, or just maple.
I was initially thinking of just a getting some really nice, figured wood for the top, rift saw for the legs, and plain simple grained wood for the sides and drawer. It got me to thinking, I’ve seen some things done completely done in tiger maple with aniline dye. Pretty for sure. How much is too much figure? I have access to some premium wood (at a fee of course) that is highly figured/curly/tigered, etc. Would it be too much to use figured wood for the whole thing? I’m inclined to go with what I outlined initially (i.e, just highly figured top) but would love your feedback. The money isn’t an issue either way. Also, any good books you can recommend that cover this kind of design consideration?
Thanks all for your input.
Replies
For my first table, for a class, I'd just use regular cherry. It's a simple project, and you can build another at home. They make nice gifts. You can stretch yourself on your second try with figured wood.
There are 2.4 billion books on Shaker Furniture. The best I can suggest is Timothy Rieman's The Encyclopedia of Shaker Furniture. It is not a book of plans for making the furniture, if that's what you wanted. But it has a ton of original pieces, and I think you'll learn more from seeing original pieces.
Thanks John. I've got a ton of Shaker books. What I'm looking for is more of a general design consideration that isn't related to Shakers.
OK, so here is my personal design contribution:
1) I would not generally mix cherry and maple, tho others do. I might use the other wood for a drawer pull, and/or for the secondary wood for the drawer.
2) Generally, I would use figured wood for the top, straight grained wood for the legs, and either plain or figured wood for the drawer front and the skirts. The only exception I can think of for the legs would be tiger stripe maple, where the figure is perpendicular to the length of the legs. Try to think of your piece as a composition, with plainer areas accentuating the figured areas. Ask yourself if you gain anything by some part being figured; if not, it's probably too much and a simpler grain would actually be better.
A few years ago, a client wanted me to use some quarter-sawn sycamore to build him a bedside table. He wondered if cherry would go with it, which I discouraged. I suggested I use plain grained walnut to frame the sycamore. I'll enclose 3 pictures. I also made him a low shelf unit from tiger stripe mukulungu, plain mahogany, and a mystery wood he brought back from Belize several decades ago. Two pictures of it.
Try to figure out what you will like. Design is a learning process!
My $0.02 is that you may be setting yourself up for more pressure during your class. Instead of smoothing a surface you'll be dealing with tearout and some of your questions may not apply to the rest of the class.
Maybe keep it simple and absorb the lessons you are there for, or at least ask the instructor if he/she/it/they think it is a good idea before you buy material.
I’d go with as much straight grain cherry as possible to keep yourself within the classic shaker style.
One of my first projects was a shaker-style hall table. I ordered a wide figured cherry board for the top. It had nice striping and finished well. When I went to visit the person I gave it to, that beautiful top was covered in a wide runner, some framed photos, a flower vase, etc. So that beautiful top was irrelevant to the end user. Same with another end table I made. Nevertheless, it was fun to work with.
PS I am also not a fan of mixed woods.
Thanks all for the input. I'm off to our local lumber place, MacBeath, what I really need today is hardwood "2x4" cutoffs (not real 2x4's by the way, just approx dimensions) as I am making bandsaw reindeer as donation gifts for an 03Dec craft fair at the woodworking school to help it raise some money which ultimately feeds back into equipment for the school. If I happen to see any good lumber (say that perfect 8 quarter rift sawn cherry for the legs) I will buy it. If not, I will save it for another trip. They have good wood turnover. Probably going to go with one species and likely cherry, my favorite wood.
Back from the lumber store and $100 later. Ended up just getting the wood for the band saw reindeer. Will be making them out of cherry, maple, African mahogany, and Alaskan cedar.
If you're building the table, you should decide on what type of wood, or woods, you want to use.
On a technicality, Shaker furniture is known for it lack of ostentatiousness. I cannot recall ever seeing a piece of (original) Shaker furniture in figured wood. They were minimalists. Figured wood would have been viewed as ornamentation.
What you are building is a Shaker-style table. And you can use what ever wood you prefer since you are not a Shaker. However, if you wish to be true to their roots, then I would stick with Pine, Maple or Cherry, and not mix-and-match.
Regards from Perth
Derek
Only a Sith deals in absolutes. -OWK
A Shaker piece. Pleasant Hill KY. Examples of Shaker furniture where the maker used highly figured wood to advantage are not hard to find.
They did use figured wood. And they mixed woods a lot -- pine, butternut, walnut, cherry, apple. But they didn't approach it as we do, highlighting the contrast between light and dark woods, etc. They just used what they had, and pieces were painted, often as not.
Shaker boxes overwhelmingly had maple bands, and pine tops and bottoms. They weren't as worried about being matchy-matchy. 150 or 200 years of age have evened the colors out.
Well plain ornament for "Plain Folk" which they were. But build it the way you want. We have different sensibilities now. Taste is subjective and there really aren't any style police. Never been to a class but if I were to go to one I'd go cheap and simple because of time constraints. I'm thinking your going for the how to and your bringing that home more than the piece itself.
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