What a beautiful finish

Returning from a recent exhibition, I thought about many of the questions I’d been asked and how I might utilise this feedback. Then it struck me that the question that cropped-up most frequently was about the finish and how it was achieved. This is a relatively new phenomenon to me and initially I would give a probably not too helpful answer; like, ‘Oh, in the usual way with shellac and oil’. What I had failed to notice is how far removed a hand worked piece with a hand applied finish had become from commercially made furniture. Once all furniture was finished in the same way or variants of; even after spray finishes became more common there was still plenty of hand polished furniture in most homes. Once Mum’s and Dad’s ‘old junk’ was brought up by antique dealers and replaced with 'nearly wood' flat packs, all point of reference had disappeared. New generations rarely get the opportunity to experience what hand tools can do.

A year or so ago I was teaching a nice chap to make a Windsor chair, I think it was his first serious attempt at making furniture. The only power tool he used in the class was a drill, every other process was done by hand. He stood back looked at his impeccable chair and said, ‘I simply can’t believe I did that with hand tools’ I can still see the look on his face. I know he will never look at furniture in the same way again.

There is I feel a renaissance on the horizon, a getting back to quality, but first the public have to re-learn what that quality looks and feels like and happily they are setting out to do that in increasing numbers.