Marcus Sly - Furniture Making and Design

Regular readers of this blog will know that I value the use of hand tools very much.  I find that their use allows subtleties which machines, with their potential for almost clinical exactness and precision, can't match.   Recently I've been grappling again with my perennial  problem of where to draw the line in my use of machinery.  To make furniture professionally in the modern world without some use of machines is as near to an economic impossibility as makes no difference.  Time is money, and to spend hours or days laboriously rip cutting timber or planing it to size by hand when a machine can do the same job in minutes is often not a good use of my time or the clients money!

Looking back over some of the pieces I have made I realize that the sense of soul and presence I hope they posses is not just about a liberal use of hand tools (although this is an essential ingredient), but also about process and intent.  There are ways of using machines which are so deadeningly efficient that you can't help but end up with a lifeless piece of work.  There are  also ways of using machines which are more in accord with older ways of doing and thinking about working with wood.   A judicious use of machines used like this, together with the extensive use of hand tools, is a way to make beautiful things that are relevant to the modern world.  It also enables one to be economically viable while staying true to the values of craft rather than those of mass production.