Marcus Sly : Cabinetmaker

A lot of time spent woodworking is noisy, repetitive, dusty and exhausting - satisfying but not necessarily much fun!  Fortunately there are also parts of the work which are very creative and enjoyable.  Today I've been shaping the top of a combined coffee table and bookcase.  I started with a square-edged frame which was rather blocky and uninteresting as it came off the machine.  I wanted to give the whole table a slight sense of tension or taughtness which I felt was lacking.  I also wanted to reduce the apparent thickness of the top.  The sides of the top had needed to be cut quite thick in order to accommodate a display space the client requires underneath.  Left as it was would have looked rather ponderous. It's often surprising how much small changes in the line of an edge can affect the apparent size and feel of a piece.  This is part of what makes handmade furniture so special compared to that which is mass-produced.

I always approach this process with some trepidation.  I adopt a free form and exploratory approach to the work, and there's inevitably anxiety lest I make a bad choice - which could be expensive!  The process always reminds me of fitting clinker planks in boat building.  Because of the whimsical nature of timber, wooden boats tend not to be exactly symmetrical.  It is therefore necessary to juggle the inevitable inaccuracies into an attractive whole - "if it looks right it is right", as my teachers repeatedly told me!  I approach furniture making in a similar way.  Wood grain can profoundly influence the effect of a curve or line, and it is necessary to take differences in the grain into account with each piece of wood even when following the same basic pattern.  This is one reason why abandoning machines and taking up hand tools is often so beneficial to the outcome of a piece.  With a spokeshave or hand plane one is able to make the subtle differences in shape necessary.

In this case I scalloped out the underside of each side of the top, which introduces tension, very slightly rounded the sides to harmonise with the base and add interest, and very gently rounded to the top edge to soften it.  The result is a much nicer piece of furniture - and the realisation that I need to make some changes to the bottom skirting as well....