CHAPTER X
FURNITURE
Some article of furniture is frequently one of the first objects upon which the beginner (particularly the amateur of mature years) tries his hand; and boys, as well as their elders, sometimes confidently undertake pieces of cabinet-work which would tax to the utmost the skill of an experienced cabinet-maker, only to be discouraged by the unsatisfactory result.
Do not be beguiled by the captivating sketches and descriptions in the popular magazines and papers which tell you how someone, at an expense of perhaps only $2.98, easily made a roomful of desirable furniture out of packing-cases, old bedsteads, barrels, soap-boxes, broomsticks, and the like, with only the household hammer, saw, and screw-driver, and a liberal supply of putty, coloured varnish, and the occasional help of the "village carpenter."
That sort of work does very well for your feminine relatives if they wish to amuse themselves in such ways or to contrive makeshifts to save the expense of furniture made in the usual way. You can very well help them in such work, or do it for them, and some very neat, cheap, and serviceable things can be made of such materials (particularly with the use of cloth)—but that is not the way for you to begin your cabinet-making. Learn to do good, plain, simple, useful work in the simplest, most straightforward, practical, workmanlike way. When you can do that, if you wish to exercise your ingenuity in patching up useful articles from discarded ones you will know how to do it properly.
Be sure to begin with simple articles, avoiding attempts at elaborate decoration. Do not spend your time in making a useless object merely because you think it is pretty. Think first whether your design is suited for the purpose intended. If you start to make a case for your books, select or make your design accordingly, and do not be misled, by the multitude of overelaborated articles with which the market is flooded, into making a parlour bric-à-brac cabinet, all built up of turning, and jig-sawing, and machine-made carvings, too complicated and fragile for practical use, with the result that the books continue to be stored on a closet shelf or on the floor.
Next look to the block-form or general proportions of the object. The importance of this is often wholly overlooked by the average amateur,—sometimes because he is too engrossed in trying to make the details pretty,—but it is essential in making a handsome piece of furniture. No amount of exquisite carving, inlaying, or decoration of any kind (however beautiful in itself) will make an ill-shaped, badly proportioned article a thing of beauty; while a well-shaped and well-proportioned object will be pleasing to the eye even if free from decoration of any kind.
Of course, no rule can be given for designing a handsome piece of furniture any more than for painting a beautiful picture, but when you have sketched out the general shape and proportions and think you have done as well as you can, there is one thing it is well to bear in mind—that the average amateur is much more likely to spoil the appearance of his work by adding too much so-called ornamentation than by leaving the work too plain. When you become proficient enough to add carving, or other form of decoration, to your work, by all means use any skill you may have in such ways, but even then remember not to use such ornamentation too freely. Avoid "gingerbread" work, meaningless jig-sawed decorations, and machine-made carvings, turned out by the gross.
Look at some of your great-grandmother's furniture (if you are fortunate enough to be able to do so) and think how long it has lasted, and compare it with the cheap modern furniture after the latter has been in use for a few years. How much of the latter would be in existence now if it had been made when the ancestral articles were? The durability of the old things is partly due to the quality of the wood and its seasoning. The use of whole pieces (instead of scraps of all kinds of stuff glued up with cheap glue), the way the articles were put together, and the generally honest work put into them had much to do with it.
Bear in mind in undertaking a piece of cabinet-work that you must hold yourself to a higher standard in the matter of accuracy of detail, in order to produce a really satisfactory result, than is necessary for much of the other work often done by amateurs. Many slight inaccuracies, which are of little consequence in the rougher kinds of work, become such gaping and conspicuous defects in cabinet-work as to detract much from the satisfaction that should be taken in home-made articles. Remember, then, that while it is easy to make your furniture strong, it is by no means easy to produce close, accurate joints, smooth, true surfaces, square, clean-cut edges, and a good, smooth finish. Choose, therefore, simple forms, easily put together, for your early attempts; for it is much better to make a modest and unpretentious article well than to make an elaborate one badly.
First and foremost, when you come to the actual work, use thoroughly seasoned wood. This is essential to making permanently satisfactory furniture, as you will learn after you have spent much time in making an article out of half-seasoned stock, only to see the ruin of your carefully executed work begin as soon as the finish is dry, or even before.