1. It is the business of the cabinet-maker to manufacture particular kinds of household furniture, such as tables, stands, bureaus, sideboards, desks, book-cases, sofas, bedsteads, &c., as well as a certain description of chairs made of mahogany and maple. Many of the operations of this business are similar to those of the carpenter and joiner, although they require to be conducted with greater nicety and exactness.
2. The qualifications of a finished cabinet-maker are numerous and of difficult acquisition; so that they are seldom concentrated in any single individual. He requires not only a correct taste, but also a knowledge of drawing, architecture, and mechanics, besides the abilities of a good practical workman.
3. A knowledge of drawing is especially useful in designing new articles of furniture, or in improving the form of those which have been already introduced. It also enables the artist to determine with accuracy what would be the general effect of furniture, were different pieces of it placed in any proposed apartment; and, combined with architectural knowledge, it enables him to adapt the style of his wares to that of the building for which they may be designed.
4. In general, the principles of this business are fixed, so far as relates to the mode of operating in the execution of the work; yet continual changes are made in the form and construction of its various articles, so as to keep pace with the advancement of correct taste, or with the caprices of fashion. In fact, the shapes of furniture are almost as changeable as those of female dress; and this causes many expensive pieces to fall into disuse, while others are introduced, which, for a time, are considered indispensable to comfort, and which in turn enjoy but a temporary favor.
5. The cabinet-maker uses various kinds of wood in the manufacture of his wares; but those which are most frequently employed in the United States are pine, maple, poplar, cherry, black walnut, white oak, beach, mahogany, and rose, all of which are abundant in this country, except the last two. Mahogany is brought in great quantities from the West Indies and South America; rose-wood is obtained chiefly from the West Indies and Brazil, although it was first introduced into notice from the island of Cyprus.
6. The applicability of mahogany to the manufacture of cabinet-ware, was accidentally discovered in London, about the year 1724. A physician, named Gibbons, received a present of some of the planks from his brother, a sea-captain, who had brought them from the West Indies, chiefly as ballast. The doctor was, at that time, erecting a house, and, supposing them to be adapted to the purposes of building, gave them to his workmen, who, on trial, rejected them as being too hard to be wrought with their tools.
7. A cabinet-maker was next employed to make a candle-box of some of it, and he also complained of the hardness of the timber; but, when the box was finished, it outshone in beauty all the doctor's other furniture. He then required a bureau to be made of the same kind of material; and this, having been finished, became the subject of exhibition to his friends, as a piece of remarkable beauty. The wood was immediately taken into general favor, and it soon became an article of merchandise of considerable importance.
8. In giving the reader a view of the operative part of this business, we have selected the bureau as affording the best means of illustration. The material which composes the frame and drawers of this piece of furniture, is commonly some kind of soft wood, such as pine or poplar; and this is faced with thin layers of mahogany in those parts which are to be exposed to view.
9. The materials for the frame and drawers are first marked out, and the several pieces reduced to the form and dimensions required, with planes and other instruments. Thin pieces of mahogany are firmly fixed to the surfaces which require them. This part of the work is called veneering. The workman prepares the surface of the soft wood for the veneer, by cutting it into small contiguous grooves by means of a small plane, the cutting edge of which is full of little notches and teeth.
10. Melted glue having been spread upon both surfaces with a brush, the parts are placed in contact, and firmly pressed together by means of hand-screws. Before the screws are applied, the surface of the veneer is covered with a piece of heated board, termed, in this application, a caul. One piece of this kind commonly serves a veneer on each side of it at the same time.