Shaker Furniture Joints

Dovetailing was used in furniture and would always be appropriate, glued, of course.

Shaker furniture joints. Often, much of a Shaker work's beauty lies in its ingenuity. The Shakers used tapered legs on tables whenever possible to reduce the furniture's weight. The book is decent on it's selection of Shaker style furniture and steps on building them.

Over all, it is a good book to have in your library to have as inspiration, but don't expect too much. Chair tops are adorned with acorn-, pinecone- or flame-shaped finials. Furniture is not without decorative elements, but the decoration is part of the structure of a piece.

After a long and glowing description of the chairs shown in the same photograph, Winter notes only: The pictures are a bit thin and the steps themselves are sometimes cloudy and not very clear. Traditionally made as lightweight as possible and with a seat woven from natural materials, the chairs were made so they could be hung on nails on the walls.

Characteristic features include long "finger joints," large, plain, button-like or "mushroom" knobs; I have never seen a Shaker drawer with a box joint, which would only have been used for work that wasn’t expected to have a long life. Winter’s “Shaker Furniture” (Dover).

It was important that furniture be light enough to easily move out of the way when not in use. Practical in nature, The Joinery’s Shaker Collection includes dovetailed drawers, finger joints on the top drawer, a beveled top and mortise and tenon joints. One of the more popular pieces of Shaker furniture is the shaker chair.

I suspect the latter. W hen woodworkers fi rst set out to build a proj-hen woodworkers fi rst set out to build a proj-ect that they designed themselves, the end result is usually overbuilt and chunky-looking. More information and back issues available at the magazine website.