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I keep seeing the term 'bench made' when describing upholstered furniture. I tried searching for the term to determine what it means and why that might make a piece superior but I haven't found a description of what exactly it means.
Does anyone know what 'bench made' means and why that might be important?
In the industry there are generally the following classifications, and though no strict adherence to any one of them, this is my interpretation of them as follows in order from least desirable to most desirable. It actually is a term more applied to wood case goods than upholstery, as most upholstery is either Production or Hand-Crafted. You will get various opinions of these definitions, but these are the ones I use when in discussions with my suppliers.
Production Furniture: By far, the most often you see. As you would imagine, furniture moves through a plant with a number of people working on a piece as it goes through the various stages. One person will glue-up boards and nothing else, another will feed pieces into a CNC cutter, another in assembly, etc. Teams of people work on it and pass it on down the line, not unlike a car manufacturer. I'd estimate 90% of the furniture made is done at this level.
Hand-crafted: An overworked terminology that is broad spectrum in its use. Teams of workers will make a piece using a combination of power tools and hand tools, with a greater emphasis on hand-fitting and work rather than using high-speed machines. Typically used in reproduction furniture, they will use modern machines to build the piece then go over the surfaces with hand-tools to create an old-world look. There will be less workers involved in making the piece than Production furniture. Maybe as few as four or five on a piece. This method gives you much of the handmade look but at half the price.
Benchmade: This term means ONE person makes your piece of furniture using a combination of hand and power tools. That person makes it on his workbench, hence the name. Typically these will be signed pieces, and be done to a high level of craftsmanship. That person may hand it off to a finisher or do the finishing himself, depending on their operation and size. This is the highest level that most consumers purchase at.
HandMade: This term is incorrectly used most the time. In the pure definition of the word, the furniture is made using ONLY hand tools all the way through the process. No modern tools, or electric tools are used. No lumber is purchased (cut by hand as well). Very few shops do this, because the labor hours are horrendous. I only know of the Cabinet Shop in Colonial Williamsburg that follows the protocol exactly (there is no electricity in their building!). One master cabinetmaker builds a piece from the log pit to the oiled finish. Pieces are commissioned, take a very long time and are quite expensive.
Just to give you some pricing ideas. If we were to take a 18th Century Slant Lid Reproduction Desk, American, made of say....mahogany and price it out using the various forms and methods this would be fairly typical:
Production Furniture: $ 3,000
HandCrafted: $ 6,000
Benchmade: $ 8,000
Handmade: $ 20,000
Original Period Antiques: $ 90,000 +
Interesting review of the terms. I have a 60" round table and 8 chairs with cane seats and backs that were hand made in a small mountain town in Puerto Rico.
The table was a one time creation, although the chairs were copies of others the small shop had done before. The construction is extremely solid with very significant lumber pieces involved. After ordering the set it was one full year before completed. The shop had 3 employees who did all the steps including cutting down the tree. The wood was dried by placing it in an upper loft of the barn/shop for 8 months ( it cooked at temps. of about 110F). The chairs are great, but the table has a number of issues associated with the lumber still not dried enough to prevent instability. As such the table was disassembled and the elements were dried an additional 6 months and reworked and reassembled with additional support members. The small shop had never attempted a table this large and was challenged by the design to be able to handle making the top from 10" boards into the single 60" diameter top (they even had to build new clamps for fixing the boards together). So I guess this would be called handmade (although they probably used some power tools to mill the tree into the lumber they utilized, a natural tree to PR called capropieta).
What would H&M furniture be classified as? Handcrafted?
Yes, H&M would be Handcrafted.
Duane,
Thanks for the definitions.
I've seen the term used by the so-called 'lifestyle furniture makers' like Crate and Barrel. Although I am not interested in their furniture, they describe most upholstered pieces in their catalogs as "Benchmade in the USA".
Are they mis-using the term benchmade? Or, is all upholstery benchmade in the sense that essentially one person creates each piece?
They are most definitely mis-using that term with regards to upholstery. When you think about all the operations that go into making a sofa, its going to be very rare that its Benchmade (essentially made by one person). Lets look at the procedure to make a sofa:
1) Frame is made by a woodworker. Usually in a different building because of noise and dust.
2) Finishing of exposed wood done in the paint/stain shop
3) Frame is set with webbing and springs, done after finish. Usually one team does this.
4) Frame is foamed, a different team from the prior.
5) Fabric or leather is laid out, and pattern cut by a worker.
6) Goes over the seamstress, who sews the covers and welt trims.
7) Now the piece is upholstered where the fabric is applied.
8) if leather, last step is it goes to the nailers, who set the brass brads.
So you can see, those operations are highly specialized and don't interconnect much. I've never seen a woodworker sew up a cover!
I was imagining one person doing the actual upholstery work to a completed frame and assuming that's how they were justifying the term.
They must have a completely different definition for the term. I'd be curious how Crate and Barrel would respond to the question of what exactly 'benchmade' means to them.