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Thread: Handcrafted Amish Furniture Quality

  1. #1
    nodule Guest

    Default Handcrafted Amish Furniture Quality

    Hi,
    I am shopping for a new traditional flat top computer desk, hutch and 2 drawer lateral
    file cabinet for my home and I am looking for solid cherry. The sizes I need will have
    to be custom, so I have researched many amish woodworking shop in both lancaster
    county pa and holmes co ohio.
    Luckily, I am just 2 hours driving distance to lancaster co where there are MANY small
    woodworking shops.
    The brands I am looking at so far are Cedar Ridge Furniture in Lancaster Co and Valley
    Furniture in Holmes Co.
    They both appear to be top quality handcrafted builders, who specialize is custom work
    in solid cherry.

    Any experts here familiar with either of these two shops, as I would like some
    thoughts.

    Or, as a more general question, how can one tell if one amish builder is actually better quality than another?? It certainly seems MANY people are jumping on the whole "Amish Furniture"
    bandwagon, as dozens upon dozens for new amish furniture website are popping up and growing like wild. It now seems the whole "handcrafted amish furniture" lure is becoming
    a bit washed down and I am beginning to wonder if some of these websites are just scams.

    Thanks
    Last edited by nodule; 03-20-2012 at 04:19 PM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
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    Default Re: handcrafted amish furniture quality?

    Who can tell without detailed photos of something they make? In order to get an assessment of a wood piece, you have to take detailed photos of not only the overall piece (or something similar they make) but drawer details, backs, etc.

    I have yet to see finely made furniture come from any "Amish" workshop. I see heavy, structurally sound pieces from those shops but nothing unique that any other production shop can make. Depends on what you are looking for, but don't get sucked into the "made by the Amish" mantra..
    Duane Collie
    Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
    My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.

  3. #3
    nodule Guest

    Default Re: handcrafted amish furniture quality?

    Thanks,
    So are you saying you know of no amish woodworking shop in pa, oh or indiana that produces truely heirloom quality furniture that will last a lifetime?

    Who are the American furniture manufacturers who are still making solid wood handcrafted flat top traditional computer desks, besides the Amish shops?

    Who are the American manufacturers who are still making "finely made furniture" still in the USA?
    Last edited by nodule; 03-20-2012 at 09:14 PM.

  4. #4
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    Default Re: handcrafted amish furniture quality?

    I can suggest to you a store in Alexandria, VA called The Keeping Room. It is an entire store full of beautiful solid wood handcrafted furniture. The moderator of this column owns the store. However, I don't want you to think that the moderator did not give you a lead, just because he owns this store. I can reassure you that if Duane knew of an Amish woodworking shop in Pennsylvania, he would have given us his name.
    Last edited by juliatevis; 03-20-2012 at 11:14 PM.

  5. #5
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    Default Re: handcrafted amish furniture quality?

    Quote Originally Posted by nodule View Post
    Thanks,
    So are you saying you know of no amish woodworking shop in pa, oh or indiana that produces truely heirloom quality furniture that will last a lifetime?

    Who are the American furniture manufacturers who are still making solid wood handcrafted flat top traditional computer desks, besides the Amish shops?

    Who are the American manufacturers who are still making "finely made furniture" still in the USA?
    What I was conveying is that Amish shops use high speed machinery to make their furniture, not hand tools - that defines a well made 'heirloom' piece. Being structurally sound and lasting a long time doesn't make it heirloom. They are two different things. There is making furniture and then the ART of making furniture. Amish shops do the former, but not the latter. If you go into a typical Amish work shop, you won't see electrical tools because they are not hooked up to the power grid in many cases. What you will see are a pair of big Caterpillar diesel engines out back going full throttle to push hydraulics and belt drive systems to run the tools. A lot of people buy into the Amish hype - I'm not one of them. They are not easy to do business with in my experience and awfully stubborn. Been there, done that.

    There are plenty of people making high end pieces, but they are not 'manufacturers' per se, but individual cabinetmakers - or a family of cabinentmakers. One of my favorites for reasonable prices is the Jerry Treharn family out of Youngstown OH, I've known them and sold their products for over 20 years. www.jltreharn.com. I have a custom cabinetmaker - John Buchanan - that does my high end custom pieces and I would put him up against anyone for high quality heirloom work. One of the larger issues is price - what are you prepared to pay for a piece? If you want a heirloom desk in cherry that will last generations and your budget is $ 1,000 - you're not going to get it done at that price, but you will for $ 3,000.
    Duane Collie
    Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
    My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.

  6. #6
    nodule Guest

    Default Re: handcrafted amish furniture quality?

    Thanks for your comments....

    Thats really interesting..so all these amish online sellers and the amish builders themselves who all tout their furniture as "heirloom" quality to last generations
    are all misleading the public?

    I am willing to pay up to $2000.00 for a 30"D x 60"W x 30"H cherry traditional flat top computer desk with double pedestal and kneehole. I was in a lancaster
    county pa furniture store recently and saw a desk that I described and, to my eyes, the build quality was stunning in solid cherry, with a glass smooth conversion
    fiinish by Valley Furniture in Baltic, OH. This desk certainly appeared to me to look like a piece that can be handed down to childern and grandchildern.

    I understand what you are saying, though. I perused your site and, to my eyes, it looks like you sell truely heirloom pieces that are more museum like in their looks.
    Almost like you really dont want to touch them, just admire. I am looking for a truely functional desk, where I can work at for years to come and have a nice comfortable
    look, yet still be all solid wood construction with no staples, particleboard or MDF.

    By the way, the Pennsylvania Amish folks and Amish builders I have spoken to both on phone and in person, have been extremely professional, accommodating, friendly and willing
    to build any custom size I have in mind. I did not find them to be stubborn at all. Obviously, like anything else, there are higher quality amish woodworking shops than others are.
    Its a matter of doing your research and finding the truely top quality shops.
    Last edited by nodule; 03-21-2012 at 09:46 AM.

  7. #7
    Matthew Guest

    Default Re: handcrafted amish furniture quality?

    Quote Originally Posted by nodule View Post
    By the way, the Pennsylvania Amish folks and Amish builders I have spoken to both on phone and in person, have been extremely professional, accommodating, friendly and willing
    to build any custom size I have in mind. I did not find them to be stubborn at all. Obviously, like anything else, there are higher quality amish woodworking shops than others are.
    Its a matter of doing your research and finding the truely top quality shops.
    I'll second this. I have a dresser made by an Amish craftsman (while I wouldn't call it a work of art, it is solidly built and was definitely worth what I paid for it). He was incredibly friendly, professional, and helpful. When the the initial resulting product wasn't exactly as I was expecting, he went out of his way to correct the mistake. You can find positive and negative examples of any business, and that's no different when it comes to Amish furniture.

  8. #8
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    Default Re: handcrafted amish furniture quality?

    Define 'heirloom' and you will have your answer. Just because something is strong and made of solids doesn't mean its 'heirloom'. I can hand you a solid concrete block and its likely to last 200 years, but that doesn't mean its sculpted marble. There is a difference between strength and craftsmanship (the art of furniture). When someone mentions to me they want a 'heirloom' quality piece then that means finely crafted, and something that will hold its value over time. If you just want durable, then that can be accomplished for quite a bit less cash outlay.

    For example, you mention 'glass-smooth conversion finish'. That means the piece went through a hi-speed belt sander and the pores were closed with sanding sealer, then multiple coats of lacquer over a covering stain. And that finish works except its scratches like the devil with use. Now in a high-end piece we are going to scrape the top, rather than run it through a belt sander, because cut fibers of wood respond better to color than sanded fibers, and we're going to use an aniline stain instead of a covering one. Then we're going to use shellac topcoats (orange cut 50/50) to highlight the wood, then seal it all on top with a paste varnish that won't craze in 40 years like the lacquer will. However to do all that results in a finish that takes 3x longer and a subsequent price hike.

    I've tried working with Amish and Mennonite shops to build to my specs and they can't grasp the importance of things like a curve or pad foot on a Queen Ann leg - how 1/8" can make a difference in the art of the piece. That's what I mean by stubborn - a refusal to change the way they want to build it - even after four or five prototypes. Its not about politeness and manners.

    Like that old saying goes : "You pays your money and you takes your choice". YES, you can get strong, durable furniture from an Amish workshop. YES, you can do the quaintness of all that if that's what appeals to you. But ask one of those Amish workshop guys if they've ever taken a trip to The Met in NYC and studied the form on the Townsend pieces in the collection, and how to capture that fine detail molding edge on a tea table, and I think you'll find they don't get out much.

    Good luck on your purchase.
    Duane Collie
    Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
    My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.

  9. #9
    nodule Guest

    Default Re: handcrafted amish furniture quality?

    drcollie,

    Your idea of "heirloom" is very different than mine. All I am looking for is a great quality, American made, no veneers or particleboard, solid cherry desk that will last a lifetime and more
    and be very comfortable and functional in a home. That is "heirloom" to me. Not a piece of furniture that looks like it belongs in a museum, that is roped
    off and afraid to touch or use.

    I feel most amish craftsmen build very stout, well constructed, solid wood furniture that is functional and comfortable in a home for a lifetime, not museum pieces, that is never their
    intention.

    By the way, my parents have a Nichols and Stone dining room table that is 57 years old and the finish is still perfect, but they do use pads and are very careful.
    Last edited by nodule; 03-21-2012 at 02:47 PM.

  10. #10
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    Default Re: handcrafted amish furniture quality?

    The think you need to keep in mind about the notion of Amish furniture is that "Amish" is neither a brand nor a guarantee of quality. As Duane indicated, an Amish shop will utilize a different approach to how it drives its power tools, but that alone tells you nothing about the quality of a piece that's going to come out of any given shop.

    Back in the day, before I ended up buying some furniture from Duane, I did a lot of research - or tried to - in relation to Amish furniture. The short version is that the vast bulk of Amish furniture is sold through non-Amish middlemen - no surprise there, given that an Amish shop won't have a phone, website, or catalog. Some represent builders who do actual custom work, some represent a handful of select builders who meet defined production and quality standards (e.g., some of the brands mentioned in this thread), and many others simply have Amish shops assemble and finish kit furniture and sell it at a premium price. (Look at some of the Amish furniture websites you find and you'll likely discover tremendous overlap in the pieces they offer - because they're selling kit furniture and there are only so many sources for the kits.) My conclusion at the end of that investigation was that the nicest Amish furniture lines were not well-represented by local dealers, and I didn't trust the online dealers (who, again, aren't Amish) to care much about the quality of their furniture or the workshops they use.

    There's a documentary about Amish teenagers called "Devil's Playground", and they show how one young adult floats from business to business as he tries to find his place in life. At one point he drifts into kit furniture sales, not the sort of work that you're describing. That was a bit eye-opening to me, though, about how the Amish are aware of the power of their brand, and how easy it was for somebody with no real knowledge of furniture building to leverage that "brand" into a small business.

    If you can lay your hands on a piece of furniture, ensure that the joinery is solid, the wood is decent in quality, the finish is acceptable, etc., and you like the design, it doesn't much matter whether it's Amish, a production piece, or from any other source - it's a solid piece of furniture you like. Judge the piece by its build, not the brand.

    As an aside, when you're dealing with furniture made of solid cherry (or other solid woods) the quality and grain of a board can significantly affect the price of the finished product without affecting the structural integrity of the product. Also, some "solid wood" furniture will incorporate more than one kind of wood - "solid wood" and "solid cherry" are not synonymous, even if the piece has cherry surfaces. Finally, I've seen too many furniture dealers (particularly online) attempt to confuse customers about their product - I've seen solid pine furniture with a cherry finish that is marketed in a manner that would make any casual reader believe that they were looking at solid cherry furniture.

    Also, nobody here is trying to persuade you to buy one piece of furniture over another. This forum really is about helping people be informed consumers.

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