Woodworking: An American Tradition Since the Colonies
Imagine an America blanketed by forests so dense we had to create legends like Paul Bunyan to explain how so much wood could be harvested. This is not a primordial fantasy world. It was reality in colonial America.

So much of our development has been dependent on wood, from the furniture that graced our homes, to the wagons and railroad cars that expanded our boundaries and transported people across the Great Plains and the Continental Divide.

While coal and peat were being burned to provide warmth and prepare food on other continents, we were burning the logs left over after building little houses on the prairies and churches in our villages. Indeed, in the middle of the 19th century – during the heart of the Industrial Revolution – 90 percent of our energy was created by wood. Even the machines that ran the Revolution were originally made, at least in part, from wood.

Wood was everywhere, and so it was used for everything. To this day, wood continues to define culture and class. When “21st century materials” are busily replacing the metals and woods traditionally found in objects, from furniture to automobile fascias, it is surely ironic that the molds and finishes given to these plastics and polymers is…wood grain. And in office hierarchies, staff employees get metal or plastic furniture. But corporate executives? More often than not, wood.

Large tree logs awaiting sawing at a mill.

Wood slabs at Nakashima Woodworker warehouse. Clients can pick out the raw slabs they want for their furniture.

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