Secrets of Amish Furniture Makers

Amish furniture makers consistently produce quality handcrafted wooden furniture that is both timeless and intricate in design. This furniture combines the best characteristics of tradition, style and dedicated craftsmanship. You might already be familiar with the Mission and Shaker styles common to the Amish craft, but maybe you’re wondering about the woodworking secrets behind this meticulously designed furniture. Many recognize the staple Amish styles, but how many can say they know the ins and outs of Amish woodworking?

Amish artisans show a dedication for their trade that’s hard to find anywhere else, and they use traditional methods and woodworking tools for crafting each piece of furniture. Explore the world of Amish furniture design by taking an in-depth look at its trade secrets.

Woodworking Tools

Amish people don’t use electricity or technology in their daily lives, as they’d rather avoid the influences of modern inventions. They prefer to live off the land and create with their hands — all signs of dedicated workers and artisans. This quality naturally extends to their furniture-making techniques.

Many Amish furniture makers use saws, chisels and hammers to complete their work, but sometimes more sophisticated tools are necessary for complex projects. They don’t use nails, screws or staples, and they forgo electric hand tools in favor of hydraulic or pneumatic ones.

Some pneumatic tools Amish woodworkers use include sanders and buffers. These devices run using diesel or gas engines, which connect to an air compressor. The compressor fills the tool’s reservoir with pressurized air, which powers the tool’s motor without needing electrical components.

While many woodworkers use pneumatic sanders, others favor sanding by hand, which still creates an impeccably smooth surface. One-of-a-kind handcrafted materials can transform any home — and when it comes to furniture, the Amish way passes every test.

Wood Selection

Amish carpenters pride themselves on quality furniture, so they avoid wood with significant flaws and will sand down small blemishes until they’re nonexistent. They traditionally only use solid hardwood, and you’d never find particleboard or laminate in their woodworking shops. Long-lasting, beautiful furniture can only come from quality wood.

All wood is American-sourced. This characteristic makes materials easier to obtain, which means you’ll possess an intricate piece of furniture in a shorter time. Carpenters heed the best sustainability practices and only chop down trees as they need to. By producing everything as requests come in, they avoid clearing entire forests and managing expensive warehouses full of lumber. In comparison, companies who mass-produce furniture take down big swaths of land, which ultimately damages ecosystems and stunts efforts to reduce air pollution.

When choosing wood for crafting furniture, Amish carpenters are careful to avoid green lumber. Green wood is freshly cut from the tree, and it still has a relatively high moisture content during harvesting. Wood that retains moisture will quickly bend and deteriorate, which means you’ll have to replace your furniture soon after buying. Amish artisans uphold their quality by forgoing this kind of untreated wood — they season all lumber before using it or obtain it from local mills.

By getting wood from mills, carpenters can inspect surrounding trees to see if they’re appropriate for woodworking. Some millers will set aside woodcuts specifically for furniture making — they may even categorize wood by furniture type. Woodworkers want to ensure you’ll have premium choices for your furniture, as some species take exceptionally well to specific designs.

Seasoning

After Amish artisans choose their preferred wood, they season it to lower the moisture content to an adequate amount for building furniture. Two methods exist for wood seasoning — open-air and kiln drying.

1. Open-Air Seasoning

This more traditional method involves letting the wood sit out to dry. Woodworkers stack the lumber into piles and set it outside, though some may also cover the wood by placing it into an open shed.

Warm air moves through the lumber piles and takes up moisture as it goes, which turns the air cool and damp. As this air leaves and more comes in, the cycle continues. This process is effective but can take months or years to achieve wood with a moisture content of 20% or lower, which is why kiln drying is a convenient alternative that AmishOutletStore.com uses.

2. Kiln Drying

With kiln drying, Amish carpenters place green wood into a temperature-controlled environment and expose it to adequate heat and airflow to facilitate the drying process.

Kiln drying, though fast, can create warping and stress when regular artisans don’t utilize it correctly — which demonstrates Amish woodworkers’ dedication to the craft. They take their time with each piece to ensure careful construction, which produces hardy furniture you can pass down for generations. Anyone can benefit from having a piece of furniture — or even a whole set — to leave for their loved ones.

When drying wood, woodworkers consider the environment the wood will be sent to — your home. This consideration enables them to create furniture with a higher resistance to warping and absorbing moisture, allowing it to remain smooth and like-new for years to come. At the same time, they carefully note your customization preferences to ensure they meet your needs and provide the best type of furniture for your home.

Quality Crafted Wooden Furniture

Once the wood dries thoroughly, the building begins. Like every other aspect of Amish furniture making, woodworkers build all designs with immense care and attention to detail. Amish furniture doesn’t adhere to ordinary, dull standards. Everything is customizable, although a few wood types such as red oak, cherry and Q.S. white oak remain consistent. Since no two pieces are exactly alike, you’ll find pride in owning a table, chair or entire set that’s uniquely yours.

Instead of traditional instruments like nails or screws, Amish woodworkers join wood using the following structural techniques:

• Dovetail joints: While dovetails require a high level of skill to create, they’re sure to last in the hands of Amish furniture makers. The design consists of joint sets interlocked between two pieces of wood. These joints are pull-resistant once connected and are nearly impossible to break. They don’t require mechanical components like fasteners, which allows for a straightforward and high-quality structure. This design works well with drawers on cabinets and hutches.

• Tongue and groove joints: Tongue and groove joints join parallel boards to create wider expanses of wood. Carpenters create them by cutting a groove into the side of a plank and carving the edge of the corresponding board to fit within it. You’ll find these joint constructions in tabletops and shelves.

• Mortise and tenon joinery: This joint consists of the mortise — a hole with four corners — and the tenon — the accompanying rectangular component. It holds up against wood movement and warping, and the tenon shoulders provide excellent lateral stability. Many chairs, desks and sofas possess this sturdy construction. With Amish joint-crafting techniques, you can have confidence that your seats will last for years to come.

Carpenters then reinforce these joints with a chemical-free, non-toxic adhesive. You can rest assured you’ll stay safe from harmful chemicals while sleeping in your Mission-style bed or eating dinner off your wooden dining table. Further, the constructions’ durability holds up far longer than factories’ typical manufacturing processes.

Wood Details

Each piece of Mission and Shaker furniture offers a quaint, customizable flair that will fit into any space. Traditional Amish pieces provide a familiar, enduring comfort even as furniture trends change. Choose the color, height and width that work for you. A walnut chair can fit nicely in a living room, while a cherry wood dining table will become the main attraction of your home.

Furniture makers can offer each wood type in various colors and shades along with its signature hue, which makes customizing your furniture colorful and enjoyable. Take a look at a few different varieties:

• Red oak: Red oak is easy to carve, solid and suitable for daily use. You’ll often encounter this wood in the furniture you use every day, such as chairs, dressers or beds.

• Cherry: Cherry wood takes stain well and makes carving easy. It resists warping and ages well, turning a lovely dark color as it matures. This wood lends itself well to the environmental cause, as it often comes from sustainable forests.

• Q.S. white oak: Q.S. white oak produces a beautiful grain pattern due to the quarter sawing process. Carpenters cut the wood at a 90-degree angle to emphasize the grain, which appears in stripes called medullary rays. While all trees have these vascular cells, which carry moisture and nutrients, they are prominent in white and red oak.

• Walnut: Walnut is a high-density wood with a rich, dark tone. Its sturdiness works well for big furniture pieces like beds and tables, yet it remains flexible enough to carve and glue with ease.

Amish artisans handle each diverse wood type with ease and confidence. Much of their lumber comes from cold northern climates, which produce higher-density wood. Greater density equals greater strength — which translates to pieces that last for decades. Amish furniture makers wait until the wood reaches maturity before using it to ensure its sturdiness. They take every step to provide excellent products by never cutting corners on quality.

Finishing Techniques

Depending on the type of wood, you can have your piece stained. However, not every wood takes well to staining. Walnut loses its grain’s depth and color, while hard maple wood can look uneven and blotchy. For attractive, glossy furniture, you should consider how staining can affect your piece before making the decision.

Amish woodworkers finish their wood with a low volatile organic compound (VOC) varnish. This varnish is safe and sustainable, as it doesn’t off-gas harmful chemicals into your home. Environmentally friendly catalyzed conversion varnish prevents off-gassing of air pollutants into your living space. It also resists scratches, spills and moisture damage, though it’s important to follow recommended care instructions to keep your furniture in excellent condition.

To finish organic baby furniture, many Amish carpenters use an all-natural linseed oil finish. This flaxseed finish provides the utmost safety for your little ones — no chemical driers or VOCs are present. You can also request a specialty finish if you have a specific style you’d like to see on your completed piece. Amish woodworkers create every item with care to ensure you’ll receive the heirloom-quality furniture you desire.

Another great quality of real wood furniture is that it requires little maintenance to look phenomenal. A daily dusting will suffice, and you only need to think about polishing once every six months. Opt for natural cleaners instead of strong chemical ones, as these can strip the finish.

Heirloom Furniture Made With Care

Amish woodworkers dedicate themselves to the trade of creating beautiful wooden pieces. They traditionally start young in their families’ workshops and learn as they go along. This extensive hands-on experience builds over the years to produce artisans who are immensely skilled at their craft and knowledgable about the beauty of woodworking. They always use the same tried-and-true techniques that have served carpenters well across centuries.

The stability of tradition becomes increasingly valuable in a world that’s always changing. Furniture trends cycle in and out — and while they may be fashionable for the moment, they aren’t made to last. You’ve likely seen many lavish, attractive furniture pieces that fit a particular aesthetic but provided limited functionality or timelessness to the home’s overall structure. You won’t encounter that with Amish furniture — instead, every piece exists to be both elegant and functional. Its ever-present quality suits virtually any living space.

Choose Authentic Amish Furniture

The woodworking secrets of Amish furniture display the makers’ attentiveness to the furniture-making standards passed down for centuries. The ancestors knew best, and today’s Amish woodworkers have every intention of carrying on these techniques for many more years to come. Consider choosing Amish furniture for your next purchase if you value durable hardwood pieces designed for functionality and beauty. Their distinctive, natural qualities can’t be replicated or imitated.

Quality furniture made the Amish way is available at AmishOutletStore.com. We offer furniture for every room of your house to ensure you have an excellent range to choose from regarding function and style. Browse our online selection now, or contact us to learn more.