Why Amish Solid Wood Furniture is Supreme
Companies like to promote themselves or their brands by using the superlative version of an adjective, such as ‘largest,’ ‘fastest,’ ‘best quality,’ or ‘best-selling.’ For example, Ford Motor Company promotes its F-Series trucks as the ‘best-selling’ truck in America for 48 years in a row. To achieve this distinction, Ford combines the annual sales of its F-150, F-250, F-350, and electric F-150 Lightning trucks. In marketing, using a superlative calls for having supporting evidence. Even if the product is solid hardwood furniture. And on that subject, one category of furniture is so well-built, it earns the superlative adjective, ‘supreme.’ So, let’s explore why Amish solid wood furniture is supreme.
Why do the Amish make such great furniture?
Amish cabinetmakers have developed a reputation for producing top-quality furniture due to a number of factors, including necessity, a tradition of woodworking excellence, use of solid hardwoods, traditional handcrafting techniques, and sustainability.
Necessity. A Christian group, the Amish, broke away from the Mennonite denomination in the late 1600s and pursued a lifestyle of simplicity and non-conformity with traditional American society. Skills like farming and woodworking became prominent in Amish communities, and each generation of Amish men passes down woodworking skills to the next generation. Also, Amish communities opt out of receiving municipal services such as electricity. So, they use traditional tools, including some that utilize hydraulic and pneumatic power supplied by diesel compressors.
Tradition of woodworking excellence. Initially, Amish craftsmen built furniture for their homes and communities. In time, they set up woodworking shops that employed family members and began building furniture for people outside the community. As Amish communities — such as in Lancaster County, Pa., Holmes County, Ohio, and Shipshewana, Indiana – began attracting tourists, the popularity of Amish furniture increased.
Use of solid hardwoods. Amish cabinetmakers use solid hardwoods like oak, maple, cherry, and hickory. These woods offer exceptional toughness and durability.
Traditional handcrafting techniques. The Amish also incorporate tried-and-true skills and techniques handed down from their ancestors. These include secure joinery methods like dovetail and mortise and tenon joints. What’s more, the Amish do not incorporate veneers or laminated cardboard into furniture. Nor do they use brads and nails.
Sustainability. Amish craftsmen source hardwoods from regional forests, thereby minimizing the environmental impact.
Do the Amish use traditional woodworking practices?
Yes. Amish cabinetmakers use several traditional woodworking tools and techniques to make sure that they handcraft furniture to the highest standards. For example, they sometimes use hand planes, chisels, and saws. They also use sturdy, tried-and-true joinery techniques like dovetail and mortise and tenon joints, as well as wood dowels. Amish craftsmen hand down these joinery skills from generation to generation.
What’s more, in the finishing process, Amish artisans employ traditional methods like sanding, staining, polishing, and sealing by hand. The goal? To protect the furniture and enhance the wood’s natural beauty. Amish craftsmen ensure that each piece of furniture is flawless before it’s allowed to leave the woodshop!
What types of wood do Amish cabinetmakers use to build solid wood Amish furniture?
Amish cabinetmakers typically build furniture with several hardwoods, including oak, maple, cherry, walnut, and hickory. To a lesser extent, the Amish also use elm, birch, and mahogany. Many furniture makers prefer hardwoods over softwoods (like fir, pine, and spruce) because hardwoods are denser, tougher, and more durable for furniture-making.
Different hardwoods are chosen because of their individual characteristics. For example, oak is highly favored due to its strength, durability, and relatively lower price compared to other hardwoods. Cabinetmakers also favor oak when the log is cut in a ‘quarter-sawn’ manner. This cut is more impervious to warping, compared to ‘plain-cut’ oak. Quarter-sawn oak also has an attractive ‘flecking’ grain pattern.
Maple is the wood of choice due to its strength and resistance to dings and bumps. Add its eye-catching grain pattern, and it’s easy to see why maple is ideal for furniture with smooth, even surfaces – such as cabinets, armoires, and Amish made dining room furniture such as dining room tables and chairs.
Cabinetmakers love using cherry for bedroom and office furniture, to a great degree because of its warm, reddish-brown color and resistance to warping.
Hickory has the distinction of being one of the toughest regional hardwoods and one with a unique grain pattern. As a result, hickory is often chosen for rustic furniture. Rustic pieces made from hickory often have a ‘live edge’ featuring bark or unfinished, rough-hewn wood.
With its rich, dark color, walnut is frequently selected for high-end furniture for every room in your home.
Are softwoods used for making furniture?
Softwoods are used for making smaller and more affordable pieces of furniture, and also for outdoor furniture. However, softwoods are not usually chosen for making larger pieces of furniture – especially furniture that gets heavy usage.
Softwoods come from coniferous trees like pine, fir, and spruce. These trees grow faster than hardwoods and are less dense. This makes softwoods lighter and easier to work with than hardwoods. However, softwood furniture pieces are more susceptible to getting dings and dents compared to hardwood furniture. Also, their softness makes them poor choices for ornamentation, such as fluting and rosettes.
Is manufactured wood good for furniture?
Manufactured wood – such as particleboard and MDF – is considered to be a good material for making affordable-priced furniture, but the furniture typically does not last a long time. Manufactured wood usually costs less than solid wood, even when veneers and/or laminates are bonded to it. Manufacturers of affordable furniture typically cut faux wood into pieces and fabricate them into furniture on an assembly line. So, manufactured wood furniture is usually less expensive compared to solid wood furniture.
Because manufactured wood is made of materials like sawdust, wood chips, fiber, and resins, it tends to flake when chipped, dented, or scraped on the surface. Also, it crumbles when bumped on the edge. As a result, repairs such as sanding and polishing are not feasible. Also, some manufactured woods contain formaldehyde and other potentially toxic chemicals that can off-gas and irritate the sinuses.
So, if price is the major factor in your decision to buy a new piece of furniture, you may wish to buy a manufactured wood piece. However, if durability, longevity, and natural beauty are high on your list, solid wood is your natural choice.
What is heirloom-quality furniture?
Heirloom-quality furniture is superbly built, solid wood, handcrafted furniture that’s so sturdy and durable, it should last for generations to come. Amish cabinetmakers build such furniture. Due to its beauty, convenience features, and careful attention to detail, heirloom-quality furniture represents a valuable investment and is typically a cherished family legacy.
Several factors contribute to furniture earning the heirloom-quality label. First, heirloom-quality furniture is built with top regional hardwoods like oak, maple, cherry, or hickory. These woods are tough and dense, yet possess beautiful woodgrain patterns. As furniture, hardwoods stand up to the rigors of constant use – such as drawers opening and closing thousands of times and chairs being used daily for decades.
Second, Amish cabinetmakers, the best in the Midwest, handcraft each piece of furniture they build from solid wood. These Amish men utilize skills handed down from their ancestors as well as traditional and modern tools. The result? Furniture that is so painstakingly handcrafted and lovingly finished that it’s routinely passed down to the next generation.
Third, Amish cabinetmakers are renowned for building furniture with traditional through modern designs that are sure to stand the test of time. These styles include Traditional, Shaker, Mission, and Modern. Amish builders also make several popular substyles, including Queen Anne and French Country. So, the Amish solid wood furniture you buy today is certain to be admired for years to come.
Is heirloom-quality furniture worth the money?
Yes. Heirloom-quality furniture is well worth the money considering the fact that the furniture is designed to last for generations to come, is relatively easy to maintain, and retains its value or appreciates over time.
Amish cabinetmakers handcraft furniture using regional hardwoods like oak, cherry, and maple, as well as careful attention to detail, traditional tools, and time-honored woodworking practices they learn from their fathers and grandfathers. As a result, Amish furniture is so durable, it is typically handed down from generation to generation.
Also, Amish solid wood furniture is relatively easy to maintain. Furniture given the right humidity (about 40 to 60 percent) and kept away from lots of moisture, sudden temperature changes, and direct sunlight normally retains its natural beauty for several decades. Regular dusting and occasional polishing with a hardwood-friendly varnish is all the maintenance needed. And in the unlikely event your solid wood furniture gets damaged – such as a visible scratch – the furniture can be re-sanded and polished, so it’s restored to its previously untarnished appearance.
Solid wood furniture that’s well-maintained typically retains its value over time. Also, the furniture might even appreciate its value as time progresses. Natural wood furniture that’s well-built is frequently sought after for its timeless appeal, comfort features, and sentimental value.
So, while the initial cost of solid wood furniture might be higher than manufactured wood pieces, the long-term value of the furniture makes it well worth the investment.
Is Amish furniture customizable?
Absolutely. You can custom order Amish furniture by choosing the wood species, hardware, size and dimensions, finish, as well as options like type of glass, lights, and soft-close doors and drawers. This means you can order the piece of furniture or furniture set just the way you want it. (Of course, you can request the furniture exactly as it appears online or in the furniture store.)
The piece of furniture or furniture set you order is just the start. You can order the furniture in your choice of wood, such as oak, maple, cherry, and hickory. Often, the product description will tell you the available wood species. Also, some pieces are deemed to work better with particular types of wood. For example, quarter-sawn white oak is the wood of choice for Mission furniture. While lots of rustic furniture is built with maple or hickory. And cherry wood is frequently used for bedroom and office furniture. That said, the choice of wood species is completely yours.
Hardware is another area of choice. As with wood types, furniture designers routinely pair certain types of hardware with specific furniture styles. For example, black Mission hardware is paired with Mission furniture, round wooden knob hardware with Shaker furniture, and shiny, straight chrome hardware with Modern furniture. However, you can choose whatever type of hardware that floats your boat.
Now comes the practical part. Amish furniture retailers such as Weaver Furniture Sales give you the option of specifying the final size and dimensions of each piece. This is very important since you might want a desired piece of furniture to fill a specific spot in a room, and the pieces shown are not the correct width, height, or depth. No problem. Just tell the dealer the new dimensions, and they will build to your specs. In the process, they will adjust other components of the piece – such as the sizes of the doors and/or drawers. Amish furniture is made for living space and workspaces including offices.
You can also choose the finish of the furniture you order. At times, a given finish is part and parcel of the design motif of the piece. For example, some vintage-style furniture comes with a painted finish reminiscent of an old pantry. Or some retro styles have a finish that looks like worn, chipped paint. And ‘barn-style’ furniture comes with a natural look. That said, you can choose from a wide variety of paints and varnishes. Or, you can specify that the furniture be delivered unfinished. Your call!
Depending on the piece of furniture you choose, you may be given the choice of extra features. For example, some pieces give you the option of clear, stained, or leaded glass. Some hutches and curio cabinets give you the option of touch lights. Also, you may get a choice of traditional drawer glides or ‘soft-touch’ drawer glides, which mean the drawer closes with just a gentle push.
Custom furniture means you can get the furniture that perfectly meets or exceeds your needs and desires!
Can I buy Amish solid wood furniture from a brick-and-mortar store?
Yes. Several freestanding furniture stores sell Amish-made furniture. You’ll find most of these retailers within or close to Amish communities located in Shipshewana, Indiana, Holmes County, Ohio, and Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Amish furniture stores located outside of Amish communities serve as a magnet for furniture lovers looking for heirloom-quality furniture.
Amish furniture stores sell handcrafted Amish furniture and accessories made by Amish artisans who work in small, family-run woodshops and similar facilities within the respective Amish communities.
Weaver Furniture Sales in Shipshewana, Indiana, is one such Amish furniture store. A full-line furniture retailer, Weaver offers a complete range of solid hardwood, custom-made Amish furniture for your entire home. Their 30,000+ square foot showroom is filled with fine furniture crafted in small shops in Northern Indiana and North-Central Ohio. Also, Weaver sells furniture through their online amish furniture catalog.
Weaver focuses on selling Amish furniture made with hardwoods like oak, maple, cherry, hickory, and walnut. These pieces are all designed and handcrafted to last for generations. Weaver’s number one goal is to serve customers by providing handcrafted heirloom furniture custom-built to fulfill their needs and desires.
This is why Amish solid wood furniture is supreme!
How do I order Amish Solid Wood Furniture online?
The best place to start is Weaver Furniture Sales, located in Shipshewana, the Amish capital of Indiana. Weaver offers handcrafted Amish furniture and accessories for every room in your home. You may order pieces directly from their inventory. Or, you can custom-order pieces, and they will be built just the way you like them. And for more information about ordering Amish furniture online, visit Amish Solid Wood Furniture for Every Room in Your Home.
Conclusion
Solid wood Amish furniture is supreme with longstanding building methods, using real wood and sustainable sourcing practices resulting in a quality long lasting product completely customizable built uniquely for each person. Weaver Furniture makes shopping for solid wood Amish furniture for work, home, or community—effortless.
