Shortly after the Civil War, Gilbert Palmer Smith made a walnut secretary for his daughter Emily, who had married Sergeant Erastus Harris a few years earlier. That secretary was eventually given to my father, and I grew up thinking that if my grandfather’s great- grandfather could make furniture, so could I. My father taught me how to use a hand saw when I was a little boy, and although he deprecates his part in my vocation, that was really the beginning.

 During my last year of high school I had the opportunity to become apprenticed to an old time violin maker in Los Angeles. That is where I discovered that I could really make wood do what I wanted it to, and I loved it. For me, the best recreation is still working at the workbench with hand tools and an instrument.

 From instrument work to antique repair was a natural transition, and from that to my early goal, making furniture using old fashioned methods of construction. I maintain a number of antique planes, and it is a part of my private enjoyment to use these on the pieces I make. The customer may never know this, but it is definitely a significant part of construction. I am also a pragmatist, and I thoroughly value my table saw, routers, and modern construction methods.

 Psalm 16 says, "…the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places." I remember that when I think of how glad I am to make my living doing work I enjoy.