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The old bench at the mill in Concord still had a name stamp on it
Took a tour of the old furniture mill in Concord last month with my son. They had a hand plane bench from the 1890s, and the maker's name was stamped right into the wood. You could see where his fingers wore a dent into the front edge, 40 hours a week for who knows how long. My bench now is a plywood top on a metal frame from a box store. Kind of made me want to carve my own name somewhere, but I think the dent is the part that matters. Anyone here still working on a bench that came down from somebody else?
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veraw4724d ago
That detail about the finger dent really gets me. Forty hours a week of the same motion wearing a groove right where his hand rested, that's a kind of record a name stamp can't give you. So here's what I keep wondering: when you stood there looking at that bench, did you ask the tour folks who the guy actually was? Like, do they know his name beyond the stamp, or is the dent the only real proof he existed? Because if nobody kept a record, that wear spot might be the last thing he left in the world besides the furniture. Curious if the mill had any history on him or if it's just a mystery now.
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