Ron T said:
I'm new to this forum and period furniture. I consider myself to be a very good self-taught novice builder. I've taken am interest in period furniture because I see a challenge.
Does building period furniture mean you MUST use the technique and joinery of yesteryear for it to qualify as period?
Obviously, this is my own opinion, so take what you will from it:
The argument that colonial builders would certainly have used table saws and electric routers if they'd had them is misleading. While on the face of it, it's correct, one has to understand that virtually all of the furniture made in the period was from small shops, and these small shops would not have existed had there been access to machine tools and modern materials. Furniture would've been made in a factory, assembly line style, just as it is today. That doesn't mean that a few tenths of a percent of the total wouldn't have been made by small shops, just at it is today, but for the most part the John Chipmans and Goddards/Townsends wouldn't have existed.
As for the appropriateness of modern materials and methods in making colonial and Federal period reproductions, that depends on what you want to achieve. Realize that modern materials and methods will alter the final product. If what you want to make is a true reproduction, then yes, you are obliged to use the original pattern tools and equipment, because such tools and methods have a big effect on the final piece - from surface texture, uniformity of parts, and internal construction details characteristics. I call this a "true reproduction".
If your intent is to is to make a piece that only looks like a piece from such an early period externally, then it will matter a lot less if you use a jointer/planer to surface the parts, and a table saw and a router table to cut your joints. I call these "period representations" - they aren't true reproductions, but there's nothing wrong with owning or making one, it's just different than owning or making a true reproduction. This is essentially what Norm Abrams makes on "The New Yankee Workshop"
Finally, I'd note that this is a slippery slope - few among us would consider what Ethan Allen makes to be reproductions in any sense of the word - even "period representation" or "in the style of" would be far too generous. Partly this has to do with making items with Queen Anne or Chippendale style characteristics that didn't exist in the actual period - coffee tables, for example. Partly this has to do with modifying the style to fit the needs of factory production and minimal material costs - attenuated pads on queen anne feet, glued-up solids, and veneer over MDF constructions, and part of it has to do with thick, heavily dyed and plastic-looking modern finishes.
What you choose to do is entirely up to you, and I'd say that most of us have made pieces during the course of our interest in the field that run the gamut from not-so-authentic to pretty dang close.