About
Here’s where I get to talk about myself. It’s not something I’m entirely comfortable doing but what good is an “About” page that’s blank? The other problem with me not telling you who I am is that you may not know me or my work. For those who visit the blog who do know me and my work this page might provide a little insight and background into what I do and how I do it.
At this point your probably saying “Alright already! Who are you and what do you do?”. Well, I’m Charles Bender, commonly known as Chuck. What I do is I make 18th Century American reproduction furniture and I am one of the founding partners, and lead instructor, of a woodworking school. All of that seems a bit less than fully descriptive but, as you get to know me you’ll find out, I intend to elaborate a good bit more.
The Apprenticeship begins -
Let’s start at the beginning. I became interested in woodworking initially at 11 years of age when I joined a woodworking club in elementary school. I became serious about it when I hit 12 because I got to take an industrial arts class in junior high school. It was a wonderful experience. I spent the first part of the school year learning how to do mechanical drawings and the rest of the year making small pieces of furniture and learning to turn on the lathe.
By the time I hit high school, I was already heavily into woodworking. I took the standard freshman introduction to industrial arts class but wanted more. With the help of a couple of teachers, I also took a sophomore industrial arts class. Additionally, I began purchasing woodworking equipment and filling up my parent’s basement. It was a great hobby but I wondered if it could be more.
The Road to Journeymanship -
As my freshman year rolled on, I started looking at the potential of woodworking for a living. Our next door neighbor was a cabinetmaker. He had his own business right on the property. So, I went to talk with him about cabinetmaking as a career. Both of his sons worked with him making custom kitchens and the occasional grandfather clock. Talking with the younger son, he mentioned that he had studied at The Central Chester County Vocational Technical School (now called The Center for the Arts and Technology) under Werner Duerr. The older brother said he wished he had gone there because his little brother was much further along than he was at that age. My next stop was to visit the VoTech and meet Werner Duerr.
In talking with my industrial arts teacher about the VoTech as a potential educational path I got the impression that he didn’t care for the program very much. In spite of the fact that I had great respect for this man, I decided to move forward with my appointment to meet Werner Duerr and see the shop.
The shop was much larger, brighter and had many more machines than the shop at my high school. Additionally, it had Werner Duerr. This friendly old German began by taking me on a tour of the shop but what he was really giving me was a tour of what I would experience over the next three years. He told me about his methods of cabinet making as well as his methods of teaching. This definitely seemed like the place for me.
Over the next three years Werner taught me the basics of being a journeyman cabinet maker. I learned everything from the ground up. We started with hand tools and their use. the first day each new student was assigned a set of chisels and hand planes that they were responsible for maintaining. Werner taught us how to sharpen the chisels and plane irons. He taught us how to adjust and use the hand planes. One of our first projects was to make a sanding block using nothing but hand tools. Those who take my Fundamentals classes will know the sanding block of which I speak.
It seems like an easy project. Use a handsaw to cut a block from a rough board. Hand plane the surfaces straight, flat and square to one another, all while maintaining specific dimensions for the block. The fun part was making a diamond of contrasting wood and inlaying it into the top of the sanding block. Once we all got started on the project, we soon discovered that it was far more than it appeared. This was the beginning of a wonderous journey.
After graduation from the Central Chester County Vocational Technical School, I began working for a former student of Werner’s. I was energized and ready to get out into the world and make furniture. Unfortunately, my employer did as much general contracting work as he did furniture making. While putting down linoleum floors and drywalling entire rooms can be fun, I wanted to spend my days making furniture. After about fifteen months of working for this fellow, it was time for me to move on.
From Journeyman to Master -
I went to talk with another of Werner’s former students who was in partnership with a fellow who had been a conservator at The Winterthur Museum. Both of these cabinet makers suggested I talk with a furniture maker nearby who’s business seemed to be growing.
In a drab little neighborhood, I wandered into a converted twin house looking for a job and a new adventure began. I spent nearly ten years working with this furniture maker. I helped him grow his business to new heights. He had an affinity for simple, Chester County Quaker furniture but I had dreams of Philadelphia Chippendale pieces.
An early Chippendale chair came into the shop one day for repair. It had a pierced splat, shell carved crest rail and ball and claw feet. It was a tremendous chair. I began working on weekends and in the evenings, when the project schedule allowed, carving two ball and claw feet to match those on the chair. They were the first ball and claw feet to be carved in the shop. When I finally finished the chair, the piece was added to the company portfolio. It was a great feeling knowing that I had done something worthy of inclusion in the company portfolio, and I was only nineteen.
Over the next few years I saw the company grow. We had articles written about us in national magazines and newspapers. The business grew rapidly. At the height, we had twenty nine people working for the company. I had worked my way to the point where I was heading up chair and case production. I did many of the company’s newest designs and I handled a fair portion of the sales. I began doing most of the purchasing of supplies needed to run the shop, with the exception of the lumber. All of this and I was still under twenty five. What a wonderful adventure.
Along the way I had met many antique dealers, curators and collectors. They graciously shared their knowledge and experience with me. I voraciously studied furniture and daily life in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries in America. I wanted to truly understand what these craftsmen made, why and how they made it.
In 1987 my quest for this knowledge lead me along a new avenue. I had collected many scholarly books on Eighteenth Century furniture. In the hunt for these books I had stumbled into a new part time career, bookseller. I started a company called Back Room Books which grew rapidly from its inception. I specialized in rare and out of print books on art, architecture and the decorative arts.
In 1991 I saw that the direction the furniture company was headed was different than where I wanted to go with my work. I had always contemplated my own shop but was it really possible?
