Hands Employed Aright

The Furniture Making of Jonathan Fisher (1768-1847)

by Joshua A. Klein

You can download an excerpt from this book here.

Jonathan Fisher (1768-1847) was the first settled minister of the frontier
town of Blue Hill, Maine. Harvard-educated and handy with an axe, Fisher
spent his adult life building furniture for his community. Fortunately for
us, Fisher recorded every aspect of his life as a woodworker and minister
on the frontier.

In this book, author Joshua A. Klein, the founder of Mortise & Tenon Magazine, examines what might be the most complete record of the life of an early 19th-century American craftsman. Using Fisher’s papers, his tools and the surviving furniture, Klein paints a picture of a man of remarkable mechanical genius, seemingly boundless energy and the deepest devotion. It is a portrait that is at times both familiar and completely alien to a modern reader – and one that will likely change your view of furniture making in the early days of the United States.

“Hands Employed Aright” is printed in the United States. Its 288 pages are in full color and on heavy-coated paper. The pages are sewn for durability, hardbound and covered in a full-color dust jacket.

Contents

Foreword viii
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: The Strange Yet Familiar World of Jonathan Fisher 2
Chapter 1: The Infant Part of the Country 10
Chapter 2: From Head, Heart & Hand 22
Chapter 3: Setting Up Shop 32
Chapter 4: Furnishing the Frontier 68
Chapter 5: A Comfortable House 104
Chapter 6: Shop-based Research 116
Chapter 7: Catalog of Furniture & Tools 128
Bibliography 266
About the Author 268

About the Author

Joshua A. Klein is editor-in-chief of Mortise & Tenon Magazine. He has presented about historic craftsmanship at museums around the United States and has written articles for Fine Woodworking, Popular Woodworking, and American Period Furniture. Klein is author of four books, including "Joined: A Bench Guide to Furniture Joinery" (Mortise & Tenon, 2020) and "Worked: A Bench Guide to Hand-Tool Efficiency" (Mortise & Tenon, 2022). Joshua is also an Associate Fellow in Mechanical Arts at Greystone Theological Institute. He, his wife, and their three sons are restoring an 1821 cape on the coast of Maine.

You can read Joshua’s full profile here.