New Hampshire Magazine, January 2005
Don Logan

Time travel intrigues me - always has. Maybe that's why I was so taken by the work of Tom McLaughlin. When I walked into his woodworking shop one recent Saturday morning. I felt transported back to the 18th century.

Tom is a master furniture maker who plies his craft in a three-story building on his property in Canterbury. I had come to what he calls "McLaughlin Woods" to learn what it takes to make fine quality furniture. It wasn't one of the regular workshops he gives, he had set aside some time so I could get a hands-on sense of what he does.

As I entered his shop, my first impression came from the spicy scents of the various woods he uses. On the floor, shavings, dust and tiny scraps made a soft carpet. Lots of windows bathed the wood stock, tools, work in process and patterns with natural light.

Many of the tools in his workshop are modern versions of old tools; others go back generations. The tool he most treasures is an old joiner plane that was his grandfather's.

Tom show me a lathe that was modern, powered by an electric motor, but I easily imagined it could have been powered by a waterwheel. Soon Tom will get a treadle lathe, which is human powered like the early sewing machines. "I feel the treadle lathe will make it easier for students because you can slow it down," he says.

He put a length of 4" x 4" poplar on the lathe and showed this student the tools - a gouge, a skew and a parting tool - that are used to shape the wood into, in this case, a bedpost. When the lathe was spinning, he demonstrated the three dimensional motion required to make ridges that are called "beads" and depressions called "coves." He moved the skew laterally and vertically - all while rotating it. He reminded me of an artist with a brush. It looks easy; it's not.

He handed me a skew. I placed it on the tool rest, moving it toward the spinning wood. Chips began to fly, "Feel it," he says. "Ride the ridge. You have to be patient, not too much at once."

The finished work is supposed to have symmetry and a smooth surface. I accomplished neither, but it was nonetheless a satisfying experience. I felt connected to the wood - the smell, the chips, the sight of my hand changing the shape. Tom assured me, with practice, I would get it.

It quickly became clear how passionate Tom is about his work - and not just the finished product. He loves the process as much as the result. "I still can't believe I get to do this every day," he says.

What I couldn't believe was the artistry of what he does. In his studio, I saw a bow-front sideboard, made of San Domingan and Honduran mahogany, poplar, maple, white oak and ebony. The incredible colors in the woods made it seem to glow. There was a commissioned piece called a serving bar, which had a continuously curving, flowing top, something like an artist's palette, supported by a hemispherical base. Structural design, knowledge of wood properties, artistic appearance and functionality are all requirements of process. When combined effectively, the result is a work of art.

Tom didn't start out to be a furniture maker. In college, he majored in mathematics, then decided that wasn't what he wanted. He went to seminary, then decided that wasn't what he wanted either. He tried sales, but finally was drawn back to the woodworking he had learned as a teenager. "I was searching for what I was made for," he says.

At the time, he thought the "old ways" of woodworking and the craftsmen were gone. Then he found 73-year old P.A. "Pug" Moore near where he was living in North Carolina. Moore was "one of those extraordinary craftsmen," says Tom. "In his humble shop, great things were taught." After a three-year apprenticeship with Moore, Tom started his own shop. In 1997, he moved "back home" to New Hampshire with his wife Kristy and three children. The next year, he was accepted as a member of the New Hampshire Furniture Masters Association. Today he offers workshops at his McLaughlin Woods (as do some of his fellow craftsmen). He also goes to the State Prison to teach furniture making as part of a rehabilitation program.

Tom seeks to follow his teacher's example, carrying on a tradition of adding beauty to the world. And so he does. He also believes in "passing it along" - teaching others his craft, so they can add some beauty to the world.