FIVE GENERATIONS OF WOODWORKING

Every once in a while I attend the public meetings of the St. Louis Woodworkers Guild where the work of their members is often shown. One meeting  recently featured the work of Grant Black*.  He shared his techniques for bending,  shaping and finishing wood for the Traditional Chair he makes.  He attributed his skill as being inherited from five generations of his family.

He spoke of  the men and women in his family who had inspired him, including his mother who still
helps him by weaving material for the chair seats which he displays.  He showed pictures of
his ancestors from the  late 1800s.  Some of the chairs built by his family are on display in The Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C., and some are in the homes of two former American Presidents and a Governor.

Grant Black has earned his Ph.D in economics from Georgia State University.   He works on wood with some hand tools inherited from his ancestors. Yet, he works with power tools as well. He is part of a growing number of people who have found that professional interests and skills learned over the years are still compatible with the technology of today.

As he told his story I was reminded that so much of who we are today is shaped by those ancestors who came before us.

* The link to see the Traditional
Chairs Grant has created is:
hrrp://www.SLWG.ORG/newsletters/SLWG_2017_ll.pdf

The St. Louis Woodworkers Guild
News Letter September 2017 Issue