What It Takes to Keep a Sawbench Running
Marcus Iversen restores period furniture on benches older than he is — and teaches a four-month waiting list how to use a hand plane.
Every sawbench in Marcus Iversen's shop is older than he is, and he likes it that way. "New ones are built to a price, not a job," he says, running a hand along a bench his grandfather bought secondhand in the 1970s. The workshop restores period furniture and, increasingly, teaches short courses to people who want to fix a chair rather than throw it out.
The waiting list for the weekend courses is four months long. Iversen thinks that says more about people wanting to make something with their hands than about furniture specifically. "Half of them have never used a hand plane. By Sunday afternoon they don't want to leave."
He's not romantic about the economics — the courses subsidize the restoration work, not the other way round — but he is romantic, a little, about the benches.
