1. Test Ideas for Practical Uses.

For example, I explained in my previous blog an engineer’s goal in testing drawer slides for larger cycles. That’s because slides with more cycles last forever, therefore bestowing fail-proof functional use for generations of successive users.

2. Analyze and Understand Data.

Take our contoured Sunrise Rocking Chair. (www.tarikyousef.com/sunrise_rocking_chair.htm) I built dozens of models to find the best construction methods—in making the most comfy and durable chair. Result? It’s many times stronger than most rocking chairs, thanks to our unique joinery methods and precise-fit methodologies.

An important role of the engineer is to develop construction processes that enable flawless execution. Therefore, I make sure I’m in the shop every day to challenge my creativity to transcend every difficult part of each operation—while optimizing it appropriately.

For instance, we’ve a store-bought tool for cutting high-quality dovetails; the best available in the market, and of exceptional quality. Regardless, I found it needed improving. I designed a new model based on traditional woodworking theories and engineering principles—so we’re cutting the absolute best possible dovetails.

 
3. Apply Proper Data for Functional Design.

I was taught a good engineer ensures that builders will need the least amount of skill to build an item. But, I’ve learned this is absolutely incorrect in looking at the building process because it does not account for the “human factor.” Meaning, no one really wants to stand in a workshop, to mindlessly assemble products (although there are those who feel this way only because they’ve been conditioned to this mentality), day in and day out.

The skill-void mentality is counter-productive because it encourages a woodworker to stop thinking analytically—which is critical to quality workmanship. That’s why mass-produced goods have such an appalling run on quality and durability.

My Goal?

The most fulfilling part of my work is constant innovation and process development to create the finest artisanal furniture available. Fundamentally, my goal is: “For the item I’ll build tomorrow to be better than the similar item I made yesterday.” I’m grateful this is the direction and progress we’ve been making thus far. And the reason I’m so passionate about our work!

What Drives My Innovation?

“Passion!” Essentially, I’m passionate about:

• transforming Nature’s beauty into functional use for daily living;
• designing and building the very best furniture from homegrown natural sources;
• seeking new ways of looking at the world of design-build;
• learning the art of unlearning old notions to better innovate for current needs.

That’s why I’m constantly thrilled by serendipitous discoveries.

This notion of “thrilling serendipity” may make you smile, but my discoveries excite me no end to keep on innovating. Simply put, this is my secret in forging ongoing innovations that benefit my customers—in finding real value with every handcrafted piece from our studio.

What’s My Design-Build Process?

Take for example, our Cantilever Line. (www.tarikyousef.com/cantilever.htm) It took me five years to imagine, test, refine and hone to the point where three pieces of wood finally came together as a solidly handcrafted piece of elegant furniture.

How do we do it?

1. We build dozens of models using various construction methods.
2. Each construction method is rigorously tested and analyzed.
3. We analyzed flaws and imperfections to further research and test fail-proof design-build methodologies.
4. Coffee and side tables, for instance, are tested in my home for daily utilitarian purposes.

Bottom Line?

Every item that leaves our studio distinctively reflects our lifetime guarantee for the highest quality furniture. I continue to check in with clients:

• on how our pieces are meeting and serving their needs,
• for constructive feedback, and
• in my understanding of how they use furniture—and I’m often surprised that they’re used beyond the original design purposes!

Ultimately, your satisfaction is our satisfaction.

BIO: Tarik Yousef is a self-taught master woodworker with an engineering background whose mission is handcrafting premium American-made furniture to suit your specific needs. www.tarikyousef.com

At a time when it’s imperative to salute and support homegrown arts and crafts with American Craft Week, it’s an honor for Tarik Yousef Fine Furniture to recognize the myriad artisans who dedicate their lives to crafting honest works of functional and wearable art.

This country is proud and grateful to showcase American arts and crafts creativity and ingenuity. Such as promoting custom design-build aesthetics using locally sourced materials. Our company has been delighting connoisseurs of quality furniture—who find themselves pleasantly surprised with pieces that last and are also eco-friendly. We repurpose naturally fallen logs from America’s forests. Our love of nature is ingrained, from the pain-staking steps customers learn about, and appreciate, to non-toxic finishers that gleam with natural beauty and authenticity.

Like many of America’s stellar craftsmen, we capture classic design elements with hardworking furniture that last for generations. By employing methods such as child-proofed cabinets and drawers that make them safe. These are heirloom and legacy pieces perpetuating the love and joy of family living at home; or in offices and commercial spaces where elegant form follows practical function, day in and day out. And well worth many lifetimes their initial costs of investment.

Learn about American Craft week at www.americancraftweek.com

BIO: Tarik Yousef is a self-taught master woodworker with an engineering background whose mission is handcrafting premium American-made furniture to suit your specific needs. www.tarikyousef.com

Customers frequently ask me: “Why does a dresser cost so much more than a platform bed?” Well, yes, a dresser is smaller. So, it would seem fairly simple, right? However, the answer is: A dresser, while smaller, is many times more complex to build; especially when you want it built correctly.

Over the years, I’ve found a good dresser provides generations of loyal, dependable service without hitching any issues (no pun intended). Whereas, a poor quality dresser soon starts showing imminent demise with drawers that are hard to open and close.

Three Reasons Drawers Catch

1. Cheap slide or no slides at all. Constant wear and tear sets in quickly. Eventually, the drawer doesn’t function at all. Ask your furniture-maker what brand of slides they use, or if any are used at all. Most are side-mounted, running about $5 retail for a set. However, our slides are Blum Blumotion Full Extension Soft Close Slides, at $50 retail a set, for each drawer. They cost 10 times more because they work 20 times better.

Often, manufacturers claim their slides are rated to 100 lbs., meaning they hold 100 pounds in weight, which sounds great. But, the real question to ask is: Will the slide hold 100 lbs., and last for 100-cycles, 1,000-cycles or 10,000-cycles? In engineering, our major goal is testing for larger cycles—with more cycles literally lasting forever.

2. Case gets damaged. A poorly fitted drawer or cheap slide will stick in time, thus causing damage to the entire case. As the case breaks apart, it goes out of square, in causing the drawer to bind; even worse, causing other drawers to stick. Once broken, it’s a downward spiral because drawers rely on a precision fit to function properly.
3. Drawer boxes break. Dovetails are critical for a strong box. Are your drawer boxes dovetailed? Machine or hand cut? Ours are hand cut—which are 3 times stronger than machined dovetails because they have much more surface area. Machined dovetails are half-blind. And yes, half-blind means half as strong. With bad slides and weak drawer boxes, constant pulling on boxes to open them (together with resisting slides) results in breaking the box.

Dressers are complex design-build and assembly furniture. If the: 1) case, 2) slides and 3) drawer boxes are up to the task, your custom dresser provides reliable service to generations of users.

BIO: Tarik Yousef is a self-taught master woodworker with an engineering background whose mission is handcrafting premium American-made furniture to suit your specific needs. www.tarikyousef.com

In its simplest form, a 90-degree MT joint is vital because wood expands and contracts across its grain at very different rates than it does along the length of the wood grain. Because of this, simply nailing, screwing or gluing two pieces together at a 90-degree angle would result in one piece expanding faster than the other, thus wreaking dissonant forces on the connection. Ultimately, this dissonance causes the joint to collapse.

It helps to see MT construction as a compatible couple that comes out ahead. Take the component that expands and contracts more than the other partner, and cut a tenon or socket into it. Likewise, cut a mortise or pocket into the other component. When both components click together harmoniously, the joint is safely locked to
weather all kinds of changes.

Making a MT joint strong and sturdy requires the skills of a master furniture-maker. This joint is strongest when fitted by hand. An artisan will precisely fit both components to ensure the construction is as strong as it can possibly be. When correctly crafted, MT joints withstand generations of hardy use.

You may ask, why did the MT joint on grandma’s antique chair fail? For several good reasons. Even the best MT constructions collapse if the joints are proportioned incorrectly. Or, if the tenon is too short, the fit too loose, or the glue has been applied incorrectly—the joint can, and often, fails. In a factory setting, a shorter and looser fitting MT joint is simply easier and quicker to assemble than a handcrafted joint that fits snugly and is of ideal proportions.

Unfortunately, there’s no way to know if an item has been built with MT construction or not. The best indicator is to speak to the maker or salesperson. Understand how it was built and what construction techniques were used. If the person doesn’t know, chances are it most likely was not based on MT construction.

BIO: Tarik Yousef is a self-taught
master woodworker with an engineering background whose mission is handcrafting
premium American-made furniture to suit your specific needs. www.tarikyousef.com

In my last Blog Post, I mentioned some of the subtle reasons why a mass produced dovetail may indeed look very similar to a hand made one, but in actual practice it will be many time weaker than the handmade one. The first reason I mention is the inefficient use of glue in a factory setting.

 As I am sure many other furniture makers tend to do, I spend quite a bit of time exploring traditional furniture construction methods and often this is done by looking at antiques. Antiques are our living history of past furniture pieces, they hold a wealth of knowledge about their construction method. More importantly, an antique will tell a skilled person what joinery methods stood the test of time and why.

The most common defect I see on antique dressers is broken dovetails on the drawer boxes. Once these drawer dovetails break, the drawer will tend to bind in the box and subsequently cause the dresser case to break in a variety of ways. This lends itself to the question, why is this coveted joinery method failing in practice? Upon further inspection, I often find two similar traits on these broken dovetails… 

•  The dovetail is a mass production cut dovetail which is in many ways very different than a dovetail that is hand cut. The critical flaw of a mass produced dovetail is that the dovetails are cut in a ‘pocketed manner’, this simplifies production and makes assembly easier, however these pockets tend to trap the glue for the dovetail, essentially preventing the dovetail from closing fully and properly. Because the pocketed dovetail requires more room for the glue to puddle, the dovetails often just are not closed completely because the glue is now trapping air in this pocket making it impossible to force the joint shut. This mix of glue and air decrease the mechanical bond of the joint and consequently leads to failure.

•  To counteract the previous construction flaw, often a factory will decide to decrease how much glue goes into the joint; this gives the added benefit of decreasing the cleanup time in the factory and also allows for a better mechanical bond. The drawback of this method is that I often find dovetails that simply separated and failed due to a simple lack of adhesive bond.

So one may wonder, how can a Furniture Maker possibly work around this problems? Well, for starters, a handmade dovetail does not have pockets, they are typically cut straight through the material, once assembled they look very similar, but in component form one will see that hand cut dovetails have more contact surface area and mechanical strength. Additionally these dovetails do not trap glue or air in the joint, making the joinery method very strong and reliable. When we glue our dovetails in the shop, we apply the glue with small brushes so that all the surfaces are evenly and consistently coated. This hand applied gluing can take up to an additional hour per drawer, but that hour pays the customer back for generations to come.

BIO: Tarik Yousef is a self-taught master woodworker with an engineering background whose mission is handcrafting premium American-made furniture to suit your specific needs. www.tarikyousef.com

A good piece of furniture is assembled like a very complex puzzle. Every single piece must lock together in a manner that ensures the whole final product is sturdy and ready for a lifetime of service.  Joinery is simply the connection a maker creates in order to allow two different pieces of wood to lock together with intention of making that connection as rigid and strong as possible.  In most instances, a furniture maker intends for their joinery to be stronger than the wood itself.

As someone who started their career as a Mechanical Engineer, I see furniture design and Engineering as two very similar fields. Before the Industrial revolution, it was very common for furniture to be built by hand in small workshops. As furniture production moved into factories, the construction methods started to change greatly, mostly due to the application of production tooling. During this transitional period the quality of furniture and the consumers’ expectations shifted.  Over time as the field of Engineering grew and factories became the main place of production in the US, eventually Engineers became the Furniture Makers for this new age in production.

In many ways the industrialization of the furniture industry actually improved the quality of the final product, but more importantly it made it more affordable.  Where once dovetails were hand cut, they were now machine made. Although a hand cut dovetail and machine cut one may look similar in many ways, the application of glue to that joinery has suffered over the years. In factories glue is simply applied quickly and unevenly using a machine and glue is used conservatively to minimize clean up time, at the detriment of the joints strength. In the shop, we apply glue slowly and methodically by hand, making sure every surface is evenly coated, this takes longer and costs more. At the end of the day however, identical looking dovetails from a manufacturer and our small shop will have very different strengths.

My goal is to build a piece of furniture using only interlocking wood components with a minimum use of screws and nails. Likewise, when an item is glued, we make sure that when assembled with no glue at all, the item will stay strong. Essentially I am building an item that does not require any glue, but an item that is made that much better when glue is applied. In coming weeks I will be highlighting the importance of this very critical part of wood working and also explain how each type of joinery impacts the end user.

BIO: Tarik Yousef is a self-taught master woodworker with an engineering background whose mission is handcrafting premium American-made furniture to suit your specific needs. www.tarikyousef.com

The benefits of built-in furniture include

1.       Because a built-in is by nature attached to the homes walls and structure, one can safely put in a much larger unit than you could otherwise do with a freestanding piece.

2.       Built-ins not only organize books and knick knacks but they can also be used to house electronics, televisions and AV equipment.

3.       They blend in seamlessly with the rest of a home, reducing clutter and providing a truly seamless feel.

Aside from the benefits listed above, a built-in adds a lot of value and interest to an otherwise boring space. Odd and awkward spaces in a home can now be converted into coveted and interesting storage spaces.  Value is added to a home’s value while also simplifying life and making storage options easier and cleaner.

BIO: Tarik Yousef is a self-taught master woodworker with an engineering background whose mission is handcrafting premium American-made furniture to suit your specific needs. www.tarikyousef.com

White Built-in Bookcases and Entertaiment center

When I began building furniture I never truly appreciated the benefits of building furniture and cabinets.  There are many different opinions on the subject. Some people say that they would prefer a free standing piece of furniture as it can be moved to other rooms or to a new residence if one plans to move in the future. However, in many homes, sometimes a built in piece of furniture is really the only smart option for a specific space.

My first interest in built-in bookcases and storage cabinets was triggered by my early studies in Shaker furniture. Surprisingly, the Shakers, known best for their elegant and minimalist furniture were actually more focused on building built-in units than they were in building freestanding pieces. Looking at images of old shaker rooms, one can hardly see the furniture pieces that the Shakers became known for. The logic is hard to deny, a built in cuts clutter drastically and opens up a space making it feel more open and clean.

Most people have seen automated vacuum cleaners in action, you may have seen it at that store in the mall or on a TV commercial. The Roomba is mostly considered a jem of engineering used to simplify one of life’s redundant tasks, vacuuming ones carpets. Although I have never owned one or seen it in action, it seems like one of those items that is more interesting in concept than it is in real life.  I feel as if a cheap hoover with 12amps of power would outperform this battery powered gadget in actually getting my rugs clean.

Aside from its use as a vacuum, the engineer in me has always admired the creativity and technology in these little appliances. I have also always admired the company’s efforts to support education and engineering by producing a model specifically for education and research. I have always wanted to experiment with one of these units, however the demands of being a small business owner have always trumped those hopes.

It is not surprising that I got excited to see that a group of individuals have begun using the technologial marvel for the arts. These unique pieces are call ‘Light Paintings’ and although no painting is taking place, the artist essentially is using an enclosed space as a canvas, objects in the room as  points of interest, colored lights as paints and exposure photography to capture the display in one unique composition. I think this not only makes for interesting photographic pieces but would also be a very interesting interactive or performance art display.

Shared Via: PetaPixel

BIO: Tarik Yousef is a self-taught master woodworker with an engineering background whose mission is handcrafting premium American-made furniture to suit your specific needs. www.tarikyousef.com

The Design itself can range from the essence of Zen simplicity ti richly adorned details. For starters, ask questions such as:

• Will it require detailed carving and highlighting definitions including inlay and specialty trim work?

• Will the budget support many drawers, or is it more realistic to consider open shelving? Understandably, more time would be spent handcrafting a desk with more drawers.

Materials and Accessories

What higher-end materials will be used, or will high-grade plywood work better? Case in point—many people think solid wood is the only good option. However, depending upon design goals and functionality, quality plywood is better for some applications. We’ll be glad to help hone your selections with end-user goals in mind.

What accessories will imprint it as your signature piece?

• Quality drawer slides that close on their own, are more pricey than $5 slides.
• What kinds of hardware
• Prefer exotic veneers?
• Upholstery options—leather, fabric, stitch type, upholstery style? Finish—hand-rubbed poly with a tung oil base, or our most eco-friendly water lacquer (also our most economical option for hard coatings)?

Whatever your preference, we’re delighted to hear from you: service@tarikyousef.com

BIO: Tarik Yousef is a self-taught master woodworker with an engineering background whose mission is handcrafting premium American-made furniture to suit your specific needs. www.tarikyousef.com