David builds furniture meant to last generations. Each piece takes months. His hands touch every surface hundreds of times — shaping, smoothing, finishing.
"The irony of fine woodworking is that rough hands make rough work. You need sensitive fingers to feel the surface, to know when it's truly smooth."
Protecting Sensitivity
David protects his hands not just from injury, but from roughness. Calluses in the wrong places reduce sensitivity. Cuts and cracks catch on finished surfaces.
"I tape for rough work — sawing, heavy planing. Then I remove everything for final finishing. My fingertips need to feel what sandpaper can't show me."
The Maker's Hands
Thirty years of furniture making have given David distinctive hands: strong but not rough, callused but not insensitive. They're tools as refined as his chisels.