Interesting videeo on mass produced furniture: today and history

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Some things don't ring true, and the designer does some silly things like sledge hammering an old and new piece such that both get destroyed yet somehow the older piece is declared better (which it is, but not because it can stand up to a sledge hammer). She does pull out a Festool sander to sand through the finishes, too. But, overall I think it does describe well why and how furniture quality has deteriorated so quickly.

And then I watch the Black Forest YT channel, where they make custom $50k kitchen countertops. Clearly a big divide out there. Heck, I even watched a guy build a bench with two shelves for a mudroom and got $4300 before the cushion. I mean, yeah, it's solid oak with curved corners that took a bunch of work, but with the black stain that hides almost all the grain all his efforts for grain matching and so on seem wasted.
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I mean, if you can spend probably $4800 on the bench with cushion, it doesn't seem crazy to spend 10X that for a giant kitchen countertop in solid walnut (and get two walnut sink tops and a floating walnut shelf thrown in, too).

 

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It is an interesting commentary, and history of factory built furniture. Overall, it makes many good points.
Yeah, the sledge hammer test wasn’t very meaningful. Also, the designer seemed to think that veneer is only associated with modern, engineered substrates.

 

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Also, the designer seemed to think that veneer is only associated with modern, engineered substrates.

Yeah, I've seen quite a few early 20th century Mission/Arts & Crafts/Stickley pieces that use veneers to get the gain patterns just right, including on all sides of a square leg. These are thick veneers, though.

And way before that, super high-end 18th century French pieces heavily used veneer. Marquetry is a whole art of veneering.

There's something to be said for the appropriate use of veneer, which she didn't make clear. Her saying the sold table "broke along the seam" is quite the crack-up for me. Like those karate chops of solid wood with the grain running perpendicular to the length of the board....